Wales is shortchanged again

Plus an interview with Iolo Williams and how Welsh Labour plan to take on Reform

I think one of the biggest frustrations of living in Wales isn’t that we are often an afterthought, shortchanged and overlooked. It isn’t even that our governance leaves so much to be desired both at a national and devolved level. It is the fact that so few people seem to know about it.

Even when people are aware, the reaction is often simply a shrug of the shoulders. “Of course Wales is poor, it’s always been that way”.

This disconnection with the realities of the nation that so many people love caused the frustration that led me to start writing my forthcoming book Who Cares About Wales (if you think you can provide insights please feel free to contact me). We need to collectively demand better and speak up for Wales.

I will be using this newsletter to illustrate some of those issues looking at cuts to the arts and sports as well as how Wales’ national parks are being shortchanged. The second half will be taken up by an in-depth interview I conducted with Welsh TV presenter (appearing on shows such as Springwatch) and author, Iolo Williams. He does not hold back in his criticism of the Welsh Gov’s record on safeguarding nature.

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How Labour plan to tackle Plaid and Reform

Before we jump into the main stuff I want to show you two brief exchanges Eluned Morgan made in First Minister’s Questions because I think they indicate how Welsh Labour are planning to counter Plaid and Reform.

Countering Plaid

Taking Plaid first. Their leader Rhun ap Iorwerth asked about devolution of the Crown Estate. It is Welsh Labour policy for it to be devolved. Mark Drakeford reiterated this in my interview with him. Eluned Morgan has said she is making the argument to UK Government for this to happen. But the Treasury has previously suggested that no conversations have even taken place.

This was the exchange in the Senedd:

There are two strands to this. The first is that Welsh Labour are walking the very fine tightrope of both trying to portray themselves as fighting for Wales at UK level while obscuring the fairly obvious conclusion that they carry little weight whatsoever with their Westminster colleagues (just last week the Labour MP for Llanelli told Golwg that devolving the Crown Estate was a waste of time).

The second strand is that they are trying to portray Plaid’s refusal to back their budget as anti-Wales. Remember, Labour needs the support of either Plaid, the Lib Dems or the Tories for it to pass.

Ms Morgan sold Mr ap Iorwerth:

“There is an opportunity for you to support the people of Wales on 4 March. You pride yourself—. You call yourself the Party of Wales; you are not the Party of Wales if you do not help to deliver that £600 million extra for the health service that they are looking for us to do.”

I think the problem with this strategy is that it won’t really cut through with the general public. Plaid are going to say “we didn’t back this budget because the UK Labour Government are refusing X, Y & Z”. I think that is a very simple message which will be effective come 2026. It plays into this idea that Welsh Labour are not able make headway even with getting concessions from their own party.

Among people that are politically engaged in Wales there is a real feeling that Cymru is being shortchanged by Westminster. I think Plaid’s statement that they are standing up for Wales will resonate far more than Labour's argument that Plaid’s opposition is “anti Wales”.

Countering Reform

With regards to Nigel Farage I think that Labour have a good plan. Not necessarily the best plan which is, you know, actually meaningfully improving public services, but still not a terrible one. They are going to continually, time after time, repeat Nigel Farage’s stances on the NHS and trade unions. Labour sources tell me that their research suggests that this can have a meaningful impact on the public’s view of the Reform leader.

However, this will all be about the delivery. The comments in the Senedd by Ms Morgan (who tbf is normally a decent communicator) were delivered pretty lamely asking members to “join in” before it was shut down by the speaker.

Cuts to the arts

Some of you may have already read my Guardian column where I talked about how the Welsh arts sector has been decimated by cuts. If not you can read it here.

I want to break down in more detail where those cuts have fallen and how arts funding in Wales compares to other nations in the UK and beyond. These come from a recent report from the Senedd’s Culture committee.

This is where Wales ranks in terms of culture spending per person compared to other countries:

The picture painted by this table is atrocious. Bear in mind that the UK figure in the table includes Wales which is pulling it down. Hence, other parts of the UK must significantly exceed Wales’ spend. Imagine what could be produced in Wales if we were just half way up this table.

It is just as depressing when it comes to sport:

When jewels become jokes - Wales’ national parks

I strongly believe that the state and status of our national parks are a scandal and represent one of the biggest missed opportunities in Welsh society. I will cover this in more detail in a special report into Wales' national parks in a future newsletter.

However what I would like to do is look at grant funding for Welsh national parks and how it compares to other parts of the UK. You will not be shocked to find out that Wales, once again, is being shortchanged.

Take a look at this table:

The ones in blue are national parks in England, red is Scotland and green is Wales. As you can see, two of the three parks with the lowest funding are in Wales. This simply can’t be put down to size. Eryri is the fourth largest in the UK while Bannau is in the middle. You will also notice that the three parks with the lowest funding are adjacent to the parts of the UK with the highest levels of deprivation…

Bannau Brycheiniog is one of the worst funded UK national parks

The Sustainable Farming Scheme - Does the effort to appease farmers mean we will miss our climate targets?

We have talked in-depth within this previous newsletter about the SFS and why farmers have become so exercised about it. The Welsh Gov have been desperately trying to get farmers on side and it appears they will be watering down a lot of the environmental commitments within the scheme which will be announced in the summer.

Back in November WWF Cymru shared a briefing document with some Senedd Members. Several of them forwarded it onto me. Within it the WWF Cymru said:

WWF Cymru are extremely disappointed that the farm-level figure for tree cover has been removed with a new Universal Action for a tree planting and hedgerow creation opportunity plan.

We are extremely disappointed that no mandatory farm-level tree figure has been retained in the scheme. We recognised that there had to be movement on the 10% scheme rule, but to go from 10% to no farm level target is too far a compromise.

We also note that the number of Universal Actions in the scheme have now been reduced from 17 to 12.

The new scheme proposals leave both farmers and communities at greater risk of climate induced extreme weather impacts such as the widespread floods seen this weekend.

[We are] very concerned that the Universal Layer of the SFS has largely become a plan-based approach with no requirement to act. Plans are only as good as their implementation. Scrapping the 10% tree target raises real concerns about how agreed tree planting targets will be met (44,000 ha by 2030 and 180,000 ha by 2050).

WWF Cymru have indicated that this was their position in November and that they have engaged with the ongoing process of developing the legislation. The briefing note also said:

Welsh Government have declared climate and nature emergencies and we do not agree that the changes meet the Sustainable Land Management objectives set out in legislation, including climate change and nature commitments. The new scheme proposals actually jeopardise Wales’ 2030 and 2050 nature/climate targets.

Frankly, they have a point. The Welsh Government LOVES to talk a good game when it comes to the environment. But it's record on delivery is not good. It is hard to see this as anything other than kicking the can down the road when it comes to taking tough decisions. For decades governments have kicked this particular can down the road. But we are now at the end of the road. There is no further for the can to be kicked. They utterly betray the Wellbeing of Future Generations legislation they are so fond of speaking about if they don’t grasp the nettle on this.

Iolo Williams (BBC)

The Iolo Williams interview: “Some of the propaganda coming from one or two very prominent farmers and the unions - it's just absolute rubbish”