Posted by Mark Drakeford

Time to man the bulwark

In its first full year of government, elements in the  approach to the Welsh economy adopted by the coalition administration in Westminster have become much clearer. For the main part, Wales features only as an object of collateral damage in the wider pursuit of neo-conservative economic policy. This aspect gathered particular pace in the final weeks of 2011.

In so far as a distinctive approach has emerged in relation to Wales, then the last year has seen the Tories revert to an agenda which dominated their tenure in government during the 1980s and 1990s: Wales is a place, they believe, where all the excesses of the welfare state are to be seen writ large. Continue reading →

An Alternative to Cuts

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The establishment of a coalition between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in Westminster requires a fundamental re-analysis of the political landscape in the United Kingdom. A good starting point would be to set aside all those delusional and self-serving suggestions that the Cameron/Clegg axis is bound to be only a temporary aberration, destined to fall apart under the weight of its own internal contradictions. Of course there are enormous tensions within the coalition and, in particular, inside its two component parties. But, in coalition politics, power is centrifugal: it drives those who exercise it together, rather than apart – if only because of the dire consequences which lie in wait through acting otherwise. The evidence from Wales, Scotland and local authorities up and down the land is that, once formed, coalitions last the course. Continue reading →