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Government of Wales Bill

My view is that the Welsh Assembly is not going to go away. [Interruption.] Let me answer the hon. Gentleman’s question. I have said in the past that a future referendum question should include the option of abolishing the Assembly altogether. I think that that could constitute a healthy democratic mechanism to allow the venting of the significant stream of opinion in Wales that does not favour its existence. I do not believe that that stream of opinion would win—I do not think that there is a majority in favour of abolition, and I do not think that the Assembly will disappear at any point in the near future—but, at the beginning of 2006, we are being asked to believe that there is a consensus in Wales on the need to extend and deepen the devolution settlement, and that the Bill is necessary at this time. It takes a huge leap of the imagination to accept that.