“The Welsh government doesn’t control the economic levers. Nobody in these global corporations cares about Wales,” he says, suggesting the way forward is to a steady-state economy “where the maximisation of shareholder value is not the driving force for the majority of economic activity”.
“We are crap at capitalism in Wales, so let’s do something different and try to improve the wellbeing of the people,” says Jones.
The original transformation of the Rhondda etc was one of the most red in tooth and claw instances of capitalism ever. Attracted hundreds of thousands of workers from the Midlands, Somerset and even Ireland (the South Welsh are not, in fact, Welsh).
Then they nationalised the mines and the metals and it all turned to shit.
There’s a useful lesson there.
Pipe the place with fibre, shoot the rail unions and let rip.
So the coal mines have been shut down and now there’s no jobs. It’s once more a green and pleasant land, and the plebs are all poor. I presume that they’ll reopen the mines and start up the coal burning electricity generators again?
But wait. I’ve looked a bit further into the article. It’s all the fault of brexit. Why didn’t I guess that immediately??
The coal and steel industries were doomed well before nationalisation. It was the war that kept them going.
Wales’ big problem is that anyone who has any talent leaves. Or, goes to Cardiff, Newport and Swansea.
I’m not sure what percentage that is, but it has enough of an effect on who the average voter is to be disastrous. Like, “hey, we’re a place that’s a bit skint, let’s spend a ton of money propping up a pointless language that is dying”. Or “let’s do rail instead of roads, even though mid-Wales desperately needs roads and almost no-one wants to use trains”.
Sometimes, this stuff just nudges people over the border. Don’t want your kids wasting their time learning Welsh? Move to Chester, drive to work in Wrexham.
Nobody in these global corporations cares about Wales,
Why would they?
Small economy, little money.
Main industry is sheep.
Combine that with onerous planning and environmental laws as well as high energy prices and taxes.
What’s to like for a large corporation? (Unless you’re Airbus and get the Welsh government to pay for your factories…)
“Main industry is sheep”
I’m not so sure. The main industry seems to be sucking off the English teat. The sheep thing is all about a sexual fetish …
If you think of the UK regions in terms of football’s Premiership,” says Calvin Jones, economics professor at Cardiff University, “the same three regions – Northern Ireland, the north-east of England and Wales – have been in the bottom three for the past 40 years
In today’s fuckwittery, a British university professor implies the British economy is a zero sum game.
And it’s not even Spud. Shame!
I cite my experience on a bus in Swansea and in an after-Murrayfield pub in Edinburgh: the Welsh are OK.
Their ruling class, of course, should go to the guillotine. But not only theirs.
Chernyy, Witchie, the obvious answer is to ban sheep then they will be forced to do something productive.
Steve,
All of these places are turning around because of internet stuff. I reckon Belfast is the most undervalued city in the UK. It’s cheap because of the troubles, but that’s about over bar some drug dealing, but the price hasn’t fully taken account of it. People don’t mentally think of it any other way. Commerce is coming to it.
But you can see it already shifting in the various house price indexes. Northern Ireland house prices were up 5% last year. London and the South East are down. That trend is going to continue. Why live in Surrey if you connect to a VPN? Might as well live amongst the Orangemen in a £172K house instead of a £430K house. And there’s plenty of cheap flights and no-one is going to ruin that by insisting you take some slow, overpriced choo-choo.
If I hadn’t already made a different decision…..there’s a vast Georgian house – and done up already, even if a bit tacky – just north of Dundrum Bay for £450k. Proper, Georgian, manor. Could have fun internet working from that.