MORNING SERIAL
BY CONTRAST, when the same question was asked about the UK Government, by June 1, those answering yes had fallen to 34% from a high of 59% in April.
Simon Hart may have just been trying to make political capital. To show that while the doddery Welsh Government was being, well, doddery, the UK Government was getting things done.
But if we work under the assumption that the aim of the letter was a genuine attempt to salvage the summer for beleaguered Welsh tourism, we need to ask why this particular method was used. The decision to send the letter to MSs and council leaders asking them to lobby the Welsh Government is clearly not an ideal way to conduct intergovernmental communication. Even the UK Government would have to agree that in an ideal world this would not be how to go about its business. This suggests that it was a method of last resort, that all other avenues had been pursued and there was just no other option left. Yet this suggestion falls down when we look at the communication, (or lack thereof) between Boris Johnson and Mark Drakeford throughout the early summer period of the crisis.
Between May 28 and July 31, the Prime Minister and the First Minister had no contact via phone, video call or face to face. Pausing to think about it, it is utterly ridiculous that, in the middle of a pandemic, the leaders of two of the most interconnected countries in the world didn’t once have a conversation for two months.
It is important to remember that Boris Johnson is not just the Prime Minister, he is also the “Minister for the Union”. This was a new title that he took upon himself when he entered Number 10, ostensibly to signal ongoing commitment to strengthening the union between the UK nations. The UK Government also made Chloe Smith the Minister for the Constitution who was responsible for maintaining “integrity of the Union”.
> Lockdown Wales by Will Hayward £9.99 www.serenbooks.com/ productdisplay/lockdown-wales ISBN 9781781726013