The Hen Ferchetan's lonely crawl through the fog of Welsh Politics

Two Years, 1.3 million, 3,000 pieces of evidence =

After over a million pounds (but 200k less than budgeted - a political report coming under budget, now that IS a shock!) and two years we finally have the All Wales Convention report for bedtime reading. At 132 pages (in each language) it's going to take some time to flick through but, unlike with the excellent but ignored Richards Commission report, you have a feeling that the Bay will feel the need to give this one their time!

The result of the Commission is as rumored - not a mish-mash or a balancing act on that garden fence, not a "you could go for it but maybe not" - the report's conclusion is clear - GO FOR IT.

The Commission's poll shows a similar pattern to all those that has preceded it - a clear but far from decisive majority for further powers. (47% to 37%). The experience of the Commission re-enforces what we saw with the two further powers questions in the YouGov poll - i.e. the more people understood about the referendum the more they supported it.

The Report doesn't go as far as to say that it's in the bag - of course it isn't. No referendum ever can be, and a 10% lead is far from conclusive and anything can happen in a campaign. One tip the report tries to subtly give us is that when the Yes campaign chooses a leader they should find someone popular with the electorate - maybe someone who's just retired and has a little free time to spend - any suggestions?!

Plaid and the Tories have already welcomed the report, with Helen Mary Jones saying that the only discussion now is when the referendum takes place, not if. Let's wait and see what the Government's response will be, I'm guessing they'll claim to be slow readers and need to spend time considering it!

I'll post later about what should and, hopefully, will happen next. But for now we should stick to the simple recommendation:

GO FOR IT.
I'm the Hen Ferchetan and this is the Amlwch to Magor blog, in which I ramble, mutter and moan about that most famous of exciting topics, Welsh politics!
Hen Ferchetan