It has been speculated that one of reasons that Wales voted with England to leave the European Union was that Welsh Politicians were too busy fighting the Assembly Elections to put the case for the EU especially pointing out the funding that came from Brussels .
The latest 2014-2020 round of European Structural Funds was due to inject more than £2bn into the poorest parts of Wales.
Now we will be no longer getting such funding in the future , the question now is we will receive equivalent funding from Westminster?
Maybe not
The Conservative manifesto states:
“We will use the structural fund money that comes back to the UK following Brexit to create a United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund, specifically designed to reduce inequalities between communities across our four nations. The money that is spent will help deliver sustainable, inclusive growth based on our modern industrial strategy.Wales Online reports Cardiff University’s Professor Kevin Morgan – one of Wales’ leading experts on regeneration and an adviser to the European Commission on regional policy – said Wales had the greatest level of need in the UK. as saying
“We will consult widely on the design of the fund, including with the devolved administrations, local authorities, businesses and public bodies. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund will be cheap to administer, low in bureaucracy and targeted where it is needed most.”
“I really think it would be a really regressive step, a real step backwards, if central government saw the prosperity fund as [a fund] where poor areas simply bid into it willy-nilly on a one-off ad hoc basis...He also pointed out that it is important where the decision will be made
“When you treat unequals equally that’s not a recipe for territorial justice...
“If the prosperity fund is treating unequal regions equally then it’s not a recipe for sustaining the union let alone rebalancing the economy. It would be a step backwards if the prosperity fund was simply a new bidding system and it didn’t recognise the structural inequalities that exist today, which is what the European Commission recognised.”
With economic development being a devolved matter, I personally believe that that money that’s coming to Wales ought to be devolved to the [Welsh Government]...“It was an explicit promise from the Leave campaign that Wales would not be worse off as a result of Brexit, the implication being that London would underwrite the money that’s currently flowing from Brussels.”Its about this time we listened to the Proclaimers ,
: “Whatever’s wrong with the European Commission, and there’s lots wrong with it, at least in its very DNA it’s got a commitment to regional policy... Whereas you can’t say the same of Conservative Governments in Whitehall.”
The Tories hope to control funding for Wales not only through how much is allocated , but how it is spent.
The former leader f the Quebec Party Option National Jean-Martin Aussant . puts it this way
: Imagine you have $50 to buy music you like. Your neighbour takes the $50, and promises to give you back $55 worth of tunes."What he doesn't tell you is that it's music you don't like -- and there are $25 in administrative fees," "So you started off with $50 and you ended up with $30 worth of music you don't even like."That's Canadian equalization. We need to face the facts: We'd be better off keeping our money and choosing our own music."This is true of Wales and Scotland as well
That means that this may result in infrastructure projects being built , that could be as I have already argued see Wales divided into two and absorbed into England
Projects like reopening the Carmarthen- Aberystwyth line, will be declared superfluous to our needs and although it will never be admitted of little benefit to the regions around Liverpool or Bristol.
We need decide what we want for Wales .
If you really believe bring absorbed by English regions will benefit , then vote Tory or Labour (because it is Labour councillors in the likes of Cardiff backing tying South Wales to Bristol)
However if you believe its time Wales grew up and stopped going Cap in Hand
then it time to consider Independence as an option.
2 comments:
"It has been speculated that one of reasons that Wales voted with England to leave the European Union was that Welsh Politicians were too busy fighting the Assembly Elections to put the case for the EU especially pointing out the funding that came from Brussels" there may be some truth in that observation glyn. No question senior politicians in wales failed to engage fully with people in the run up to the referendum - we couldnt even get an all party remain campaign off the ground in wales. Dare i say it there were quite a few who preferred to see david cameron skewered by his own party on the issue of europe than to take the case for staying in the eu to the people of wales.
Given the closeness of the result in wales you have to think that if we'd seen a coordinated all party remain campaign in wales - emphasising the importance of the single market to the welsh economy - the result would have been different in wales. As it is leavers can say to us wales voted with england to leave the eu, and if the tories win the most seats in wales on june 8th they'll be able to say to us wales voted with england for a hard brexit. I heard adam price say over the weekend that wales faces an existential crisis if the tories win a majority of eats in wales on top of the way we voted on june 23rd (and he was right.).
P.S. Im sure we all remember bojo and farage visiting wales during the referendum campaign and telling us westminster would replace the funds wales receives from the EU if there was a vote to leave. In view of the statement in the tory manifesto about wales now having to 'bid' for funds alongside other parts of the uk the promise the likes of johnson made looks like another leaver lie (lie numbe 103 i make it).
Today's Welsh Opinion poll is even more depressing than the last two, looks like Wales is returning to default and backing Labour to the hilt.
Yet again Plaid Cymru is failing in an election it should be making ground, a similar story repeated from the recent local elections and last year's Assembly elections the messaging is all wrong again, why doesn't Plaid listen, the SNP will return a shed loads of MP's to Westminster, Plaid will have 3 yet again.
You want more proof, how about the reaction of Caerphilly couple on Gogglebox to the PPB, the majority in Wales don't believe that Wales is under threat, we will be assimilated, but it'll just take longer if Labour hangs on.
Leanne Wood had a free hit on last week's ITV debate without any Labour or Tory challenge and yet the party is falling in the polls, im close to giving up, either Plaid Cymru starts listening and learning lesson or its time for a new national party.
Post a Comment