Thursday, 6 September 2018

Why is "Parity with Scotland" so hard for Welsh Labour?


Wannabe Welsh Labour Leader Alun Davies has apparently launched his Manifesto for that job which currently comes with being First Minister .
Over the past few months many of us have been speaking about the future we want to see for our party and our country. I am anxious that we are all able to contribute to an open and wide-ranging conversation about how we make the radical changes that I believe we need to make in both the party, reinventing our socialism, changing the way in which we govern and how we meet the new challenges of the future if we are to continue to enjoy the trust of the people of Wales.
I launched this campaign above Tredegar at the Nye Bevan memorial. It is where I started my own personal journey and it is where our own socialist values have driven radical change which has transformed the Labour party and our country.
Yep if you have nothing real new to say invoke the spirit of Nye Bevan , but of course don't mention that the Welsh NHS is the worst preforming in the UK

Fundamentally I believe that we need radical change because our politics is broken and that our democracy is facing a real existential crisis. Too many people believe that devolution and the National Assembly are immune from the international crises facing democratic politics across the West. I believe that democratic government in Wales is facing a real crisis of confidence and one which may even lead to a crisis of legitimacy unless it is urgently addressed.

The actual "Manifesto" does not seem to call for the Assembly to have parity with Scotland as he writes

So devolution must now mean devolution within Wales and real devolution to communities across and throughout Wales. It is my ambition to transfer power from Cardiff to county halls across the country. And I intend that this takes place as a part of a process of the simplification of how we practice governance. Councils should have new powers to act and new opportunities to increase and strengthen their financial resilience . And I hope that it will be underpinned by a new national framework within which empowered councils with the capacity and ability to lead will exercise their powers locally, regionally and nationally. A new settlement with greater power exercised locally with greater opportunities to innovate and to drive change. And with greater power comes greater responsibility. So I also want local government to take greater responsibility for the improvement of services provided by local authorities. This is the reality of a maturing system and a maturing relationship with the Welsh Government. So, to me, it makes sense that local government takes on a far greater role and responsibility for improvement functions. That will demand a greater self awareness of performance and drive for improvement among local government itself. It will demand a greater collective response where authorities act together for the greater good. I will create a national improvement agency as a partnership between the Welsh Government and local government but with local government in the lead.

Now I don't disagree with Alun  on further internal devolution, but unless the Assembly  has real powers to devolve whats the point? If you want to be radical
Alun start from "Party with Scotland".

His Introduction  states

We have succeeded in defending Wales from the worst of Tory austerity and we have created a Welsh politics unthinkable two generations ago. But to sit back and point at our record is the worst possible response to the political, social and economic change that we are witnessing today.

Alun's Westminster Leader  Jeremy Corbyn has criticised the SNP government for not doing enough to defend Scotland from Tory austerity,

I apologise but here's that list again



and i will continue to show it so long as  "Welsh" Labour claim to defending Wales from the worst of Tory austerity".

He does make a case for electoral reform in which I concur

We also need to be far more bold about electoral reform. Traditionally we have shied away from embracing proportional representation because of our fears that it may damage the party electorally. A failure to deliver a different politics is a far greater threat to Welsh Labour therefore I support and will campaign for us to adopt STV as our preferred electoral system for local, Welsh and UK elections. This is the first step in mending a broken system

But I doubt he will convince his colleagues of this . 

At the end of the day Alun Davies offers nothing  that justifies his claim of "Radical Change" 

 He writes the same Unionist rubbish in trying to convince us that we a "Better Together" in a unequal partnership

But I also want Wales to be an active participate in the family of UK nations. We will argue for a different UK in the future which will share different structures to avoid the disputes that have for too long disfigured the relationships between the governments of these islands. I believe that parliaments governing our nations and coming together to govern ourselves and to contribute to the wider world is a vision of the UK which is far removed from the flag-waving nationalism and populism that has dominated our politics for too long. But it is a vision which I believe is far more compelling.

Why do Labour politicians in Wales have a problem with  "Parity with Scotland" when it comes to powers,

Can it be that they look at Labour in Scotland where they hegemony has been broken y a party which has been more radical and efficient that they have been in power in Edinburgh

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Northern Ireland has more powers than Wales, plus there is 'English votes for English laws' in Westminster, so 'Parity with Scotland' needs to be rephrased to 'Parity with everyone else'.