HYWEL IN PARLIAMENT: Debates
Welsh Affairs
St David’s Day Debate 2008
Dr. Hywel Francis (Aberavon) (Lab): May I first pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Neath (Mr. Hain), who was at one time my Member of Parliament? He has made, in the great tradition of this House, a fine speech, one that the people of Wales would be proud of, in the sense that he located Wales in a United Kingdom and an internationalist context. He has served Wales well as Secretary of State and has served democratic devolution well. I am sure that he will continue to do so in the future.
I also wish to pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for his speech, which was as erudite, thought-provoking and challenging as his first speech as Secretary of State at the Welsh day debate on 2 March 2000. On that occasion, he developed a crucial theme that was projected by another fine son of the Monmouthshire valleys, Aneurin Bevan, in the very first Welsh day debate on 17 October 1944. In 1944, in 2000 and in 2008, that recurring theme is summed up in the words of Aneurin Bevan in 1944 about the inter-war years in the south Wales valleys:
“Our problem was to try to get enough political leverage to secure attention for our difficulties.”—[ Official Report, 17 October 1944; Vol. 43, c. 2313.]
From the perspective of the Welsh Affairs Committee, which I have the privilege of chairing, I see that challenge of political leverage very clearly: what is the best political leverage that we can achieve for Wales today?
The Secretary of State argued in 2000 for a strategic partnership between Westminster and the Assembly, and he did so again today. In 2000, he was anticipating what the Prime Minister said recently about there being no Welsh-only, Scottish-only or English-only solution to our problems. The political leverage of 1944 has evolved into the strategic partnerships of today.
The Secretary of State placed great emphasis in 2000 on policies that delivered for the people and suggested that
“if we fail the people, the democratic institutions that we cherish, and have only just established, will fail as well.”—[ Official Report, 2 March 2000; Vol. 345, c. 601.]
That is the theme that I wish to pursue today as the Chairman of the Committee: Wales as an historic nation and as, in the words of a Welsh politician in the 1990s, “an open region”, looking outwards and seeking partnerships in the United Kingdom, in Europe and in the world, a global Wales rather than an introspective “fortress Wales.”
I am very hopeful that the all-Wales convention under the chairmanship of Sir Emyr Jones-Parry will have that wider vision, too. I believe that the Secretary of State has a unique opportunity and role in this context, representing Wales in the Cabinet, in Westminster and in Whitehall, and representing those institutions in Wales. In chairing the British-Irish Council and the Cabinet committee on the English regions, he has a pivotal role in bringing together and making sense of the hitherto asymmetrical and fragmented devolution across the UK.
The Welsh Affairs Committee recently published its annual report. In many ways, it is a series of snapshots of the evolving devolutionary world. We continue to scrutinise the Secretary of State and the Wales Office and we look forward to him coming before us in the next month or so for that purpose. Through a series of inquiries, we scrutinise various Government Departments in respect of their policies as they affect Wales. Our major inquiry on globalisation and its impact on Wales, and our forthcoming cross-border inquiry focusing on health, education and transport will no doubt result in UK and Welsh Ministers appearing before us.
This is our principal preoccupation: an examination of how Wales relates to the rest of the UK and the rest of the world. We have nevertheless, under the Government of Wales Act, taken a new and additional responsibility of engaging in pre-legislative scrutiny, scrutinising legislative competence orders in council either jointly with Assembly Committees or on our own. We have already completed reports on additional learning needs and domiciliary care.
Much has been said, including today, about the process and some colleagues have rightly questioned the volume of work, the nature of the scrutiny and related issues. As Chairman of the Committee, all I would say is that we are in the very early stages of a new democratic process. We welcome the opportunity of working from time to time with our Assembly colleagues and we will regularly review the process and the volume of work within it. I welcome the comments made by the Secretary of State earlier.
Mr. Roger Williams: Everyone in the Chamber values the work of the Committee but does my hon. Friend feel that the Committee will be able to provide full scrutiny of the legislation coming out of the Assembly, along with the valuable work that the Committee does in monitoring the work of the Wales Office and Welsh issues?
Dr. Francis: As someone said of the effects of the French revolution, “It is too early to say.” That is all I wish to say at the moment. It is absolutely certain that our primary scrutiny role will be of UK Government Departments and their impact on Wales. That will be paramount to us and will continue to be so while I chair the Committee.
Our work in recent years on prisons, defence, police, globalisation and—under the wise chairmanship of my hon. Friend the Member for Clwyd, South (Mr. Jones)—on manufacturing and trade and on young people is testimony to the effectiveness of the work of the Committee. I thank Committee members, past and present, for that.
