Richard Wyn Jones and Glyn Mathias
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.
