Get prepared for even more devolved powers

HAS devolution here in

Wales already gone far enough? Some might consider that it has already gone too far, while others would favour considerably more home rule.

What has impressed me in recent months during the ongoing period of the pandemic is the way that Wales can differ from England over the timing and detail of the anti-virus rules and regulations. The differences are not of course massive but they are there. Some might say that this can cause confusion since much of what Boris Johnson and his political team are saying about the matter only applies only to England. It is true that Scotland and Northern Ireland can also differ, both from what London says and from one another too.

Turning the clock back to before the establishment of the Welsh Parliament would not be practicable, and perhaps not desirable. But the direction of movement in the next decade or two would be for more matters to be devolved, in the way that health is in Wales.

Though I am not a strong partisan of any meaningful degree of devolution, I can see that the Welsh language and Welsh culture can be better protected with native assemblies and ministries.

I am not against the Welsh language per se incidentally but rather the degree to which it is emphasised as a second official language. Is this necessary? There has been a very big ill to pay for all this of course, which many might not feel unhappy about.

Taking things further though, “creeping” devolution is quite likely to lead to full political independence, everything except foreign policy and defence perhaps.

Without my delving into masses of statistical information, I note how the former Czechoslovakia was divided into two separate states not all that long after they achieved independence from the then USSR. Then in what was Yugoslavia, we now have a multiplicity of smaller states where there has already been warfare. Tito was a dictator – the West liked him though since he stood up to the USSR, as did the man in Romania. Spain is showing signs of fracture between some of its component parts, with the Basques and Catalonia. It can all be a recipe “for friction, friction, friction”, at worst “warfare, warfare, warfare” as in Northern Ireland and in any case there will be very big bills where local representatives will give themselves a comfortable expenses regime. Because they’re worth it!

Michael O’Neil Penarth

Every day she goes to work we worry ourselves stupid that she comes home to us safe... DJ Radford Barry