Welsh devolution: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:34, 15 November 2023

Revision as of 18:39, 1 December 2023

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==== Disestablishment of the Anglican church ====

{{main|Disestablishment of the Church in Wales}}

The [[Sunday Closing (Wales) Act 1881]] was the first legislation to acknowledge that Wales had a separate politico-legal character from the rest of the English state.<ref name="encyclopaedia" /> atAt the time, a majority of people in Wales belonged to noncomformists chapels despite members of the Church of England having legal and social privileges. The Sunday Closing Act was therefore celebrated in Wales as a significant step towards establishing equal status for the noncomformist chapels and [[Disestablishment of the Church in Wales|disestablishing the Anglican church in Wales]]. Historian and former BBC Wales producer John Trefor suggests that the act "was a victory, not only for the chapels and the temperance leagues, but for Welsh identity. He goes on to say, "There was a sense that things could be done differently here. Wales-only Education and cemetery acts came soon after, and in many respects it established the principle on which devolution and the National Assembly are based."<ref>{{Cite news |date=2011-08-04 |title=130 years since Sunday drinking was banned in Wales |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-14136013 |access-date=2023-01-13}}</ref>

[[File:David Lloyd George NLW3362532.jpg|thumb|[[David Lloyd George]]|257x257px]]

[[David Lloyd George]], MP for Caernarfon at the time, was devoted to Welsh devolution early in his career, starting with the [[Church in Wales]]. He said in 1890; "I am deeply impressed with the fact that Wales has wants and inspirations of her own which have too long been ignored, but which must no longer be neglected. First and foremost amongst these stands the cause of religious liberty and equality in Wales. If returned to Parliament by you, it shall be my earnest endeavour to labour for the triumph of this great cause. I believe in a liberal extension of the principle of decentralisation."<ref>{{Cite web |title=OLCreate: CYM-WH_E1 Sources for Unit 8: Source 8F |url=https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=55159&section=1.6 |access-date=2022-03-01 |website=www.open.edu}}</ref> In 1895, in a Church in Wales Bill which was ultimately unsuccessful, Lloyd George added an amendment in a discreet attempt at forming a sort of Welsh home rule, a national council for appointment of the Welsh Church commissioners.<ref>{{Cite web |title=OLCreate: CYM-WH_E1 Sources for Unit 8: Source 8Ji |url=https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=55159&section=1.11 |access-date=2022-03-05 |website=www.open.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=OLCreate: CYM-WH_E1 Sources for Unit 8: Source 8Jii |url=https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=55159&section=1.12 |access-date=2022-03-05 |website=www.open.edu}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Doe |first1=Norman |title=The Welsh Church Act 1914: A Century of Constitutional Freedom for the Church in Wales? |journal=Ecclesiastical Law Journal |date=January 2020 |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=2–14 |doi=10.1017/S0956618X19001674 |s2cid=213980589 }}</ref> The [[Welsh Church Act 1914]] was passed giving the Church in Wales the freedom to govern its own affairs. After being suspended for the duration of the First World War, the Act came into effect from 1920.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Volume I: Prefatory Note |url=https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/clergy-and-members/constitution/volume-i-prefatory-note/ |access-date=2022-03-01 |website=Church in Wales |language=en}}</ref>