UNSAFE HANDS

Meanwhile in Westmonster, Blunderman (aka Johnson) has managed to do it again, with a remark about devolution north of the border being a disaster, something that both an 18th or 21st century member of the English elite (or a pre 1992 Conservatives) might well consider to be true, but not necessarily a position held by a majority of Scots and some by this point no doubt alarmed Scottish Tories. Just hoe well that remark plays north of the border remains to be seen. Obviously Cymru / Wales remains unmentioned, with its weak devolutionary settlement and incomplete devolution of powers it remains both the small unspoken elephant in the room, as well as the most vulnerable of all the devolved governments to devote rollback.

A RE-BADGED CENTRALIST ENEMY?

One of the problems, and we have a few in these islands, relates to the difficulties that occur when it comes to defining just exactly where the state / government stops and the private sector / third sector and everything else begins. While this problem, predates Blair (and the Blairites), part of their legacy that relates to the deliberate blurring of the boundaries between the public and private sector - something successive governments (some devolved and some not) have been quite happy to live with (for a recent example we have Dido Harding).

At Westminster, between 2010 and 2015, both Cameron and Clegg were equally as guilty of doing much of the same as Blair, when it comes to blurring the edges of the state, although for admittedly ulterior motives. They were driven by the Neo liberal / Neo Con urge to reduce  / destroy and replace aspects / elements of the state, and transferring elements of what former agencies of the state once did, to Third Sector or Private agencies (and ironically removing that element of democratic accountability).

In Cymru / Wales, during the Thatcher / Major years, we also saw the rise of a pseudo third sector with the growth of quango’s, when majority Conservative governments in Westminster had to administer Cymru / Wales (at arms length so to speak). By the mid 1990’s quangos (who sat on them, and what the did, and who they were accountable for their actions and decisions) had become a hot political issue. 

Labour in Wales in 1997 (particularly during the run up to our first Welsh general election in 1999) made much of their promise to have a bonfire of the quangos. It somewhat strangely never happened, perhaps it was too difficult a task to undertake (let alone complete) or perhaps the quangos were simply to useful particularly when it came to stuffing them with Labour in Wales cronies. 

In Cymru / Wales, while most people did not necessary see the blurring between the private sector and the state happen, we all lived with the consequences. A prime example was when New Labour in Wales, under Blair, added a whole raft of new ones in the shape of the housing associations. The transfer of the control of housing stock from local authorities to newly formed housing associations, which became well salaried (at least at the top) and acquired borrowing authority. Not quite overnight social housing became career enhancing commercial enterprises - at arms length from  local government and accountability. 

Predating the rise of the quango state, we in Cymru / Wales also saw a blurring of the difference between the Labour Party in Wales and local government and the Third Sector. With Labour in Wales often unable to  tell the difference. Quango's were part of the problem, something that Labour in Wales, in power, just found too useful to dispose of when they were given an opportunity. Perhaps Dafydd Iwan, in his song, ‘The Big Shot’ summed up the problem: 

“I’ve been on the education committee since 1933,

I know every headmaster in the country, or rather, they know me.”

                                                                           

Labour in Wales are (despite occasional twinges) instinctive centralisers - it's partially to do with control issues, but, mostly the legacy of the moment in the early 1920's when Labour in Westminster got a taste of power (and the trapping, trinkets and baubles that came / come with it). 

Geoffrey Goodman, a diary keeping journalist, attributed the following quote to a deeply disillusioned Aneurin Bevan, who said, "I am heartily sickened by the Parliamentary Labour Party. It is rotten through and through, corrupt, full of patronage and seeking after patronage, unprincipled… it isn’t really a socialist party at all.” 

Little has changed in the Labour Party at any level since as far as I have observed, when it comes it comes down to priorities. Above all it’s the retention of  control / power at all levels, even if you do nothing with it, even if it's at the expense of the majority of Labour Party members - out in the cold Labour Party members have periodically suggested that this is particularly true in Newport, but, I suspect that my home town / city is not particularly unique in this respect.

Within these islands, Centralism and Unionism (not necessarily the Trades kind) actually walk hand in hand  When the Conservatives Party in Wales talks about a war on 'devolution waste' what they are actually talking about is a war on devolution itself. Most, but not all, Conservatives in Wales, will happily work hand in glove with the Conservative government in Westminster to weaken and undermine our devolution settlement. 

