It's almost certainly a coincidence that Gordon Brown’s report for the Labour Party on UK constitutional reform and the interim report from the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales were published on successive days last week.
Coincidence or not, the timing makes it easier to identify the gap that exists between UK Labour and the aspirations within Wales for constitutional change.
It seems ages since the commission co-chaired by Laura McAllister and Rowan Williams was set up – it was in October 2021 – but on checking my records I find that it was as long ago as March 2017 when Mr Brown came to Cardiff to launch Labour’s own constitutional inquiry.
My story at the time began: “Major constitutional change is required in the UK not for its own sake, but to kick-start desperately needed social change, a group of senior Labour politicians meeting in Wales has said.
“Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown joined First Minister Carwyn Jones, ex-Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale and Labour’s chair of campaign and election strategy Jon Trickett at the launch of a party inquiry into whether there should be a federal UK.”
In comparison with what it could have amounted to, Mr Brown’s recommendations are disappointingly underwhelming.
Instead of describing a possible template for a federal UK, his headline reform involves scrapping the House of Lords and replacing it with a smaller chamber representing the “nations and regions”.
It is beyond absurd that nearly a quarter of the way through the 21st century we are partially governed by a wholly unelected upper chamber that has been the subject of successive scandals for more than 100 years, usually related to dodgy appointment scandals.
Where else in the supposedly democratic world would someone called Baron Lebedev of Siberia be allowed to make laws?
The fact that scrapping the House of Lords is at the front and centre of the Brown reform plan says a lot about how lacking in true radicalism it is.
Another of the highlighted proposals would see MPs banned from having most second jobs.
This is also unimpressive – it’s not a constitutional issue at all and smacks of something that has been tacked on at a late stage because of recent scandals.
From a Welsh perspective Brown is offering not very much.
Instead of the devolution of the entire criminal justice system, we are being offered just youth justice – much less than has been advocated for many years and which an expert commission headed by Lord Thomas, a former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, concluded was appropriate.
No rational argument has been made against the devolution of justice to Wales, which is currently the only country in the world with its own legislature that does not have a distinct justice system of its own.
Much of the Brown report relates to the beefing-up of local and regional democracy in England.
In one of the rare references to Wales, the report alludes to “the Welsh Assembly Government” – a title that was discarded more than a decade ago. It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that the constitutional fate of Wales is no more than a passing distraction to those who drafted UK Labour’s report.
What’s worrying is that it either wasn’t shared with Welsh Labour in advance of publication or that it wasn’t read with the attention it deserved.
The interim report from the commission chaired by Laura McAllister and Rowan Williams is a different story.
It is well drafted and sets out with clarity the drawbacks of the constitutional status quo so far as Wales is concerned and the realistic options facing the country in the future.
The report pulls no punches in criticising the current UK Government for departing from the David Cameron agenda that was built on mutual respect and which is now actively rolling back the devolution settlement.
The increasing reversion towards centralisation is counter to the very basis of devolution, which was to give the Celtic nations of the UK effective home rule over issues that are purely domestic.
What has developed since Brexit has been tension which on occasion has tipped over into open hostility, as a result of the UK Government’s determination to assert its supremacy.
In these circumstances the commission is right to conclude that the status quo is unsustainable and that there are three realistic options for the future: more powers for the Senedd and Welsh Government, a federal structure for the whole of the UK or independence.
The commission doesn’t shy away from the difficulties posed especially by the second and third options and commits itself to investigating them in greater detail in the concluding phase of its work programme.
It’s fair to say that there is an honesty about the commission’s report deriving from its recognition that these are complex and difficult issues on which the future of a nation depends.
There is no glibness about the admission that there is a need for further work.
Nevertheless, the gap between the two reports published this week is tangible.
While Prof McAllister, Dr Williams and their team are setting out possible visions of Wales-to-be, it is Mr Brown’s report that will have greater political heft.
He has set Sir Keir Starmer no more than a modest challenge when what is really needed is a set of proposals that could make a significant difference.
Mr Brown’s failure to embrace proportional representation coupled with Sir Keir’s conversion into a cheerleader for hard Brexit raises concerns about the ability of what is likely to be an incoming Labour government at Westminster to survive for more than a single term.
Read More:
Lord Mayor of London on Welsh fintechs and a £50bn private wealth fund.
