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Government of Wales Bill

My Lords, I regret that we are unable to support these amendments. The noble Lord referred to my contribution on the second day of Committee and to some of the things that I said, which bore repetition because the noble Lord, Lord Crickhowell, also set out in extenso my views on Part 3. The noble Lord, Lord Crickhowell, referred to the fact that I had said that this was an ingenious and tortuous device to bring in legislation without having a referendum. We accept that that is the position. We also accept, however, that the proposals of the Government, which are not very satisfactory and certainly do not match the aspirations of the Liberal Democrats in Wales or in the United Kingdom, are, nevertheless, a step in the right direction. This amendment proposes to introduce a further complication by requiring that the measures which the Welsh Assembly has passed, within the powers granted to it by an earlier Order in Council, should require a resolution of each House of Parliament before they can be put into effect. It would also require that each House of Parliament should have a further chance to block the measures that are passed by a democratically elected Welsh Assembly through Clause 101. I repeat that I am not happy with the way in which these proposals have been put forward, and neither was the noble Lord, Lord Richard. I do not know whether the noble Lord, Lord Rowlands, supports them. He was a member of the Richard commission which came forward with a solution that was perfectly satisfactory to us; namely, that the Welsh Assembly should move towards having primary powers and that it should be reconstituted in such a way as to give to the Assembly a mandate for carrying out its policies. I repeat that this is not a satisfactory solution, but the amendments put forward at this stage by the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, make it even worse. I regret to say that we cannot support it. Before I leave this subject, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Evans, for handing to us a press release issued today by the Secretary of State for Wales, Peter Hain. He regards our attempts to improve this Bill as ““petty mischief-making””—that is the expression he uses—and says that the Lords,"““must stop playing games with the future of Wales and must stop obstructing the Bill””." I think he has lost his marbles. I do not know what concept he has of the constitution of this country or the powers of this House. If we are not here to try to improve this Bill and to bring in amendments to it, we may as well all go home. Mr Peter Hain has no idea of what he is talking about, and if there is any mischief-making going on it is his, presumably to gain some sort of electoral advantage to the Labour Party. It is him who is making allegations which certainly attack the dignity and powers of this House.