The Baroness, her low key lecture and the press

This is my third post in less than a fortnight on the state of the Welsh media, I didn’t plan it but if the Welsh Government are to gain respect and be more accountable we need a stronger media to hold them to account and I won’t get tired of saying so.

Thanks to Syniadau and Welsh Ramblings I found out that Eluned Morgan now a Baroness and former Labour MEP gave the inaugural Patrick Hannan lecture last week on the subject of Labour and Welsh devolution.

The lecture made a few headlines about the need for Labour to engage with business but that’s about it it seems to have passed most people by, but anyone with basic knowledge of Welsh devolution, never mind Patrick Hannan's journalistic instincts could have driven a coach and horses through the rest of the inconsistencies and frankly laughable claims that Eluned Morgan made about Labour and its attitude to devolution in Wales. I never knew she had such a soft spot for Neil Kinnock either.

I also didn't know whether to laugh or cry on her claims about Labour needing to engage with Welsh business and the private sector, there were caveats of course about Trade Union involvement and references to Ed Miliband’s good and bad companies, but why didn’t any journalist ask Eluned what took her so long to come to that conclusion and what would Wales be like now if Labour had come to that conclusion 30 or 40 years ago? At least in the same passage she acknowledged that Labour has been openly hostile and suspicious of the private sector in Wales and Wales is the poorer in many ways as a result.

What’s also striking is that if this type of lecture was at UK or even Scottish level there it would have been on mainstream TV not tucked away on Sunday afternoon radio as was the case with this and the lack of visibility made sure there was no debate and discussion among the politicians, media and commentariat about what it all meant and what impact it would have on day to day politics if any.

But this is no surprise here in Wales where very few are interested in politics, devolution or economic matters in part because there is so little coverage of any of them, nowhere in the paid Welsh media has there been any critique of the lecture, which has big implications for the Labour Party and us whether we vote for them or not, rather than just reporting on it.

And it’s a theme Eluned picked up on when she said that Patrick Hannan and his type of probing journalism is a loss to Wales. She didn’t mention the lack of probing is one of the reasons why Labour keeps getting away with switching positions for electoral gain because no one has the credibility, the reach or guts to call Labour out on it – voters deserve better from the press.

'Growth plan should include temporary halt to public sector job cuts,' CIPD

With the UK government unlikely to change course on public sector cuts and the UK private sector struggling to create jobs along with the Welsh Government's reluctance to at least try and re-balance the Welsh economy and continually blaming the Tories for everything, the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development’s call earlier this month for a temporary freeze to public sector job cuts as part of a growth package will go unheeded despite the need for alternative economic ideas and the fact it could ease the pressure on employees worried about their jobs and job seekers in a tough jobs market.

Dr John Philpott, Chief Economic Adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)said 'With the economy and labour market in such a fragile condition, it is worrying that public sector job losses are turning out to be much greater than ministers have previously been suggesting. Public sector job cuts in this context are a false economy, adding to unemployment and in turn hindering rather than helping the task of fiscal deficit reduction. A more sensible course would be to delay public sector job cuts to the end of this Parliament and if necessary into the next, thereby enabling them to be absorbed more easily without nasty macroeconomic side-effects. The Government’s plan for growth must rightly contain measures to stimulate private sector job creation but the Chancellor should also avoid the own goal of cutting public sector jobs at a time of high and rising unemployment.'

Wales this Week on European funding in Wales

It’s good to see the Welsh media is taking a more critical look at the impact of European funds on the Welsh economy and what other countries have spent their money on and if you haven’t seen this week’s ITV Wales’s Wales this Week its worth checking out.

It’s a small step and perhaps recognition that the Welsh media has been prone to reproducing Welsh Government propaganda on the Welsh economy for too long rather than questioning decisions and offering at least some basic analysis.

However we should welcome this new found interest and hope its the start of a period of a more in-depth analysis and reporting from the Welsh media on the state and performance of Welsh economy. It can help inform and reach a wider audience especially when combined with BBC Wales’s announcement during its shake up that they are creating an Economic Correspondents post, which will hopefully help in explain the ebb and flow of the Welsh economy, where Wales economic strengths and weakness lie, what power the Welsh Government, local government and associated agencies have to improve things and what they can do to improve things and how those efforts fit into the wider UK, European and global economy to help Wales grow.