Calum Davies is a Cardiff councillor and is third on the South Wales Central regional list for the Senedd.
Health outcomes are worse. Educational standards have fallen. Wages lag behind other British regions. Housing is in crisis like everywhere else. And a nationalist streak runs strong through the governing party.
Who can claim that national devolution in Wales has been a success? There are no achievements to name after 25 years. Indeed, choices have sometimes been made (most explicitly when taking decisions on Covid restrictions) because being different from England was more important to Welsh Labour ministers than ensuring their own countrymen received a better way of life.
When Tony Blair promised referendums on devolution for Scotland and Wales in his 1997 manifesto, it was sold as a way to strengthen the Union. The campaigns themselves centred on improving lives for people in those home nations through Scottish and Welsh solutions (whatever they’re supposed to be), dreamt up by politicians in Potemkin parliaments in Holyrood and Cardiff Bay.
It has not worked.
This has left the Conservative Party in a situation where its official policy is supportive of devolution, claiming that if only it were in chargethen things would be better. This despite the system being drawn up in a manner that makes this impossible by locking in a left-wing majority, and devolution requiring difference from other parts of the country we want to keep together to justify its own existence.
Why are we still pretending? It is known that members of the Welsh Conservatives are anti-devolution. Not only that, but a recent YouGov poll showed Conservative voters were more pro-abolition than Plaid Cymru voters were pro-independence.
We, and three million other people, will by the next election have had to live with the consequences of the failed experiment for nearly 30 years; that is plenty of time to come to a decision on the merits of Blair’s experiment.
But this has not been reflected in the make-up of our elected representatives. Whether it is in Parliament, the Senedd, or the Welsh Conservative Party Board, the voice for pushing abolition is absent. It does not mean that the people currently occupying those positions are bad actors, but where is the representation for us abolitionists that make up the majority?
When I applied for the South Wales Central regional list for the 2021 Senedd election, it was a huge gamble to declare openly and avowedly my desire to abolish Welsh devolution. A culture had developed where the party hierarchy would shut down debate on this legitimate constitutional choice – as we saw recently when one Member of the Senedd dared asked the public this question at a summer show.
I was afraid that doing this could “blacklist” me and see me blocked from ever serving the Party or a community in future. Thankfully, members ranked me third (or first reserve) because they also believe that devolution has had its time. But we need more people that represent the majority of party members to stand.
However, we do not want to end up in a position as the wider Conservative Party had a few years ago, where candidates would cloak themselves in Euroscepticism to win support but whose heart and head were not really in it. We welcome converts to the cause but must be wary of opportunists who advance their own ambitions but not ours. We need those in who which we place our faith to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
The development where more abolitionists are in positions of power in the Party is not only for the good of members, finally having their voices heard, but so that this can be put into action. We can become the party that gives the people of Wales a choice to do away with devolution. And yes, that does mean current politicians getting a mandate from members, not automatic incumbency passed down by the board.
Before now, such voters will have had to settle for the absolute chancers in the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party (‘Abolish’). At the last election, this amateur outfit failed to turn strong public sentiment into votes. Polls regularly had abolishing devolution at around 20-25 per cent, but Abolish only won four per cent of the vote (less than in 2016!) and no seats. Their arrogant campaign, which assumed sentiment would equal votes without getting them out to vote, gave the cause a bad name.
But the Welsh Conservatives, with their core support and existing infrastructure, can present the public with a more palatable and more credible choice.
We would also have the benefit of distinguishing ourselves from Reform, which claims to be an anti-establishment party but supports devolution – if only because the proportional electoral system makes it more likely they will get their snouts in the trough at the expense of taxpayers.
Think also of all those people that vote for us at general elections but not devolved ones; we will finally give them a reason to turn out.
The YouGov poll had nearly a third of the Welsh population wanting to abolish the Senedd – that far exceeds the percentage of the vote the Conservatives have won at a devolved election, despite there being no major push for abolition from a major party or movement. Imagine what we could do if we harnessed that support with an explicit campaign.
Devolution has failed. Since its introduction, public services have declined, our economy has weakened, and nationalism is running rampant through our institutions, from the government to the rump media that claims to scrutinise it. Such a system is not worthy of being kept alive.
It is time to put behind the failed experiment and for the Welsh Conservatives to become what we were born to be: the party that wants to abolish national devolution and set Wales free.
