Is Voting Yes! a Vote for the Taffia?

There seems to be little excitement over the upcoming Referendum on legislative powers in the Welsh Assembly. Hardly surprising.. I nearly got bored and walked away just writing the last sentence.

However the referendum does raise one massive issue in Wales that just won't go away. How Welsh should Wales be?

Wise "Yes" campaigners are aware that even the perception that this vote is being hijacked by the so-called 'Taffia' (a term muttered in hushed tones in the English-speaking enclaves of the Principality) will make many switch off.

This response finds its roots in the widely held belief that Wales has over played the Welsh thing. This isn't simply a gripe about the Welsh language. It's a complaint that a small minority has used legislation and European cash to infer upon Wales a greater title of Nationhood and cultural identity than actually exists.  But most importantly the fear is that this is done to favour the same minority.

Everyone will have their opinions on this, I'm certain.  For those of us born in Wales but coming from South Pembrokeshire the issue is a finely balanced one. We are largely an English speaking mixed race drawn from Welsh Wales, England, Flemish lands and Solihull. But we are Welsh, aren't we? Aren't we?

Can we count to ten in Welsh? Probably (though 6 always gets me). Do we choose to educate our kids in Welsh? Possibly (though don't get me started on this one). Who do we support in the rugby? Oh come on, seriously? (Although can someone teach Andy Powell some new tricks).

When asked what nationality we are, many of us will say 'Welsh' before 'British' (especially in Dublin around closing time), and always did long before Welsh Nationalism was a mainstream movement. So why do we feel a nagging sense that Wales PLC is drifting away from us?

Well, partly this is because we live in a time of Plaid ascendancy. The coalition deal has certainly brought much of their flavour of Welshness to the fore. It's also a time (or was) of extravagant European spending that has funded a cultural shopping spree. And then there's the Grand Slam effect.

The appointment of WRU chief Roger Lewis to head up the Yes Campaign was a cute one indeed. This plugged directly into the Grand Slam DNA that floats mostly homeless around a Welshman's disappointed psyche. "Yes!" the campaigners said "rugby is the thing wherein you'll catch the conscience of the voter." When Lee Byrne cuts the English defence to shreds no one asks if he speaks Welsh before deciding to pass out with joy. When Stephen Jones gathers his man of the match trinket and chatters away in Welsh, no one says he got the prize because he's one of "them". Rugby seems to the Welsh nation to exist outside intra cultural prejudice. So, Mr Lewis's presence reassures us that the Assembly must therefore be the same.

But this move also reveals a huge flaw in our national mental state. If we could make Shane Williams a Welsh leader we probably would. It would serve no purpose for the improvement of a nation's prospects but when times were hard we could at least play clips of him dancing around those stodgy english arms and forget all the misery. We choose to confuse our nation's political fate with our perennial passion. And that means the important decisions don't get put up for proper scrutiny. 

Many will have seen the Roger Lewis appointment for what it was and hardened their resolve to ignore the campaigns that appear to rage solely on Twitter. They continue to be suspicious of what they see as a radicalisation of our State. And that is sad because they're offered so much more than that and they just don't know it.

At the launch of Yes For Wales in Pembrokeshire last week a call was made not to allow the Yes Vote to be hijacked by the Taffia (I paraphrase). However the main fear was apathy. A low turn out, even one in favour of more powers would mean a lack of true mandate. All true I think. 

And yet a vote for more powers is not a vote for the Taffia. It's a vote for powers in a Legislature that - whatever you think about it - is YOURS and has material impact on YOUR life, your schools, your health service. If you get that and you get off your backside and vote, then you can think of it as the appetiser. because come May you can tuck into the main course. Vote then in the Assembly elections and before you know it you'll get leaders who represent the nation, its diversity and maybe even you!


And Roger Lewis is on the money in one key respect. Give those policitians in Cardiff more powers, he says, and they'll stop winging it's all someone else's fault. 

Again I paraphrase. But he's right. 

It's official - Local planners are not up to the job (in a nice way)

Interesting list of recommendations coming from the WAG's Sustainability Committee this week.

It was tasked to dig into the planning system in Wales to see how it was performing. Evidence was called from across the board from developers through to Local Government, the Design Commission through to planners themselves.

The recommendations can be read in full here .

From our (selfish) perspective, we put the spotlight on key recommendations that should be heeded by planners in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority.
 
We were interested to note the conclusion that there is a real lack of technical ability among local planning officers to do their job, something we here in Pembrokeshire National Park have been
describing (perhaps ungenerously) as incompetence up until now.

Important too that (Recommendation 7) it should be made more explicit how planners policies "are expected to contribute to the delivery of the Economic Renewal Programme". This is an important message to PCNPA planners for whom our economic well being is an afterthought (admittedly through no fault of their own).

A key recommendation 23 stresses the importance of a robust evidence base for housing need... which I read as "if you want 50 affordable homes you're going to have prove they're needed".

Note also (Recommedation 19)  the plea that planners should focus on Welsh Assembly advice and not charge off on their own agendas. Now, this sounds familiar when you look at the activities of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Their recent draft planning guidance or SPG that would have material influence on members' planning decisions has already been widely criticised for going well off track.

I quote: "Some witnesses told us that the use of Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) was being misused by local planning authorities to introduce local policies without sufficient scrutiny." This is so true. WAG has been very good on developing policy that nurtures rural business and fosters sustainable development. As far as we can tell the PCNPA is taking IT'S policy in an almost totally opposite direction.

Anyway, all good stuff on paper. Time now to see how the government responds and whether this filters down to the grassroots.... I WILL hold my breath.

Any views?