Wales votes for more powers

- Communiqué de presse -

The people of Wales have given the Welsh Assembly Government an enthusiastic vote of approval. In addition to certain law-making powers with regard to matters devolved to Wales, any new laws will not have to be sent to London to be scrutinized and approved before they are passed.

Gwyn Griffiths Par Gwyn Griffiths le 4/03/11 20:18

In an exciting day the people of Wales gave the Welsh Assembly Government an enthusiastic vote of approval. In addition to certain law-making powers with regard to matters to do Wales, those laws will not have to be sent to London to be scrutinized before they are passed.

All except one of the 22 Welsh authorities voted for the new powers – Monmouthshire was the only dissenting voice and that by only a few hundred votes.

63% of those who voted wanted the change with 36.5% voting against. This shows that Wales has become a far more confident nation compared to the very narrow majority of people who voted for devolution back in 1997.

The percentage of people who voted was 35%, which may appear low. However the debate suffered when the people who were running the “NO” campaign decided not to register their campaign.

This meant that no information leaflets were delivered to people's homes and there were no radio and television broadcasts as happens with elections. Since there was no official “NO” campaign, there was no funding for the “YES” campaign either and many people did feel that they were not well informed about what the referendum was about.

On the other hand, politicians saw the result as a sign that Welsh people were prepared to grapple with complex issues and were confident that Wales can move further along the road to even greater devolution.

Gwyn Griffiths is an ABP correspondant in Wales. A Welsh delegate of the International Committee for the Defense of the Breton Language (ICDBL) and former journalist with BBC Cymru, he is a contributor to several Welsh newspapers and magazines – one of them is Cambria. He is the author of numerous books and articles in Welsh and English – many of them about Brittany. He is co-editor, with Jacqueline Gibson, of \"The Turn of the Ermine. An Anthology of Breton Literature\". (London, Francis Boutle Publishers, 506 p., 2006). He is a great connoisseur and friend of Brittany which he has visited on over 50 occasions.

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