Opinion
Labour in the dock
Ben Wildsmith
Keir Starmer expended 17 lines marking the departure of Gareth Southgate from the England kickball job today, and only 11 on Vaughan Gething’s resignation.
Having backed the First Minister during the recent election, characterising his loss in a vote of confidence as ‘a stunt’, the Prime Minister could find no defining achievement around which to frame his tribute, other than Gething’s success in achieving office.
The lack of original policies attached to Gething’s name has worked against him in two ways. Firstly, it left him nothing substantive to point to when his position came under scrutiny. Secondly, there was no compelling reason for his colleagues to stand by him when the pressure came on.
Politicians can survive scandals if their agenda is worth fighting for. Starmer’s lukewarm statement unwittingly captured the suspicion that Gething’s election as First Minister had been his primary, and perhaps sole, objective in politics.
We were, of course, facing a situation in which the government was unable to pass a budget. This would have marked a subtle transition from doing virtually nothing to absolutely nothing.
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Pop refills
If I were writing about its substantive work, then yesterday’s stand-out announcement would have been consideration of banning pop refills at Harvester.
This sort of social tinkering has been a hallmark of recent Welsh governance. We are offered a Christmas dinner with elaborate trimmings but no turkey, as innovative projects on the fringes of life crowd out the urgent concerns of the electorate.
I can put up with driving at 20mph to A&E but find my goodwill tested if I must then wait 18 hours to be seen. I’ll never understand why I hear more about the former than the latter.
In some areas of Wales, Labour is so embedded into the national consciousness that it is difficult to see where its interests end and the nation’s begin. The party’s perception of itself as the inheritors of Nye, and the wider social struggles of the 20th century, belies the 21st century reality of a party that is an agreeable career move for the professional and managerial classes.
It is against this backdrop of top-down, unchallenged complacency that Mr. Gething rose to prominence.
Having dropped £170 000 on his side of the scales in the leadership election, he assumed a position so remote from the lives of voters as to be unquestionable.
Ethereal
The inner workings of the Labour Party in Cardiff seem to proceed on an ethereal plane, only to be revealed in the form of appointments and occasional legislation.
So, it’s unsurprising that this quasi-religious organisation reacted so ineptly to the novelty of press scrutiny.
Ironically, only Gething himself was genuinely revealing. His refusal to engage with any of the questions put to him, beyond impugning the motives of those asking, showed him in a clear, unforgiving light.
What about the rest of them, though? Do all those anonymous briefings and questionable sick notes put as much ethical distance between them and their boss as they’ll soon be claiming?
I doubt that Keir Starmer’s Westminster party, Jo Stevens included, could care less whether devolution continues in a meaningful fashion.
As soon as the election was over, Gething went under the bus, and it was on with their day.
Contemplation
So, it’s time for the Labour Group in the Senedd to engage with some existential contemplation.
Devolution can only thrive with the enthusiasm of the population. If that is seen to wane, then it will be chiselled away to puppetry by the UK government.
If their careers mean more to them than an agreeable lifestyle, Labour representatives need to put forward leadership candidates with robust and meaningful policy objectives that acknowledge the urgency of problems in people’s lives.
They should be shaking the Westminster tree for funding and doing so publicly; they should be engaging all over Wales to determine voters’ priorities. The noise they make should be audible across the border, and inescapable here.
Wales is not a laboratory for insipid, progressive notions. Nor is it a rotten borough over which privilege can be projected without accountability.
Its governance is a mighty privilege, and, in its current embarrassment, Labour must find a purpose worthy of that.
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