Skip to main content

Plaid Cymru and 'fat cat' bankers

Having just returned from the USA, I have managed to catch up with some of the blog entries in wales, many of which (given their political colours) discuss the Plaid Cymru conference in Llandudno.

Of particular interest is the entry by Bethan Jenkins on Ieuan Wyn Jones's speech at the conference this afternoon, where he again goes after his a regular theme of attacking financial institutions and saying that, under the Conservatives, "Fat cats and banks will be alright".

Of course, a few miles down the road is Bangor Business School, where I worked for four years. When I arrived in 2000, one of the first things I did was to establish an advisory board, very much on the model that I had seen during my days at the Michael Smurfit School of Business at UCD in Ireland.

During my time, the board was stocked with entrepreneurs such as Henry Engelhardt of Admiral Insurance, Malcolm Walker of Iceland and enterprise academics such as Professors Allan Gibb and Sara Carter.

Of course, entrepreneurship is no longer important at the university since I left and the board has now rightly changed its focus and recruited individuals from banks whom Ieuan would naturally recognise as 'fat cats'.

These include Lord Merfyn Davies of Standard Chartered Bank, Dyfrig John of HSBC and Sir Peter Davis (a main board director of UBS AG of Zurich - Europe 's largest bank by assets).

However, they are exactly the high flying board members that an institution such as Bangor Business School needs given its expertise in banking and finance but, unfortunately, they are also the type of individual that certain Welsh politicians are quick to criticise in order to appease the party faithful at the annual conference.

Given this slur on those bankers who support the local business school, perhaps the Chairman of the Advisory Board will now write to the leader of Plaid Cymru to remind him of the importance of the banking sector to the UK economy. However, as that person is none other than Dafydd Wigley, the Honorary President of Plaid Cymru, I think that the devil will be wearing iceskates before that happens.

Comments

Dave said…
Dafydd Wigley is the 'acceptable' face of Plaid Cymru. He and the other old fogeys in North wales such as Gareth Jones and Phil Edwards try to present themselves as some sort of welsh-speaking kinder and gentler alternative to the tories.

But the dangerous truth is that Plaid Cymru, under the real leadership of Adam Price and his Valleys acolytes such as Bethan Jenkins and Steffan Lewis, is a socialist separatist party that wants to turn Wales into a Celtic version of Venezuela or Cuba.

It is ime for the Tories in North and West Wales to take on Wigley and Wyn Jones over the real credentials of the left wing Plaid Cymru and exposed these fakers for what they really are
September 12, 2009 12:19 pm
Anonymous said…
Adam Price's rant this afternoon shows the true face of Plaid Cymru - socialist, separatist and Valleys-based. He has as much in common with the farmers of North Wales as a vegetarian has with a burger bar.
September 12, 2009 5:54 pm
John the Baptist said…
Wigley is a busted flush.

He developed Plaid's economic strategy during the last assembly election, NONE OF WHICH HAS BEEN PUT INTO THE ONE WALES AGREEMENT.

If he runs again in 2011, what is he going to say? - that Plaid's economic policies will make a difference when he can't even get his leader to implement them when they are in coalition and responsible for economic development. He would be better off in the Lords.
September 13, 2009 1:27 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE IMPORTANCE OF FRANCHISING

When we talk about start-ups and entrepreneurship, rarely do we discuss the potential of franchising not only as a way of establishing new ventures in the economy but also as a method of growing existing businesses. According to the British Franchising Association, franchising is the granting of a licence by one person (the franchisor) to another (the franchisee), which entitles the franchisee to own and operate their own business under the brand, systems and proven business model of the franchisor. The franchisee also receives initial training and ongoing support, comprising all the elements necessary to establish a previously untrained person in the business. This enables individuals to start their own businesses without having to develop their own ideas and utilising an existing brand and established market. Of course, whilst each franchise business is owned and operated by the franchisee, the franchisor controls the quality and standards of the way in which the business is
Read more

THE MANUFACTURING STRATEGY FOR WALES

Last night, I received the following comment on the previous post relating to a piece I had written back in early 2007 about the state of the manufacturing sector in Wales. "Dylan, you seem to be ignoring the fact that manufacturers in Wales have written the manufacturing strategy. Small and large manufacturers, all represented at the Manufacturing forum, have co-written this strategy. WAG has recently supported this strategy and have funded a co-ordinator with resources. Manufactures are happy with this progress as they are following the strategy they wanted. I know that the Conservatives have attacked the strategy as they seem to think that WAG wrote the strategy. They couldn't be more wrong. The Manufacturing Strategy was written by manufacturers, for manufacturers and is supported by WAG. If you don't agree with this, then I can invite you to the next Manufacturing Forum and you can explain to the manufacturers how their strategy is wrong....I appreciate that there is
11 comments
Read more

INTRAPRENEURSHIP

Whilst we often consider entrepreneurship to be associated predominantly with new start-ups, larger firms - in order to compete effectively in fast-changing global markets - are adopting more innovative and enterprising approaches to management within their organisations. One of these approaches is the development of entrepreneurship within a corporate environment (or intrapreneurship). Research has shown that intrapreneurship is not easy, and there are considerable differences between an intrapreneurial and a traditional corporate culture, with the latter having an emphasis on a culture and reward system that tends to favour caution in decision-making. For example, large businesses rarely operate on a "gut-feeling" for the market-place, as many entrepreneurs do. Instead, large amounts of data are gathered before any major business decision is made, not only for use in rational business decisions, but also for use as justification if the decision does not produce optimu
Read more