Alan Trench discusses the Sewel convention’s application to Wales and the implications of this for the current debate about Welsh devolution. He argues that were the recently introduced draft Wales Bill to be enacted without the Assembly’s consent, it would lead to a major constitutional crisis, and that the idea of holding a referendum on the devolution of income tax without the Assembly’s consent is also a constitutional non-starter.
The Sewel convention has rightly come to be seen as key to the working of devolution in the United Kingdom. It may have first been envisaged as a way of enabling Westminster to continue to legislate for devolved matters and maintain something like the practical pre-devolution status quo in policy-making, when convenient and politically acceptable, but it was quickly understood to mean more than that.
One reason may be that devolved legislative powers are more far-reaching than was at first appreciated. More important…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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