Launch of the IWA constitutional convention. What kind of Wales do you want for your children?
The IWA’s online constitutional convention launches today and we want to hear what you think.
Over eight weeks we’ll be discussing Wales’ performance since devolution and the options for the future in a range of areas.
To begin we want to go back to first principles and ask ‘What is the UK for?’. Rather than simply debate whether powers being offered to Scotland should be extended to Wales, we want to step back and ask how the different parts of the UK should relate to each other in the future.
Have your say and join the debate at iwaconvention.co.uk
To begin this discussion, some of our partners in this project have given their own views, which you can see below.
Here’s what our partners think:
Stephen Brooks, Electoral Reform Society Cymru
The UK is one of the most centralised mature democracies in the world. Despite devolution and localism, Parliament remains sovereign. The UK must turn power on its head, placing sovereignty in the hands of the people.
The question is not: what should be devolved, but rather, what power should be pooled? What things can Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland do best together? The starting point for me? The landmass and territorial waters we share; our interdependent economies with a single labour market; our shared histories and common culture; and the threats to our security and liberty we mutually face.
Rhodri Evans, Federation of Small Businesses Wales
Any state must exist to act for the greater good of all those who live within its borders, and the UK is no exception to that. However, the state should act according to the principle of subsidiarity to ensure that those protections and services it provides are offered at the most appropriate level. In a dynamic state such as the UK the appropriate level of subsidiarity may change over time and the structure of the state and its institutions should reflect that.”
