United Tories put aside taxing differences

Welsh Conservatives are arriving at their party's UK conference in Birmingham in surprisingly good spirits given that so many headlines this morning are so bad for their colleagues. That's because the Welsh wing has put aside the differences which spilled out so openly at last year's conference and exposed a rift which annoyed the Prime Minister and led ultimately to the sacking of four Shadow Cabinet members in the Assembly.

To the outside world, the row looked more obscure than most, being, apparently, about how flexible the income tax powers proposed for the Welsh Government should be. Powers included in a Wales Bill still being discussed in parliament and which wouldn't come into force without a referendum anyway.

As I say, obscure, but as usual with political disputes, it was about something else. It was about the leadership and direction of the party in Wales, with one side, led by Assembly leader Andrew RT Davies wanting more flexible powers to be proposed, and the other, led by former Welsh Secretary David Jones, wanting the more limited form set out in the Wales Bill.

The change of personnel at the Wales Office seems to have resolved those differences and all the signs and hints from Westminster and Assembly figures, both Conservative and Liberal Democrat, are that the Wales Bill will be altered to include a more flexible version of tax-varying powers.

In fact I wouldn't be surprised to hear something along those lines today or at least as clear an announcement as Lib Dem ministers will allow without letting the Tories take all the credit for changes they've been pressing for too.

Both Andrew RT Davies and Stephen Crabb are speaking in a session on the United Kingdom. Although that session is bound to be dominated by Scotland, I expect some news for Wales as part of the Prime Minister's efforts to keep his promises to Scottish voters and satisfy Conservative MPs who want English laws to be voted on only by English MPs.