As weak as our devolution settlement is, it's miles better than what we had previously, which was exactly nothing. We now have a form of democratic accountability, it’s not complete, but, it’s a start, whereas before we effectively had a Westminster diktat. The tradition of the centralisation of power in these islands goes back hundreds of years, with local power sharing arrangements in England and in Wales being subsumed in the Westminster leviathan, on the grounds of efficiency and expediency between the 15th and 17th centuries. And this was before sublimation of Scotland and Ireland that led to the creation of the union between 1701 and 1801 and the centralisation of political power.  

The core belief of centralisation, rather than necessarily strengthening the Union, centralised political power in Westminster, I suggest that centralisation remains a core value that infects both the parties of the right and the nominal left. It is perhaps worth remembering that as late as 2005 the Conservatives would have quite happily abolished the then National Assembly. The Senedd is not safe in their hands and neither is the future of our nation - the Conservatives are not alone, I suspect when it comes to holding this position.

Part of me, remains genuinely convinced that if it were possible to remove the Scottish parliament and our Senedd, that there are unionists and centralists in the Labour and Conservative Parties (even in Cymru / Wales) who would not hesitate for a moment. While historically Labour centralists would have happily lay down their rhetorical lives for Ireland, or Palestine or other worthy and deserving blue water causes whilst quietly pining for a centralised British state / republic.

With Labour moving back towards the right under its current leadership, and the Conservatives moving even to the right, I find that the two parties have more in common and shared values. Both the Conservative and Labour unionist centralists maintain an unhealthy patronising metropolitan scorn for any political aspirations aspired too by any of the other nations that inhabit this often rain swept island archipelago (worthy of comparison with the rhetoric used by some Russian nationalists with their patronising dismissal of Ukraine and other historic nations in and around Russia) and of any and all devolved matters outside of the M25.

Despite recent Labour spin, from our perspective, they are the same old, admittedly rebadged, centralist enemy - with the same old rebranded statist / centralising solutions - which outside of the short term have spectacularly failed to deliver for us. We, in Wales, have been here before. The centralists (blue and red) have promised much and delivered little that was lasting, save for a faint echos or faint ghosts of long departed industrial and regional development that can be found scattered across our land. 

I would further argue that centralisation, as practised within these islands, whether driven by Labour in Westminster, or the Conservatives vision of a greater England is directly opposed to what Raymond Williams described as our cultural impulse towards democratic community, one spasm of which democratically debated, created and endorsed - that of devolution. 

And that despite devolution, or perhaps because of it, this centralising tendency has never really gone away despite the roll out of differing levels of devolution to redress the democratic deficit in the late 1990’s.  The civil service, at least in England and Wales, appears to continue to behave as if devolution has not happened. Until there is a Wales based Cymru / Wales focused civil service this state of affairs is likely to continue. 

Some twenty one years down the line of all the devolved nations and provinces Scotland still has the best devolutionary deal, followed in second place by Northern Ireland. Cymru / Wales trails in a poor third - with  a relatively weak devolutionary settlement - something that suits the majority of Labour in Wales representatives in Cardiff Bay and beyond - who lie awake at night dreaming of Labour in Westminster winning and riding to the rescue. 

Dream on! It’s important to remember that the last time they were in power at Westminster between 1997 and 2010 just exactly what did not happen.  Labour had a large sizeable majority and pretty much the power to do whatever they wanted to do. Labour in Westminster didn’t come riding to the rescue then, so don't expect them to do so next time. The reality was that New Labour's inaction over strengthening the devolutionary settlement in Cymru / Wales - particularly the work of Peter Hain in the House of Commons has left Cymru / Wales vulnerable to the machinations  

Post Brexit both the Conservatives and the party formerly known as New Labour will eagerly grasp the opportunity to build their vision of a new centralist aggressively rebadged Brit Nationalist union. The Brit Nat / Imperial nostalgia drum will be thoroughly beaten to drum up sentimentality / nostalgic pap to drown out any criticism - constructive or otherwise. We should remember that the direct Westminster-rule which existed for most of my lifetime, failed to deliver for much of Wales (beyond the short-term). 

Even before I was born the great hopes of the future proved to be unsustainable beyond the medium term - British Nylon Spinners (in Mamhilad, north of Pontypool (gone), BSC / RTB Llanwern (a remnant), East Moors, on the eastern fringe of Cardiff (gone), Hoover in Merthyr (gone), Ford in Bridgend (going), etc. Post BREXIT it appears that things are only going to get worse (rather than better) as Whitehall ‘Britocrats’ scramble to protect the City of London at all costs, while our manufacturers, exporters, SME’s and farmers are left to sink, swim or go under.

