Nick Bourne AM

It has been a good day in the Assembly today. We stood up for the Police and I was disappointed, despite warm words from Labour and their helpers in the Assembly, that our amendments supporting the Police in relation to their arbitration award was defeated.

In the evening there was an excellent lecture given by Richard Wyn Jones to Public Affairs Cymru, with Daran Hill in the chair. Richard concentrated on three areas in the lecture. First a survey of public opinion on future powers of the Assembly, indicating 44% support for a law making Assembly with tax raising powers. This isn’t the option being looked at by the convention so presumably, without the tax raising powers, the support would be even greater. Those favouring abolition has gone down markedly over a period of time, whilst the proportion of the population supporting independence has remained static over the same period.

Secondly, Richard looked at the state of the Welsh constitution and the muddled settlement that we have now. He contended, and I agree, that Peter Hain’s assertion that the Government of Wales Act 2006 would be the last important piece of legislation on the governance of Wales for a generation is incorrect. This assertion of Peter Hain’s is almost certain to be proved wrong. It is hard to see that it could be otherwise.

Finally, Richard turned his attention to civic society in Wales and the part of the lecture concerning the media certainly provoked many questions. It is clear in a way that I had perhaps not seen so graphically before, that Trinity Mirror has a monopoly in Wales. This is not perceived as a monopoly at Westminster because it does not have a monopoly in UK terms but clearly it has a massive impact on news coverage in Wales.

Only the BBC and Trinity Mirror are of massive significance in news terms in Wales. I actually agreed with James Purnell, the outgoing Culture Secretary, when he suggested that a portion of the licence fee could go to other broadcasters in return for public service broadcasting. I thought this was a sensible contribution to the debate on the future of broadcasting in the digital age. It could certainly be used by broadcasters other than the BBC in Wales.

Following the lecture, I attended a farewell dinner given by the Electoral Commission for Glyn Mathias, our outgoing Welsh Electoral Commissioner, in fact Ian Kelsall has already taken over in this role. I have known Glyn for many years and he has made a tremendous contribution already to Welsh public life. He is now to take a gap year or two but I am sure will continue to be active in Welsh life. Glyn is held in great esteem, and the First Minister and all Party Leaders spoke at the dinner in appreciation of his work.

The Electoral Commission, of course, plays an important role in our lives. We have every reason to know this in Wales at the moment although nobody made reference to recent events at Westminster. Also the Electoral Commission will have the role of clearing any referendum question to go on the ballot paper. It is not clear when a draft of the question is to be sent to them, and neither the First Minister nor the Deputy First Minister shed any light on this!

Best wishes to Glyn and a warm welcome to Ian.

On Wednesday the Welsh Conservatives are calling on the Labour/Plaid administration here to lobby the Westminster government to honour the recent pay award for the police in full with immediate effect.

 
Cheryl Gillan, David Davis and David Cameron have all rightly condemned the government’s handling of the police pay settlement.
I, myself, received a letter from the Leader on 20 December 2007 sharing the police’s sense of outrage at the way they have been treated by the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith. Police Officers Police Officers behaved very properly in agreeing to abide by the decision of the Independent Police Arbitration Panel – whatever that decision was – and it is quite shocking that the Government has reneged on that agreement.

 
The Party in the Assembly very much agrees with this stance, and it will be interesting to see whether Plaid Cymru back the administration here on an issue that is Westminster based rather than following them slavishly as they did on ID cards and on the loss of security data. 

 
The response we have had from the police has been fantastic. Emails and messages are swarming in, and we are doing our best to keep pace with them. We are also meeting with representatives of the Police Federation as a Group to restate our support.

 
It does seem monstrous to me that an independent pay award, which the police had undertaken in advance to accept, is now being undermined by the government.  It is a basic issue of trust and honesty as far as the Welsh Conservative Party is concerned.

When Peter Hain last appeared in the National Assembly to deliver a speech  on the impact of the Queen’s Speech on Wales little did I think, when I suggested in the first response to that speech that he must be relieved to get away from all the trouble in the Labour government at Westminster with difficulties swirling around on dodgy donations, that Peter Hain would shortly be embroiled in massive difficulties of his own for non-disclosure.

 
For at that stage the difficulties centred around Wendy Alexander and Harriet Harman, the Labour deputy leader. They still do, of course.

