Tories woo Plaid with referendum pledge

Nov 3 2007 by Tomos Livingstone, Western Mail

THE Conservatives have “faced their demons” and are now committed to a referendum on greater devolution, the party’s leader in the Assembly Nick Bourne said last night.

Mr Bourne’s intervention, designed to appeal to Plaid supporters disgruntled by Labour’s non-committal attitude to a future referendum, comes after the first serious cracks emerged in the Assembly coalition over the issue.

The two parties’ agreement contains a pledge to hold a public poll by 2011, but comments by Welsh Secretary Peter Hain that he did not wish to be “bounced into an early referendum” have provoked jitters within Plaid.

Plaid faces a meeting of its National Council on November 17, with calls likely for a pull-out from the coalition.

Mr Bourne pointedly reiterated his support for a referendum yesterday, a move designed to appeal to disgruntled Plaid supporters.

If Plaid was to pull out – still a highly unlikely outcome – the Tories would press for a revival of a “rainbow coalition” containing the two parties and the Liberal Democrats.

Mr Bourne said earlier this week that “the sooner this happens the better”.

But there are tensions within the Conservatives too, with the party’s MPs sceptical about the headlong rush from being an anti-devolution party to one supporting greater powers.

Last week Preseli Pembrokeshire MP Stephen Crabb said the “devolution experiment” was leading to “socialism and separatism”.

Mr Bourne said the party’s change of tack had been the Conservatives’ “clause- four moment”, a reference to Tony Blair’s symbolic ditching of Labour’s commitment to public ownership of industry back in 1994.

“We faced the stark choice of wither or adapt,” said Mr Bourne. “We chose adapt.”

He added, “For Welsh Conservatives, devolution has been a positive thing. It’s given us the chance to re-establish our party in Wales. We now have three MPs and 12 AMs, with that number expected to grow.

“But supporting devolution does not mean abandoning support for the Union, to the contrary. Welsh Conservatives want a strong Wales in a strong Britain.”

He said the party was “adjusting” to the Government of Wales Act, and had been disappointed that there had not been a cross-party consensus on the future constitutional settlement.

“The Act and settlement is highly partisan and little more than a sticking plaster to alleviate the wounds within the Labour Party,” he said.

“Far from fulfilling Peter Hain’s infamous prediction that the Act would resolve the constitutional question for a generation, what we have now is unfinished business, with the limitations of the Act already being exposed.

“Welsh Conservatives have won the argument that a referendum is needed for full powers.”

Some Plaid members are thought to be unhappy that the pledge to hold a referendum has not been stated more explicitly from the Labour side, and some are now questioning the purpose of continuing with the coalition.

Labour believe Mr Hain’s remarks have been blown out of proportion, and a spokesman for the Welsh Secretary declined to comment on the matter yesterday.

Mr Bourne said, “Our party is on the up. We have faced our demons and overcome them. Now we are seizing and setting the agenda in Wales and the wider UK.

“We are prepared to realise and change to best serve a strong Wales. But this strong Wales must be firmly cemented within a strong Britain.”

A convention aimed at preparing the ground for a referendum in 2011 is to be chaired by former diplomat Sir Emyr Jones Parry, but has yet to hold its first meeting.

The Labour-Plaid coalition, which both sides say has worked well in Cardiff Bay, despite discontent at Westminster and at grassroots level, unveils its first budget on Monday.

It faces further potential problems in the spring as the two parties campaign against each other in local elections.