The First Minister of Wales travelled up to Edinburgh last week for a much-hyped meeting, that of the Council of Nations and Regions. Yes, confirmation that the UK Government sees Wales as the equivalent of an English city region like Manchester or Sheffield. Which of course is absolutely fine, if that’s how you view the UK.
I take an alternative stance on this long-standing Westminster-centric approach. Wales is one of the constituent countries of the UK, along with Scotland, England, the part of Ireland still under Westminster control, and Kernow. All should be classed as and treated as countries. To be relegated in status to that of a city region or council in England is rather insulting, in my view.
A country not a county
I voiced these opinions on Twitter and received a riposte intended as a scolding put-down. But the points made were the usual soundbites, not a reasoned debate. To paraphrase, they said it was unfair, not inclusive, and logistically impractical to hold solely a Council of Nations get-together. Surely inclusivity is served by pulling multiple countries together into one political unit?
I was then told that saying such things undermines Wales’s credibility. It’s the opposite in my book. A country content to be treated as a county surely undermines its own credibility as a nation? It’s a shame that our First Minister seems content to manage a region, rather than developing a country that could and – as a growing number believe – should have the capacity to chart its own independent course.
Kernow’s reality is the worst nightmare for those who advocate for Wales to retain, gain more, or achieve total sovereignty. It’s denied devolution in its entirety and treated by the UK political establishment as a county of England. The Cornish reality, with all its deep-seated issues, is surely the ultimate end-goal of those who advocate for abolition of the Senedd.
The Great Welsh train robbery
This phrase, used over a year ago here in Bylines Cymru, is gaining increasing traction when discussing HS2 in a Welsh context. David Cameron’s government creatively classified the high-speed rail project as an ‘England and Wales’ project. Not a single inch of track comes close to the Welsh border. This sleight of hand has cost Wales roughly £4bn in consequential funding.
There was no legal mechanism for Dodgy Dave’s administration to deny consequential funding uplifts to Scotland or Northern Ireland. However, the archaic laws of the land allowed them to rip Wales right off; a country in dire need of significant rail investment.
The Cameron stance was maintained by Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak. However, then we had “change” as Labour was voted in. Having decried this legalised robbery when in opposition, Labour now had the chance to do something about it. Jo Stevens (now Secretary of State for Wales), the entire Labour Senedd Group, and Welsh Labour MPs have been banging this drum for years. So surely Wales would finally get fair play?
Don’t be daft. “Tough choices” when it comes to spending and all that. Now Labour is in government, it’s declined to give Wales that which it’s owed, or claims the figure is laughably lower. There’s no consistent message. Stevens went so far in one interview as to claim that HS2 doesn’t exist, such is the talent puddle of Labour’s Welsh branch.
Leaves on the line
The fairest outcome would see Wales remunerated in full with compensation on top. But there’s no immediate threat from the Welsh electorate to force what is clear and obvious fair play. We’re not on the cusp of voting in something Westminster fears, like the SNP in Scotland or Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland. Wales overwhelmingly voted for Labour, despite Keir Starmer’s refusal to commit to healing this national wound. We don’t have leverage.
That’s why Rhun ap Iorwerth has played an audaciously brilliant card. The Plaid Cymru leader has demanded that Wales must receive what it’s owed in HS2 consequentials, or there’s no prospect of Plaid facilitating Labour’s budget in the Senedd. A gutsy move, which will get Westminster’s attention; the kind of political manoeuvre Plaid has historically shied away from.
Why is this brilliant? Labour doesn’t have a majority in the Senedd. It holds 50% of seats, so must secure the support of one other MS. If Labour cannot, Eluned Morgan won’t be able to pass her budget; which could be the end of her as First Minister.
So Plaid is positioned to either secure Wales’s missing HS2 billions, or endanger Morgan’s premiership. The Conservatives are certain not to support Labour’s budget. That leaves the sole Liberal Democrat MS and the independent MS, Rhys ab Owen. I could of course be wrong, but I’d wager neither would want to be painted as the person who stood in the way of Wales’s rightful £4bn.
The ball’s now in Labour’s court, and I’m sure it has hit the desk of Rachel Reeves in Downing Street. Will Labour come up with the goods to avoid a train wreck in the Senedd, attempt to negotiate Plaid Cymru down, or play political Russian roulette and take its chances?
No Crown Estate for Wales
We now have a definitive answer on the Crown Estates question. As readers of this column may recall, the devolution of the Crown Estate to Wales has been a contentious topic for years. It manages lands formerly directly owned by the monarch, including Wales’s seabeds and riverbeds.
The Crown Estate leases the land for things such as offshore wind farms, which have generated record profits. This money goes to the UK Treasury, which then pays the equivalent of 12% of the profits to the King via the Sovereign Grant; a bit of a legal Royal laundry, if you will.
This week Peter Hain – Labour Secretary of State for Wales in Tony Blair’s government – called for devolution of the Crown Estate to Wales, citing the need for fairness and parity with Scotland. The Crown Estate is devolved to Scotland and Northern Ireland. This followed a Gwynedd County Council debate on whether to withhold payments to the Crown Estate, and Swansea Council’s calls to devolve it to the Senedd.
The answer from the Labour UK Government is a firm no. The Crown Estate is closely linked to its flagship GB Energy initiative. The idea is to greatly ramp up renewable energy production, which will likely see Wales’s coastline and hillsides littered with its machinery. The Crown Estate already generates record profits, which will exponentially increase, benefitting the UK Treasury and the King but bypassing Wales itself.
The spoils of conquest
The argument is that devolving it to Wales is too much administrative hassle, and that it would initially cost money to set up a new entity for the Crown Estate in Wales. But of course the real reason is Westminster’s need to control renewable energy initiatives on Wales’s coastline – a cash cow for the state and the King to milk.
It’s scandalous that this state-sponsored theft is still going on in the 21st century. Let’s not forget that the Crown Estate only has these lands because the previous owners were killed and/or dispossessed of them. It’s historical spoils of conquest carrying on into the net zero age. That isn’t an opinion but an uncomfortable fact.
Dwelling on historical grievances isn’t my motivation, though. These lands should be national assets for Wales. In the first instance, profits should go to the Senedd; profits made in Wales from Welsh land and water should stay in Wales.
Then we can move on to whether the King should cream 12% off the top and into his pocket via the Sovereign Grant. Wales has record levels of child poverty and is in the midst of a cost of living crisis. Great wealth generated in Wales should not bypass us. Whatever scraps the UK Treasury or the King choose to ‘invest’ back into Wales are nowhere near enough.
The loveless landslide
The support for Labour that led to the UK general election victory, dubbed by some in the media as the “loveless landslide”, has collapsed. A More In Common poll last week found Labour recording its lowest score (27%) in a major UK-wide poll since November 2019. It also lost the lead for the first time since March 2022. If this poll was an election result, Labour would lose its historic majority and face a hung parliament.
The Starmer administration’s controversial raid on pensioners’ Winter Fuel Payments, purge of internal rebels, and rumoured austerity-style budget decisions, seem to have wiped out the support that put them in power. By far the primary reason given by 2024 voters as to why they voted Labour was to ‘get the Tories out’. Continuing to be wedded to the same Tory economic rules that caused so much pain over the last 14 years, and maintaining things like the two-child benefits cap, damages that anti-Tory support.
This column is dedicated to Welsh politics, but of course Westminster has a huge impact here – especially with our Welsh Government toeing the UK Government line.
Starmer promised change. It’s not too early to ask where that is.
