Dear Cambria,
For anyone interested in a brightfuture for Wales, the last year has been depressing. I was truly appalled at the stories of the mismanagementat the University of Wales, the WJEC exam board and the continuing news about the desperately bad performance of the Welsh economy.
I have also just read a fine article by former Plaid Cymru MP, Adam Price about the woeful state of the Welsh economy. Wales is now compared to Portugal as the poorest region in the EU. “The Welsh economy is now well into its third Lost Decade”, said Mr. Price.
Well who can we blame for this dire mess? Yes, it is easy to haul out the usual suspects, mostly English, but I think we need to look closer to home. We are familiar with the so-called Arab Spring and I wonder if Wales needs its own “political spring”. Wales has been badly led for a long time and the culprits are there sitting in comfort in Cardiff Bay and in the council chambers around the land. They are in the Registry in Cathays Park and in the offices of the WJEC exam board in Cardiff and they need to be roundly criticized for their incompetence and stupidity and then replaced.
Wales is on the wrong track in so many ways and the solution lies with its people, the voters, to demand better leadership and to subject that leadership to the bright light of critical examination. It’s not enough to have an economic strategy that seemingly consists of only two principle components; excellence in EU grant writing and attracting the branch factories of multinationals.
Enough of the tired old political rhetoric and well-worn tactic of walking backwards into the future! Wales needs fresh ideas, fresh strategies and some fresh new leaders who are willing to be challenged daily on their ideas and actions. More importantly it needs a reinvigorated and challenging electorate that demands excellence and is not prepared to accept mediocrity any longer. How can the country seriously consider greater independence and selfgovernment when there is not even any widespread discussion about the current disastrous course?
Sadly getting the Welsh electorate and the Welsh media to focus on this important issue will be difficult. On the 13th of April my hopes were raised when I saw the following headline on the BBC website; “Swansea must end slump—“. Sadly
the article was about football. What was that expression about something being the opiate of the masses?
Robert Heming, Houston.
Published in Cambria Summer 2012
How #Obama got fierce on foreign policy thebea.st/KGViOH
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) June 15, 2012
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We very good at the grants i must admit. I am also very interested in what you call branch factories of multinationals . We do not have many of these in Wales, we do have a few that are breakaways in diffrent names so that our people can be treated badly with low wages and conditions.
If our politicians stood there ground Westminster would give us more of the cream and less of the milk on the job front. Even if we include the background of monies from the state to make up for poor pay it does not make up for pride lost to working at the places we have been given.
Part of the problem may be a Labor mentality that assumes someone else or something else should provide. To make it on its own, maybe Wales needs a stronger entrepreneurial mentality to develop Welsh businesses. Write business plans rather than – or at least in addition to – grant requests.