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Government of Wales Bill

I was not going to speak to this new clause—until I heard what the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik) had to say, whereupon I was forced to my feet. I am sorry to say that if he presses it to a vote, I will be unable to recommend to my hon. Friends that they support him, not least because of the wishy-washy nature of subsection (3). [Interruption.] Someone said ““Surely not”” from a sedentary position, but"““the principle of fairness . . . the principle of transparency . . . and . . . the particular needs of Wales””" is fairly wishy-washy and imprecise language, as I anticipate the Minister will agree. This is possibly a good-hearted attempted by the Liberal Democrats and I do want to be fair to the hon. Gentleman, who is probably leading with his heart but certainly not with his head. As he just said, if, under this new and magic formula Wales gets less money, well, so be it. Of course, much as that might appeal to people in Northern Ireland, Scotland and England, I doubt whether the people of Wales would be very happy to discover such an attitude toward the support that they receive. As I pointed out earlier, the First Minister has said that he supports the current situation. I therefore doubt very much whether the Government will accept the new clause—particularly given that it has not been planted and then moved by a Labour Back Bencher, but has genuinely come from the Liberal Democrats—because doing so would put them directly at odds with the First Minister.