Is it really such a big deal that Whitehall civil servants only have a passing understanding of devolution? The Welsh Affairs Select Committee apparently think so and cite the lengthy passage of LCO’s through the legislative millstones as examples – strangely omitting to mention that some of Westminster’s own bills fare little better in the same process.
Wales and Whitehall runs to 242 pages and for those who place emphasis on statistics, it mentions “Barnett” 116 time and "fairness” only once. However, among the evidence and summaries there is an underlying suggestion that the purpose of the report is not simply to arrive at a conclusion which most people have known and managed to live with for a decade. If anything, it appears to be an acceptance by politicians whose offices overlook the Thames rather than the Taff that devolution in Wales is all but irreversible – and that it was those damned apparatchiks who have been slowing things down all along.
It is a welcome if slightly disingenuous admission and one which nicely paves the way for a post-election referendum. Even so, there are those who will regard the assertion by committee chair Hywel Francis (who has a doctorate in history) that devolution was the “biggest constitutional change for Wales since 1536” as probably being too much, too late.
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