Tuesday, March 19, 2013
But does Ed agree with Carwyn?
The extent with which Welsh Government Minister's adopt an oppositional role to the UK Government was highlighted once again yesterday with Carwyn Jones pontificating to the media about what he would do if he were Chancellor of the Exchequer.
In many ways these little lectures are the political equivalent of a journey with a particularly garrulous taxi driver, except that the taxi driver would most probably be better informed and have an understanding of fiscal responsibility.
In fact most of the little homilies from Welsh Government Ministers have the same features, they are often ill-informed rants, that have no sense or understanding or real world issues and for that reason mostly contradict Labour's own spokespeople at Westminster.
Thus the question has to be asked, is Ed Balls or Ed Miliband really going to stand up tomorrow and demand that the UK Government increase its borrowing by £8 billion a year just so that Carwyn Jones can get his capital spending back to pre-2010 levels?
I don't think so, especially as the plans set out by Alistair Darling in 2009 would have cut Welsh Government capital spending more deeply and faster than the current Government.
Perhaps Carwyn Jones and his Ministers would be better off concentrating on getting the Welsh economy, education and health service performing as well as England's, rather than trying to do the job of Shadow Minister's in Westminster who appear to be much better informed than they are.
In many ways these little lectures are the political equivalent of a journey with a particularly garrulous taxi driver, except that the taxi driver would most probably be better informed and have an understanding of fiscal responsibility.
In fact most of the little homilies from Welsh Government Ministers have the same features, they are often ill-informed rants, that have no sense or understanding or real world issues and for that reason mostly contradict Labour's own spokespeople at Westminster.
Thus the question has to be asked, is Ed Balls or Ed Miliband really going to stand up tomorrow and demand that the UK Government increase its borrowing by £8 billion a year just so that Carwyn Jones can get his capital spending back to pre-2010 levels?
I don't think so, especially as the plans set out by Alistair Darling in 2009 would have cut Welsh Government capital spending more deeply and faster than the current Government.
Perhaps Carwyn Jones and his Ministers would be better off concentrating on getting the Welsh economy, education and health service performing as well as England's, rather than trying to do the job of Shadow Minister's in Westminster who appear to be much better informed than they are.
