Queen’s Speech in the National Assembly
Today Peter Hain presented the Queen’s Speech in the National Assembly for Wales. Each year, under the Government of Wales Act 1998, he is required, or one of his juniors is required, to come to the National Assembly to outline the impact of the Queen’s Speech on Wales.
The Secretary of State is the architect of the Government of Wales Act 2006, and he is at pains to stress what a good arrangement this is for Wales. Opposition parties do not agree with this assessment. It is my own belief that it represents a very fragile compromise between different warring factions in the Labour Party.
The First Minister, when the Richard Commission report was published, welcomed it whole-heartedly, but has since backtracked and supported this compromise arrangement whereby powers are sought from Westminster and where the Secretary of State for Wales is the gatekeeper. Herein lies the seeds of conflict as Lord Richard himself recognised.
The Queen’s Speech itself represents a massive diet of measures on law and order and security. This has been the hallmark of Labour over the last several years. There is a positive legislative binge of law and order measures. The Climate Change Bill, although welcome in that it puts it on the agenda, should have provided for an independent body to monitor carbon emissions and should set out annual targets. These are serious deficiencies.
I also welcome a provision on mental health, though it is my own belief that we need to move away from a system that is purely criminally driven to look at therapy too. It has been estimated that one in four adults needs mental care during their lifetime. This is clearly an issue where there should be a different approach from the one presented in the Bill.
