Yesterday, we saw the launch of the Welsh Labour manifesto in which the Secretary of State for Wales stated that"In Wales we will back business to create up to 50,000 new jobs. We will encourage our economy to grow through advanced technology, exports and business investment".
Of course, such soundbites are the bread and butter of Peter Hain's political career, soundbites that go unquestioned by the mainstream press.
As usual, there was no real detail provided as to how these jobs are to be created or, more importantly, which part of the air this figure was plucked from.
However, when I read that, at the same launch, the First Minister had praised Labour's UK manifesto as "pro-business, pro-enterprise and pro-industry manifesto", the answer became obvious.
So I went back to the UK Labour manifesto to try and find where exactly Peter Hain got his figures from.
Lo and behold, on page 1:3, Labour promises to:
"build a high-tech economy, supporting business and industry to create one million more skilled jobs and modernising our infrastructure with High Speed Rail, a Green Investment Bank and broadband access for all".
So, given that Wales accounts for 5 per cent of the UK population, Labour has simply "Barnetised" the number of jobs that will come to Wales as a result of its UK policies.
Can you believe it?
What an insult to this nation and how typical of Labour's lack of ambition for Wales that we should not rise above the average, above what 'we deserve' from Labour's largesse at Westminster.
Perhaps someone ought to remind the Labour Party that, under their successive governments, Wales has plunged from 80 per cent of the UK's GDP to 74 per cent since Labour came to power in 1997; that we currently have 131,000 people who are officially unemployed, and that they have decimated a once vibrant manufacturing sector.
With Wales falling behind every year - the growth in GVA/head for the UK in 2008 was 3.5 per cent as opposed to 2.6 per cent for Wales - it is glaringly obvious to anyone with an ounce of intelligence that being "average" will not do anything for this economy.
In fact, if things stay the same as they are now, then the growing difference in prosperity between Wales and the rest of the UK will merely increase under such a scenario.
Do we need another Labour Government that merely says that we should be 'average', that we should get what we deserve, and that we cannot be more innovative, more enterprising and more creative than other regions in the UK?
I think we are all beginning to realise the answer to that question.
Comments
When are going to get some proper journalism in wales that actually asks questions of our politicians rather than accepting what they say?
Still, why let Hain off the hook?
It isn't as if Wales receives a proportional share of UK job creation anyway. Because it is a peripheral economic region without the same infrastructure and economic history as the rest of the UK, it is going to have a slightly different labour market make-up.
Lazy policy-making from Labour and Peter Hain.