Badger and a Festival of Failure
IT’s been twentyfive glorious years, readers.
A quarter of a century since that day in May 1999 when just over half the people of the half of the people who bothered to vote decided that Wales should have a devolved government.
There should have been street parties to reflect the Welsh public’s outpouring of joy at this signal anniversary.
And yet, and yet, readers, it all passed without much of a whimper.
Where was the bunting?
Wither the celebration of inclusive tolerance celebrating our rainbow nation?
Whither, indeed. Twenty-five years of Wales having a devolved government making the decisions that matter for the people of Wales and zip.
Sure, there was the usual over-excited coverage on what passes for Wales’s national media. BBC Radio Wales was particularly fun. Listening in, Badger got the strong impression that poor Jason Mohammed was struggling to find anyone with anything good to say or a positive word about how much devolution had improved their lives.
The usual clinkers and clunkers from the unions and those special interest groups Labour has nationalised were full of how much devolution had done for them. But when it came to Mog and Morfa from Mydroilyn, there was little in the way of uplifting anecdotage.
Twenty-five years of devolution has delivered zip in almost every measurable and meaningful way.
People are poorer, living in worse housing, and waiting longer for healthcare. Education standards have fallen, individual life chances are curtailed, wages are lower, and public transport and infrastructure are in crisis.
The Labour Party in Wales cannot blame the Conservatives in Westminster for all of Wales’s ills. Its ministers have made the choices for Wales.
They made the choices while Labour governed in London and continue making them now.
On Wednesday, there was a vomitinducing debate in the Senedd about increasing the number of MSs and introducing a new electoral system.
The debate showed the intellectual vacuity of Senedd members on an epic scale.
There’s a little voice Badger sometimes listens to that steers him towards the illogic in politicians’ speeches and announcements.
Here’s a good one: because the Welsh Government has more powers than ever, it needs a larger Senedd to transact business efficiently and scrutinise it thoroughly.
Badger has problems with that proposition on several levels, but the fundamental issue is simple.
The people who say that the Welsh Government is now so powerful it needs a larger parliament are the same people who complain that it does not have enough powers to do anything of any consequence.
Let’s knock one thing on the head before we continue. Wales will become independent when California secedes from the United States of America, adopts “All the Single Ladies” as its national anthem, and invades Nevada with an army of undead nuns.
Having parked the most unlikely scenario, let’s deal with the likelier one.
Devolution will continue regardless of who is in power in Westminster.
The Welsh Government will not get many more meaningful powers than it already has, except the repatriation of levelling up funding to resume erecting white elephants and playing fantasy world-building games with real communities and people.
The Welsh Government can bleat about getting policing and justice powers devolved to it, but Westminster won’t play ball.
That is what matters.
Whatever powers the Welsh Government gets, Westminster gives.
You may or may not like it, but bar the glorious revolution rising across the Welsh shires and armed insurrection, them’s the cards.
Badger does not want to be cynical, but he suspects both the Conservative and Labour parties know what a desperate bunch the Welsh Government is.
Here’s a little thought experiment, readers.
Consider the great offices of the UK state: Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary, and Home Secretary. Now think which of the current Welsh Cabinet - or any past ones - would be any cop in any of them.
Yes. Quite.
B lun t ly , Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Paper Clips in the Paymaster- General’s office would be the ceiling for most Welsh Government Ministers.
The average Welsh Cabinet minister proves that things other than cream tend to make their way to the top.
Consider Vaughan Gething... no, that’s too cruel.
Readers, consider Julie James.
Ms James is the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government, and Planning.
That’s an important post in any government, especially in Wales.
She’s been a fixture in the Cabinet since 2017.
Julie James is a senior minister in the Welsh Government. Yet Badger can no more picture Ms James as Home Secretary than he can walk on moonbeams.
We live in a time when Nadine Dorries was a cabinet member.
Liz Truss was the Prime Minister.
Christ on a bike, readers, Grant Shapps IS the defence secretary.
Yet picturing any current Labour Cabinet member in Wales in a Westminster portfolio is a mahoosive stretch.
Badger can only imagine the seventeen types of mincemeat Michael Gove would make of Ken Skates or Lesley Griffiths over the dispatch box.
There’s a reason for that, too.
Welsh politics is so insular and tribal that those who emerge from the general herd of party members tend to be shallow careerists, those who won’t rock the boat or the few that have reached the point when it’s Buggin’s turn.
That’s not to say MSs are not good and dedicated public servants. Many are. Many have life experiences that we should value in our representatives. They’ve had real jobs and careers and lives beyond politics.
However, like many MPs, too many are machine-tooled, interchangeable drones who believe in the party first and the nation second.
Vaughan Gething let that slip when he had his pram rattled during First Minister’s Questions.
His bosses, he opined, were the members of the Labour Party.
It’s an interesting take on the position of leading a country and its parliament, but at least it’s honest.
Mr Gething peeled off the pretence of respect for all and favouritism towards none.
Still, you can get away with “stuff the public” in a one-party state.