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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Assemblies Likely For Scots, Welsh Referendums On Legislatures Almost Certain After Labor Win

Associated Press

Scotland and Wales are likely to get their own legislatures under Britain’s new Labor government, despite the conservatives’ often-repeated warnings it would lead to the breakup of the United Kingdom.

The Conservatives, the loudest and almost the only opponents of the new national assemblies, were swept from government in Thursday’s national elections and wiped out completely in Scotland and Wales.

Labor, which controls most Scottish and Welsh districts and also has an impregnable majority in the House of Commons, plans to swiftly introduce bills to hold autumn referendums on the proposed assemblies.

The 5 million Scots and the 2.5 million Welsh would vote in separate referendums.

The only non-Labor legislators elected in Scotland and Wales are either Liberal Democrats, who broadly endorse the Labor line, or independence-seeking nationalists.

“I’ve always wanted to be involved” in increasing local control for Scotland and Wales, Donald Dewar, the new Scottish Secretary, said Saturday after his appointment to Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Cabinet.

Reflecting Labor’s dominance in Scotland, Dewar, a Glasgow lawyer, is one of four Scots with top jobs in the new Cabinet. The treasury chief, foreign secretary and top judicial officer are all Scots.

Dewar’s predecessor in the Conservative government, Michael Forsyth, who lost his seat and is quitting politics, was a forceful proponent of the argument that the Scottish Parliament will be the first step to dissolving the United Kingdom.

Voters were unimpressed. Most Scots and Welsh voted Labor, and among the English, who comprise 80 percent of the electorate, the entire subject of Scots and Welsh assemblies - or even independence - generates little political heat.

However, key issues remain, including whether the 129-member Parliament in Edinburgh will have tax-raising powers - a question to be put in the referendum.