Fifty Years in Politics and the Law by John Morris

Author:John Morris [Morris, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical, Personal Memoirs, Biography & Autobiography, Political Science, Political, General
ISBN: 9780708324219
Google: nU-uBwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 23047809
Publisher: University of Wales Press
Published: 2011-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

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MORE POWERS FOR WALES

The Welsh Development Agency (WDA)

I HAVE BEEN CONVINCED since my earliest political activity of the immense value of statutory bodies, authorised by Parliament to tackle particular problems and to report to it on its spending of a specified budget. I had learnt from my experience in mid Wales that, despite valiant efforts by a variety of organisations there, they did not have appropriate powers to bring about real change. I set myself a challenge: I would try to get a slot in the legislative programme each year to create the necessary authorities. It was a formidable test.

When we were elected in 1974 I could see that if I could keep in step with Scotland, I would have a better chance of legislation. Willie Ross, my equivalent in Scotland, regarded the issue of oil around the coast of Scotland as the main reason for the success of the Scottish nationalists. ‘Who’s oil is it?’ was the question. ‘Scottish,’ was the answer of the Scot Nats. In United Kingdom terms this was palpably a nonsense. The oil was in the North Sea surrounding England, Scotland and Norway. I would not dream of claiming any oil found in the Celtic Sea as Welsh oil (CMND 5696 Para 21). Willie thought that if he could get an organisation to recycle part of the national revenues, particularly oil revenues, back to Scotland for urgently needed development, it would be a trump card to beat the nationalists and there would be no need to bother with devolution. The ambiguous benefits of devolution would be nothing compared with what would flow to Scotland from real development, or so he thought.

Between the two elections in 1974 he put forward a proposal for a Scottish Development Agency. I argued for a Welsh Development Agency, but with no oil card to play I did not get very far. However, the principle of a Welsh Development Agency was accepted by colleagues and I got inserted into the ‘United Kingdom Offshore Oil and Gas Policy’ White Paper (CMND 5696), which we published in the summer, a promise of the setting up of a new agency in Wales ‘as oil exploration develops in the Celtic Sea’. I was actually in a telephone box in South Wales at the time – the government machine wanted to get on with publishing the White Paper and I would not give my agreement without some recognition of Welsh needs. I got what seemed to be at the time, a crumb, however I sensed it could be an important crumb.

A few months later, on the eve of the second 1974 General Election, at a joint meeting of the Cabinet and National Executive to agree to the manifesto, I moved an amendment to the proposal to set up an SDA – to commit the Party to a WDA as well – without qualification. The argument became quite heated; Willie Ross maintained that to allow Wales to have a similar body would severely blunt his attack on the SNP.

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