Peter Hain gets his retaliation in first

Although the All Wales Convention is not due to publish its report for nearly three weeks, Peter Hain has in effect already given his response. In his lecture at the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University, he argues that Wales already is getting meaningful (and adequate) legislative powers.  The text of his speech is here, and the Wales Office’s press release is here. It’s doubtful that many Assembly Members will share such a sanguine view of the status quo.

Discussion of this will follow later. But it’s not the first time Hain has tried preemptively to set the terms of debate about Welsh devolution.  He did so when giving ‘evidence’ to the Richard Commission in 2004, telling the Commission that the standard for deciding whether constitutional change was appropriate was whether it improved public services in Wales. The Commission then paid little heed to that criterion, and instead produced the clearest and fullest blueprint there has been for the development of devolution in Wales.