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The Powers of the National Assembly for
Wales
Memorandum by Mr Silvan Jones
The National Assembly and the 'Democratic
Deficit'
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| May I briefly refer Members of the Commission
to what is, in my view, a serious political problem for
the Assembly and one which I believe poses something of
a handicap to the Assembly in its work along with the
Assembly government? This is manifested in the form of
a fairly widespread public indifference and even hostility
towards the Assembly: what I call its 'democratic deficit'.
However efficient the Assembly and its government turn
out to be in terms of costs and benefits, they may still
be widely seen as irrelevant or not worthwhile. The public's
perception of the Assembly is what it is and not what
we might like it to be. The difficult question is: has
this anything to do with the powers of the Assembly, its
rights and duties or its structure or with the way the
Assembly works or with what the Assembly has or has not
done in the past four years or so? |
| The Assembly was set up in 1999 in rather
unpropitious political circumstances. At the 1997 referendum
in Wales, the case for an Assembly was vigorously promoted
by the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru
but the result was far from clear-cut in favour of an
Assembly. Only a little over half the electorate even
bothered to vote and the overall YES majority was just
0.6 per cent of the votes cast. Clearly, most of the electorate
did not see the point of an Assembly. The geographical
distribution of the votes was also such that all parts
of Wales bordering England rejected an Assembly as did
our capital city, Cardiff.
Thus, from the start, the Assembly has had to work
in the face of a considerable shortfall in the support
for its very existence: on this account the political
legitimacy of the Assembly has been under question.
It was hoped that the situation would improve in time
as the Assembly got going but the evidence for this
is not encouraging. One difficulty here is that unlike
central government services such as social security
benefits, the State pension and the police, many of
the benefits of the Assembly are not directly or immediately
observable or even measurable. At the same time, we
have to ask in what way and to what extent can the benefits
of the Assembly be attributed to the Assembly as such:
after all, the old Welsh Office was not without its
achievements, and at a lower overall cost.
The existing powers of the Assembly are quite extensive
- at least, on paper - and I would maintain that as
things are, the Assembly should be allowed to get on
with its work, learn by experience and then perhaps
do better. Nid da lle gellir gwell - my old school's
motto - though this is sometimes easier said than done.
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| The craft of politics is not held in high
esteem and, sad to say, I don't think that the party political
divisions in the Assembly are of any help in this matter.
For one thing the four competing parties in the Assembly
do not provide a sufficient pool of talent to do proper
justice to the institution of the Assembly and its government.
I hesitate to make-a case for a greater number of Assembly
members. We already have a plethora of politicians in
Wales - town councillors, county councillors, AMs, MPs
and MEPs'. Public apathy towards elections stems from
diminishing returns even for democracy in the sense that
we can have too much of a good thing. If anything, we
might ask for a reduction in the number of MPs in Wales
now that AMs have taken over a lot of their work. This
also relates to Tam Dalyell's 'Midlothian question': why
should Welsh MPs have any say on some English matters
such as education and health when English MPs have no
say on similar matters in Wales even. though their finance
comes from the UK budget?
As well, there is now something of a dilemma at elections
in Wales. Thus, a party candidate for Parliament may
offer a particular policy on, say, education or health
which differs in some important respect from the same
party's candidate for the Assembly.
A more localised type of problem in Wales stems from
what is seen as a predominantly south-Walian or Cardiff-based
Assembly: North and even mid-Wales often feel 'out of
things'. This is inevitable to some extent given the
concentration of population in south Wales. Was there
ever any serious consideration given to the siting of
the Assembly in mid-Wales, say, in Welshpool or Newtown?
The location of the Australian government in Canberra
was seen as odd at first - away from the large centres
of population - but is now seen as sensible.
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| Nor is the public always clear as to which
government body is now responsible for certain government
services - is it the local council, the Assembly or Westminster?
This ties in with the problem of providing adequate information
about the Assembly, what it can do and what it does. Apart
from Welsh radio and TV - though TVs in north Wales may
be tuned to Granada - reports about the Assembly appear
in national papers only where there is some sensational
Assembly event which may portray the Assembly in a poor
light. Both the Western Mail and the Daily Post do carry
reports, articles and features about the Assembly but
these papers may not be widely taken by people who take
national papers.
Those who press for more powers to be given to the
Assembly claim that this would generate more public
interest in the Assembly, reducing our 'democratic deficit'.
The scope for more powers is not anything as large as
is sometimes made out. We can forget about all macro-economic
matters such as inflation, rates of interest and the
exchange rate. Nor can the Assembly 'go it alone' on
many cross-border matters such as the distribution of
industry and transport policies.
Public interest would certainly be generated were the
Assembly given the power to raise revenue of its own,
say, in the form of a special tax in Wales. The administrative
difficulties with such schemes could be formidable but
there is one practical and inexpensive scheme, namely,
for the Assembly to be able to precept local councils
in the same way as police forces do for some of their
money. This levy would be additional to the existing
council tax and therefore unambiguously located in Wales,
difficult to evade and is mildly progressive. In a rough
and ready way, the public is aware of the cost of central
and local government in terms of the various taxes it
pays and, in principle and in some measure, the Assembly
should be subject to a similar political discipline.
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| We should also ask whether, within its
present powers, the Assembly could apply more effective
influence on some Welsh issues. For instance, now that
Welsh Water is no longer a share-holding company, the
Assembly might play a role in its affairs other than merely
to discuss or oversee its scheme of charges. The Assembly
did discuss Welsh Water's domestic charges in February
2000 and expressed its opposition to compulsory metering
but shortly afterwards, Welsh Water made metering compulsory
for all new domestic connections.
In February 1999, the Devolution Unit of the Welsh
Office issued a Guide to the Powers of the Assembly
which had a sub-title, Making the Difference in Wales.
In the-event, the Assembly has done some things differently
from England but maybe simply in order to be different
and not on account of different so-called needs in Wales.
Take the free bus service for the elderly in Wales,
widely enjoyed and the Assembly government taking all
the credit for it. However, this cannot be in response
to a special Welsh need since the case for a similar
service can be made out for the elderly in the rest
of the U.K.
One special problem in Wales has to do with the Welsh
language. Though this can be spoken by only about one
in five of the people of Wales, democratic government
is not just about majority rule but having a proper
regard for minority concerns. Technically, language
is primarily a means of communication but it is also
part of our history, culture and way of life. It's hard
to see how the Assembly could do much more than what
it is already doing for the Welsh language bearing in
mind that the more spent on any one service means less
for other services.
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| To sum up: as things are we cannot support
any significant extension to the existing statutory powers
of the Assembly apart from giving it power to raise some
money of its own by a special tax in Wales. We think the
Assembly already has enough on its plate if not more than
enough but can it make itself more acceptable to the public
in Wales other than by spin and gimmicks? This could be
an uphill struggle but surely important for the health
and vitality of democracy at this as with all levels of
government.
March 2003
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