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| Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford Source: BBC/Wales News Service |
The slogan 'Taking Wales Forward' reminds me of a Latin teacher telling his class about advertising ploys. He used the example of Craven A which, he alleged, gave smokers a sore throat so promoters used the slogan, "Will Not Affect Your Throat".
Far from taking Wales forward, Latin scholar Mark Drakeford, Wales' First Minister is set on taking Wales backwards in his decision to block the long awaited M4 bypass around Newport in South Wales often seen as the gateway to Wales.
The long suffering people living along side the M4 around the Brynglas tunnels and motorists have to endure mounting pollution from traffic blockages while the First minister pats himself on the back for saving bugs and beetles on the Gwent levels.
Frustrated by the decision, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would "do the things the Welsh Government has failed to do" and "unblock the Brynglas tunnels".
A spokesperson for the Welsh Assembly responded "It's an entirely devolved matter and the first minister has made his decision."
Forever playing catch up in Wales Drakeford has prided himself on taking a different route to the UK government particularly on pandemic restrictions claiming to be guided by expert advice.
Another expert, the planning inspector who spent more than a year considering the case for a new M4 route south of Newport gave it his overwhelming backing but Drakeford ignored that expert opinion.
Having spent £114m of taxpayers' money before the scheme was axed including £44m on a public inquiry, First Minister Drakeford axed the scheme because of its cost and impact on the environment.
Boris Johnson's intervention suggests that the cost of the relief road to remove the Bryn Glas bottleneck is firmly guaranteed but Drakeford and his environmentalist friends are more content to leave local residents and motorists fuming as long as creepy crawlies remain content in the salt marshes of the Gwent levels, unseen and unheard of until progress is mentioned.
It would have been better for the long suffering people of Wales if Mark Drakeford had stuck to Latin.
Postscript [16.07.20]
The panel of experts set up to consider alternatives to the M4 relief road has concluded that "some sort of charging mechanism is necessary" to encourage people to use public transport, cycle or walk.
Having scrapped the Severn bridge levy on people entering Wales a new M4 charge is proposed to "provide revenue funding for transport services", including more rail stations between Cardiff and Severn Tunnel Junction, thus increasing the risk of spreading the Coronavirus, Covid-19, on crowded train services.
The alternative to these proposals is to build the relief road as recommended by planning experts but the First Minister of Wales continues to insist on protecting 'rare' birds which would fly to other habitats and largely unseen insects.
With the next Senedd election due to be held in May 2021 there will be an opportunity for realists to dump Drakeford for a politician who puts people before bugs.
Postscript [21.08.20]
Comrade Drakeford has spoken: " 'That decision is over': Mark Drakeford says £1.3bn M4 relief road will not be happening. 'There is no point in people hankering back to it'." The arrogance of the man.
Drakeford and the Archbishop are the proof that chocolate tea pots are available in pairs.
ReplyDeleteSurprised at this attack on the First Minister. Further surprised that anyone would believe anything Boris Johnson promises.
ReplyDeleteWales receives a budget from central government,but the Welsh government is not able to spend as it sees fit; a good deal of the money is given to Wales only for specific purposes, in other words we are told how we must spend our budget. . Wales has enough intelligent people to run our country.
The other worrying feature of alleged allocated funds to Wales is that some of it is not new money at all ,but already earmarked money wrapped up under a different title.
The management of the Covid19 pandemic by Mr.Drakeford, The Chief Medical Officer and his advisors is reassuringly first class. In contrast Boris Johnson appears to have thrown in the towel and reverted to his herd immunity policy. Johnson cares very little about people as human beings,but cares only for money and shares.
Johnson is far sighted and perceptive in this respect. The Welsh Assembly, on the other hand, can NEVER match the House of Commons, or produce equal talent.
DeleteBob
These days I find myself in a quandary over Welsh Labour. For years I had no time for them; I was living in Swansea in the early '70s, when the party locally was a by-word for arrogance and corruption - it ended up with a dawn police raid on the Guildhall by an out-of-area police force, several court hearings on charges of corruption, and prison terms for the Labour leader of the council and the director of housing. I put it down to an unbroken fifty years in power locally fostering a sense of total entitlement. My time living in and around Newport a few years later did nothing to shift my perception; no instances of corruption there, but the same sense of complacent unshiftability that comes from the assumption that your lot will be in office for ever.
ReplyDeleteAnd when Welsh Labour elected Mark Drakeford to succeed Carwyn Jones I was initially singularly unimpressed: he struck me as plaintive and plodding, and probably there largely because he was thought to be a Corbynite. Which struck me as an entirely insufficient qualification for the role.
But his handling of the Covid-19 crisis over the last four months has changed my estimation of Mr Drakeford. Despite some mis-steps early on, he and his government have handled coronavirus far better than I expected, both in terms of taking appropriate measures to limit the spread of the virus and of sensing and addressing the mood of most people in Wales. And as a consequence we seem to be emerging - at least for the moment! - from the crisis in a better condition than England is. Maybe, at certain times, 'plaintive and plodding' can be a valid manifestation of leadership, because it reassures when the public needs reassurance!
Even more amazing to me is that under Mr Drakeford's watch the roles of both the Welsh government and his own as first minister have achieved a higher profile in terms of public awareness in Wales than at any other previous point. Under Drakeford! Now who would have anticipated that? Certainly not me. A couple of weeks back I actually caught myself wondering whether I might vote Labour next May, as an acknowledgement of his achievement. But on reflection I think that'd be a step too far for me! Every Welsh government so far has been either Labour or a Labour-led coalition. One lession from Swansea in the '70s is surely that one party government shouldn't go on for ever.
Plaintive and plodding?
DeleteFar too generous!
Mark Drakeford is trying to be Prime Ministerial, looking for every opportunity to do something different from England re the pandemic. As such he is being entirely political and needs reminding that Wales is 3m people, and directly next door with open borders are 55m English. There is every reason to be in step, but MD wants to exercise his authority.
ReplyDeleteLW
When your neighbour's governed by what appears to be a dubiously competent coalition of fools and ghouls a degree of distance might seem prudent!
DeleteThere's absolutely no need to speak of the Irish like that!
DeleteWhat is really required after going on for a quarter century of inept Labour in the Bay is a referendum on whether the Welsh Assembly should be scrapped altogether as an expensive experiment in white elephants.
ReplyDelete