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Government of Wales Bill

We oppose this amendment on the basis that it is bringing Parliament in as a check upon the Welsh Assembly. That is quite undesirable. It does not happen in Scotland. There is no reason to think that the body of Members of the Scottish Parliament are more competent or have greater wisdom than the Members of the Welsh Assembly. It is essential that our Conservative friends let go on devolution and let the people decide. I was delighted to hear I was wrong in suggesting to the noble Lord, Lord Crickhowell, and others that they were against devolution fundamentally. If one goes back far enough, the Conservative position was certainly always against devolution. Your Lordships will know that, as they stagger out of the Bishops’ Bar, they will see opposite a large painting of the Marquess of Salisbury addressing the House on the Government of Ireland Bill on 8 September 1893. I have often wondered what he was saying. He said that this is,"““the motto which I hope the Unionist Party will adopt . . . if you allow this atrocious, this mean, this treacherous revolution to pass, you will be untrue to the duty which has descended to you from your splendid ancestry””—" of course, he was talking to hereditary Peers—"““you will be untrue to your highest traditions, you will be untrue to the trust that has been bequeathed to you from the past, you will be untrue to the Empire of England””." That is an interesting thing. Addressing the national union of the Conservative Party in 1886, he said that the Hottentots, Indians, Greeks, Russians and Celts were unfitted for self-government. So it is a pretty deep tradition to oppose devolution.