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Mr. Livsey: If the hon. Gentleman were a Welsh Member of Parliament, how would he feel about seeing the decisions to which he has referred made by English Members for the past 100 years? We seek only justice and democracy--and that is proposed in the White Paper.
Mr. Rowe: Is the hon. Gentleman prepared to give up the right of Welsh Members to take decisions on behalf of the English? That is all I am asking. The Government's proposals will not do. I urge the Government and the entire nation--not just the Scots and the Welsh--to pause before rushing headlong to taking decisions in a mere six weeks that will shape the nation for the next 100 years.
12.28 pm
Mr. Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd): Thank you,Mr. Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to deliver my maiden speech on such an important day for Wales, when we are discussing the referendum and a Welsh Assembly.
I am a new Member of Parliament in a new seat. It is composed of parts of three former seats--Clwyd, North-West, Clwyd, South-West and Delyn. I pay tribute to my three predecessors: my hon. Friends the Members for Delyn (Mr. Hanson) and for Clwyd, South (Mr. Jones)
and the former Member for Clwyd, North-West, Mr. Rod Richards. I have followed their progress over the years, through the local press and in Hansard. Each had qualities that I can learn from, as a new Member.
Mr. Richards was a tenacious and passionate fighter for the policies that he believed in. I did not share his belief in those policies, but he fought his corner. Some of those policies, such as nursery vouchers, were unpopular, and were rejected by the Welsh people. However, he was a party player, who played his full role.
My hon. Friend the Member for Clwyd, South has taught me the importance of specialising in a subject early in a parliamentary career. In his case, it was agriculture. He has concentrated his time, resources and energy on it, to the benefit not just of his constituents but of the whole country.
My hon. Friend the Member for Delyn has shown me the importance of treating constituents with respect. In the past Parliament, he answered 60,000 letters personally. That is a mark of his dedication.
Many Members stress the beauty of their constituency in their maiden speech. I can say, hand on heart, that my constituency is beautiful. That is official, since a large part of it lies in an area of outstanding natural beauty, along the Clwydian range. Towns such as Cwm, Rhuallt, Llandyrnog, Bodfari and Tremeirchion dot the beautiful landscape.
Tremeirchion has a large Jesuit college calledSt. Bueno's. I have often attended mass there, and my daughter Seren was christened there two years ago by Father Damian Jackson. The Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins studied there in the last century. When he walked along the Clwydian range, he was inspired by the beauty before him. His poem, "The Vale of Elwy"--the Elwy is a tributary of the River Clwyd--contains the lines:
Anyone who has walked that route along the Clwydian range will share the opinions expressed in that poem.
There are other beautiful towns in my constituency, including Dyserth, in the shadow of Hiraddug mountain, and Meliden, nestled into Craig Fawr mountain. The city of St. Asaph boasts a cathedral and Bodelwyddan a marble church.
The two largest towns in my constituency are Rhyl and Prestatyn, containing 66 per cent. of the population. Both have faced difficulties in the past 20 years, with the decline of the traditional seaside holiday. The people of those towns are proud and industrious, facing the changes with fortitude. The advent of a new Labour Government, believing in justice, jobs, investment, education and training, will help my constituents to gain the skills they need to face the new millennium.
The last two towns that I wish to mention provide a link with the business under discussion today. They are Rhuddlan and Denbigh. Both have castles built by Edward I in the 13th century. With a minimum amount of popular support in Wales, Edward I followed an aggressively expansionist policy against the people of Wales. He wished to dominate Wales from his centre of power in London. He did so by building an iron ring of castles around north Wales, including those at Rhuddlan and Denbigh.
Edward I was an obvious role model for some 20th-century rulers--Queen Margaret of Finchley, honest John of Huntingdon and their henchman, the young pretender, Prince William of Richmond. During their rule, their stranglehold in Wales was achieved not by castles, but by quangos--80 of them stuffed with lords, ladies and barons loyal to the party line. They were able to wield unaccountable control over our nation's dissatisfied population.
As the erstwhile court jester, Jeremy Hanley, observed in 1994, responding to the blatant appointment of all-Tory boards:
That out-dated mode of political rule belongs to another time. It has failed to deliver what the people of Wales want, which is strong, effective and accountable government. The people of Wales want a system of government that is responsive to their needs and wishes. They want a system of government that can deliver popular policies which will create wealth and prosperity for all and enhance our prestige in the world.
