PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

I have just finished Martin Shipton’s new book “A Poor Man’s Parliament”, a chronological history of the National Assembly for Wales from our leading political journalist. It is an excellent read and is highly recommended to anyone with even just a passing interest in Welsh politics. However, it is also a largely depressing account, especially in terms of the stories of incompetence, misadministration and bullying amongst our political classes during the last twelve years. Clearly, the National Assembly is no longer the new shining democracy that we all wanted to see flourish in Wales after 1999. Unless I have read the book incorrectly, much of the blame for the way that the Assembly has turned out is laid firmly at the door of the Labour Party in Wales, whose leaders have put their own internal political needs before those of the nation. Time and time again, Martin demonstrates how Labour were more interested in balancing the internal divisions between different factions rat...

For the last two years, I have been chairing the Welsh Conservatives’ Economic Commission. This was created to develop policies that would drive forward the economy of Wales, currently languishing at the bottom of the UK prosperity league table. During the Commission’s period of review, the UK economy was hit by the deepest recession since the 1920s, with over 88,000 private sector jobs lost in Wales during this economic downturn. The Commission therefore had to change its focus not only on revitalising the economy of Wales but also on examining how the business sector could be supported to recover from the recession. Last week, the Commission published its set of recommendations, aptly called “The Challenge” which it believes could make a real difference to the overall economy of Wales over the next decade. The overriding philosophy of our approach is that the Welsh economy must be driven by the private sector and every business in Wales has a vital part to play in that. Th...

Yesterday, Eurostat released the latest data on GDP per inhabitant , expressed in terms of purchasing power standards, in the EU27's regions. The data shows that West Wales and the Valleys has now declined to 71 per cent of the EU average, the lowest of any part of the UK. In 2000, the level was 76 per cent and since then, we have had the poorer countries of the former Central and Eastern Europe joined the European Union and yet the relative GDP per inhabitant has continued to decrease. Given this, it is likely that West Wales and the Valleys will, for the third time, qualify for the highest level of European Structural Funding. I have already written on this previously and my answers to the Enterprise and Learning Committee of the National Assembly for Wales last month on the same subject can be seen here . Whilst some politicians remain in denial about the worsening economic state of West Wales and the Valleys, the map above is testament to the shameful performa...

Today, the Welsh Conservatives' Economic Commission releases "The Challenge", its report on the future for the Welsh economy. The Commission was established in 2008 to develop policies that would drive forward the economy of Wales, currently languishing at the bottom of the UK prosperity league table. During the Commission’s period of review, the UK economy was hit by the deepest recession since the 1920s, with over 88,000 private sector jobs lost in Wales during this economic downturn. The Commission therefore had to change its focus not only on revitalising the economy of Wales but also on examining how the business sector could be supported to recover from the recession. Therefore,  the recommendations contained in this document reflect the main priorities that the Commission believes could make a real difference to the overall economy of Wales over the next decade. Over the next few days, I will be posting more details of the individual recommendations from th...

Earlier this month, this blog examined the current state of European Structural Funding in Wales. As the Welsh Assembly Government’s own data suggested, the £1.9 billion funding still has a long way to go to make a real step change to the economy of Wales, especially within our poorer communities. However, whilst much of the policy focus in Wales on European grants has been on Convergence funding, there has been little focus on the multi-billion pound programmes run centrally by the European Commission. That is why the recent inquiry by the National Assembly for Wales’ European and External Affairs Committee into Welsh participation in European Union programmes is to be welcomed. Focusing on the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7), the Lifelong Learning Programmes and the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme, the committee examined how Wales was utilising the 60 billion euro budget available for these three key initiatives betwe...

