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Government of Wales Bill

Subtlety never was a great Liberal virtue, but let me try to explain what is a very clear subtlety in this matter. It should not matter to the hon. Gentleman that Conservative Members will have different views on devolution; what should matter to him is whether the people of Wales will be given an opportunity to decide what they think about devolution. He as a Liberal of all things—this is why I find the Liberals so unacceptable in almost all circumstances and this is the point of my speech with which the hon. Member for Vale of Clwyd can agree—and the fact is that they are always illiberal in reality. When people ask them, ““Are you going to stand up for democracy, choice and people deciding?””““Oh, no,”” they say, ““much better to let the Government do it, because we might then get a bit, and we might not have to face the electorate to argue the case.”” It is very interesting: scratch a Liberal and we always find a fascist. That is absolutely true, universally.