WALES: 'Don't rush into referendum on lawmaking'.
The Welsh Assembly's presiding officer yesterday warned there was no point rushing towards holding a referendum on full law-making powers.The Plaid Cymru AM Lord Ellis-Thomas said that there was nothing worse than a nationalist party - such as the one in Quebec - calling for a referendum and then losing it.
He said that the Labour-Plaid partnership governing Wales could last for more than one termand called it "post devolution politics come of age."
Lord Elis-Thomas said it was "important to have a proper constitutional set-up" and the agreement between the parties looked towards 2011.
"We've got to concentrate on the work of government," he told the BBC Wales Politics Show.
"And where it's clear that the work of government is being impeded by the fact we don't have the ability to make our own laws without permission from Westminster, then that becomes clearly an argument for a referendum."
He added that the Assembly seeking powers in areas like the environment would provide an "opportunity to test our powers early on".
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| Publication: | Daily Post (Liverpool, England) |
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| Date: | Jul 16, 2007 |
| Words: | 170 |
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