Nicola Sturgeon is a familiar figure to many even south of the border. But while Scotland’s nationalists are frequently seen and heard on the airwaves in England, the same isn’t true of Wales’s politicians. If you ask a Brit to name the first minister of Wales, you wouldn’t be surprised if they struggled to answer. But coronavirus has given Wales a new prominence – not least in the country choosing to go it alone in its response to tweaking lockdown rules. It seems all it took was a pandemic to prove that the Welsh, not just the Scots, have a competent parliament and leader to make decisions.
Over the last couple of weeks, the Welsh government has ramped up efforts to communicate how its policies differ to those made in Westminster. It started with tweets to newspapers telling them that their reports on UK policy were misleading, escalating to Mark Drakeford openly criticising Boris Johnson for a confusing address that provided no clarity over which lockdown rules applied to who.
And it hasn’t just been Downing Street in Drakeford’s sights. His press chief also wrote to the London media lobby to explain that whatever the Prime Minister announces is only applicable to England. To make matters as clear as possible, the aide attached a document explaining the legal and constitutional status of Wales.
Not everyone was listening, of course. Even the BBC’s home affairs correspondent, Daniel Sandford, said yesterday that the different travel rules in Wales and England were ‘ridiculous’ and that it was not going to be policed rigorously. Apparently the Welsh government has complained; we can expect a quick apology from the BBC.
This reaction from the Welsh government is not what we are used to. For years – even since the beginning of devolution – London has viewed Cardiff as a secondary concern compared to the politics of Belfast and Edinburgh. ‘England and Wales’ has been the norm and it has for centuries been a relationship that has been taken for granted. Now the tables have turned: the Welsh government actively brief policy ahead of the UK administration, condemn Downing Street for their own approach, and threaten the English public over any plans to travel across the Severn estuary for exercise in the weeks ahead.
So why is the Welsh government taking such a new approach? The stakes are arguably higher in our country, which has some of the worst levels of poverty in western Europe, with areas such as the south Wales valleys at risk of being drastically affected for years to come. This is only emphasised by the economic impact of coronavirus; the possible collapse of Tata Steel’s UK arm, for instance, threatens thousands of jobs across already deprived towns such as Port Talbot, Newport and my home Llanelli.
This is why the spread of disinformation, caused by vague political speeches and lazy reporting, can be so dangerous. It explains with good reason why the messaging from the Welsh government has been the most aggressive of all administrations across the whole of the UK. Without this approach, there could be trouble. The margins of ‘R’ are increasingly fine, as Mark Drakeford and Boris Johnson have said to their respective audiences.
Despite the obvious implications of such deviations in policy on the public as a whole, recent events also reflect how the balance of power in the UK might be shifting. Our first minister – a Labour politician through and through – has previously flirted with the idea of Welsh independence if the wider political conditions were ripe for it.
Mark Drakeford’s behaviour in recent weeks should be a cause for concern for Unionists. As only the fourth leader of the Welsh government, after next year’s Welsh election it isn’t impossible to comprehend that he may turn out to be the last Labour politician to fill the role.
While the full implications of this pandemic on the UK’s future is not yet clear, it is the first time since devolution that the Welsh government have clearly communicated that it will not blindly follow Westminster policy and instead act with its own sovereign powers. We’ve always been the noisy neighbours, it just seems that now people are listening when it really matters.
Theo Davies-Lewis is an associate at Finsbury and is from Llanelli, west Wales
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