I am certain, too, that the forthcoming inquiry on cross-border issues will be of great value to the people of Wales. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham (Ian Lucas) and others for raising the matter with us.
There is considerable interest in the forthcoming inquiry that begins on Tuesday, an interest that crosses the border. Many people in England as well as Wales are keenly looking forward to the inquiry. I ask hon. Members to consider just one aspect of the inquiry—health—and the number of policy issues that probably we will examine: different policy and performance management regimes and targets, different payment systems, prescription charges or the lack of them, resource allocation, differing attitudes to foundation hospitals. The list is endless. In that respect, the landmark agreement on 5 March between the Welsh Assembly and the west midlands, which deals with a range of public services, is welcome.
The dual challenge involves ensuring, first, that policies are not only different, but result in better services, and, secondly, coherence across the border through partnership in, for example, a national health service that seeks to achieve fairness and equality for everyone throughout the United Kingdom. Solutions that do not have that wider vision and that do not look beyond our borders are doomed to failure.
During our globalisation inquiry, it was evident that the challenges posed by economic inactivity, which has been mentioned, fuel poverty, skills enhancement, university research funding, carers’ rights, combating xenophobia and racism, migrant labour and—this is the most important matter—war and peace cannot be addressed by Wales-only solutions. Many of us recently met young people from youth groups all over Wales and from ysgol gyfun Rhydywaun in the Cynon valley at Westminster. They made it clear that they inhabit global Wales rather than fortress Wales, and I felt that they are already good and active citizens of Wales, the United Kingdom and the world.
Sara Pickard from Mencap Cymru has thrown down a challenge to Welsh MPs. My hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham was present and listening attentively when she asked that question, which I will repeat today: what are Welsh MPs doing to help young people with learning difficulties obtain employment opportunities? Sara obviously feels that we must all work in partnership to support the vulnerable and marginalised in our society in order to provide a voice for them and to achieve justice.
Mr. Crabb: On supporting the marginalised and achieving justice, will the Welsh Affairs Committee Chairman explain why he put his name to the early-day motion supporting the serial human rights abuser Fidel Castro, who imprisons homosexuals, tortures political opponents and is guilty of summarily executing people?
Madam Deputy Speaker: Order. We are debating Welsh affairs.
Dr. Francis: I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention.
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Caerphilly (Mr. David), who is not in his place at the moment, for organising that visit by young people. I also thank Sara Pickard, who is Mencap Cymru’s partners in politics officer, for her excellent work across Wales—she is a fine ambassador for young people in Wales. Bodies such as Mencap Cymru and the Shaw Trust need to be encouraged to build partnerships with the Welsh Assembly Government and the United Kingdom Government in order to achieve their fine objectives.
The Secretary of State has emphasised the importance of partnerships. I want to draw hon. Members’ attention to the work of my local authority, which is arguably the best in Wales, Labour-led Neath Port Talbot county borough council. It has recently attracted the establishment of a new Amazon distribution centre, which involves 1,200 jobs, encouraged the imaginative Prince’s Trust Coed Darcy housing development and transformed the Afan valley into a major leisure and tourist destination, particularly in the case of the mountain bike centre at Glyncorrwg. Its strategic partnerships with the local health board, the voluntary sector, the Welsh Assembly Government, the UK Government and European bodies are paying rich dividends for local communities.
Today is about how we can best deliver a better tomorrow for the people of Wales. We can do so by deconstructing and reconstructing our historic nation to build a more open, tolerant, fulfilled and diverse society, valuing, as Aneurin Bevan said, our rich local life at the same time as a wide cosmopolitanism. Sixty years ago this year, Aneurin Bevan and a Labour Government created the national health service, which is arguably our greatest gift to the United Kingdom and the world.
Fifty years ago this year, Aneurin Bevan welcomed the great humanitarian Paul Robeson to the National Eisteddfod in his Ebbw Vale constituency. The all-Welsh rule was suspended to allow those two great sons of Wales to speak at what Aneurin Bevan called “a monument to civilisation”, the National Eisteddfod. Bevan and Robeson had a simple message: Wales is at its best when it speaks to the world and not to itself. They did that through their purposeful lives, and we honour their memory today, when Wales speaks through Westminster to the world. As the Archdeacon of Bangor, the venerable Meurig Llwyd Williams, said this morning in the fine St. David’s day service, which has been mentioned several times, St. David’s day is
“a time to dream of a better Wales within a liberated world”.