The New Political Architecture of the UK

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution – in the Senedd at 3:10 pm on 22 September 2021.

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Photo of Mick Antoniw Mick Antoniw Labour 3:10, 22 September 2021

I think that goes to the core of the challenge that we actually have. The proposals that we put forward through 'Reforming our Union' and through other mechanisms, whether it be on individual legislation or in terms of inter-governmental relations, is an effort to resolve the constitutional dysfunction that exists, but in order for that to happen, there has to be common agreement.

It has been extremely challenging, extremely difficult, and I think there are many hurdles. Many of the things we do—. When you live in a combination of four nations, where effectively the constitution is largely unwritten, the issue of goodwill and trust is absolutely fundamental to making that work. My view is that we actually need to move to a position where we actually have a written constitution, but in terms of what can be done in the interim—. I suppose what I should say is: despite all the difficulty and challenges, and I don't want to rehearse and go through them as we've done quite a bit of that already this afternoon, I do think that the considerable skilled work that Welsh officials and Ministers have been carrying out with regard to inter-governmental relations—and I'd say that across all four nations of the UK—is at least encouraging in developing what may be an interim way of resolving some of those dysfunctions, and addressing some of the concerns we have. The key challenge is going to be that the devil is always in the detail, and as I've said earlier, there are some grounds to be a bit more optimistic, but we've been down this road before and we have to tread cautiously.