Mr. Owen Paterson (North Shropshire):
I congratulate the hon. Member for Vale of Clwyd (Mr. Ruane) on his excellent, witty, fluent and amusing maiden speech. I am sure that we shall hear more of him, and I am sure that he will not be surprised to hear that I disagree with him.
I live not far from the hon. Member's seat, right on the border; my bottom gate is 50 yd from the Welsh border. I have family connections with Wrexham, a seat that I fought in 1992. I was defeated in a fair fight by the hon. Member for Wrexham (Dr. Marek), but I remind the House that 18,114 people agreed with what I was saying, and it is worth remembering that, in the 1997 general election, we got more than 317,000 votes. The Tory voice in Wales should be listened to.
Mr. Lembit Öpik (Montgomeryshire):
Do the hon. Gentleman's comments mean that the Conservative party has finally accepted the case for proportional representation?
Mr. Paterson:
No. I do not want to comment on proportional representation; I want to comment on the White Paper.
Towns such as Wrexham did extremely well under the 18 years of Tory rule. I remember going to Wrexham with my grandmother when I was three or four years old. It
was a grim place with declining steel and coal industries and no future. Now, there is a kaleidoscopic variety of new industries, which is very much due to the system of having a strong Secretary of State for Wales answering to a British Cabinet in London and doing a good job for Wales. I could quote numerous examples. The most obvious is the good work done by my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague) who brought in 6,500 jobs with the Lucky Goldstar investment, the largest inward investment into Europe.
There has been much talk of the quangos and how to reform the manner in which they are run. I totally agree with the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent (Mr. Smith) who, sadly, is not here. The quangos were set up by Parliament and they can be reformed by Parliament. At local level, we have reformed the system of local government and many of my neighbours are delighted that they no longer have a muddling second tier in Mold representing Clwyd; instead, they have a simple system in Wrexham.
Many of the issues in the White Paper could have been devolved to the new simplified system of local government. It is bizarre that we are increasing government and bureaucracy when we want simpler government. The move runs counter to the very reason for the White Paper: that the Government should be near and local to those whom they purport to serve.
What concerns me most, to pick up the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Faversham and Mid-Kent (Mr. Rowe), is that the whole devolution programme presupposes the passive acquiesence of the English. The English, primarily, pay the bills. They constitute 85 per cent. of the population. There is a deficit in Wales. Wales contributes £9.9 billion of the £15.6 billion spent by the Government. That leaves nearly £6 billion, which comes primarily from English taxpayers.
The English are patient, and English nationalism has not yet been stirred. The exercise is primarily one in fudging differences between old and new Labour and in assuaging the demands of Welsh nationalism. The Indians know about partition. There is a very good Indian phrase: he who rides a tiger cannot dismount. We do not know where this tiger is going. It will inevitably lead to divisions and a breakdown of the Union, which was clearly and eloquently described by the right hon. Member for Llanelli (Mr. Davies).
It is absolutely wrong that this Union, which works so well for all of us, in which we all have an equal vote and in which each hon. Member has equal power, should be broken up by a majority vote with no threshold in the two smallest constituent parts. The hon. Member for Swansea, East (Mr. Anderson) talked about fairness. I am alarmed that English nationalism, which is currently passive, may be awakened.
I shall give a very graphic example. Offa's dyke runs through my constituency. King Offa was a great man, who built the enormous construction right down the length of the Welsh border. The boundary should evoke horrible memories for Labour Members who represent Welsh constituencies. King Edgar said that, if any Welshman was caught on the wrong side of it, he would be put to death. Harold Harefoot, who was obviously a softy, said
that any Welshman caught would have his hand chopped off. [Interruption.] You are all presuming that the English will remain passive.
"Lovely the woods, meadows, combes and vales
All the air things that build this world of Wales."
"We want people who are committed to the success of the boards they join. Why should we appoint people who are dedicated to the failure of our reforms and the destruction of these institutions?"
Such arrogance. Members of the boards received their master's patronage. They were rewarded with dowries, some as much as £80,000 a year, and many were rewarded for incompetence. They presided over cuts in services the length and breadth of Wales.
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