IN THE dying days of the system, is there much point in discussing whether or not it is being correctly operated ?

But that was what Kirsty Williams tried over how to present Legislative Competence Orders  (LCO) to the Houses of Parliament, writes Clive Betts from the National Assembly press gallery.

Two LCOs have run into considerable troubles, almost amounting to their rejection. Both housing and the Welsh language will have to be rewritten.

Why ?

Ms Williams has read deeply into the hearings of the Commons Welsh Affairs Select Committee, and come to the conclusion that the LCOs’ title pages – which lay out what the LCO aims to do – have been too narrowly written.

The result has been that MPs have argued in London that the terms of the LCO as sent down from Cardiff are being exceeded.

Ms Williams’s argument is almost that of her predecessor as Lib Dem leader, Mike German.

Mr German always took a maximalist view of the Government of Wales Act 2006.  He believed that MPs would treat the Assembly as a grown-up body, and act accordingly. London would, he argued, be willing to transfer blocks of legislative power to Cardiff.

But Mr German reckoned without former First Secretary Alun Michael, who took a legalistic and minimalistic view of how power should transfer from London. He also reckoned without David Jones, Tory MP for Clwyd West, an anti-devolutionist who uses his legal skills to develop convolutions apparently aimed to assist devolution, but really aimed to sink them.

Ms Williams takes a benign view of the attitude of  MP dinosaurs in London.

It has been argued that in their near-rejection of the Welsh language LCO is for reasons so varied that there is no way in which their complaints can be answered.

Too many London MPs want to kill the Assembly. They will use many ways in achieve that aim.

In such a situation, there is no point in writing an LCO’s aims in a wider form. London really wants to kill LCOs because the mother of parliaments is so perfect.

The only answer is a federal-style solution for Wales. If that leads eventually to a 26-county situation, presumably David Jones will stand up and take the credit.

Except that the Welsh equivalent of the English Tory refusal to give home rule will be Wales taking the part of the 26 counties, while England plays the part of Ulster.