The referendum, which took place on March 3rd, on whether or not to provide law-making powers to the National Assembly in Cardiff has gone by with hardly a murmur on the British or Scottish Left. The ‘Yes’ result represented an advance for liberal unionism over conservative unionism. It has also confirmed an ongoing tendency to overcome the fatal political division between Welsh and English speakers, encouraged by conservative unionists to great effect in the abortive 1979 Welsh devolution referendum. The 1997 Welsh devolution referendum only just succeeded in getting a ‘Yes’ vote; but this latest referendum has registered considerably stronger and wider ‘Yes’ support, particularly in the more Welsh speaking North, and in the largely English speaking South Wales former coalfield area.
After the forthcoming elections in May for Holyrood, Stormont and Cardiff Bay, the RCN will be writing a full-length article on the current state of ‘devolution-all-round’ dealing with this event. In the meantime, this map shows the results of the Welsh referendum.
In 21 of 22 unitary authorities, the vote was Yes. The only voting area to declare a No result was Monmouthshire.