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Parliament for Wales Campaign and the Welsh Office |
| The Cymru Fydd Union was founded in 1941 when the Union for Welsh National Movements and the Committee for the Defence of Welsh Culture decided to unite. It was this Union that organised the Llandrindod Wells conference in 1950 which led to the establishment of the Parliament for Wales Campaign. Megan Lloyd George, MP for Anglesey, became the president of the Campaign. |  |
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A petition, signed by a quarter of a million people who were in favour of a legislative, elected parliament for Wales, was presented to Parliament in 1956 by Goronwy Roberts MP. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Between 1950 and 1956 the campaign influenced the people of Wales to a great extent, but the campaign was not organised effectively enough and it failed to appeal to the labour movement in the industrial communities. |  |
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The Welsh Office While some people were in favour of a parliament for Wales others, particulaly some Labour Members of Parliament such as Cledwyn Hughes were in favour of administrative devolution. By the end of the 1950s the establishment of a Welsh Office, headed by a Secretary of State for Wales with a seat in the Cabinet, had become Labour Party policy. |
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Following the Labour Party victory in the 1964 General Election, James Griffiths, MP for Llanelli since 1936, was appointed the first Secretary of State for Wales. His responsibilities included housing, roads and local Government. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In 1969 a Royal Commission, under the chairmanship of Lord Crowther (subsequently Lord Kilbrandon), was set up to recommend constitutional changes. The Commission's main task was to consider devolved government for Wales and Scotland. The Commission's recommendation in 1973 was that a legislative Assembly should be established in Scotland and that Wales should also get an Assembly, but with fewer powers. |  |
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When a Labour Government came into power in 1974 establishing a parliament in Scotland and an Assembly in Wales became one of their policies. Even though the government's majority was small and there were strong objections from some Labour Members of Parliament over the proposed Devolution Bill, the Bill was carried. However it would not come into effect without the consent of the Welsh and Scottish electors through a referendum. |
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Secretaries of State for Wales:
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| Disestablishment, Cymru Fydd and Plaid Cymru | ||
| Parliament for Wales Campaign | ||
| Referenda and a National Assembly for Wales | ||
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