Wales will always be poor unless we become an Independent Nation

Like most people actual economic theory is as mysterious tome as quantum physics.

In one of my first ever Blogs back in  2010 I wrote

I  really can’t understand how banking works. How they can invent money and then lose. When billions have been lost by the banks it didn’t go anywhere it just disappeared, and yet none of the politicians seem to have the courage to say we must stop this because when these crashes happen and the “phantom money is no longer there it is not the bankers who suffer but the rest of us and when the axe falls it will be on our necks not the city fat cats.

Indeed it is ordinary people who see their real money disappearing. It is said that we are facing the most stringent cuts since 1945, in which the cost of the second world war broke Britain and limited the sort of welfare state that the Labour government tried to create, and I give Labour credit for what was achieved i pity they have lost their way.

But often as I have tried to understand economics I have been left bewildered. Until one day whilst reading Terry Pratchet’s Discworld novel “Men at Arms” I read this.


"A really good pair of leather boots, the sort that would last years and years, cost fifty dollars. This was beyond his pocket and the most he, Vimes, could hope for was an affordable pair of boots costing ten dollars, which might with luck last a year or so before he, Vimes, would need to resort to makeshift cardboard insoles so as to prolong the moment of shelling out another ten dollars. 


Therefore over a period of ten years, he, Vimes, might have paid out a hundred dollars on boots, twice as much as the man who could afford fifty dollars up front ten years before. And he would still have wet feet."

The Sam Vimes "Boots" Theory of Economic Injustice Men at Arms (Terry Pratchett)

How little has changed and now we have the news that


UK austerity to blame for Welsh life expectancy fall - Oxford Prof
Plaid Wrecsam tell us that 

Life expectancy in Wales is going backwards quicker than anywhere else in Europe, according to new data from the Office of National Statistics.

Official statistics from the ONS show that life expectancy fell by 5.72 weeks for men in Wales between 2014-2016 and 2015-2017, and by 4.16 weeks for women. The comparative figures for the other UK countries were:



ScotlandMen: -2.6 weeksWomen: -3.12 weeksNorthern IrelandMen: -4.16 weeksWomen: +0.52 weeksEnglandMen: +1.56 weeksWomen: +0.52 weeksWalesMen: -5.72 weeksWomen: -4.16 weeks

Oxford University Professor Danny Dorling told the BBC's World at One programme that Westminster policy was to blame, highlighting cuts to public sector services and a drop in immigration.

Speaking to the World at One, Professor Dorling said:

"We know that we have had no harsh winters since 2010 so it's not cold winters; we know it's not an influenza epidemic because we haven't had one of those. We're beginning to narrow it down to two things: The big thing is austerity and the cuts affecting the frail and the elderly in many, many ways, and the second thing is that we're no longer getting the young, healthy migrants that we were getting in the past which were actually helping boost our statistics."

Plaid Cymru MP, Hywel Williams has called the figures "scandalous", saying they reflect how Westminster austerity has disproportionately affected Wales.

Mr Williams said:

"These scandalous figures show the real impact of Westminster's policies on people's lives. This is not just people earning less, or paying more for their mortgages and groceries, it is people dying earlier than they should be.

"For Wales - a country that is bound to one of the richest states in the world - to see life expectancy not only falling when it is rising elsewhere, but for it to be falling faster than anywhere else in Europe should send shivers down the spines of those who have forced through these savage cuts to public services.

"It is the first time since the Second World War that the infant mortality rate has risen two years in a row across the UK and we've seen a substantial increase in the number of elderly and frail people dying two or three years earlier than normal.

"And what have we got to show for it? Austerity continues to be driven by those who claim it is necessary to eliminate the budget deficit but the reality is that austerity has depressed economic growth, leading to less money coming in, pushing the apparent goal of a balanced budget further and further away. So we should look at who has gained, and look no further than the pampered lives of the fat cats who win on the way up - and win on the way down too.

"It is a self-defeating prophecy and Wales cannot afford to be subjected to more of it. Those responsible in Westminster should hang their heads in shame and recognise the damage they continue to cause."

 Unionists both Left, Right and centre will argue that this proves that Wales is to small and poor for Independence '

Just like The Sam Vimes "Boots" Theory of Economic Injustice , but where he has wet feet we have poverty  and low life expediency.

The solution to me is obvious we must start making our own boots and that means Independence.

The alternative in a post Brexit England and Wales (Scotland will be long gone) , where we will fall further and further own the economic scale  and eventually cease to exist as a nation , but be little more than a tourist location and where  Tourist guides get the pronunciation wrong. as shamefully here,

Who ever wins the Plaid  leadership mus t argue that in order to avoid this fate, we should aim that a child born on this day . will be voting  for the first time in a General Election  for  a party to represent them in a n Independent Welsh Parliament,