Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones pressed the case for a Yes vote in next month’s referendum when he talked to local business leaders in Bedwas yesterday.
The Plaid Cymru leader spoke at a Business Says Yes luncheon alongside guest of honour, Welsh actor Philip Madoc, Ron Davies, Plaid’s Assembly candidate for Caerphilly, and Lindsay Whittle, Caerphilly Council’s leader.
Mr Jones told 170 business and community leaders at the Green Fly, Bedwas, that there were good constitutional reasons why March 3 was an important day for Wales.
“It’s about a confident nation, about being confident in our ability to do things for ourselves. Are we confident enough on March 3 to say that Wales is ready to take the responsibility to pass laws made for us in Wales on behalf of the people of Wales?”
He said: “It is a referendum which will give us the opportunity to say that the people of Wales are as capable as the people of Scotland and Northern Ireland and any other country in the world to make our own laws.”
The Deputy First Minister said that the present system, which meant the Assembly currently had to refer laws to Westminster, was slow, inefficient and expensive.
Mr Jones said that a law to improve the safety of children when they travel to school had been approved by the Assembly as long ago as 2006. After four pieces of legislation it would not be made law until March 2011 more than four years later.
He added: “If Wales had the powers to pass laws it would have taken just 12 months and would have cost 25% of the cost.”
He said that Wales was a creative country and wanted to use that creative ability for the best of the people of Wales
Mr Jones warned that the rest of the world would see a No vote as Wales taking a step back on the road to becoming a confident nation.
Philip Madoc, supporting the Yes campaign, said that Wales had a lot to offer the world.
He said: “We have the talent and shouldn’t be afraid of showing it.”
Yesterday, writing for Caerphilly Observer in his regular blog, Caerphilly Business Forum chairman Andrew Diplock outlined his reasons why a Yes vote would be good for local business.