Conger

The Archbishop of Wales has denounced the pace of the devolution of law-making authority from Westminster to the Welsh Assembly as “tortuous and convoluted,” telling the BBC it would be “immoral” for the Assembly not to be granted further legal powers soon.

Archbishop Barry Morgan’s comments to the Good Evening Wales programme followed a ceremony at Windsor Castle where the Queen approved the transfer of new powers to the Welsh Assembly. The authority to enact laws assisting those with special learning needs was approved on April 9 and is the first of 10 orders ranging from mental health services to fire safety slated for devolution under the 2006 Government of Wales Act.

Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan said the ceremony marked “a little bit of Welsh history” as for “the first time in 500 years the people of Wales are now able to create laws to help improve their day-to-day lives.”

However, Dr. Morgan-who is chairman of the Tomorrow’s Wales task force examining devolution—chided the government for the slow pace of devolution. The “present settlement is demeaning to Wales,” he argued, adding that as Archbishop he had a duty to respond as “people like myself can’t divorce themselves from the life of politics”.

“Because politics is about the way we organise ourselves in society and, therefore every single aspect of life ought to have relevance to the Gospel, and that’s why I’m speaking out.”

“More and more people were on board with devolution,” he argued, saying it would likely pass by a strong margin if placed before the public for a referendum in 2011—a referendum on devolution was one of the agreements made by Labour and Plaid Cymru when it formed the coalition government last May that controls the Assembly.

However, David Davies, a Conservative MP for Monmouth and member of the Welsh Assembly criticized Dr. Morgan, saying it was unseemly for the Archbishop to use his office to advance Labour’s political agenda.

“He’s doing so wearing his crown and mitre, as it were, and frankly I think that’s very disappointing, especially when there are so many issues that you would expect the Anglican church to be speaking out at the moment about,” he told BBC Radio Wales.