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Remember ?

'This' was the Assembly Government's bid for power over Affordable Housing, power that would have allowed them to abolish the right to buy if they'd wanted to. They didn't as it so happens, not for now anyway but were clear enough that they did want the power to do so transferred to the Assembly.

'This' was the news that in the face of opposition from the Welsh Affairs Select Committee, the Assembly Government had climbed down and accepted that it could not abolish the right to buy without the consent of the Secretary of State.

To you and me that looked, felt, sounded like a veto. The Assembly Government dismissed any such word in press conference after lobby briefing, waved away any such accusation and called it, instead, a compromise. The Welsh Affairs Select Committee too agreed it was no more than a sensible compromise. It wasn't one the Deputy Minister for Housing Jocelyn Davies was proud of and caused some voices in Plaid to raise the prospect of a constitutional crisis.

Kirsty Williams, the Liberal Democrat leader, had a question of her own to raise: "Why give us the full powers and then dictate from London what we can and cannot do with them?"

Well someone else has joined in with the questions - the Joint Comittee on Statutory Instruments - half a dozen members from the House of Lords, half a dozen from the Commons
Their verdict? That if the LCO stands "there appears to be a doubt in one respect that, if it were approved and made, it would be intra vires".

In other words it wouldn't be lawful.

In even more words the problem they've found is that there is nothing in the Government of Wales Act 2006, as far as they can see (and you would hope they can see a long, long way) that authorises this sort of veto.

The message seems to be - you can't do it.

Now what?

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