First, Rhodri Glyn and now Peter Hain!
As the Neath MP's research team has previously quoted from one of my articles, it should be of no surprise that the former Secretary of State's statement below to the House of Commons today seems to have been lifted entirely from articles posted on this blog!
Read it and wonder!
"Although Wales has done remarkable well these past eleven years, to become a world class economy able to compete with China and India will require radical changes, says Neath MP and former Secretary of State for Wales Peter Hain. Unless the private sector is grown significantly at a minimum of 1 per cent a year more than the British average, Wales will not catch up he argues.
He today published an internet pamphlet on the Wales 20:20 website, and summarised it speaking in the St David's Day debate in the House of Commons, making a series of proposals:
· an absolute priority to grow the private sector
· future public spending to prioritise 'sharp' rather than 'soft' services favouring skills, technological innovation and business support rather than free schemes
· schools, colleges and universities to promote entrepreneurship amongst young people
According to the House of Commons Library, estimates show public spending in Wales as equivalent to 59% of GDP. This is higher than any other part of the UK (except Northern Ireland at 64%) but similar to that of North East England. (The equivalent estimate for Scotland is about 50% and the UK average about 44%.) Wales' ratio of public spending to GDP is broadly similar to, or perhaps slightly higher than, the highest ratio among OECD countries. In Wales, 23.7% of employees are in the public sector compared with the UK average of 20.2%. This is again very similar to the North East (23.8%), but lower than Northern Ireland (29.1%).
All other areas of the UK have lower shares of public sector employment.
Mr Hain said: "The argument I make is emphatically not for cuts in public spending beloved of the Right, still less that the public sector in Wales is too big. Indeed I am arguing the exact opposite. The real issue is that the private sector is too small. If both Welsh living standards and the economic competitiveness which underpins our prosperity is to grow as we all want, the private sector needs to grow very significantly, and at a relatively much faster rate.
"To achieve at least equilibrium with the rest of the UK and the OECD, Wales must move towards a private sector at around 55 percent of Welsh GDP. And to achieve this in 15 to 20 years we will need year on year growth at around 1 per cent faster than the UK average: no mean feat."
He lists seven immediate priorities:
- securing graduate retention, developing technical skills and inspiring entrepreneurship from school upwards
- tough public spending decisions with a moratorium on handouts and a switch to supporting greater competitiveness
- competing in the high added-value areas, like financial services, electronics, nanotechnology, biosciences, molecular mechanics and ICT, with many more start-ups and high-tech businesses
- supporting vital new energies including renewables and biofuels
- supporting our economy with a welfare system which gets people off benefit and into work, providing our workforce with the skills they need to progress in employment
ensuring we have a political, economic and social culture in Wales which is truly internationalist
smarter government, local and national, with a more dynamic Welsh public service.
Given Rhodri Morgan's constant denial about the state of public sector dependency in Wales, this is actually a welcome contibution to the debate.
It is just a tragedy for the economy that the Labour Government in Wales are preventing the development of the private sector through destroying the Entrepreneurship Action Plan, keeping private businesses away from European Structural Funding and creating a business support system that puts bureaucracy ahead of the business sector (just read the comments on Entrepreneur Action's demise on Valleys Mam's website)
As the Neath MP's research team has previously quoted from one of my articles, it should be of no surprise that the former Secretary of State's statement below to the House of Commons today seems to have been lifted entirely from articles posted on this blog!
Read it and wonder!
"Although Wales has done remarkable well these past eleven years, to become a world class economy able to compete with China and India will require radical changes, says Neath MP and former Secretary of State for Wales Peter Hain. Unless the private sector is grown significantly at a minimum of 1 per cent a year more than the British average, Wales will not catch up he argues.
He today published an internet pamphlet on the Wales 20:20 website, and summarised it speaking in the St David's Day debate in the House of Commons, making a series of proposals:
· an absolute priority to grow the private sector
· future public spending to prioritise 'sharp' rather than 'soft' services favouring skills, technological innovation and business support rather than free schemes
· schools, colleges and universities to promote entrepreneurship amongst young people
According to the House of Commons Library, estimates show public spending in Wales as equivalent to 59% of GDP. This is higher than any other part of the UK (except Northern Ireland at 64%) but similar to that of North East England. (The equivalent estimate for Scotland is about 50% and the UK average about 44%.) Wales' ratio of public spending to GDP is broadly similar to, or perhaps slightly higher than, the highest ratio among OECD countries. In Wales, 23.7% of employees are in the public sector compared with the UK average of 20.2%. This is again very similar to the North East (23.8%), but lower than Northern Ireland (29.1%).
All other areas of the UK have lower shares of public sector employment.
Mr Hain said: "The argument I make is emphatically not for cuts in public spending beloved of the Right, still less that the public sector in Wales is too big. Indeed I am arguing the exact opposite. The real issue is that the private sector is too small. If both Welsh living standards and the economic competitiveness which underpins our prosperity is to grow as we all want, the private sector needs to grow very significantly, and at a relatively much faster rate.
"To achieve at least equilibrium with the rest of the UK and the OECD, Wales must move towards a private sector at around 55 percent of Welsh GDP. And to achieve this in 15 to 20 years we will need year on year growth at around 1 per cent faster than the UK average: no mean feat."
He lists seven immediate priorities:
- securing graduate retention, developing technical skills and inspiring entrepreneurship from school upwards
- tough public spending decisions with a moratorium on handouts and a switch to supporting greater competitiveness
- competing in the high added-value areas, like financial services, electronics, nanotechnology, biosciences, molecular mechanics and ICT, with many more start-ups and high-tech businesses
- supporting vital new energies including renewables and biofuels
- supporting our economy with a welfare system which gets people off benefit and into work, providing our workforce with the skills they need to progress in employment
ensuring we have a political, economic and social culture in Wales which is truly internationalist
smarter government, local and national, with a more dynamic Welsh public service.
Given Rhodri Morgan's constant denial about the state of public sector dependency in Wales, this is actually a welcome contibution to the debate.
It is just a tragedy for the economy that the Labour Government in Wales are preventing the development of the private sector through destroying the Entrepreneurship Action Plan, keeping private businesses away from European Structural Funding and creating a business support system that puts bureaucracy ahead of the business sector (just read the comments on Entrepreneur Action's demise on Valleys Mam's website)