Calum Davies is a Cardiff councillor and is third on the South Wales Central regional list for the Senedd.
Health outcomes are worse. Educational standards have fallen. Wages lag behind other British regions. Housing is in crisis like everywhere else. And a nationalist streak runs strong through the governing party.
Who can claim that national devolution in Wales has been a success? There are no achievements to name after 25 years. Indeed, choices have sometimes been made (most explicitly when taking decisions on Covid restrictions) because being different from England was more important to Welsh Labour ministers than ensuring their own countrymen received a better way of life.
When Tony Blair promised referendums on devolution for Scotland and Wales in his 1997 manifesto, it was sold as a way to strengthen the Union. The campaigns themselves centred on improving lives for people in those home nations through Scottish and Welsh solutions (whatever they’re supposed to be), dreamt up by politicians in Potemkin parliaments in Holyrood and Cardiff Bay.
It has not worked.
This has left the Conservative Party in a situation where its official policy is supportive of devolution, claiming that if only it were in chargethen things would be better. This despite the system being drawn up in a manner that makes this impossible by locking in a left-wing majority, and devolution requiring difference from other parts of the country we want to keep together to justify its own existence.
Why are we still pretending? It is known that members of the Welsh Conservatives are anti-devolution. Not only that, but a recent YouGov poll showed Conservative voters were more pro-abolition than Plaid Cymru voters were pro-independence.
We, and three million other people, will by the next election have had to live with the consequences of the failed experiment for nearly 30 years; that is plenty of time to come to a decision on the merits of Blair’s experiment.
But this has not been reflected in the make-up of our elected representatives. Whether it is in Parliament, the Senedd, or the Welsh Conservative Party Board, the voice for pushing abolition is absent. It does not mean that the people currently occupying those positions are bad actors, but where is the representation for us abolitionists that make up the majority?
When I applied for the South Wales Central regional list for the 2021 Senedd election, it was a huge gamble to declare openly and avowedly my desire to abolish Welsh devolution. A culture had developed where the party hierarchy would shut down debate on this legitimate constitutional choice – as we saw recently when one Member of the Senedd dared asked the public this question at a summer show.
I was afraid that doing this could “blacklist” me and see me blocked from ever serving the Party or a community in future. Thankfully, members ranked me third (or first reserve) because they also believe that devolution has had its time. But we need more people that represent the majority of party members to stand.
However, we do not want to end up in a position as the wider Conservative Party had a few years ago, where candidates would cloak themselves in Euroscepticism to win support but whose heart and head were not really in it. We welcome converts to the cause but must be wary of opportunists who advance their own ambitions but not ours. We need those in who which we place our faith to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
The development where more abolitionists are in positions of power in the Party is not only for the good of members, finally having their voices heard, but so that this can be put into action. We can become the party that gives the people of Wales a choice to do away with devolution. And yes, that does mean current politicians getting a mandate from members, not automatic incumbency passed down by the board.
Before now, such voters will have had to settle for the absolute chancers in the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party (‘Abolish’). At the last election, this amateur outfit failed to turn strong public sentiment into votes. Polls regularly had abolishing devolution at around 20-25 per cent, but Abolish only won four per cent of the vote (less than in 2016!) and no seats. Their arrogant campaign, which assumed sentiment would equal votes without getting them out to vote, gave the cause a bad name.
But the Welsh Conservatives, with their core support and existing infrastructure, can present the public with a more palatable and more credible choice.
We would also have the benefit of distinguishing ourselves from Reform, which claims to be an anti-establishment party but supports devolution – if only because the proportional electoral system makes it more likely they will get their snouts in the trough at the expense of taxpayers.
Think also of all those people that vote for us at general elections but not devolved ones; we will finally give them a reason to turn out.
The YouGov poll had nearly a third of the Welsh population wanting to abolish the Senedd – that far exceeds the percentage of the vote the Conservatives have won at a devolved election, despite there being no major push for abolition from a major party or movement. Imagine what we could do if we harnessed that support with an explicit campaign.
Devolution has failed. Since its introduction, public services have declined, our economy has weakened, and nationalism is running rampant through our institutions, from the government to the rump media that claims to scrutinise it. Such a system is not worthy of being kept alive.
It is time to put behind the failed experiment and for the Welsh Conservatives to become what we were born to be: the party that wants to abolish national devolution and set Wales free.