Drakeford’s influence damaging for Wales

I VOTED for devolution in 1997 because Wales, as a region, was one of the poorest in the UK, and with an almost guaranteed Labour majority we could offset future Tory UK policies.

Now in 2020 I’m shocked at how we have allowed the ruling Labour Party elite in Wales to lead us sleepwalking to our current reduced position.

I had my doubts about Carwyn Jones, however, the increased damaging influence of Mark Drakeford has placed most of the Welsh population in a perilous position.

I was relieved by the ousting of Corbyn and the sidelining of his malign Momentum puppeteers.

Cheered by the election of

Keir Starmer, mainly because it prevented the divisive policies of Momentum’s Rebecca Long-Bailey, I was expecting a similar change of direction in Wales.

However, Drakeford’s outwardly quiet avuncular persona masked a petulantly stubborn refusal to follow the verdict of the Labour membership by hanging grimly onto the identity politics that the grassroots had rejected.

The fact that he voted against the Brexit Bill shows his contempt for the people of Wales who voted in favour and its democracy.

Instead of pursuing the traditional Labour role of offering succour to the poor by creating opportunities for upward social mobility, his major priority is to pursue the ludicrous target of creating a million Welshspeakers. To this aim he is content to further abandon, impoverish and reduce the life chances of the most vulnerable in Wales.

A new super-school in Pontypridd was recently cancelled by a “landmark ruling” because of Welshlanguage lobbyist opposition using the ever-increasing stringency of the Welsh Language Act.

I wonder how he has the gall to face his electorate in Ely and Riverside, having ensured their lack of Welsh will increasingly debar them from employment.

Will they be aware that he has been instrumental in transforming the Welsh Labour Party of Keir Hardy and Aneurin Bevan into the political wing of the Welsh Language Society?

Dennis Coughlin Llandaff