Why is Wales so poor after all this Euro aid?
BREXIT will be a disaster for Wales, goes the narrative. If that’s the case after 43 years of European membership, why is Wales still so poor?
By the late 1990s the Valleys and west Wales topped the misery league and Objective One money flowed in in 2006 and Convergence Funding, again in 2014, more than £2bn in European Structural Funds, that’s more than £6bn of poverty-based spending on economic development in the Valleys and west Wales.
GDP data means we can assess the effectiveness of these aid packages. In 2005 Wales was at 79%, by 2009 it’s down to 68.4% of the European average, Northern Ireland 83% and Scotland 107.5%, GDP for the UK 110.7% and London 189.2%, all in 2009. So what’s gone wrong in Wales?
How did other regions receiving Objective One manage to increase GDP? All Greek regions did better than the two Welsh regions. Remember when Objective One was “a once-in-a-generation chance to fix the Welsh economy”? Just two hours’ drive from London lies a scene of such deprivation that it seems best, to some Labour politicians, not to have to think about it.
Of the £6bn about two-thirds of the Objective One money went to projects run by the Assembly and local authorities. The story of how £6bn made things worse received hardly any attention in England, while in Wales itself it’s swept under the carpet.
Of the four countries in the Union, Wales, neglected by its low-calibre Labour politicians, is much the poorest. After 43 years of membership and 17 years of European aid, please tell me... why is Wales still so poor? Graham Simmonds Blackwood