Calling
for two working parties to be established to report to Parliament within 3
years on –
The operation of the minor Reserved Powers
and
Dominion
Status for Wales
Reserved Powers
Lord Elystan Morgan states:
‘The Government’s plan for a
Reserved Powers Constitution for Wales is fundamentally flawed.
Whilst a Reserve Powers
system placing Wales on a par with Scotland and Northern Ireland is both just
and welcomed the way in which the Government have proceeded is little short of ludicrous
in that they have introduced some 200 reservations with scores of them being
utterly trivial and meagre (e.g. licensing, dangerous dogs, prostitution,
charitable collections etc ).
A Reserve Powers system in
an enlightened society depends entirely upon mutual trust and respect existing
between the parent Parliament and the devolved body.
It appears however that when
the question was asked by the Secretary of State for Wales of his cabinet
colleagues -
‘what reservations would you
desire’?
the answer that he seems to have received
seems like -
‘all that we can possibly
think of – the more mean and trivial the better’.
It is for that reason I have
described the situation as imperial and colonial and that such tawdry
inhibitions would never have been thought of 60 years ago by a Colonial Office
dealing with a British Caribbean or African colony.
But remember always that
Wales was England’s first colony and a determination exists in certain circles
that it should be its last.
The amendment to the Wales
Bill that I have drafted is to the effect that the Secretary of State for Wales
should establish a working party that would report to Parliament within 3 years
on the operation of the minor Reserve Powers with recommendations that those
which are irrelevant (particularly breaking the principles of subsidiarity) and
thus insulting to Wales should be removed’
Dominion
Status
Lord Elystan Morgan has put
down an amendment to the Wales Bill obliging the Secretary of State for Wales
to establish a working party on the issue of the possibilities of Dominion
Status for Wales as a land and nation and to report to Parliament within 3
years.
‘My motivation for this is
that we the Welsh people should think big
For far too long we have
begged for the crumbs of devolution so it is highly necessary that we should
raise our expectations to be worthy of our status as a mature national entity.
The Statute of Westminster
1931 did not create a rigid model of Dominion Status but rather enunciated a
principle of immense flexibility and subtleness
It stands to reason that
Dominion Status in relation to Wales would be very different from the patterns
existing for Australia and New Zealand, but it is a worthy and honourable
concept that can enable Wales to play its full part within the life of the UK.’