 
The appointment of Paul Murphy as Welsh Secretary again is an interesting one. Paul is a pleasant man and has a reputation (probably deserved) of being able to bring people together. It is hard to see this as a long term appointment, however. Is this a stopgap appointment while Brown decides what to do with the devolved nations in the cabinet?

 
 Also, of course, Paul is not a massive fan of the deal with Plaid and is also known to be more luke warm on further powers than Peter Hain

I think it was inevitable that Peter Hain was going to have to go for the non-disclosures in his Deputy Leadership campaign. The political perspective was always that over £100,000 of non-disclosure was going to be difficult for the Labour Party, and now with Police involvement the outcome, I think, was inevitable.
Spare a thought, not just for Peter Hain on a personal basis, but also for Dr Russell Deacon who in today’s Western Mail was assessing the career and future of Peter Hain .  He posed the question of |Hain’s future when confronted with his current difficulties. They do not  ‘however, really  add up to a great deal when compared to some of his predecessors as Welsh Secretary?’ said Russell.
He continues, “If the media’s focus moves off Hain once more, his own problems may well pale into insignificance when compared to his more politically infamous predecessors.”  The timing of the article makes one wonder whether, to the curse of Lembit Opik, we need to add the curse of Russell Deacon. 
Even before today’s events began to unfold, reading Russell’s article and asking whether Peter Hain could be the first Welsh Secretary to break the golden rule by becoming Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary, Chancellor or, indeed, Prime Minister, I was tempted to pick up the phone to speak to Russell to say that I think he would get much better odds on William Hague accomplishing that feat than Peter Hain.  That was the case this morning. This is very much the case now.

The case of the Queen on the application of Deepdock Limited, Myti Mussels Limited, Extra Mussel Limited, Ogwen Mussel Limited, and Andrew Wilson v the Welsh Ministers and the Isle of Anglesey County Council, Anglesey Boat Company Limited, and the North Western and North Wales Sea Fisheries Committee might not look like a significant legal decision – but it is. 
I should say that I have actually been involved in the background to this case as it involves the proposed development of a marina in Beaumaris on Anglesey by the Anglesey Boat Company Limited. 

 
The recent judgement of his Honour Judge Hickinbottom on 30 October 2007, however, does not concern the merits of whether the proposed marina should go ahead.  There are objections to the marina based on the possibility of its effect on mussel farming in the Menai Straits.

 
An issue considered by the Judge was the venue issue.  An application was made by the Welsh Ministers for the claims to be heard in Wales.  Initially this was opposed by the mussel farms, the Fisheries Committee, Ynys Mon Council and the Crown Estate all seeking a direction that the hearing be in London.  One reason for this is that it was more convenient for the parties in Anglesey to travel to London rather than to Cardiff (now that sounds familiar!).  The Judge considered that it was possible for the hearing to be elsewhere than Cardiff in Wales.  He considered that proceedings could be heard in Llangefni or Caernarfon with the district registries being the obvious potential venues.
The case that was considered in this regard was the case of Condron v The National Assembly of Wales 2006.  This case had concerned the Ffos y Fran Opencast Mining application.  In the Court of Appeal, Richards LJ had said that the case could be heard in Wales and he regretted that efforts had not been made to list it in Wales. 

 
There is an important body of administrative law developing with a Welsh flavour and doubtless this will increase as time goes on and as the Assembly develops separate and distinct laws from the rest of the United Kingdom.

 
The case is an important one.  The mussel fishers and Anglesey Boat Company may be casting a pebble in the legal pond much like Mrs Carlill and her smoke ball, or Mrs Donaghue and her ginger beer!

I was very pleased that Jeremy Hunt visited the National Assembly for lunch with John Walter Jones and I. 

Jeremy is vitally important to us in Wales, as in a David Cameron Government, it would be Jeremy who would be responsible for broadcasting. I was therefore very keen for him to see the work that we are doing in the National Assembly for Wales. 

I was delighted that he is supportive of the work we are doing in seeking to make devolution work in Wales. He is a new breed of Conservative representing a new approach, giving people more power over their everyday lives. This does not just mean support for devolution to Wales but also support for localism. Wales. We even discovered that we have a shared love of Cadair Idris, both having climbed it, and he is regular a visitor to Wales. He also echoed what Cheryl has said about the very generous office accomodation we have here (though Cheryl’s office overlooking the Thames is like a football pitch). The excellent catering in the Member Dining Room and the friendly nature of the staff also got high marks – I must pass that on. 