Why does the Welsh press bother reporting anything that Peter Hain says any more? I know he really can’t help himself but surely it is time for reporters in Wales to start questioning the constant stream of distortion that emerges from the mouth of the former Secretary of State for Wales. Yesterday, he outdid himself when  he stated that the issue of under-funding for Wales had only recently become an issue . To quote, “By acknowledging that the Barnett Formula is only now beginning to disadvantage Wales for the first time, it shows we were right to stick with it up until last year. The under-funding we are now seeing is due to the broken promises and inaction of the Tory-led Government.” So, according to Peter Hain, there has been no disadvantage from the Barnett formula or underfunding in Wales until the current UK Coalition Government came to power. I know the MP for Neath will never let the facts get in the way of his loathing of any other political party save Labou...

Has the HE sector now finally been sorted out in Wales? Last week,  we had the merger agreement between Trinity St David’s, Swansea Metropolitan University, UWIC and the University of Wales announced to the surprise of many in the sector . Then, in an interview in the Daily Post , the new Vice Chancellor of Bangor, John Hughes, stated that “What we're currently doing and the steer we've been given from the department and HEFCW is that we should be forming a strategic alliance with Aberystwyth but short of a merger”. And today, it has been reported that Glyndwr University is exploring the potential for greater partnerships with further education colleges across North Wales. That, therefore, leaves the fate of four universities undecided. For Newport, there are a number of options open, which include joining the new University of Wales, replicating Glyndwr’s link with further education in Gwent or, as is probably likely, merging with the University of Glamorgan. If ...

Yesterday, the Labour Party in Wales “pledged to create 4,000 jobs placements a year to ensure there will be no “lost generation” in Wales as the nation struggles with the impact of the recession and public spending cuts.” According to a report in the Western Mail , the Welsh Jobs Fund promises to offer “a real job” to the hardest-hit young people who are struggling to find work. Allegedly, Huw Lewis, the Labour AM for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, “punched the air” with excitement when he head about the policy. He said: “I thought ‘This is fantastic. It’s just the sort of thing a constituency like mine is crying out for.’” Yet whilst Labour tries to paint the issue of youth unemployment as something that is a direct result of recent UK Government policies, the statistics show a very different picture. The graph below shows the proportion of 18-24 year olds that make up the claimant count in Merthyr Tydfil. It demonstrates that, contrary to the views of the Welsh Labour Party, ...

So it would seem that, in the early hours of this morning, the House of Lords finally passed the bill introducing a referendum on the alternative vote by 221 to 153 . As well as ensuring that a vote takes place on May 5th on the voting system in the UK, the bill has also ensured the number of MPs in the House of Commons will also be reduced from 650 to 600. In Wales, this will mean that the number of parliamentary constituencies will be reduced by 25 per cent. Of course, during the last few weeks, we have seen a parade of speeches by Welsh Labour MPs against the bill which, given that they have the most to lose, will not have shocked anyone. However, given the growing importance of the National Assembly for Wales, the question is what the consequences of this bill will be for our fledgling democracy? If the number of parliamentary "first past the post" seats is reduced to thirty, then it makes sense for the same reduction to take place within the Assembly so as to m...

Last Thursday, I was asked before the Assembly’s Enterprise and Learning Committee to give a paper on the implementation of the 2007-13 European Structural programmes. During the session, I not only reviewed the performance of the current programmes of Convergence and Competitiveness funding received by Wales for the period 2007-13, but also the previous programme of support that was available during the period 2000-06, especially the Objective One programme for West Wales and the Valleys. While some politicians would like to think that the management of the Objective One programme has been a unqualified success, the statistics show that, despite £2bn of European and public money being spent in the region over seven years, its economic performance relative to the rest of the UK declined by 3.1%. In contrast, the other three UK regions in receipt of Objective One funding grew over the same period – Cornwall increased its relative prosperity by 9%, South Yorkshire by 1.9% and Merse...

The University of Wales was invited to attend an OECD workshop last year on the role of universities and strategic partnerships in the local and global context. Some of the themes discussed included how to successfully manage opportunities; threats in public and private funding; attractiveness and internationalisation; and how to balance global linkages with local success. Dr Niall Mackenzie, Research Fellow at the University of Wales and Director of the Institute for Innovation Studies, contributed to the programme. His discussion can be seen 2 minutes and 40 seconds into the video.

