Daniel Morrissey

[Workers Action 20 (Februray-March 2003).]

It hardly needs repeating that the five and a half years of the Blair Government has been a time of profound political upheaval, which has thrown up a number of new challenges for socialists. One of the developments which is likely to prove of greatest long-term significance, however, is also one that has been consistently neglected by the Anglo-centric ‘British’ left: namely, Scottish and Welsh devolution. It is typical of New Labour that even this - one of its most progressive initiatives - was diminished by the detail of its implementation, at least in Wales. The strength of popular support for self-government in Scotland was such that New Labour could not credibly have offered anything less than a full Parliament with primary legislative powers, and Scottish politics has indeed begun to develop a dynamic of its own. In Wales, however, the introduction of a weak and limited body, with a far from overwhelming plebiscitary mandate, has left its mark on Welsh politics.

More (html, 38 KB): Welsh Politics after Four Years of the Assembly