20 years on: Carwyn’s defence of devolution

AS WALES marks 20 years since the historic devolution vote, one of the key architects of that victory has unleashed a stinging assessment of how Wales has been run since.

Former Welsh Secretary Ron Davies said he could not name a single initiative that has improved the lives of people in Wales in the two decades since the narrow referendum win.

His comments came as a new poll showed two-thirds of people feel devolution has made no difference to their living standards.

But First Minister Carwyn Jones and Prime Minister Theresa May have both defended the legacy of devolution.

In a keynote speech to be delivered today, Mr Jones is expected to say that the nation’s profile across the world “has gone from strength to strength”.

Meanwhile Mrs May cited the nation’s success in landing a deal that will see prestige car-maker Aston Martin setting up a South Wales factory, and claiming: “The Welsh economy has acquired an international reputation for excellence.”

Mr Davies, the former MP for Caerphilly, became Secretary of State for Wales, presiding over the referendum victory in 1997.

But after winning an election that would have made him his party’s first leader in the Assembly, he stood down after the infamous “moment of madness” incident in 1998, when he was mugged at a well-known London gay cruising spot.

Mr Davies, who is regularly referred to as one of the chief architects of Welsh devolution, said the founding of the Assembly as an institution was a success – but that its effect on ordinary lives had been disappointing and he claimed there was a “culture of complacency” within the Welsh Government. He said: “When I envisaged that institution, I saw it doing things to improve the real life of the people of Wales – not just in terms of their democratic accountability, but in terms of better jobs, better opportunities.

“And I think if you look at economic development, if you look at housing and planning, if you look at the health service, if you look at education over the last 20 years, it’s difficult to see any initiative which has come from the Assembly which has been based on a realistic assessment of the problems we face, or to see a realistic manifesto to change them for the better.”

In a speech to be delivered at an Institute of Welsh Affairs event at the Wales Millennium Centre today Mr Jones is expected to say: “Twenty years on from devolution, we are a nation transformed. Not just in terms of our democracy, but more in terms of our new-found confidence.

“I see every day a generation of young people who are fearless, who are educated and grounded in Wales and firmly believe that the future belongs to them, and that the world is out there to conquer.

“The contrast with the past is huge, it has been hard won and it must be built upon.” lifestyle, better