Thursday, May 8, 2008

Devolution boosts translation sector.

What has devolution delivered for Wales in real terms?
WALES is still struggling to close the wealth gap with the rest of the UK, according to new figures published today.

The data, compiled by the Office for National Statistics, puts Wales’ GVA per head – the accepted measure of national wealth – at 77% of the UK average, down from 79% when the Assembly was set up in 1999 and 84% back in 1991.

Despite receiving more than £1bn of EU aid to boost economic activity, with another £1.8bn coming between now and 2013, Wales is firmly at the bottom of the UK league table.

But on the plus side, the Assembly has decreed that any future correspondence sent out in the Principality from the Bank of England, the Gambling Commission or the Carbon Commission will have to be now in Welsh as well as English.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the days when the main unionist party in Scotland is on the verge of utter collapse, and the other unionist party shows not an iota of change in its support, unlike the rest of the union, and the main independence party is riding the highest wave it ever has I thought might stop the carping from the side lines about institutions people democratically chose to install, and comment on the total failure of unionism to make a coherent case.

O'Neill said...

The post is about Wales.

The stats show it is comparitively worse off than it was now than it was pre-devolution, that's not an attempt at an argument, it's a fact. Simply because a small majority of people voted for such an institution, doesn't mean we're then prevented from reporting on how well its region is doing economically.

And if you had thought about the information provided more deeply, instead of employing the knee-jerk, there was a counter-argument you could have made to the post.

Anonymous said...

Are you ever going to come up with an argument that isn't a straw man?

Because the Assembly is concerned with the Welsh language doe snot mean it is unconcerned with economic issues. It has plenty of time to debate, and plenty of budget to spend.

And you are wrong. It does not show that Wales is worse off than at devolution; it shows that it has not grown as fast relative to the rest of the UK. In real terms it may very well be better off than 1999.

Second, you still have not proven anything. Wales has both local and federal government. You need to demonstrate that the problem comes from the devolved component and not the federal one. Unbalanced policy at federal level is also capable of causing harm.

O'Neill said...

Because the Assembly is concerned with the Welsh language doe snot mean it is unconcerned with economic issues.

It’s a question of priorities; I didn’t want to over egg the pudding with another link, but this demonstrates an informed opinion on how the Language Act could adversely affect economic development.

And you are wrong. It does not show that Wales is worse off than at devolution; it shows that it has not grown as fast relative to the rest of the UK.

I know, that’s clear from the original report, I should have used "comparatively" instead of “real terms”

“Second, you still have not proven anything. Wales has both local and federal government.

I(or the statistics) have proven that Wales was better off (in comparison to the rest of the UK) pre-devolution- I can’t say whether devolution is the cause of that, a useful comparison would be to look at comparative figures with Scotland.

O'Neill said...

The missing link:
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/politics-news/2008/05/09/language-law-could-frighten-companies-away-from-wales-91466-20883861/

Anonymous said...

the Welsh language is very important to Wales. its our language afterall. everyone goes on about if we lost ww2 we'd be speaking German but Wales did lose a war to England which is why we speak English.

by the way WELSH is the TRUE BRITISH language- they should teach it all over Britain- not anglo-saxon english.

O'Neill said...

John,
I'm not denying its cultural importance. However, I think there should be higher priorities for the Welsh Assembly to worry about and one of those is the continuing economic problems.