First Minister Carwyn’s Jones latest thoughts on the future of the UK debate were unveiled in his Sunday Politics interview and he stated the case of Wales benefiting from inward investment from the UK overseas trade body UKTI as one of many reasons to keep the UK together.
A few things struck me about the statement, it sounds like a reasonable point until you realise that inward investment for Wales, like Scotland and regions of England was mainly handled by the Regional Development agencies for years and now in Wales’s case the Welsh Government since Rhodri Morgan's 'Bonfire of the Quangos' for starters.
Furthermore Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru between them have presided over the abolition of the Welsh Development Agency, arguably the most successful development agency in Europe and is successor International Business Wales which was abolished after an expenses scandal. And since taking its functions ‘in house’ the Welsh Government has a poor record of securing jobs and investment for Wales as the Jaguar LandRover deal recently showed and its own figures and GVA have consistently proved over the past 5 years.
Not forgetting the relationship between Welsh Economic Development Ministers and UK Ministers has been frosty to say the least, with both sides ignoring or dismissing each others claims and counter claims over the Welsh economy since devolution began back in 1999. So it’s certainly stretching credibility to say that a relationship like that fully benefits Wales or the Welsh economy.
And finally as is so often the case with Welsh journalists they failed to follow up and ask Carwyn to justify his claims about how Wales benefits from UKTI which could well be correct and so your average viewer simply takes the First Minister’s words at face value – not a healthy situation for engaging voters with Welsh politics more regularly.
On a slightly different point I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks Carwyn is exploiting this for his own ends as Duncan Reynolds states ‘With House of Lords reform back on the political agenda, Mr Jones chose a good time to air his thoughts, however I do not believe that they are the right way to be looking at the possible independence of Scotland, especially as only 30% of the Scottish population currently desire full removal from the union. The issues of timing, phrasing, number of options and possible outcomes in terms of economics whatever the referendum produces are the major issues at this time.’
7 comments:
an interesting and informative post, as the saying goes, why let little things like facts get the in the way of a good story.
so he sits on both sides of the fence then.Devolution but wants to keep his ties with his Westminster bosses. Why cant he fight for Wales and have the confidence in Welsh people that Alex Salmond has in Scotland.
If his government hadn't disposed of the WDA and its International arm we wouldn't need to look to England. Oh and what was the last lot of inward investment England brought to Wales .ahhhh ummm
Oh and didn't his side kick Edwina Hart say she was in-charge of Welsh business and didn't need England's help !!!
Essentially Wales is more reliant on the UK Government and its civil service to secure inward investment than in the 1980's and 1990's despite 12 years of devolution, how pathetic is that?
Valleys Mam rightly ask what was the last inward investment the UK Government secured for Wales we're still waiting for answers.
Labour having confidence in the Welsh people VM snowball and hell come to mind, agree with the rest of you comments though.
And not just for inward investment Just Saying but potentially promoting Welsh Business abroad, when was the Welsh Government's last trade mission organized, what Welsh Businesses were included and what were the outcomes anyone know?
It will be no skin off Labour or the Tories and Lib Dems nose to rely on the UK Government for inward investment or promoting Welsh business CoP, but this should make Plaid Cymru uncomfortable especially as they had a hand in IBW downfall, they need a harder economic edge or Wales will get left behind lets hope the Plaid leadership candidates are taking notes.
If the Welsh Government is relying on the UKTI for advice, what's happened to the Management and staff from International Business Wales and the Welsh Development Agency.
The interview was billed as Wales's First Minister take on the Scottish Independence debate, views we already knew thanks to the Guardian on Friday night after the Dublin summit and apart from a few lines about Scotland deciding alone, the rest was the usual unchallenged Labour propaganda about Wales laced with anti Tory and Nationalist rhetoric.
And it comes to something when the young Tory AM sounded more reasonable than the Labour MP in the studio discussion afterwards.
"Furthermore Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru between them have presided over the abolition of the Welsh Development Agency, arguably the most successful development agency in Europe and is successor International Business Wales which was abolished after an expenses scandal. And since taking its functions ‘in house’ the Welsh Government has a poor record of securing jobs and investment for Wales as the Jaguar LandRover deal recently showed and its own figures and GVA have consistently proved over the past 5 years. "
This is a worthy point but it has to be noted that when WDA was at its height in the late 90s GVA in Wales relatively declined even faster than it has during devolution. Not the WDA's fault directly but it looks like the native economy was being neglected during that period at the expense of inward investment. We're too reliant on FDI and not building up our own skills enough.
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