Parliaments, paradoxes and salvos
Posted on Click on Wales on August 10th 2012 When crafting the message of the Yes for Wales campaign ahead of the referendum we were at pains to agree a line that would allow all four parties to unite behind. A Yes vote would allow decisions that only applied to Wales to be made in Wales. But surely this is a slippery slope, came the inevitable question. No, we would reply, a Yes vote is supported by every Conservative AM and they wouldn't support anything which posed a threat to the Union. We worked very hard to keep the debate focused on the question at hand, and not get into what might happen next. After all this was a question for each of the parties, and not for the cross-party campaign. The Welsh Conservatives were officially neutral, and although their AMs were in favour of a Yes vote, there were many in the wider party (most notably in the Wales Office) who would not have been unhappy had Wales voted No. We were especially sensitive to this during the campaign and...