I am sorry to report that the Conservative Party remains divided over the future of devolution after their spring Welsh conference in Cardiff.
Of course, really they are united. They are all singing the same message.
It is just that the key in which they sing – which determines both the mood of the politician-singer and his background aim – is not the same for all the party.
In other words, some wish devolution had never happened, and will do as much as they can to swim backwards. And others accept the change brought about by the Labour government, and will now do their damn best to make sure it works well; if that means substantially more powers, so be it.
The latter group includes, it seems, the heart of the party – shadow chancellor George Osborne certainly, leader David Cameron if he’s got any sense, former Welsh Secretary William Hague (unless he wants to be kicked out of bed), Nick Bourne, plus a number of key members of the Welsh Assembly.
It certainly does not include David Davies (Monmouth MP) and the coterie of backwoodsmen hiding in what used to be the Wentwood Forest. But they have made themselves scarce for some time now – except in phone calls to the Western Mail. Which has helped to earn that journal once again its olden title of Llais y Sais.
As the conference ended, leader Cameron tried to switch the agenda from extra powers for Cardiff to extra listening – by London, if I understand his words aright. The (Tory) PM would travel once a year to Cardiff to be quizzed by AMs. And London ministers would have to give evidence to Assembly committees.
At last, a touch of equality and, perhaps, humility.
But then there’s another, a third, group of Tories. How large it is difficult to say. They stand on the sensible Right. They’ll always be there, although their size will vary as politics flows.
I’ll name as their leader the MP for Clwyd West, David Jones, the shadow Minister for Wales. Mr Jones was for a short time a regional member for the Assembly for North. He succeeded right-winger Rod Richards after he hit various problems.
The pair came from the same wing of the party. But then their similarities ceased. Rod let his heart lead; he failed to realise their Mrs T was no longer in charge; he equally failed to adapt to the loss of the Assembly referendum; and then in turn he failed to realise that it was possible to turn that defeat into a victory (eventually).
His successor, we quickly realised, was a different animal. The general view of the press gallery was that Mr Jones was as cool about the Assembly as Mr Richards had been. But Mr Jones was looking towards the future.
His own future, for one thing. This tall angular-faced Llandudno solicitor, once elected to Parliament, wanted to climb. In age, he’s getting on a bit. But he’s already a shadow minister, and you can be sure he wouldn’t mind getting the Welsh seat in the cabinet.
When a member of the Assembly, he never put a foot out of the Tory line. What ever reservations he had about devolution, he realised there was far more than one way to skin a cat.
As the conference wound to its close in Cardiff, he unveiled his own way. On behalf of the party, he put forward his own view of how things should develop. The new Tory plan is “to restore sanity to relations between Westminster and Cardiff Bay”.
He and the party want “to restore a sensible dialogue between London and Cardiff”.
His plan seems sense incarnate. Very carefully, he phrased his speech to give the impression that the idea had came from Cheryl Gillan, shadow Secretary of State.
Now, did the idea originate with Ms Gillan ? Or was it carefully presented by Mr Jones in a way that it would have been difficult for her to reject ?
For the sole idea of the Jones plan is to subordinate Cardiff to London.
The Tories would establish “a new committee of Welsh and English MPs comprised of members with constituencies adjoining or close to the border, who will continuously monitor the impact of devolution in both Wales and England.
“The committee will report to the Secretary of State for Wales, who will in turn liaise with both the Welsh Assembly Government and the appropriate Whitehall departments.”
The aim will be to “smooth out the wrinkles resulting from devolution”. Those “wrinkles” are the ones in which Wales is not identical to England. In other words, back to centralism and rule from London.
Why bother with the Assembly – unless it behaves identically to England…
Is this a joint committee with the Assembly ?
Don’t be bloody silly ! It’s only for members of another institution which never sits in Wales.
We have seen how even strong devolutionists on the Welsh Affairs Select Committee toe the anti-devolution line when that’s the way the political wind is blowing.
Should Mr Jones become Secretary of State, we trust he will wear Governor-General plumes when he descends on Cardiff four times a year to keep the welshies in check and tell them how to behave.
After all, assembled before him there will even be a true colonial. But, beware. Mohammad Asghar (Plaid, South East) has strong links to senior levels in the Pakistani armed forces. And goodness knows what that lot have been up to….
Mr Jones asks critics to list his anti-devolution quotations.
No need. By your policies you shall be judged.
And the Jones policies just happen to be diagrammatically opposed to those of leader Cameron. Mr Cameron’s new green paper points up a revived Tory radicalism for our local authorities.
A full-page article in the current issue of Prospect talks of the size of the revolution which the Tories are about to embark on.
Mr Jones’s devolution policy shows either that Mr Cameron’s green paper is sheer rubbish. Or that his committee will never be set up – which is rather likely in the light of the speech that Mr Cameron delivered the following day.
If Mr Jones’s committee does go ahead, it will be the greatest boost to separation and independence for Wales ever to have been invented. A Tory-dominated Parliament and some of its English members telling the elected body for Wales what it must do.
Should be fun for journalists. And for bureaucrats in New York who will work out whether the 22 counties of Wales are listed under C or W in the list of members of the United Nations.
