Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:25 pm on 4 March 2020.
Following on very much in the same vein, can I say, some of us in this Chamber are not unionists? That might come as a surprise to some. Sometimes, you have to question the value of being a unionist in this situation, because in your statement last week about Brexit-related legislation, you'll recall quite an expansive, philosophical exposition of the Sewel convention that you purported to put out, and we were very much in agreement of your analysis; the fact that, basically, when it came to the LCMs about the withdrawal Act, there were three refusals in the devolved Parliaments—not just here, but Scotland and Northern Ireland—but Westminster over-ruled those three LCM refusals, citing that the whole Brexit thing was 'not normal', unique. Westminster ploughed on regardless of our viewpoints here.
Now, you said in your statement last week that you were subsequently reassured—not just Westminster ploughing on despite three devolved Parliaments disagreeing with them and ploughing on—you had moved on and had received reassurance and a definition of what 'not normal' constituted, in that it was unique, if not highly unique, unusual. So, you appeared to be reassured then that this sort of situation wouldn't keep on happening, despite the fact that we did ask what safeguards are there in place so that this situation wouldn't keep on happening.
So, it seems here, now, that as regards this UK mandate Welsh Government's being ignored or sidelined, its voice is not heard. Are we to take it that this is another situation where this is just another unique set of situations? Is this again just 'not normal', and are we expected just to accept that and move on regardless and just again say, 'Actually, this was not normal. This is unique. It's difficult times. We just have to accept this sort of stuff as the place that this Senedd occupies in the Westminster mindset'? Or do we actually stand up and say, 'Actually, this cannot continue. There are four Parliaments to be involved here. Let's do something about it.'