In the midst of the heated debates during the Scottish independence referendum, political activists in Wales could well have observed, like the woman in When Harry Met Sally’s diner scene: “I’ll have whatever she’s having.”

The nearest Wales comes to the passions seen in Scotland is when its rugby team takes to the field. It was riveting despite being overcooked on our television and radio and, if a bit nasty at times, on social media. It was a treat to see all those people talking real politics.

The result was not the independence so many sought but, by crikey, it moved the devolution agenda on by miles — if the promises made by the three main party leaders, and Gordon Brown, are kept.

Beware though, for immediately the result was known the Tory backwoodsmen went on the attack to try to undermine or kill off further democratic opportunities that will better empower those people hindered by the lack of a public-school education.

Cameron’s promise early on Friday morning, long before Tory MPs were awake, to devolve more powers to England, Wales and Northern Ireland was received with an uncharacteristic degree of enthusiasm by Wales and Labour leader Carwyn Jones.

Before the referendum, Jones had accused Cameron of “sleepwalking the country to disaster” over the way he had handled the debate.

However the PM’s plan to set up an all-party constitutional conference hinted that he was looking towards the long grass.

But there would be a reason for this. The British Parliament already has before it the Wales Bill, a poor thing, but our own, which will devolve stamp duty, business rates and landfill tax to Wales and enable the Welsh Assembly to replace them with new taxes specific to Wales.  

Welsh ministers will have enhanced borrowing powers in relation to construction projects. An element of income tax should be devolved but only if approved by the Welsh electorate  in a referendum.

Jones has a problem with the 25-year-old Barnett formula (called a mess by Barnett himself), a mechanism used by the Treasury to adjust the amounts of public expenditure allocated proportionally to our four nations.

The formula  is based on the population of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales pro rata to  England rather than the needs of the countries.

There has been and is no allowance made for the  greater deprivation that has been — and is — suffered in Wales more than the other countries, leaving Wales without the resources to deal adequately with deep-seated poverty.

This deprivation is measured in the lower GDP of the South Wales valleys — that once provided great wealth for the British iron and coal masters — and in the barren areas of north-west Wales where a poor living was made from the uplands.

These regions have been in receipt of European Union funding because of their high poverty indicators.

Therefore the promise to Scotland by the leaders of Westminster’s big three to keep the Barnet formula is seen as enshrining in it the financial disadvantages to Wales over the last 25 years and a continuing barrier to deal with the chronic problems caused by  deindustrialisation and the destruction of communities under the Tories.

It was the debate around Scottish independence, rather than the outcome, that raised political  awareness in Wales, and we hope that this opens up our country to see the advantages of increased powers for the people, as well as politicians.

Voters in the March 2011 referendum in Wales backed more legislative powers to the Welsh Assembly, although without the enthusiasm and high turnout seen in Scotland’s independence vote.

The turnout was of 35.4 per cent with 63 per cent voting in favour.

The Scottish Yes campaign had enthusiastic backing from Plaid Cymru and its leader Leanne Wood, whose own goal is independence, although within the European Union.

On the back of the Scottish vote, Plaid mustered for the first time in a long time a rally calling in independence for Wales.

This need be no bad thing if within the movement lies a nationalism, not of the narrow kind, but one that builds — as it did in Scotland — confidence among the people of Wales to demand devolution powerful enough to make the changes they need.