The post BREXIT domestic settlement offers from the centralist perspective of Westminster a real opportunity to actively work to roll back, weaken or undermine the devolutionary settlements within the UK. Certainly recent developments in relation to repatriated 'powers' being returned from Brussels to Westminster have shown how important it is that we actively resist Westminster’s attempts to roll back devolution through the Withdrawal Bill. 

Plaid's attempts lead by the late (and greatly missed) Steffan Lewis in relation to the Continuity Bill - provided Cymru / Wales with a vital first step to ensure Westminster did not ride rough shod over our hard-won right to run our own affairs, endorsed initially by Labour in Wales, was then tamely surrendered by Labour in Wales, at Westminster’s first asking. Not for nothing should we underestimate the ideological commitment to the Union, within the Labour Party in Wales, even when giving in to those unionist urges does Cymru / Wales little good. 

As I have said previously, and will keep saying, no nation can be half devolved, no more than a nation can be half free. We need the devolutionary full measure and the tools to do the job and to deliver economic change for our country, and we need them yesterday. We need the politics of hope and a real belief that things can change and get better. 

We urgently need real change, it's time for a real new deal, it's time to be radical, because only radical solutions are going to deliver for our people and our nation. At the most basic level we need devolution to actually deliver for our nation - economically, socially and politically. The problem is, from where we in Cymru / Wales are sat, devolution, as is, simply cannot adequately deliver, we have reached that point in our nations journey, where only independence can deliver for Cymru / Wales.

SIMPLY PART OF THE PROBLEM

Here in Cymru / Wales we face number of pressing problems, covid aside, the lack of affordable housing, the weaknesses of our economy, the inherent problems with our 19th planning system with its out of touch focus on unitary development plans, and the lack of decent affordable integrated public transport, which are all part of the problem we face. 

For serious times, we need serious government and serious leadership. We lack both at all levels of government. If the governments in Cardiff and London were serious about public transport then our railways then some serious consideration should be given to looking at reconnecting some of our towns to the rail network. A good follow on would be reconnecting Caernarfon, Dolgellau and Builth Wells to the network, and reopening the line to Llangefni and Amlwch on Ynys Mon. 

Locally the re-opening / construction of stations at Caerleon / Ponthir (a well sited, well connected station could serve both communities well), Magor and Llanwern should be priorities. We also need to improving North – South rail communications and rebuild and re-open the Carmarthen to Aberystwyth line. We also need to get road  freight off our roads and back onto our railways. 

In the south east, we need Abergavenny and Chepstow railway stations to be real gateways, with fully integrated local bus services. We need better facilities at Severn Tunnel Junction and Caldicot railway stations and the provision of safe secure parking facilities. We need feasibility studies into the development of a Parkway Station at Little Mill and the possibilities of re-opening the railway line from Little Mill to Usk and the development of a new railway station at Usk.

The final stage of the rail-link from Ebbw Vale to Newport needs to be completed and along with new railway stations at Caerleon / Ponthir and Magor would help to reduce road congestion. Such developments would provide a regular rail service to local residents and reduce the ever increasing traffic burden from already overcrowded roads. The re-opening of Pontrilas Railway station (in south Herefordshire) for passenger traffic (and timber shipments) would also help, as would a feasibility study into developing regional rail freight services, removing heavy Lorries from local roads.

A lack of coherent governance in Cymru / Wales may explain, why when it comes to railways in Cymru / Wales, there is a tendency to focus on anniversaries of rail closures rather than anniversaries of openings. This could be because transport policy was something that was done to us rather than done for us or done by us. I mention this, because back in 2012 I noticed that a plaque had been unveiled marking the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the railway in Knighton (Powys).

The spectacular 22-mile section of the Heart of Wales line from Craven Arms, Shropshire, to Knighton was constructed in 1861, and managed to avoid being closed in the 1950's and 1960's.  A £5m project which upgraded parts of this rural railway was finished in 2011, which reinstated five passing loops at Knighton, Llandrindod Wells and Llanwrtyd Wells in Powys, and at Llandovery and Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire. This was a small but positive step which could, which with extra services could lead to more regular and better used trains.

In the last twenty one years in Wales there have been two successful railway re-openings carried out by Network Rail at the request of the National Assembly; the Vale of Glamorgan Railway Line (re-opened on Friday 10th June 2005) and the Ebbw Valley Railway Line (partially re-opened on Wednesday 6th February 2008).

