A Tory–Plaid Cymru pact?

28 April 2007

Liam Byrne says the English must be less apathetic about the United Kingdom, and about the threat of Scottish independence that looms in next week’s elections

Cultural politics is a defining feature of the Welsh political scene — and one which distinguishes it from the rest of the UK. Only a fifth of the population are competent in the Welsh language, but their heavy concentration among the professional middle classes means that a party which wants to be respectable — a key quality for a Conservative party — needs at least their assent, and ideally their support. This is why Tory ministers under both Thatcher and Major supported a raft of legislation safeguarding the teaching of the language and underwriting its position in public life. Tories cosying up to Plaid can claim to be happy bedfellows in at least this respect.

But it’s in economic policy and thinking that the post-devolution scene in Wales really depresses and alarms. This is a country which has nothing like a mixed economy and the sheer dominance of the public sector has led to its ruination in the past generation. Panglossian schemes for economic regeneration based on partnerships with deadbeat local authorities spew forth out of the immaculately designed Welsh Assembly building. Nearby there are vast acreages of empty land in Cardiff Bay — ‘Europe’s largest waterfront development’ — some ten years after its inauguration. The NHS workforce dominates the labour market, but by an irony common to socialised care, all the statistics show the Welsh population to be also among the most chronically unhealthy in Europe. Meanwhile, absurd health committees are set up by the Welsh Assembly — one for each area of the country — to consider future initiatives with predictably futile results. The vandalised housing estates of the South Wales valleys are among the most shocking sights to be seen in any region of the post-industrialised Continent, while the area’s schools produce results which are lower even than those recorded in some of England’s most deprived areas.