Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

Journal Column – 23rd November

Gwyn Alf Williams once said “if we are to live, we must act”. By “we”, he meant Wales, the collective idea to which we belong and as politicians represent.

The kind of budget that the Welsh Government puts forward gives a clue as to the kind of nation Wales is, and what the Government’s ambitions are for Wales.

Plaid Cymru has always been clear that the UK Government has the overall responsibility for the state of the Welsh economy. We have to see things as they are. Plaid sees the situation as it is, but we want it to change. We want to see the balance of economic power shift, away from Westminster, to Wales.

The start should be shifting our economic thinking. A good budget won’t stop the economic crisis, but for Plaid Cymru a good budget would be one that explicitly recognises that the future of Wales as a nation is tied to having a stronger, fairer and sustainable economy.

When the Welsh Government has a serious and credible vision for the economy, beyond merely accepting whatever is thrown at us, our country will be taken more seriously at the UK level, where we also need a fair share of resources and a change of direction in economic policy. In short, we want the Welsh Government, having recognised the seriousness of the situation, to act.

We recognise that the Welsh Government has few job creation or economic powers. But where Plaid Cymru is different is that we believe an active Welsh Government can provide an alternative through its actions. We want the Welsh Government to eventually have its hands on a range of economic levers.

To reach that position, the Welsh Government has to be credible in the here and now. The Government has to prove it is serious about rejuvenating the Welsh economy.

Today we are well and truly in difficult times, because the growth needed in the UK economy to meet the UK Government’s plans has not happened, and that will have a huge effect on everything we do in the Assembly.

The Welsh Government’s proposed budget as it stands represents that same short-term thinking. It doesn’t really envisage the kind of Wales we want to emerge from the prolonged downturn. If investment is not adequate in the here and now, the policymakers in ten years’ time will regret it and will be hamstrung.

Labour has agreed that the block grant alone is not enough to meet our shared national aspirations for transport investment. We need to identify and access sources of funding outside of the block grant, and all parties have recognised this.

The Transport Minister confirmed he would not commit to bringing forward any new investment, until he has finished reprofiling the Labour Government’s spending plans.

He confirmed that no new schemes would be going into the National Transport Plan. Not only is this a blow to the areas of Carmarthenshire that have been crying out for new bypass roads, it is a critical error. Plaid Cymru implemented the Economic Renewal Programme, and from that came a commitment to a 10-year National Infrastructure Plan. The 10-year scale of the National Infrastructure Plan allows us to get away from the short-termism that is inherent in the Labour Transport Minister’s thinking.

So whether we are looking at transport, manufacturing, infrastructure, or capital expenditure generally, the budget needs to push the limits of what Wales is currently allowed to do.

Therefore, I commend my party’s call for an active budget that resists the austerity measures being imposed on our nation, that demonstrates a pan-Wales vision, and that asserts that the Welsh Government should live up to its name and set a new direction for our economy and for Wales.

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