I'm not entirely sure of the circumstances that prompted David TC Davies' statement to the BBC today, but what he said was quite unequivocal:
"... Providing of course that Wales remains a part of the United Kingdom. And it's Labour that gave us devolution and then the new Government of Wales Act without a referendum and they are now talking about trying to give the Welsh Assembly even further powers through some sort of referendum, which I suspect will be heavily rigged.
"The more powers Wales develops and the closer to independence it gets the harder it will be justify large amounts of English taxpayers' money being given to the Welsh Assembly.
"There are obviously going to be public spending cuts throughout every area of the public sector. That's going to happen whether we have a Labour or Conservative government. There's no point in shying away from that because we are borrowing at a rate of £200bn a year and we are not going to be able to get the money for much longer.
"But there's no reason to fear specific cuts in Wales providing of course we don't go any further down the route to independence."
We know from what True Wales has consistently said that TC regards any additional powers that the National Assembly gets as a move towards independence. In fact he and the movement he leads regards this referendum as a referendum on independence, and openly campaigns for a No vote on that basis.
Therefore, instead of seeing it as a simple move towards the powers already agreed with Parliament and listed in Schedule 7, he prefers to make out it is "some sort" of different referendum ... and a "heavily rigged" one at that!
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So what's his message? Simple: that if we dare to vote Yes in the referendum, the Tories will regard it as a move towards independence and a reason to cut the block grant we get from Westminster. Not just in line with the cuts that will affect the whole of the UK (which is only to be expected) ... but to make "specific cuts" for Wales.
And, to make it crystal clear, he says we have "reason to fear" these specific cuts if we vote the wrong way.
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I think that's a blatant enough threat in anyone's language. But he's more of a fool than even I thought he was if he thinks people in Wales can be bullied by such threats.
6 comments:
David Davies should be reined in by his bosses he is a joke , but a dangerous one for the Tory party
He should be asked directly to confirm whether the policy (greater devolution leads to less money) is one that he would also advocate for Scotland and, er, Northern Ireland.
VM, If TC were a maverick, then he should be reigned in by the Tory party. But I think it's more likely that he's speaking for the Tory party.
Let's see if David Cameron, his party leader, will say he's wrong. Let's see if George Osborne, whose job it will be to make decisions on the spending cuts, will say he's wrong. Somehow I don't think they will.
As Gordon Brown said 'The more he talks the less he says.' Infact, he's the best thing the yes campaign can have.
the Conservatives seem to be storing up problems for themselves ahead over devolution and Welsh MP's numbers to name but a few.
As far David Davies is concerned he is always good for a quote and shoots his mouth off regularly, but its the fact his beliefs and sentiments are shared by many in the Tory Party that means he can't just be ignored, as you said there has been no reaction to his comments from any Conservative inside or outside Wales, silence on these matters only works up to a point without losing a party credibility.
David Davies is an obscure bank bencher who has never been given a job by the party because he is (a) not very bright and (b) politically unreliable. To give any credence whatever to anything he says is to credit him with more than his actual importance. Which is nil.
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