Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford is widely regarded as having had a good pandemic. Re-elected in May with an increased Labour representation in the Senedd, the member for Cardiff West has earned plaudits for his un-showy style of leadership.
Still, Mr S can’t help but wonder how Drakeford would fare if his gaffes were treated in the way that the London press pack jumps on those by ministers in SW1. A typical example of this came just a fortnight ago, at a Senedd session that went largely unnoticed by the Welsh media, when the minister was asked by James Evans MS about restrictions on hard-pressed pubs.
Given the dire financial pressures on restaurants, bars and eateries this past year, Drakeford might have been expected to begin a reply by noting his concerns for the country’s hospitality and tourism sector, worth an estimated £3 billion and employing 140,000 people.
Instead the First Minister opted to sigh in exasperation and replied ‘I’m not an agony aunt for hospitality venues across Wales’ – a somewhat flippant response that (predictably) triggered fury among those pub landlords hammered by the financial restrictions.
The sexagenarian socialist did go on to offer some more substantive comments but the absence of any coverage of such a gaffe does highlight the difference in the tone and extent of coverage of the devolved administrations compared to the shenanigans of SW1.
Steerpike wonders what the usual suspects would say if it had been Boris Johnson making such an offhand comment in Westminster, rather than Mark Drakeford in Cardiff Bay. Given Drakeford’s evident desire for a federal UK, surely greater powers demand greater scrutiny too?
Comments