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Government of Wales Bill

The hon. Gentleman’s use of words allows me to explain my deep opposition to all referendums. When Parliament makes a decision such as this, it does so on behalf of the whole nation. People who are affected by it can vote on it, whether or not they are in Wales or Scotland. That would not happen with a referendum, even though UK citizens who live in England also have a part to play. A parliamentary democracy offers a much more sensible way to proceed. The unfortunate thing for the hon. Gentleman is that we chose to proceed by referendum. When people are asked in a referendum to accept one form of devolution, it is very peculiar then to ask them to move to a different form of devolution that has been decided on in an entirely different manner. Indeed, that decision would be neither parliamentary nor derived from a referendum. The Bill proposes a mechanism for devolution by salami slices. As the Father of the House pointed out, at the end of the process a referendum will be proposed, even though by that stage all the matters that could be decided by referendum will have been devolved. That is a unique and dangerous parliamentary concept—although no more so than the Liberal Democrat proposition that people are never asked at all.