Timeline: Welsh devolution
It’s been a tumultuous first ten years for the Welsh Assembly, which – despite its reliance on coalition government – has produced some markedly different policies to England. Or “clear red water”, as Labour leader Rhodri Morgan has put it. politics.co.uk looks at some of the highlights of the last decade.
September 1997 – After unsuccessful vote in 1979, second attempt at referendum is successful. Wales votes for its own representative body – even if there are less than 7,000 votes in it.
October 1998 – Ron Davies, the Welsh Labour leader, resigns. His exit – the result of a “serious error of judgment” on Clapham Common – is disastrous news for New Labour across Britain.
May 6th 1999 – Wales votes in its first Assembly members. Nationalists Plaid Cymru take 28 per cent but Labour wins with 38 per cent; they choose to rule as a minority government.
February 2000 – Another resignation, this time that of the first assembly leader, Alun Michael. He faced defeat in a vote of no confidence on the issue of European aid to Wales.
October 2000 – The Liberal Democrats join Labour in a coalition which lasts three years. They get two Cabinet posts in return.
April 2001 – Free entry to museums and galleries announced, eight months before similar policy rolled out in England.
August 2001 – Last case of foot and mouth confirmed in Wales. The outbreak devastates the Welsh economy.
April 2002 – Around 600,000 pensioners handed free bus passes, the first in a series of policy moves putting distance between Westminster and Cardiff Bay.
March 2003 – Turnout slips to just 38 per cent for the 2003 Welsh Assembly elections. Labour takes 40 per cent of the vote – a significant increase.
March 2004 – The Richard Commission proposes expanding the Assembly’s legislative powers.
March 2006 – The Assembly’s debating chamber, the Senedd, opened by the Queen.
July 2006 – The Government of Wales Act hands the Assembly new powers. It creates an executive body, the Welsh Assembly government, separate from the legislature.
April 2007 – Prescription charges scrapped.
May 2007 – The third elections to the Welsh Assembly see Labour again improve its standing, winning 43 per cent. It enters into a One Wales coalition with Plaid, which win a quarter of the vote.
July 2008 – First meeting of the All Wales Convention executive committee takes place. The convention is established to advise the Assembly on the timing of another referendum continuing Wales’ devolution.
March 2009 – The Welsh Assembly government admits Wales’ top-up fees grant will be phased out.
September 2009 – First minister Rhodri Morgan expected to stand down this autumn – around the time of his 70th birthday.
