25
established. The second question asked whether the people wanted the Scottish
Parliament, if it was established, to have tax-varying powers. On the first question 74.3
percent voted affirmatively while the second question was supported by 63.5 percent of
the voters.
80
Devolution in Scotland was going to be realized after an agonizing eighteen
years. Now, Blair had to hope that Wales would follow suit.
On September 18, 1997 the Welsh went to the polls to vote on whether they
wanted to have an assembly or not.
81
However, problems were evident with the proposal
from the start. After all, the proposed assembly differed significantly from the Scottish
Parliament. The Welsh Assembly, if the referendum were successful, would serve only
as a “non-legislative body with executive control over the existing Welsh Office budget
but otherwise limited to debating and offering advice.”
82
In other words, it would just be
another layer of bureaucracy that would not have the power to make any laws of its own,
let alone vary the basic income tax rate. In fact, the Welsh Assembly, as finally
established, only had the power to “fill out the details in secondary legislation underneath
controlling Westminster primary enactments.”
83
Leading up to the date of the
referendum it appeared that Tony Blair would have a tough time convincing the Welsh
electorate to vote for such a stripped-down assembly. On September 18, 1997 the turnout
was only 50.12 percent of the eligible voters in Wales,
84
and as far as the vote was
concerned, the measure passed by a very slim majority. Of those who voted, 50.3 percent
80
Webster, and Watt, “Scots Vote Yes-Yes,” 12 September 1997.
81
Anthony Barnett, This Time: Our Constitutional Revolution (London: Vintage, 1997), 192.
82
Nairn, 81.
83
John Redwood, The Death of Britain? (London: Macmillan, 1999), 120.
84
“Tiny Majority Turns Vote for Welsh Assembly,” The Daily Telegraph, 19 September 1997.
Convention