MORNING SERIAL
PUT simply, the levers controlling one of the key parts of Welsh infrastructure is beyond the direct control of people in Wales. They need this to be improved to have any chance of solving wider problems.
But the people who can actually make the necessary changes have been historically disinterested, with Wales consistently receiving a smaller slice of the funding pie than it should (especially given the disparate nature of the Welsh population). When there is suddenly a huge investment of taxpayers’ money into rail services across the UK (which, let’s not forget, Welsh taxpayers contribute to), Wales is unique in the fact it sees neither new track nor any extra funding.
If it does endeavour to raise this legitimate grievance, it is patted on the head and told there isn’t even an issue to raise.
Wales being an afterthought has often gone unnoticed by large sections of the Welsh public, mainly because this is how it has always been. But since 2020 there has been a real change in perception. A crisis that showed the people of Wales in a very visible way both the limitations of the current system and that their country could do things differently...
THE PANDEMIC
I have literally written a book about how the Covid pandemic has exposed the glaring weaknesses in our present constitutional system. The UK was put under severe pressure throughout the crisis and was utterly found wanting, woefully unable to react in a coordinated and coherent way in its current structure. To help me make this point, there are a few examples that exemplify the issues the pandemic brought to the surface to demonstrate why, until they are fixed, the union will continue not to work for Wales.
Let’s start with the failure of the Treasury to support Wales during its firebreak in the autumn of 2020.
> Independent Nation by Will Hayward is published by Biteback Publishing at £15 hardback and £9.99 ebook, https://www. bitebackpublishing.com/books/ independent-nation