This is the pulse of devolution in Wales

Kirsty the campaigner on winning the leadership of her party last year - but now she wants to be a leading figure in a referendum campaign

IN 2004 the Richard Commission gave a clear signal of an effective future for Welsh political life. However, the Labour Government, either through deliberate inaction or unfortunate distraction, allowed the report to sit on the shelf for long enough to squander momentum. Five years later, we face the risk of history repeating itself.

Now that the opinion polls have been digested, consultations held and curry eaten, the Report of the All Wales Convention, released this week, provides a green light for a decision to hold a referendum. It’s a decision that I believe should be taken at the soonest opportunity.

Welsh political parties and all those seeking further powers must act now to ensure we are ready to make the case for further, smarter devolution. We cannot lose the momentum the Convention Report provides; we cannot consign its findings to history or irrelevance. To do so would be an affront to those who engaged in the Convention’s work, not to mention a waste of £1 million of Welsh taxpayers’ money.

Sir Emyr and his colleagues have produced an excellent report. After months of consultation and research, the Convention has succeeded in effectively taking the pulse of devolution in Wales. Aside from the referendum question, the report provides plenty of stock for those with a stake in the Assembly’s work, to take.

The Report of the Convention also provided a damning critique of the existing settlement, a settlement that does little to help foster support for further devolution. We must hold onto this critique and, in lay language, make the case for a better way. If, as the report finds, the public are confused and disengaged, it makes the case for more meaningful devolution all the stronger.

My party has been at the forefront of the debate about how the LCO system is not working – being time-consuming, producing narrow legislation and undermining the democratic wishes of the Welsh people. But if politicians and commentators continue to focus on the processes at work, then the terms of engagement will remain interminably dry. We risk boring those we must convince – into apathy.

But for those who turned the front cover with a referendum on their minds, the report has two key findings – that a referendum is winnable and that a decision will need to be taken before June next year to meet the Government’s own target of holding it before the next Assembly elections.

Referendums are delicate creatures and have to be handled with absolute care. Timing is everything – just think of the gap between the Scottish and Welsh referendums in 1997, and whether that had an impact on the success of the Yes campaign.

While the Convention’s report suggests a decision should be taken no later than June, the logistics of organising a referendum demand an earlier decision. A referendum really must take place in good time before the 2011 Assembly elections. Is it feasible to suggest that political parties can simultaneously campaign together for a Yes vote and campaign against each other for seats in an Assembly reformed at the same ballot box?

The priority of those seeking further powers should be to ensure that the referendum showcases the democratic process in action. We must ask voters to consider the transfer of powers to the Assembly as a representative institution, not for their judgement on free prescriptions or bus passes. So, yes campaigners must focus minds on the merits of devolved decision making, not just the merits of the decisions made since devolution.

This is easier said than done, with the typical response to radio vox-pops “has the Assembly made a difference?” identifying a successful or failed policy introduced since devolution: “We’ve got free prescriptions…”. The challenge for yes campaigners is to probe beyond the party politics and ask “is it right that such decisions are made in Wales?”.

And this is perhaps the most compelling reason to hold the referendum in ‘peace time’ between ordinary elections. If held too close to the Assembly election in 2011, the question of further powers will inevitably be muddied with debate about individual policy failures of the current Assembly Government – a situation which will do nothing but play into the hands of anti-devolutionists, allowing them to twist poor governmental decisions into proof of the failure of devolution itself.

Too close to an election, this will be inescapable – we cannot expect political parties, the media and the wider public to abandon the job of holding the government to account in order to campaign for a Yes vote. There will always be arguments made, by those with vested political interests, for procrastination until the next election, or the next.

My view is that a referendum should happen in the Autumn of 2010 and the Welsh Liberal Democrats will continue to work towards this timescale. The decision should not be based on whose hands hold the levers of power that Westminster would be asked to relinquish. In this regard, a decision taken in June would be a decision born of party politics, without regard for the nation’s needs. We cannot allow stalling actors to hold Welsh democracy to political fortune any longer; it really is time for the people to speak.

A more fully devolved Assembly will become the point of accountability for citizen’s daily concerns on health, education and economic policy. With further powers, the Assembly will become an institution capable of arousing the content (and discontent) in people across Wales, an institution which provides a uniquely Welsh articulation of priorities and policies. Achieving this must remain our goal.