The vote by the people of Wales for a limited form of home rule is a welcome one, however small the margin. It is welcome more for its wider implications than for any effect it might have in Wales.
Indeed, there is much to be said against the model proposed for Wales. It is too limited, and tension and legal problems will arise. An elected body with no legislative function and no taxing power, but with broad executive functions is a poor recipe for governance. The Parliament at Westminster will be blamed for and financial difficulty and elected representatives will have no power to give relief to popular feelings for change, other than to appeal to Westminster. It will have a large annual budget of $A15 billion to run services ranging from schools to sport by the year 2000. London will retain control over taxes, defence, law and order, foreign policy and macro-economics.
It will be more than the expensive talkfest that its critics suggest, but not much more. The Scottish model, under which the local parliament can make laws and have some tax power, albeit limited, was sounder.
None the less, the Welsh vote means that the reform agenda of Prime Minister Tony Blair, has not been stopped in its tracks.
For too long some elements of British Government have lacked full democracy. The unelected House of Lords is the prime example, even if it has only delaying power over legislation. Too much power goes to the majority party in the House of Commons, especially when coupled with a non-preferential and non-proportional voting system that gives disproportionate numbers of seats to the party with the most votes, even if it has only about 40 per cent support, as it has for at least the past two decades.
These days more voices need to be heard, listened to and acted upon. The Welsh vote is a small step that way.