This morning in the lobby briefing, Andrew Davies told the press that, in actual fact, the demise of Housing LCO Mark I was actually a demonstration of the success of the democratic system because it showed not everything just goes through on the nod.
Ms Wood says: "It is a complete failure of democracy that the democratically elected government in Wales is unable to carry out a policy that it was elected to carry out."
What do we think? One thing's for sure, this is going to make it very difficult for the Assembly to meet their housing targets before 2011...
Dewi Tri
2 comments:
The fundamental question here is whether or not top-slicing the licence fee (thus threatening the independence of the BBC) is the correct way to fund local and regional broadcasting. I would argue not. A 1% levy applied to Virgin Media and Sky would result in a windfall of over £70 million. Sufficient to fund great in improvements through a Welsh Media Commission. This was outlined in a recent Bectu report.
The LCO process is cumbersome and time consuming. With MPs trying to tighten the wording so you get one use LCO, leading to one Measure, you effectively have MPs controlling, or at the very least, having a veto over Welsh Government policy. Its not devolution as we understand it and underlines the different approach to Wales and Scotland. In Scotland the Parliament can do anything it likes unless its specifically forbidden by the Scotland Act. In Wales everything is forbidden unless it is specifically allowed by several legislative permissions from Westminster. Scotland is treated as a "grown up" nation, while Wales is treated as a wayward child, under close supervision. It also means that an incoming Welsh Government has very little scope for legislation, even the least contentious LCO takes over a year, then the Measure has to go through the National Assembly, so the first year of any Government's term of office is limited, any any contentious legislation would be dealt with, at the earliest, in the Third year of the term.
This is no way to run a country, or at least one with any sense of self worth or self respect.
Post a Comment