ABSTRACT
The constitutional conservatism highlighted in the previous three chapters was also evident in the 1964-1970 Labour Governments’ stance towards Wales, and the growing demands for devolution which were articulated during the 1960s. Labour had never taken Welsh nationalist sentiments particularly seriously, tending instead to dismiss devolutionary demands as the manifestation of economic grievances. Hence, when such sentiments have been expressed, Labour’s instinctive, and economistic, response has been to suggest that Welsh grievances will dissipate once a Labour government’s ‘socialist’ economic and industrial policies deliver or restore prosperity and employment. The most that the Labour Party has been willing to contemplate in response to Welsh nationalism has been administrative devolution, not parliamentary and legislative devolution, and this was certainly the case in the 1960s.
