DAVID MELDING spelled out a few Conservative principles to the weekly Conservative party briefing, writes Clive Betts from the Assembly press gallery.
Some journalists almost-presumed the briefing would not have been held because the party’s UK conference was then currently under way in Manchester.
But it was – unlike the Lib Dem do, which was ditched because they were all in conference and didn’t think that either the press or Wales was important enough to turn up for.
But the principles that Mr Melding spelled out had nothing to do with federalism or any other sort of devolutionary development which he himself personally favours.
Mr Melding spoke rather of the present system of Legislative Competence Orders (“elcos”) being both “very untidy” and a “dog’s breakfast”.
His principle for government was that the legislative process should be clear and easy to understand. The present system is however like the soup which can be found in any canal – these are not his words, but mine – with anything passing through likely to find their passage snagged by hidden underwater debris, dumped there by Labour Party anti-devolution members – again my words, not his.
Mr Melding stated the obvious – that his party is not united on devolution. He reckoned it was split in three equal parts – pro extra powers; happy with the present split between Cardiff and London; or favouring the abolition of devolution.
Then he brought into our gaze another Tory principle – that Cardiff and London should work together within the UK. He spoke of the Prime Minister coming down to Cardiff to be quizzed by the Assembly.
And the committees established by Labour – but seldom used; some of them encompassing the old Irish Free State – to link the devolved nations and London would meet regularly at First Minister level.
These committees’ inactivity is surely a not-unimportant reason why the relatively new Irish consulate in Cardiff, staffed by a full-time Irish foreign ministry official, is being abolished.
Cheryl Gillan, the shadow Secretary of State, spelled out the latest stage of thinking on that principle in her Tory conference speech. It sounded pretty good – the problem, however, is the party politics which could so soon come to dominate proceedings of meetings between Cardiff and London, instead of being just one our of many strands of that committee’s existence.
Ms Gillan said, “We are examining the mechanisms for joint working between the two institutions [Assembly and Parliament] and will be aiming for cooperation to achieve this.”
Mr Melding talked of the changes the Tories will bring in as being not much more than the formalisation of what currently happens (behind the scenes, of course, between Labour and Labour-led governments in the two cities).
Ms Gillan’s speech sounded reasonable – as you would expect from a one-nation, non-dogmatic Welsh Tory. Reading her words, it was difficult to pick out the gaps into which political opponents – of her own party in London, rather than the Nationalists in Cardiff she professed to fear – will wriggle in order to cause trouble.
But once trouble starts, particularly between two democratically-elected institutions, it would prove extraordinarily difficult to eradicate.
Mr Melding acknowledged the relationship between Cardiff and London once the party in control is each city is different would be “more difficult”.
But as a fellow non-dogmatic, one nation Welsh Tory, Mr Melding is examining things from the same point of view as Ms Gillan.
But there’s another standpoint. It is held by Ms Gillan’s assistant (or should it be “deputy”) David Jones, MP for Clwyd West.
When he spoke to Cambria at the Tory conference in Cardiff this spring, he used much the same words as Ms Gillan. But he pitched them in a different direction.
Simply, Ms Gillan wants Cardiff and London both to know what the other is planning and doing.
Mr Jones wants to know the same sort of information. But his aim is different. It is to ensure that Cardiff does the same as London. Mr Jones is an anti-devolutionist.
Wales can be different, he feels, only as long as it is not different.
I personally can hardly imagine Wales ever voting for independence.
But everyone in Ireland (the 32 counties) did not always wish to be independent, although a few did.
The events of 1916 and the execution of the leaders changed that for ever. For which you can blame contemporary Tories.
There’s no chance of any similar repetition in Wales.
Our troubles are purely constitutional, with the rare exceptions, such as those who blew themselves up on Abergele station, and John Jenkins, who is still with us (see Freedom Fighers, by John Humphries, University of Wales Press).
But the Tories should realise they are currently standing atop a slope which could easily prove to be very slippery.
It they aren’t careful, they’ll push us all down that slope. And goodness knows where we’ll end up then.
