Assembly election question time.

 

 

The BBC crew and Betsan Powys get ready for question time at Wrexham.

Earlier this evening I went to the BBC question time event to mark to start of the Assembly election campaign. It was hosted by the excellent Betsan Powys. The questions and answers were all fairly predictable, but the debate did show some very strong feelings. However it proved to me that devolution is still in its infancy here in Wales. The audience (and to an extent the politicians) seem to confuse the powers held by the Assembly and those  by the Westminster government. The best example being the questions relating to economic policy and in particular how the Assembly will create jobs. In fact the Assembly has very limited economic powers and it is the Westminster government that controls the great economic levers of taxation and general fiscal policy. Of course what happens in London strongly influences how one views the Welsh parties; the Liberal Democrat on the panel tried to distance himself from the Clegg policy on university fees, but it remains to be seen whether the voters will recognise such niceties.