My Lords, I am a little reticent to enter the debate on the basis of rationality because I once had to resit an examination in logic, happily in the university of which I am now the chancellor, so some things work out. This has been an extremely illuminating debate for all of us, not least because we have had further highlights from the memoirs of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Morris of Aberavon, which I am sure many noble Lords have already read. I remember those days in the 1970s very vividly. I pay tribute to him for his consistency in this matter and for his consistency at that time. He has pointed out how he was so keen to ensure that there was not a flanker movement on the part of the Scots, as there always is in politics and occasionally is in sport. He ensured that the issue of Wales stood alongside the issue of Scotland at that time. We had a few cups of tea, and other things, at that time to discuss these matters, and we are where we are today because of the way that he stood firm.
If this is the day of the eulogy of the conferred powers model, I want to say some positive things about it. I was elected Presiding Officer in the Assembly, and I had to work with the three constitutions we have had so far: the executive period; the transitional period of the late lamented—perhaps not—requests for permission to legislate; and now the period post the 2011 referendum on the conferred model conferring full legislative powers with exceptions.
As I mentioned in Committee it is important to say that in constitutional theory, as far as I am concerned, conferred powers with reduced or no exception, bring us to the same place as reserved matters. It means that the subject set out in Schedule 7—the latest and most relevant model—and Clause 108 of the Government of Wales Act 2006 gives us those powers as defined. There is no ambiguity there.
1.15 pm
I hate to disagree, gently, with my noble friend Lord Elystan-Morgan. We have both been through a long political journey together and I always value his judgment, now as I did then. But we have the strong determination of the Supreme Court on the agricultural wages board in July. It sets out quite clearly that there cannot be an interpretation of the Government of Wales Act and the relevant Schedule 7 which does not take literally what is in the schedule, nor seek to surmise that there are any other ways of defining the powers as was suggested by certain other law officers of another government. So the position is clearer than he was indicating. Having said that, I speak strongly in favour of moving to the reserved powers model as very clearly set out in the report of my noble friend Lord Richard, which one day will be fully implemented, I hope sooner rather than later.
This move to establish reserved powers is now supported by all parties in the National Assembly. This is very important to me; I have worked closely with both my colleagues on the Government Front Bench over the years, when I was presiding in the Assembly, to ensure that the constitution worked to the extent that we could make it work. Working together, cross-party, has been the basic feature of the success of devolution in Wales. Let that be clearly understood. But there is a flip-side to that. When all parties in Wales agreed, and when all leaders came together as they did in the debate that we had a couple of weeks ago on the future of devolution in Wales, the cross-party agreement said that the National Assembly:
“Seeks confirmation that the Reserved Powers model will be instituted for Wales”.
That is what we are doing by means of this amendment. It has been confirmed by the UK Government through a Minister who was also a Minister in the National Assembly for Wales, and aided by a colleague on the Front Bench there who was leader of the Welsh Conservatives, clearly a very high ranking position in the National Assembly. It is good to have them both here responding to this debate. So I will now give them the opportunity of responding. I emphasise that I always enjoy my debates with the noble Lord, Lord Deben. We agree on most things environmental. I know he is of proper Welsh stock in terms of his theological roots, but he, like me, has wandered in the direction of Anglicanism.
The noble Lord’s key point is rationality and he asked why this is happening in Wales and not in England. I am so old-fashioned in constitutional matters that I still believe in the self-determination of peoples. If people request democratic change, that is a test of whether it should be considered; it is also a test of its acceptability. I absolutely agree with the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, that incrementalism has worked in Wales,
because the people of Wales have seen the gradual development of our devolution as something they can support, over successive polls and referenda. It is on that democratic basis that this has happened. It is not something that has come out of nowhere. In the United Kingdom, as we now call it—it has been called lots of things in its history, and may be called other things in future—the relations between the peoples and nations of this island have always been negotiated in this ad hoc way. It is not irrational, it is democracy.