Well, its all part of the respect agenda. The annual visit of the PM to the Assembly. He came to the Assembly shook hands with Carwyn Jones, spoke to Assembly Members for fifteen minutes at the Assembly, took no questions and was away. That’s your lot Wales, box ticked, over and out.
Although to be fair to him, he didn’t do a Blair. For dear Tony used the occasion not so much to praise Rhodri but to praise himself for having the foresight and wisdom to take the country into war against Iraq.
At least David Cameron made his theme - Wales. Oh how he played to the Welsh vanity. The first industrial nation, architect of the NHS, the Mabinogi and the Eisteddfod oh what a list. And to keep the nationalists sweet Wales was a country not a region. So there we have it.
He said that there was no going back on devolution. A message to the backwoodsmen in his party, it’s here to stay, so stop your whinging.
But for those that pushed for the law making powers a message too. Now that you’ve lot got these powers you’d better start exercising some responsibility. So shortly a Calman style Commission will be announced and consensus is needed on responsibility for raising the money that you the Assembly are so keen to spend.
Well, he didn’t actually spell it out but that was the implication. So great, another committee, sorry, a commission to talk finance, but not a word said about fairer funding.
His briefing papers must have told him how the Welsh love a committee and he’s come up trumps. Not just a committee but a commission. How about that then?
So there we are, he’s come and gone and oh he did bare gifts. Well, one gift at least. He announced £56.9m to pay for a super broad band. So the geek vote’s in the bag now.
Sorry, but I think you must have completely missed the point of his whole visit ... "fairer funding".
ReplyDeleteFairer funding means taking responsibility. Taking responsibility for actions. Taking responsibility for inactions. And being called to account.
You don't treat a heroin addict with more yet heroin. Why should Wales be treated with the luxury of yet more money?
We have to spend what we receive more wisely. After all, we didn't get to the bottom of the pile through the actions of anybody else but ourselves.
Now we have to dig ourselves out of the mess that we created.
kp,
ReplyDeleteI think the mess which Wales finds itself in is down to London Governments. They knelt down to the City and made sure all it's requirements were met. They let manufacturing go to hell.
Anon 17:03, I don't disagree with your comments about the City and the level of collusion with successive Westminster governments.
ReplyDeleteOn the issue of manufacturing and coal mining I would have to say that it was the 'workers' that forced everything to go to hell. And not without some cause I might add. No sensible man or woman would want to work in those industries for Chinese equivalent wages. And especially so when the welfare option was offering so much more.
Either we have to get used to working for a lot less (as the Germans now do) or staying at home for rather longer periods than we might normally choose.
But the good thing about democracy is that we do, at least, get a choice!
in response to kp's ill founded comments it needs to be pointed out that holtham revealed that wales is underfunded to the tune of 300 million in comparison with other parts of the uk - this is a fact and why many of us in wales call for fairer funding for wales by the uk treasury! So we are not asking for anything we are not entitled too and it is certainly not a 'luxury'.
ReplyDeletekp may also want to digest something else david cameron said during his speech to the senedd today - " there is no going back on devolution"
Leigh Richards
Leigh, I am a big supporter of both devolution and full independence. After all, we have to become a nation that accepts responsibility for its people, all of its peoples.
ReplyDeleteIn the run-up to independence we can choose to make ourselves as poor as we want, and as 'underfunded' as no other part of the UK has ever been. But to what end, the UK Treasury has no right or need to give us more money just because of our own stupidity. This is the lesson we need to learn.
By the way, we weren't always so poor. Labour has made us poor. And because we voted for them we have made ourselves poor. More money won't cure us of our ills, a gradual move away from Labour just might.
As to my vision of an independent Wales, it is perhaps a rather different one to that put forth by Plaid. A rather more ethnically and culturally diverse vision, religiously tolerant and built upon a strong work ethic.