Doctor Devolution

Here's a quiz question for you: what has Dr Who got to do with Conservative policy on devolution?

The answer is to your left. No, David Tennant did not, as far as I'm aware, have a say in a report on the subject commissioned by David Cameron.

But the man next to him did. Michael McManus co-wrote the report with Lord Roberts of Conwy (who apparently insisted on recognising the contribution of his 'ghost writer' with a credit.

The report, commissioned in March, is now known semi-officially as "the long-awaited Roberts Review". The Tories have risked increasing expectations by formalising the policy review and talking about settling the issue within a party where conflicting views run deep.

The more time that goes by without publication, the more opponents will question the lack of a coherent party policiy on the subject - especially when MPs have already been offered a free vote in any referendum on greater powers.

We may not know for sure what's in the bumper report, which the Tory leader has promised to publish "soon", but we can assume it's been well-written.

Michael's other published works include Sir Edward Heath's autobiography The Course of My Life, a critically-acclaimed biography of Jo Grimond and the life story of Nicholas Courtney, Still Getting Away With It.

Nick Courtney is best known as Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in Dr Who.
which sort of explains the photo above and various others here.

A passion for Dr Who may not in itself be a great help in writing a tome on Welsh devolution, so I presume Michael is relying on the expertise he gained as a special adviser to David Hunt during his time at the Welsh Office in the early 1990s.

His report is likely to disappoint those Tories who want to "exterminate" the Welsh Assembly.
You may be surprised that it (an interim report) apparently runs to 20,000 words.

Don't be: the Heath autobiography ran to 360,000 words. David Cameron got off lightly.

Changing Times

When I was a lad, the Conservatives were in favour of smaller government, lower taxes and reduced public spending.

Things have changed, although earlier this month, the former Welsh Office Minister Lord Roberts suggested to BBC Wales that a future Conservative government should cut spending, although his comments may have been lost during my futile journey to discover Tory policy on devolution.

Today, Welsh Tory leader Nick Bourne has suggested the formula which effectively decides the level of much public spending in Wales should be replaced with "some updated needs-based top up grant". That would presumably increase public spending in Wales, although he doesn't say whether that would be financed by a cut in spending in Scotland or England.

For all the fuss about the formula in Wales, the strongest pressure for a review comes from England, which perhaps should worry politicians west of Offa's Dyke. Check out how the Northern Echo reported an inquiry into the issue for one English perspective. The debate's still raging on the (London) Evening Standard website.

Lord Roberts will have been chuffed to learn that David Cameron has promised to publish his review of devolution policy when he receives the final report (the interim version was submitted recently).

It's slightly confusing to simple hacks like me why the Tories are reviewing their policy on devolution when their MPs have been promised a free vote on the conclusion.

Never mind, let's just hope Mr Cameron didn't leave his copy of the Roberts review on the back of his bike.

The bardic steamroller's horns

If the opinion polls are right, within two years David Cameron will enter Downing Street as Prime Minister.

So, I can hear you all asking, what does this mean for constitutional reform in Wales?

No? Well, I thought I'd ask anyway for a report for tonight's Dragon's Eye.

One of the first decisions a Tory Secretary of State for Wales might have to take is whether to agree to an Assembly request for a referendum to give the Welsh Assembly full law-making powers.

I asked Cheryl Gillan what she'd do if faced with that decision as Secretary of State, (if David Cameron gives her the job):

"I'm not going to speculate. We have got 2 years to run of a Labour government least. We have a general election that I've said that I hope we would win but I don't know we're going to win. At this stage it would be quite wrong of me to speculate on future policy in two or three or four years time.

"It's a free vote and as shadow Secretary of State for Wales at this stage I think it would be quite wrong of me to prejudge that situation. I'm not sitting on the fence, I'm waiting to see when a referendum is called."

So why the need for a free vote? "There is a difference of opinion amongst Assembly Members, there is a difference of opinion amongst party members, in the Labour Party, even in Plaid I think to a certain extend and the Liberal Democrats.

"I am being very honest and open about it and saying in my party we will allow people to have a free vote if there is a referendum."

A free vote opens the possibility of Ministers campaigning on both sides of the argument, as Labour Ministers did in the 1975 European referendum. If there is a free vote, what is the point of the review of devolution policy David Cameron has commissioned from Lord Roberts of Conwy?

Lord (Wyn) Roberts (78 today - penblwydd hapus) has recently completed his interim report, which goes into some detail on the background to devolution in Wales.

He won't tell me what's in it - the full report should be submitted this summer - but he thinks the future lies in a "more co-operative spirit" between Wales and Westminster.

How, I asked, does he get that co-operative spirit within a party where, to generalise, AMs want full law-making parties and MPs would prefer the Assembly didn't exist?

"It is something of a dilemma and I'm on the horns of it just at the moment" said the man known during his ministerial days as the Bardic Steamroller.

* You may wonder - you may not - why none of the Welsh Conservative MPs features in my report. All were unavailable - one's just had a baby, another's in Brussels and the other believes his constituents are more vexed about rising living costs than the Roberts review. He may be right.