Stonemason

I really enjoy reading Stonemason and his "friends" ranting on Betsan Powys' blog. In the last week or so on his own blog he has been trying to get to grips with Schedule 7 of the Government of Wales Act 2006. He's just reached Subject 11, Housing.

This is what he had to say:

GoWA 2006, Schedule 7 Subject 11

Housing and housing finance. Encouragement of home energy efficiency and conservation, otherwise than by prohibition or regulation. Regulation of rent. Homelessness. Residential caravans and mobile homes.

There are no exceptions, the Lords and Ladies of misrule at Cardiff Bay have no excuses, every needed house for the Social Housing market to fill the housing need in Wales could have been built or ordered by now ...

Source

Silly man. Schedule 7 lists what the Assembly will be able to legislate on after we vote Yes in the referendum (... and yes, he didn't quote the latest version, which is even more restrictive.) Schedule 5 lists what the Assembly is currently able to legislate on.

Let's take a look at it, here. The field is blank, which means that the Assembly isn't able to pass any laws about housing. But the Assembly is trying to get an LCO to enable it to pass some laws in this field.

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Now this is what's strange. Stonemason has already spent many happy hours over the past year telling his readers what he thinks about housing, and especially what he thinks of the Housing LCO. So what do we conclude? That all this time he hasn't had the first clue what he was talking about? Perhaps.

The other explanation is that did know about the LCO process, but is now engaged in a process of deliberately trying to mislead his readership into thinking that Schedule 7—even with all its exceptions—is what the Assembly can already do ... thus spreading the impression that after a referendum the Assembly will be able to legislate on even more.

Idiot or liar?

What do you expect from True Wales and their activists?