It is extraordinary to me that such a popular and successful cultural centre as the Wyeside Art centre in Builth Wells is in danger of disappearing from our cultural and everyday life for want of a small injection of cash. Just to put it into perspective, the Wyeside Art Centre is the Millennium Centre for the people of Mid Wales. 

It’s actually the oldest cinema in Wales and has taken the lead in promoting arts and culture for the people of Mid Wales for a considerable time. Not only does it support a very high quality film programme but also theatre, with very successful partnerships with Mid Powys Youth Theatre and very positive relationships with schools, youth clubs, young farmers clubs and families throughout the area. It plays an important part in providing the young people in the area with a centre of activity and there are precious few in this part of my area. It is an attraction not just to the young but families and people of all ages. It contributes massively to the arts in the region and also means that there is something representative of the Arts and Culture on the doorstep for the people of Mid Wales. Were it not the iconic centre that it is, people would have to travel much further and probably to Hereford or Aberystwyth for similar cultural events. This is totally unacceptable. 

I was certainly supportive of the extra money going to the Wales Millennium Centre and remain very supportive of it as an institution but I remember the undertaking by the Minister that spending outside Cardiff would not be prejudiced by this injection of cash – some thirteen million. That undertaking needs to be honoured by the Minister. We are talking a relatively small sum of money, perhaps £50,000 per annum, to help this institution to continue to play the vital part it has done over many years in Mid Wales.  Tomorrow I am to meet the excellent artistic and executive director Guy Roderick and David Lloyd the Chairman of the Wyeside, together with Peter Cox the Chairman of CARAD, who are all fighting for the survival of the Wyeside.  

Today the National Assembly considered two important debates put forward by Welsh Conservatives. There was also an important debate put forward by the Welsh Liberal Democrats opposing Identity cards. 

Welsh Conservatives put down two motions one to cut red tape in farming which was introduced by Angela Burns. Angela citing graphically a farm in Pembrokeshire which has had seven visits in the last twelve months including two by the same inspector first for beef and then for dairy. There is no reason why these visits should not be amalgamated. It would cut bureaucracy, it would cut costs and it would cut the time that farmers have to spend on needless bureaucracy whilst still supplying the information that is needed. 

It was gratifying that the Minister yesterday announced that there would be a review. I think everyone knows this was done because our debate was on the agenda. Still it is to be welcomed. It is very good news for everyone in Wales because it will save money, heartache and help our farming communities. 

The other debate we put forward today was on banning plastic bags; We also sought to persuade the Welsh Assembly Government that it would be sensible to have a levy on disposable bags in the retail sector. I was surprised that the Minister was not prepared to be so radical. She wanted voluntary action and saw the importance of that but failed to take the necessary step across the Rubicon. 

France has very successfully led with a ban so that, in France you cannot get plastic bags in supermarkets you need a bag for life; This is sensible. 

It is not just a litter issue, though that is important. It is not just an animal welfare issue, though that is important. It is an important environmental issue and whilst we do need to talk to the supermarket and plastic sectors to ensure that there is proper consultation and to ensure the levy is brought in an effective way. We do need to move to have an effective levy with the money ring fenced to use on protecting our environment. That is the way forward on this most important issue, I believe. 

On identity cards we supported the stance of the Welsh Liberal Democrats on this issues are fundamentally opposed to identity cards. We are also highly critical of the Governments loss of security data, which shows the dangers we run at the moment. Plaid supported the Labour Government in Westminster! It has been a very interesting day in the Assembly. 

The new term in the Assembly building begins with an excellent FUW breakfast, and thanks to President Gareth Vaughan and to the FUW for such an excellent start to the term.

It was very gratifying also that the Minister took the opportunity to announce a review of farm visits and on the various forms that have to be filled in.  It is gratifying because this is the subject of the debate that the Welsh Conservatives have put down for tomorrow asking for a cut in government red tape, so it is good to see the government responding on the eve of our debate.  I hope that that is going to set a precedent for them adopting more and more of our policies. It is an encouraging sight!