Focus on Improving the Welsh economy, Dafydd Wigley tells Plaid Cymru

This worries me. I commented on a previous article in Nation Cymru on just this subject. If Plaid Cymru does indeed lead the next government it must have policies ready for implementation on day one. The people of Wales will be expecting improvement and making up policy after the election, simply will not work.

Every political party can say; focus on improving the Welsh economy. After all improving the UK economy will benefit Cymru because of the large number of Government funded Jobs yn y wlad.

Whilst I’m not saying we should have solely technocratic appointments, its striking how little senior level management experience is in Plaid, and also labour (and don’t get me started on Reform!), and this alone will always make it challenging for Wales to strike out in a significantly different and better direction than the rest of the UK. Board level experience is important to enact big change and deliver what Lord wigley is suggesting. We need people with track records in economic decision-making responsibilities and with a deeper understanding of how decisions impact various sectors and, also how to manage resources effectively. The amount of money wasted during the ERDF years is Wales bears testament to this - on projects promoted by Labour and indeed Plaid. And of course, post-ERDF, it is much more challenging to build up places like the Valleys and West Wales tha it was 15-20 years ago.. It is worth pointing out we also have very diverse country – industrial NE, post-industrial valleys, lots of rural areas, only one “sufficiency” level city. It is challenging to create policies that crosscut such diversity, and it might well be different strategies are needed for different parts of Wale.s. There are no easy solutions in my view!

Plaid have squandered 26 years (and counting) by not following these principles from the very beginning. Had they prioritised fixing the economy over supporting Labour (who were never going to do anything positive in this regard) and getting sidetracked by various lunatic social issues in the name of 'progressivism', then by now: They'd probably have been government for much of the last 25 years.Wales would be a far better, healthier and more equal placeThey wouldn't even have to talk about campaigning for an independence referendum because Unionism would have been discredited and people would be clamouring for independence. As it is, they've undermined themselves and the whole devolution project. It seems unlikely that they'll change under the current leadership, not without a wholesale purge of basically all their current Senedd members.

Although, I agree in principle with Dafydd Wigley's call when he says a Plaid Cymru Welsh Government must concentrate on making the Welsh economy strong. Any responsible government should focus on bread & butter issues first. The rest will come later. Putting the cart before the horse idiom. The voting public first and foremost want to see those promises & pledges made realised otherwise apathy and cynicism prevail. See, you can't build on a foundation made of sand. With that said, to realise Wales potential must also have the levers & powers to make said change denied by past & present Tory & Labour governments. Since the devolution referendum in 1997 and first sitting in 1999, Wales was effectively was still controlled by Whitehall and the patronising New Labour LCO system. On reality we've only had devolution since 2012 when the Senedd returned to being a legislature after 600+ year hiatus. And seeing we've only got minimal tax raising & varying powers, no ability to profit off our natural resources i.e water and Crown Estate, will need their devolution to bring much needed money into our Welsh treasury to fund our NHS, road & rail infrastructure, education system, as funding from Westminster is simply not enough to repair the historical damage and neglect done to our crumbling infrastructure and society.

Huge respect for DW (probably the best FM we never had); but there is one glaring hole in this debate. How much real influence does government have in a global economy - particularly one with very limited fiscal power? I agree that restoring a WDA type organisation is essential; but Plaid need more convincing plans. Ranting in isolation about neoliberalism and rich London doesn’t cut it.

Dafydd Wrigley is 100% spot on. If Plaid are going to win over the electorate then they need to apply rational choice. When Bill Clinton successfully ran for President in the 90's he ran on a successful platform: 'Its the economy stupid'. There is no bigger bread and butter issue than that, we need a strong economy to pay for an effective health service and improve our infrastructure educational standards. This is even more so for Plaid when they need to demonstrate that Wales can become economically self-sufficient. People want job security, the ability to put food on their plate and feed their family, the ability to spend their money, to buy a house and go on their dream holiday. These concerns resonate much deeper among the electorate than emotive subjects such as immigration, sovereignty, Brexit, devolution, independence, the environment, equality issues etc. I'm not saying they are not important matters but they may not necessarily address everyday conditions in which people live and work. Plaid need to attack not just the Tories but also Labour's record as well. Their failure to use EU structural funding properly. No attempt to regenerate the Welsh economy with real wealth creating powers, innovation or white collar jobs that could reduce the brain drain. Instead they invested on more of the same: manufacturing, warehouses, call centres etc, making us vulnerable to competition from the Global South. Wasting ridiculous amount of money on a statue of a Welsh Dragon in Ebbw Vale rather than putting it to better use. I would even argue that Welsh Labour have no interest in improving the Welsh economy since they benefit from the status quo. If voters had more income then they might start voting for other parties. The only good thing to come out of the rise of Reform is that it gives Labour a kick in the teeth. Demonstrate that the UK's over-centralised governance in favour of London-centric economy has failed Wales. The overwhelming majority of manufacturers in Wales not owned by Welsh companies, meaning that those in charge couldn't give a sh*t about the Welsh economy and would happily put out of Wales if it suited them. Whilst using the current devolved powers such as prioritising intra-Wales transport schemes, a national development bank, upgrade skills and training to the best of their ability to improve the economy, this would make a convincing case for further devolution, particularly wealth creating powers, corporation tax, crown estate, air passenger duty etc support Welsh grown companies as well as attracting inward investment. Look to Ireland or Estonia as an example of what Wales could be, make the unionists, populists, anti-devolutionists, and Britnats look like the irrational ones.

Gerry Holtham : Hodge Lecture 2018 - "Why is Wales poor" “And what tends to happen is that when (Welsh) firms cannot secure funding, or on good terms, they say, ‘This is okay – I cannot grow, but I am happy with my turnover of £5m to £6m. I am making £500,000 a year and i have a nice house in Cyncoed and can eat out and enjoy myself at the weekend... and I am not going to take on a lot of debt and risk my business’. “They say that people that want to give them equity want to take an arm and a leg and even a right eye, so forget it. So, they say they will just settle into a low-level equilibrium" Or ...they do sell their company at expansion point (at best price) and ownership is transferred out of Wales. Wales' "structural issues" are far deeper than a "must try harder" booster manifesto. Horatio.

Sadly, Wales is leaking intellectual property 'lock, stock and barrel' c/o, inter alia, Welsh Universities for failure to file patents on discoveries. Take the case of "Nobel Prize winner [Sir Martyn Evans] who spent years doing research and making breakthroughs at Cardiff University, not a single patent was issued on his work." 

^ What I mean is that opportunities for job creation are lost. I have taken this matter with, inter alia, Plaid and got brushed off.