Carwyn should be fighting for Wales

I WAS astonished to read in your columns that Carwyn Jones’ approach to the great injustice done to Wales in regard to the government’s refusal to devolve Air Passenger Duty to Wales is to bleat that it won’t hurt Bristol Airport! (Western Mail, October 31, “We won’t hurt Bristol – Carwyn pushes PM for control of air duty”.

I find this utterly demeaning. He is, after all, the First Minister of Wales and we expect him to fight for Wales and not worry about what effect this campaign will have on Bristol Airport. Air Passenger Duty has been devolved to Scotland and Northern Ireland so what possible reason is there for denying this right to Wales?

Unfortunately Bristol appears to have more political clout at Westminster than one of the constituent countries of the UK! There have been well-respected reports and recommendations to the government that devolving air duty to Cardiff would help the ailing Welsh economy and the airport. Despite all this the recommendations have been turned down by Westminster.

As for Bristol Airport’s bleating that this would hit their economy and passenger figures, this is poppycock. How greedy can they get? The stark statistics are these: Bristol in 2016 handled 7.6 million passengers including about 1.5 million from Wales! Cardiff, on the other hand, in 2016 had 1.3 million passengers. Bristol is spending another £24 million on another new terminal building and is actively promoting itself as the “Gateway to the South West and Wales”. I am fed up with reading headlines such as “Champions League brings record numbers to Bristol Airport” when that final was being held in Cardiff! The reputed figure was 100,000 passengers.

Carwyn Jones, the Assembly and all our MPs should be fighting tooth and nail for Wales to have the same control as Scotland and Northern Ireland over air passenger duty. Gerwyn Morgan Newcastle Emlyn