What Now?

Plaid's decision to enter government with Labour was a move based on principle. It was to ensure that Wales had stable government and to ensure that Wales got the best deal with the strongest National Assembly that could be obtained. The Rainbow Coalition was rejected because the Lib Dems had shown themselves to be unreliable and there were doubts that the referendum could have been won without the active support of the Labour Party. Plaid rejected the extra power that the party could have had by holding the First Minister's position in favour of what was best for Wales. That was a courageous decision and one that has to be applauded.

They took the second fiddle position to Labour based on Labour's promise to advance the cause of devolution and to give a period of settled government. It looks as if Labour is reneging on that commitment. As ever Labour is putting party above country, despite what ever Alun Michael says this is a power grab by Westminster, a desire to control and dictate to the Government of Wales what it may or may not do in future - this is outwith their powers and in this case Mike German is quite correct.

This LCO sets a precedent. The National Assembly will be confined to passing anodyne legislation that no one objects to and/or policies pre approved by the majority of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee. This is not devolution its remote control.

The time in now for those elements in Labour who support devolution - real devolution that is - to stand up and be counted.

Plaid has some hard thinking to do, they need reassurances that the deal is still on and working. Having the First Minister unilaterally backing down does not bode well.

The government is not yet broken, but there is work to do to convince that the project is still worthwhile.

Devolution Settlement Starts To Fail?

Well according to The Dragon's Eye the Wales Office thinks that the Housing Legislative Competence Order is "fatally flawed" - which is the first the Welsh Government has heard of this.
Essentially the dispute is over the thickness of the salami slice of legislative authority that Welsh Labour MPs are willing to concede to the National Assembly. At stake is the scope of the National Assembly to legislate over the “right to buy” for council tenants. The Welsh Government would like the power to suspend, or even abolish the right to buy council houses by tenants in those councils where there is a serious shortage of social housing. MPs believe that the LCO should be restricted to the immediate intent of the Welsh government, which is selective suspension of the “right to buy” and that additional power should not be extended without a further request for power to themselves via a new LCO.

At the heart of this is whether the Assembly can be given the power to legislate without having to go cap in hand to the Welsh Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons each time. It would appear that the Select Committee want each LCO to be so narrow that they can only be used to pass one Welsh Measure pre approved by them, effectively giving them the power to veto Welsh laws and control the policies of the Welsh Assembly Government. This is not how the system was supposed to operate. The settlement built into the Government of Wales Act was to enable the Assembly to draw down legislative power field by field within subject areas. It was supposedly permissive. MPs were to agree the principle that the Assembly could legislate in that area and any proposed Assembly Measure was to be illustrative, they were not intended to look into future possible legislative measures.

Behind this is a power struggle, between the pro and anti devolution wings of the Labour Party. For the anti-devolutionists a nice side effect of this is to put a strain on the Labour/Plaid coalition. If, as now appears, the Secretary of State for Wales is siding with the Welsh Affairs Committee then the power struggle has intensified. It is up to the Labour ministers in the Welsh Assembly Government to now make a stand, support publicly the proposed LCO, argue for it and against this assumed authority of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee to dictate policy. If they don't Plaid will begin to wonder what is the value of being in a coalition with a party that is not prepared to support its own policies and which defers to Westminster.

If Welsh Labour can't deliver on this LCO then what hope is there of them fulfilling their promise on a referendum to transfer full legislative power?

The power to only pass those laws and make policy that agrees with Westminster is no power at all. Which is where a large chunk of the Labour party would like it to be. If they can detach Plaid from the coalition then Christmas will have come early for them.

A year and more on...

Has the sky fallen in? Has Wales lurched into some Mordor morass of doom? I suspect not... yet to have heard some people the idea of a Plaid/Labour coalition was totally unconscionable, the two parties having so little in common that the coalition would fall apart in weeks. Its here a little over a year later, and apart from the loss of one minister going strong. What of the One Wales Agreement? Slow steady implementation by all accounts. Plaid ministers, though untried seem to have performed well, remarkably few public disagreements within the Assembly.

Contrast this with the noises off. Clearly the group most dissatisfied with the current Assembly Government are the Labour MPs from Wales. It looks like they have not come to terms with either the consequences of Devolution MKII or the new coalition. Witness the petulant outburst from my MP, Alun Michael – in response to the quite measured (given the circumstance) comments of the Presiding Officer, he lays into the Assembly for overwhelming the Welsh Affairs Committee with requests to give the Assembly legislative power in a number of narrow areas. Well given that this was the situation created by his party in rejecting the main recommendations of the Richard Commission, I am tempted to say if you can't cope this is your fault.

Peter Black sums it up rather neatly. I can't help but wonder if Alun Michael hasn't some unresolved issues with his rejection as First Secretary of the Assembly. He constantly steps into the limelight to take pot shots at the Assembly – its Presiding Officer - and the Welsh Government in general. Sour grapes me thinks....
The main obstacle that I can see to the Coalition working, as far as I can see, is the limited vision of Welsh Labour, who seem more keen on keeping the power in Westminster than letting the Welsh Government flourish.

Well we will see how things go. Expect matters to get more frayed when the general election come upon us...