Being brutally honest these were administrative rather than legislative projects, this has not been the case in Scotland, where bills to reopen old railways were vigorously debated, scrutinised, amended and passed by the Scottish Parliament. If we are serious about integrated public transport then we are going to have to get serious about how we are going to develop and redevelop our public transport infrastructure.

We face a future where relatively cheap fuel will be a thing of the past, so we need to ensure that all our communities have reasonable access to a reliable cheap system of integrated public transport, at the heart of which needs to be our long neglected rail network. 

The Transport (Wales) Act which came into effect in February 2006 gave the then National Assembly powers to plan and co-ordinate an integrated transport system. New railway stations in Cymru / Wales are mostly (not not entirely) down to seeking approval from Westminster - almost as if devolution does not exist.

The old excuses about a lack of funding (despite the banking related financial crisis) from Westminster are no longer acceptable; Wales making up 5% of the population of the UK, and makes significant contributions to the exchequer over the years - so we need 5% of the UK transport spend, and full control of our transport planning and our transport budget. 

If the current Governments in London and Cardiff are serious about cutting carbon emissions and reducing road congestion then we also need work to get heavy goods back onto our railways. There is no quick fix, but, the time for excuses is over, we need to plan for the future. This may not be cheap but it can be done if the political will is there, as has happened in Scotland, where there is a useful combination of the will, the funding and interested private partners. 

Now let's be honest, with all the best will in the world this is not going to work well, even with the current inert visionless Labour in Wales / Lib Dem coalition government in Cardiff and, as far as Cymru / Wales is concerned an indifferent / hostile Conservative government in Westminster that is openly hostile to the concept of devolution and to the very existence of Cymru / Wales’s very existence.  

The underlying problem is that devolutionary governance can no more be half devolved anymore than someone can be half free. A flawed devolutionary half-way house just won't work anymore, it will not deliver or even give us the chance to deliver, even with the weak / incomplete / flawed legislative powers that the Senydd has. 

The changes and reforms that are necessary to fix the problems in our country, to give Cymru / Wales  the tools to do the job, are unlikely to be gained anytime soon. Even were Cymru / Wales to gain the legislative powers, any future Welsh government would still be in some sort of half devolved limbo state of governance, lacking a fair financial settlement. 

Cymru / Wales need a fair financial settlement, full control of Network Rails budget and priorities within Cymru / Wales so we can construct a decent system of integrated public transport. This is what has happened in Scotland, where significant strides have been made to reopen, redevelop and build a coherent and integrated public transport system, partially due to the fact that Scotland has full control over Network Rails budget and priorities in Scotland. 

The other significant difference between Cymru / Wales and Scotland, aside from geography, lies with our current government in Cardiff Bay. Even if the Labour in Wales / Lib Dem coalition government in Cardiff wanted to do any of this they cannot - they don’t have the powers too, and more importantly they simply lack the political will or necessary vision to even try. How much longer do we have to wait to see some sort of coherent transport plan for Cymru / Wales, let alone the vision? 

Devolution, as is, simply won’t work with the current Westminster Conservative governments 18th century vision of the Union - basically a Greater England - complete with a compliant quit Cymru / Wales which sits as an adjunct to the west of England fulfilling the function as an add on to Bristol with cheaper housing and convenient areas of outstanding national beauty for leisure activities.  Making a observation, that as dominion status is not in the offing, even within a new Brit Empire 2.0, then Independence is the only remaining sensible option. 

FOR WALES, SEE WESTERN ENGLAND…

The Conservatives in Cymru / Wales, with some honourable exceptions have never been happy with devolution, deep down they would probably like to get rid of it (along with the very idea of Cymru / Wales). Boris' mutterings about intervening to over rule the Labour in Wales Government's decision not to build the M4 relief road, last week, or the lead Financial Times article (Monday 13.07.2020) about Westminster’s plans to retain control of state aid at the expense of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, should not surprise anyone. 

Boris and his ilk, in what's probably the most narrow elitist English governments (if not one that appears to be increasingly out of touch with English thinking on the Union) anytime since the 1700’s, have serious barely concealed disdain for the concept of devolution and an unconcealed contempt for Cymru / Wales. The creation of the Union Policy Implementation Committee (chaired by Michael Gove) aims to strengthen the union and 'bind' the UK's nations, at the expense of our interests.

Poor West Britons?

I have little doubt that the Conservatives will happily work to weaken if not abolish devolution in Cymru / Wales and work to weaken and undermine it in Scotland. They have certainly played fast and loose with the political process in Northern Ireland in a desperate but ultimately successful (in the short term) attempt to stay on office - something that threatened to undermine the hard won peace process. 

