Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Trainspotting
From yesterday's First Minister's Question Time:
Lesley Griffiths: The administrative and structural arrangements that underpin devolution in the UK, namely the memorandum of understanding, the Joint Ministerial Committee and the concordats, are all necessary to make the various devolution settlements that we have in the UK function properly. However, from a Welsh perspective, some of those arrangements do not reflect the current settlement in Wales. For example, the memorandum of understanding was written in 2001, and consequently does not refer to the Government of Wales Act 2006. Do you agree that for all the constituent parts of the UK, at Executive level and within our respective legislatures, to fully understand, recognise and fulfil our respective roles, it is essential that these administrative arrangements are kept up to date? When the JMC meets in London tomorrow, will you consider asking for a review and modernisation of those arrangements to ensure that devolution works more effectively and efficiently for the people of Wales?
The First Minister: As with all of these constitutional issues, it is important to ensure that what is of interest to the political classes—the chattering classes, the people who are Ministers, First Ministers and Deputy First Ministers—and what is of interest to ordinary people are brought together. We will probably not go into those areas of discussion tomorrow, but we will be trying to think how to make the JMC machinery work in the interests of ordinary people the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.
Did Rhodri Morgan call his own backbencher an anorak?
Lesley Griffiths: The administrative and structural arrangements that underpin devolution in the UK, namely the memorandum of understanding, the Joint Ministerial Committee and the concordats, are all necessary to make the various devolution settlements that we have in the UK function properly. However, from a Welsh perspective, some of those arrangements do not reflect the current settlement in Wales. For example, the memorandum of understanding was written in 2001, and consequently does not refer to the Government of Wales Act 2006. Do you agree that for all the constituent parts of the UK, at Executive level and within our respective legislatures, to fully understand, recognise and fulfil our respective roles, it is essential that these administrative arrangements are kept up to date? When the JMC meets in London tomorrow, will you consider asking for a review and modernisation of those arrangements to ensure that devolution works more effectively and efficiently for the people of Wales?
The First Minister: As with all of these constitutional issues, it is important to ensure that what is of interest to the political classes—the chattering classes, the people who are Ministers, First Ministers and Deputy First Ministers—and what is of interest to ordinary people are brought together. We will probably not go into those areas of discussion tomorrow, but we will be trying to think how to make the JMC machinery work in the interests of ordinary people the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.
Did Rhodri Morgan call his own backbencher an anorak?
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Unless I'm missing something, no he didn't. He may however have described himself as one.
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: 12:38 AM
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