SAYING NO TO THE WESTERN GATEWAY

It never quite goes away, at a recent Westminster event, the Western Gateway popped up again to be endorsed by Labour in Wales local representatives. Back in November 2020, the Labour in Wales Welsh Government’s revealed the top down plan to develop Wales’ economy pretty much effectively aims to turn our country into ‘Western England’.  

Plaid Cymru warned that the National Development Framework will ‘split Wales’ and is simply about ‘securing crumbs from the UK Government’s table’. The regional development plan which was put forward by the Welsh Government, covered the next 20 years or so, and sought to identify where nationally significant developments should take place, national and regional growth areas, what infrastructure and services are needed and how Wales can contribute to the fight against climate change.

In Wales, until we really run our own affairs, we face some interesting if somewhat stark choices, we can choose the then Alun Cairns model of Tory-inspired Western England or the Labour in Wales’s deeply flawed vision of our future. Labour in Wales’s regional map would “drives a wedge” into Wales, and ignore the “pressing” issue of lack of north-south connectivity, and neglects some of those parts of Wales needing regeneration and development.

The Welsh Government simply replaced the four-region model with a different approach focused on distributing wealth, power and investment equitably across the whole of Wales by targeting intervention and growth to the areas in most need.

What’s was particularly depressing was that Labour’s proposal might as well have been a carbon copy of the then Tory-inspired model of entrenched economic dependency. The four-region approach was modelled on the UK Westminster Government’s Growth Deal areas. Future Wales was more about the future of the Northern Powerhouse, the Bristol Western Gateway and the Midlands Engine than it was the future of Wales.

The plan simply offered an economic plan that was largely based upon securing crumbs from somebody else’s table, rather than building up Wales’ economy in its own right. Instead of offering a vision that brings Wales together, Labour in Wales basically agreed to serve Boris Johnson’s agenda (and Wales) on a plate without even the asking. 

The new / old lack of vision pushed the north and the south of our country even further apart and neglected the real and pressing need for improved north-south connectivity. As if that wasn’t enough it also neglected some of those parts of Wales that were (and are) most in need of regeneration and development, namely the western seaboard and the valleys of the south. 

This flawed approach would not change the UK and Welsh Governments failure to distribute wealth and growth equally across Wales. That said even now it is still not too late for a  Labour-in-Wales Welsh Government to replace the four-region model that was proposed in Future Wales 2040 with amore rational approach that actually focuses on making Wales a connected, sustainable, prosperous and self-sufficient nation in every sense. We can all live in hope…

Now sadly, none of this is new - the other unionist / centralist party in Cymru / Wales, the Conservatives in Cymru / Wales, with a few honourable exceptions have never been happy with the simple idea of devolution actually delivering anything beyond simple inadequate administration, deep down they would probably like to get rid of it (along with the very idea of Wales). 

Here in Wales we have all seen and experienced over the years what can perhaps be best described as the Westminster wobble (by Red, Blue /Orange and Blue governments) 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.

Boris’s (the then PM) mutterings about intervening to overrule the Labour in Wales Government's decision not to build the M4 relief road, 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, were simply attempts to gain short term electoral advantage. 

Despite their electoral success in December 2019,  Boris and his ilk, were part of what was probably the most narrow elitist English of Westminster governments anytime since the 1700’s, the then Westminster Conservative had a serious barely concealed disdain for the concept of devolution and barely concealed contempt for Wales itself, and that’s was before you got onto their hostility towards Scotland and their complete ignorance about Ireland 

Labour in Wales’s lack of vision in relation to economic development in Wales firmly routed in a belief in the union combined with a famous and and mistaken hope that the Labour cavalry in Westminster will eventually come riding to the rescue. 

we all know that they didn’t do much between 1997 and 2010, and with Labour in Westminster representative (in Wales) consistently voting against or abstaining on the transfer or strengthening of devolved powers to Wales - which certainly suggests that nothing much is going to change in the future after Labour in Westminster's electoral success in July 2024. 

Honestly it should be enough to make people wonder just exactly who’s interests we are being governed in?  For our SE our future, if left to other people’s choices is as part of the Western Gateway (a revamped version of the old Severnside Agenda, or Greater Bristol by any other name). What we are looking at is not so much a case of for Wales see England, more like for our SE, literally see Western England. It's time to say no to the Western Gateway and time for a change in Wales - roll of 2026. 

TALKING ABOUT HOUSING

We need to talk about our Housing crisis, Labour in Wales is silent on the matter and the other Unionist or anti devolution parties are silent on this issue. I see few any positives for Cymru / Wales simply being a simple adjunct to England, or Newport being a simple dormitory town for Bristol or Cardiff. I can never subscribe to the Severnside agenda, no matter how many times it gets rebranded and relaunched. 

In our south east, along the coastal belt and in and around Newport and Torfaen (not to mention around Cardiff and Caerphilly) and across Monmouthshire the last thirty years we have seen a significant if not spectacular growth in the amount of housing. A significant percentage of which in recent years has quite failed to fulfil pressing local housing needs. Second homes are an issue even in our south east, especially in the Wye Valley and adjoining parts of Monmouthshire - but the real issue is access to affordable primary of first homes. 

Quite frankly for serious challenging times, we need serious government and serious leadership. We lack both at all levels of government. That is why we need a Plaid government in Cardiff - with a new agenda which will aim at retrofitting 100,000 homes as part of a £6 billion green economic stimulus package. 

A Plaid Cymru government will create a long-term energy efficiency infrastructure plan to retrofit existing homes to the highest environmental standards. This will contribute to our aim of abolishing fuel poverty and decarbonising our country. Plaid will prioritise houses in fuel poverty. 

As part of the biggest public house building programme for 50 years, Plaid will build or convert 50,000 public homes over the next 5 years, including 15,000 genuinely affordable homes to buy. These will include some among the 26,000 empty homes across Wales that will be brought back into use.

Despite the Labour in Wales Government estimating that we will need an additional 110,000 homes across Wales up to 2039, of which half should be affordable, they have never delivered more than 7,000 new homes a year over the past 10 ten yours: out of which have been a maximum of 1,500 affordable homes. We need a step change in Welsh capacity to provide housing.

A Plaid Cymru government’s definition of affordable homes will mirror the mortgage lending rule of 4.5 times the average local household income or around £125,000 – half the Welsh Government’s definition which includes properties up to £250,000. 

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.