Moreover, the country has always enjoyed a measure of devolution.
It is ironic beyond belief that the first part of Great Britain to enjoy serious democratic devolution should use it to kill off democratic devolution within its borders.
Despite the severe limitations on powers (Wales has only a fraction of the powers enjoyed by the Scottish parliament), devolution has enabled the National Assembly for Wales to follow an alternative political path to the one followed by Blair and Brown's new Labour.
This report highlights the extent to which some of our great cities are being held back by being denied the same sort of autonomy enjoyed by equivalent European cities. "The huge economic benefits of devolution identified by the Cities Growth Commission are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg.
That is a reasonable desire: implicit in the logic of devolved government is the idea of different priorities, in spending and taxation, in different parts of the same country, so long as everyone enjoys minimum standards.Critics of devolution see the granting of tax powers as one more step towards separation, and Scottish independence is certainly a possible outcome.
Some of the decisions that will have to be faced are very controversial and rightly so, including the so-called West Lothian question that will not go away because it reopens the devolution debate by highlighting the fact that England has been denied the benefits now enjoyed by Scotland and Wales.
Others, such as Geraint Davies, the Labour MP for Swansea West, argue that the entire idea is a trap set by the coalition government in Westminster to cut Wales's grant.Tax devolution could curtail inward investment, the main source of what private-sector growth Wales has enjoyed.
Devolution has also occurred in Finland, where the government has granted significant autonomy to the largely Swedish-speaking population of the Åland Islands; in Spain, where regional governments (particularly the Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia, and Andalusia) have enjoyed extensive powers; and in Italy, where several regions have been granted "special autonomy" by the central government.
Calls for further Welsh devolution have been muted by "a perception of issues with delivery of services" in devolved areas such as health and education and the difficulty Plaid Cymru has had in rallying the kind of support the SNP has enjoyed, according to Shipton.