Now none of this is new - when one of the more recent failed Conservative leaders started talking about reviewing devolution and strengthening the Union at a time when BREXT threatened to deliver a rollback of powers then any one who believes in democracy and devolution to the nations and regions of these islands should have been concerned. 

Despite the spin and the claims to the contrary, devolution was not Teresa May’s legacy, her legacy was political chaos and economic uncertainty, and a use of BREXIT to attempt to roll back devolution and strip away powers from Wales and Scotland and to undermine the devolved institutions and constitutional settlement within these islands. As late as the 2005 Westminster general election the Conservatives (and Teresa May) were still publicly uncommitted to devolution for Cymru / Wales. 

For a Conservative leader to talk about constitutional diversity was particularly rich. The soon to be former Prime Minister is correct in one key area, the fact that some Westminster government departments have failed to recognise the reality of devolution. The Conservative party, under Cameron, May and now Boris has reluctantly paid lip service to devolution, but, many suspect that it will actively work to weaken the powers of the devolved governments post BREXIT. 

None of this is new, back in 2015, after David Cameroon, won his first Westminster majority, and before he messily ended his premiership over BREXIT, there was, at least from this end of the M4 / A55, the perception of a faint brief whiff of what could best be described as devo rollback in the air. As the then unconstrained Conservative government settled in at Westminster, what's was in it for Cymru / Wales - potentially nothing good. 

Scotland, as far as the Westminster unionists may have been concerned may be quietly (and honestly) be perceived as a lost cause (perhaps a literal case of 'when' rather than 'if' in relation to independence). Cymru / Wales on the other hand may yet offer far more constitutional room to meddle with, to tinker with or even rollback parts of our deeply flawed constitutional settlement - something that could take us back to an 'England and Wales' polity for the first time since pre 1601.

Here in Cymru / Wales we have all seen and experienced the Westminster wobble in relation to the commitment to complete the electrification of the Great Western line to Swansea, the failure to develop the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon, and the threat to cancel promised public borrowing powers after the proposed M4 Relief road was dropped.

Our constitutional settlement, such as it is is, even to the disinterested, remains deeply flawed, second rate and simply unfair, not coming remotely close to either Scotland or Northern Ireland when it comes to powers which could be used to influence and shape economic matters. 

The Conservative Party appears happy to be appealing to the type of nationalism that saw the rise of UKIP in the past. With the Europe issue potentially off the political agenda, devolution is next. The Brexit Party (along with the Abolish The Assembly Party) has just publicly committed itself to challenging devolution and effectively destroying our young democracy. 

There are times, when you can be excused for feeling that Cymru / Wales not only has an unpredictable future but also has an unpredictable past. As a former observer of the old Soviet Union the emergence of a nominal political party actually dedicated to abolishing our embryonic parliament from the inside during the Newport West By-election) reminded me of the activities of interfront in the Baltic republics in the late 1980's and early 1990's - save without the backing of the Kremlin (Westminster). 

Here in Cymru / Wales we have two (or three) political parties that have wrapped themselves in the Union flag and openly expressed a version of political reality based on British exceptionalism and nostalgia. This problem existed long before BREXIT and has the potential to unleash a combination of a deep devo rollback and a BritWash of pretty much everything - be it sport (Team GB, etc), culture, history, economics or politics. 

Wrapped in a flag...

That this is the partial triumph of what could perhaps best be described as an aspirational nostalgia of a view of the past that never existed over reality should disturb most people. Now it would be too easy to pass off the mutterings and musings of the far right as a collection of nutters and eccentrics (they may be). They appeal to a heady combination of nostalgia for a questionable view of the past, hostility to the concept of devolution and perhaps a yet to be articulated hostility to the very existence of Cymru / Wales - politically and culturally. 

There should be something disturbing about people who live (or perhaps reside) within a nation that has been badly governed for generations by a narrow minded corrupt unresponsive political institution, in our case, on the bank of the Thames, actively campaigning to remove a new accountable democratic national parliament.  That said the right has little concern for Cymru / Wales or any other the the devolved nations within these islands beyond an arrogant expectation of taciturn obedience. 

Boris Johnson is on record stating that Westminster is an English Parliament. Our nation, is at best an afterthought and more than likely an irritation to the current Conservative Leader. What we are looking at is not so much a case of for Wales see England, more like for Wales, see Western England.