To donate to the "A Star For Burton" Appeal Fund, go to the www.theBigGive.org.uk and search for Star for Burton. This will take you to the website for the campaign which will guide you on how to make an online donation. More details on the Star for Burton campaign can found at www.star4burton.co.uk

There is clearly a battle being conducted for the hearts and minds of the general public when it comes to which strategy should be adopted to deal with the economic problems currently facing this country as it emerges from the aftershocks of the last recession. Whilst most of the business community is broadly supportive of the UK Government’s decision to focus on reducing the deficit, it is becoming clear that the trade union movement is quickly becoming the vocal opposition to the reductions in government expenditure. Of course, the problem is that when political imperatives take over from the reality of the situation, it can result in some disputable and emotional claims being made by both sides of the argument. Take, for example, a press release that was distributed by the GMB Union last week . Quoting an analysis of the latest data on youth unemployment, it stated that Wales had proportionally more young people claiming benefit than any other region of the UK i.e. for Wal...

I have, along with my fellow authors Piers Thompson and Caleb Kwong, had a paper published in the Regional Studies journal. Entitled "Entrepreneurship amongst minority language speakers: the case of Wales, Regional Studies" this paper uses data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey to explores the entrepreneurial characteristics of Welsh speakers who live both inside and outside Welsh language clusters, focusing on the extent to which they follow those patterns predicted by theories drawn from the ethnic entrepreneurship field. The results indicate that whilst fluent Welsh speakers are more likely than non-Welsh speakers to perceive opportunities for business starts and be involved in business starts in non-Welsh-speaking areas, this can be largely explained by differences in environmental and personal characteristics (Regional Studies, Volume 45, Issue 2 February 2011, pp: 219 - 238).

Today, we are launching an appeal to recognise of one Wales' favourite sons, Richard Burton. This the piece that is appearing in the Western Mail today. Please give generously. "His raw talents combined with his famous rich voice made Richard Burton one of the world’s finest – and most famous – actors. Now, more than a quarter of a century after his death, the celebrated Welshman is finally set to get a star in his honour on the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame. A major fundraising campaign is being launched at the Millennium Stadium tomorrow (4th Feb) during the Wales v England Six Nations opener in a bid to get the project off the ground. Money raised through the “A Star For Burton” Appeal Fund will also go towards creating scholarships for future students of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where a new theatre has been named in Burton’s honour. Visited by more than 10 million people every year, the Hollywood Walk of Fame is a series of sidewalks in Cal...

Is Wales taking advantage of opportunities within the fast growing green economy? According to a survey of 103 businesses across Wales by the Carbon Trust , it seems not. Their research showed that: while 75% of decision makers considered enhanced corporate reputation as the major company benefit of the green economy, only 30% expected it to increase profits. only 27% of businesses in Wales are currently investing money in research and development of green products and services. when asked what businesses need to have in place to ensure they can harness green growth as a commercial opportunity, the most important factor is visionary leadership, with 63% of business leaders saying its essential. access to investment capital was also viewed by 44% in Wales as a critical determining factor. the majority of Welsh decision makers think legislation to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions is needed (72%). Increasing consumer demand for eco friendly products and services (6...

No of enterprise births in Wales 2002-2009 Last week, I tweeted on the latest enterprise data for Wales. Fortunately, I have now been able to get some time over the weekend to examine the more detailed longitudinal data for Wales between 2002 and 2009. The picture, I am sad to say, is not good for the Welsh economy. During the period 2002 and 2004, the number of new enterprise births in Wales went up from 8,970 to 11,525, an increase of 28 per cent. In contrast, in the period 2004-2009, there has been a 28 per cent DECREASE in the number of new businesses being created in Wales. As I have said before, surely it is not a coincidence that the Entrepreneurship Action Plan, with its strategy for increasing entrepreneurial activity, was at its zenith during this period before being abolished in 2005. So what is the impact on the Welsh economy? Let’s look at the scenario where Wales could have maintained the 2004 level of new enterprise creation supported by an Entrepreneurs...