Seasonal gifts for my political opponents

When I was a young reporter in the 1970s I received a political lesson from Jack, now Lord Brooks of Tremorfa, at the time the Labour leader of South Glamorgan County Council. Taking my arm during a reception in Cardiff City Hall he pointed to one end of the room and said, ‘Now down there John are my political opponents, they’re the Tories.” Turning, he pointed to the other end of the room and added, “Down there are my political enemies, the Labour Party.”

In the spirit of the festive season I shall adopt Jack’s generally non-sectarian approach to politics and offer some suggestions to my political opponents in Wales for the coming year. First on my list is the Welsh Government. It used to have a target of increasing Wales’s economic activity, measured by GVA (gross value added), to 90 per cent of the UK average. It quietly dropped that target as the figure has stayed stubbornly in the low 70s for the 16 years it has been running Wales.

Gerry Holtham - Polo-mint Welsh Government has 'a holein the middle'.

Carwyn Jones should take note of his former advisor the economist Gerald Holtham who back in January wrote a paper for the Wales TUC saying we needed more firmly directed policies. Instead, he said, we continue to have  “Polo-
mint” government - one with a hole in the middle. “There is no substantial First Minister’s department, no strong Cabinet office and no
real Treasury in the Welsh government. There
is no body that is supposed to help frame an overall strategy or to co-ordinate the strategies of different ministries, which all too often operate with detached independence. If the First Minister wants to create an industrial strategy driving
the infrastructure plan and to ensure that the policies of all departments are in harmony with
it, he will have his work cut out. The institutions to help him are not there. You won’t get joined up government if a chunk of the government’s central nervous system is missing.”

Next on my list is the Secretary of State for Wales, Preseli’s Conservative MP Stephen Crabb. In October he published the draft Wales Bill which seeks to increase the powers and legislative authority of the National Assembly. However, it has been criticized on all sides as achieving precisely the opposite. Stephen Crabb should take note of the report on the Bill just published by the Assembly’s cross-party Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, chaired by the Deputy Presiding Officer, Conservative AM David Melding. This has presented Crabb with a sensible list of proposals that would, as Melding says, “deliver the Secretary of State’s aims of a stronger, clearer and fairer devolution settlement for Wales that will stand the test of time.”

As the referendum on whether the UK is to remain in the EU looms ever closer, my next thought is for UKIP. Of all my political opponents they’re the least congenial. All I would say to them is take the next anti-EU speech by Nigel Farrage and simply replace the words ‘Britain’ or ‘United Kingdom’ with ‘Wales’.  Then take a close look at it and decide whether you agree with the sentiments expressed.

As for the Liberal Democrats and Greens what can I say? They’re such nice people. Next year they should undertake what they do best and redouble their efforts to seek cross-party collaboration. Have a happy Christmas one and all.