When the National Assembly for Wales was established in 1999, there seemed to be, for one brief moment, the opportunity for the creation of a new type of inclusive politics in this country where the government of the day would work alongside other parts of civic society, such as local authorities, the business community, academia and the voluntary sector, to create a new Wales of which we could all be proud.
Eight years later, the early promise now seems like a distant dream, with an Assembly Government that now acts like just another Whitehall department, pulling up the drawbridge when criticised and ignoring the concerns of the rest of civic society in Wales.
Only last week, at a meeting in Cardiff, the Welsh Local Government Association stated that their relationship with the Assembly Government had become ‘fragile’ and that councils had been treated ‘shamelessly’ by Cardiff Bay through increased centralisation of power.
The relationship with the business sector is no better. For example, there has not been a meeting of the Business Partnership Council – the main conduit for discussion between ministers and industry - since March 2007, even though there is a statutory duty for the Assembly to consult with businesses.
Wales is in danger of quickly becoming a closed society where a small group of individuals, including unelected officials and advisers, are making decisions which affect all of us on an everyday basis without any real dissention or debate.
Indeed, the more one hears the mantra of justifications wheeled out by ministers regarding dubious key decisions, the more one begins to consider whether politicians are actually running this country or doing the bidding of civil servants who believe they are doing the right thing ‘for the country’, much in the same way that Sir Humphrey Appleby did every week on ‘Yes Minister’?
Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the case of the Plaid Cymru ministers in the Assembly Cabinet.
When you look at some of the decisions each has made since being in power, they are ones which all three would have condemned wholeheartedly in opposition, such as the lack of government support for the Dolgarrog Aluminium plant, the measly settlement for farmers over the foot and mouth outbreak, and the broken promises over a Welsh daily newspaper.
I find it difficult to accept that their long held political principles have suddenly been lost because of a taste of ministerial power and can only surmise that the civil service, in each of the above cases, has presented a ‘fait accompli’ to each Minister which they cannot, or will not, argue with.
When you hear, yet again, the stock phrase rolled out by the press office about ‘having to be responsible in government’, you know instinctively that officials within the Assembly are the ones who have essentially made the decisions for these Ministers.
The role of politics is surely to make Wales a better place for its citizens, and preserving the status quo is not the way forward, especially when a radical overhaul is needed of the Welsh economy and many parts of Welsh society.
A ‘safety first’ approach which ignores the concerns of elected councillors, businesses and other members of ‘civic Wales’ may mean that we may eventually have a better managed Assembly Government, but will also mean we have a nation where radicalism is lost, new ideas are ignored and nothing really changes for the better.
Eight years later, the early promise now seems like a distant dream, with an Assembly Government that now acts like just another Whitehall department, pulling up the drawbridge when criticised and ignoring the concerns of the rest of civic society in Wales.
Only last week, at a meeting in Cardiff, the Welsh Local Government Association stated that their relationship with the Assembly Government had become ‘fragile’ and that councils had been treated ‘shamelessly’ by Cardiff Bay through increased centralisation of power.
The relationship with the business sector is no better. For example, there has not been a meeting of the Business Partnership Council – the main conduit for discussion between ministers and industry - since March 2007, even though there is a statutory duty for the Assembly to consult with businesses.
Wales is in danger of quickly becoming a closed society where a small group of individuals, including unelected officials and advisers, are making decisions which affect all of us on an everyday basis without any real dissention or debate.
Indeed, the more one hears the mantra of justifications wheeled out by ministers regarding dubious key decisions, the more one begins to consider whether politicians are actually running this country or doing the bidding of civil servants who believe they are doing the right thing ‘for the country’, much in the same way that Sir Humphrey Appleby did every week on ‘Yes Minister’?
Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the case of the Plaid Cymru ministers in the Assembly Cabinet.
When you look at some of the decisions each has made since being in power, they are ones which all three would have condemned wholeheartedly in opposition, such as the lack of government support for the Dolgarrog Aluminium plant, the measly settlement for farmers over the foot and mouth outbreak, and the broken promises over a Welsh daily newspaper.
I find it difficult to accept that their long held political principles have suddenly been lost because of a taste of ministerial power and can only surmise that the civil service, in each of the above cases, has presented a ‘fait accompli’ to each Minister which they cannot, or will not, argue with.
When you hear, yet again, the stock phrase rolled out by the press office about ‘having to be responsible in government’, you know instinctively that officials within the Assembly are the ones who have essentially made the decisions for these Ministers.
The role of politics is surely to make Wales a better place for its citizens, and preserving the status quo is not the way forward, especially when a radical overhaul is needed of the Welsh economy and many parts of Welsh society.
A ‘safety first’ approach which ignores the concerns of elected councillors, businesses and other members of ‘civic Wales’ may mean that we may eventually have a better managed Assembly Government, but will also mean we have a nation where radicalism is lost, new ideas are ignored and nothing really changes for the better.