On the mission statement for this site I state the following...
“It's become quite apparent to myself that this United Kingdom is anything but united. There is a focus on building up London and the South East to the detriment of every other "region" of the UK. It doesn't matter whether it is a Conservative or Labour government in charge, the end result of a weaker Wales is always reached by the time they are voted out.”
I've touched on why the people of Wales should think twice before voting Labour in previous articles. But I wanted to take a more analytical approach and to show why people in Wales, or any of the poorer regions of the UK should think twice before voting Labour. And it doesn't matter whether you are voting for councillors, AMs, MEPs or MPs. All Labour politicians answer to Labour UK. Labour is currently run by Ed Milliband, born in London graduated from Oxford and is also the MP for Doncaster North.
Firstly
let's take a look at the current political map. The following graphic
was taken from the BBC election 2010 website. And this is the kind of
map we are used to seeing.
Huge swathes of England are Tory blue, with the odd tiny bit of red dotted about the place. And then when you get to the poorer areas of the UK you start to see big clumps of Labour red. And this tends to give people in these regions a belief that they are somehow more valuable to Labour than anywhere else. After all, when an area of Wales that is around three times larger than London is coloured red then surely we must matter more to Labour than them?
But then if you look at the same BBC site and use the option to look at the election map based on proportion, where each seat is the same size then you see a completely different picture.
Now you see a truer picture and in London alone Labour have 38 seats. Which is two short of the total number of seats in the whole of Wales.
Here's Wales, with the majority of their 26 seats in the valleys to the south. And here's the dilemma. If you are a political party that contests seats all over the UK then how can you possibly stand for all of the people all of the time?
In a previous article I told you about how Welsh water is owned by England due to the clause in the Government of Wales act 2006 that stipulates that water is devolved, but if we do anything to disrupt the water supply to England then Westminster will retake control via the Secretary of State for Wales.
If you cast your mind back to then you'll realise that Labour was in charge of the UK government and the Welsh government. So any clauses that were tucked away were put there by Labour. More specifically Peter Hain, Labour MP for Neath and former Secretary of State for Wales.
Now ask yourself, when Peter Hain, a Welsh MP added this clause was he acting in the best interests of the people of Wales or was he acting on the best interests of the people of England and the Labour party as a whole? And when the Labour party in charge of the Welsh government accepted these stipulations without any fuss were they acting in the best interests of Wales or simply following orders?
Tweet your thanks to Peter Hain
Of course they were following orders. Just as Peter Hain was, just as 24 of his other mates were when 25 of the 26 Labour MPs for Welsh constituencies voted against devolving energy generation and The Crown Estates to Wales. Just in case you were wondering that's Welsh energy and Welsh land that these 'Welsh' MPs want to remain under Westminster rule. Speaking of Westminster...
Let's
look at the Westminster stats a bit.
The UK has 650 MPs in total.
And as a pie chart that looks like this.
The UK has 650 MPs in total.
And as a pie chart that looks like this.
Remember that dilemma about how a UK party could
ever stand for all of the people all of the time. Well as we've seen
with our natural resources Labour have absolutely no interest in
doing anything that might be detrimental to England. It's a numbers
game, nothing more, nothing less.
The table above and chart below show the number of Labour MPs, divided by the countries their constituencies are in. An MP is meant to be the voice of those that elect them inside Parliament. But given that the majority of those voices are from across the border how can ours ever be heard?
And it's only going to get worse for us. Despite only having 40 MPs the Tory led government wish to cut this number to 30. So instead of the 6% of the total number of UK MPs that we currently have they want us to have 25% less. So we'd have even less say than we currently do.
The table above and chart below show the number of Labour MPs, divided by the countries their constituencies are in. An MP is meant to be the voice of those that elect them inside Parliament. But given that the majority of those voices are from across the border how can ours ever be heard?
And it's only going to get worse for us. Despite only having 40 MPs the Tory led government wish to cut this number to 30. So instead of the 6% of the total number of UK MPs that we currently have they want us to have 25% less. So we'd have even less say than we currently do.
It's time the people of Wales stopped letting Labour fool them, they are the real enemy not the Tories. I say this because we can see the Tories for what they really are. Labour though, try to con us into thinking that they are one of us. How can they possibly be one of us when they are fighting against the Tories for English voters?
Having Labour in your council, or your Senedd or even your Parliament means that the voices of England are always heard above the voices of Wales.
Tweet this picture
As always here's a video to help share the message.
Absolutely right, Stuart. The enemy is Labour.
ReplyDeleteOne problem is that too many people in Wales are informed by English news media that focus on London, which then allows Carwyn Jones and others, even when talking of Welsh local elections, to urge people to "send a message to the Tories".
Another problem is that even the party that should be exposing this duplicity still sees Labour as a potential partner in 'standing up for Wales'.
This combination of ignorance (on the part of the electors) and self-delusion (on the part of Plaid Cymru) leaves us in the mess we're in today. The mess we've been in for decades. Making devolution worthless when it's run by Labour, and only a little better with a Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition.
Nothing is going to change until Labour is confronted, and exposed for the English Party it is, that will always put English interests ahead of ours.
It could even be argued that devolution has made things worse. For Labour was pushed into last year's referendum by Plaid and is now desperate to apply the brakes rather than have any more powers devolved. The very powers that could make Wales a better and more prosperous country!
Spot on Jac, I didn't mention "Welsh" Labour too much. I think back to your post about Carwyns three tests for devolution and I think that smashes the nail firmly on the head.
DeleteFor those that haven't read it. I reccomend you doing so.
http://jacothenorth.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/comes-complete-with-strings.html
Stuart, great blog.
ReplyDeleteI think you placed wrong emphasis though on the truth told by the ‘proportional’ map.
It is true that the Labour Party places Welsh interests far below those of London. But the all-important London-centred element in question, that which wields the whip-hand over Labour agenda and policy, is not so much the greater proportion of loyal Labour voters in the capital: it is the overshadowing, dominating presence of the City of London and the fact that London is a hub of global capitalism.
Tory voters of London / South East England have numeric advantage and must be won-over before Labour can ever gain power in Westminster. It is precisely this disproportionate democratic majority of Tory-voting England, perpetually eclipsing Welsh needs and values, which demands a Free Wales.
As you must know, republicanism is sceptical of democratic majorities which do not faces sufficient checks and balances, and the overbearing reality of the democratic weight of Tory England and our need to escape it proves this point well enough.
Not just far below, they place no interest in Wales. We are just some land next to theirs that they can steal from and dump their rubbish and old people in.
DeleteAs for the Tories, for me they are a complete irrevelance. And the moment you start banging on about them you lose people to Labour.
As for the numeric advantage, again, forget the Tories. It is the numeric advantage of Labour we should worry about. Read through some of my previous posts to see why. Labour needs Wales to supply water and energy to it's Labout voting constituencies in England. This is why they want to keep Welsh water, Welsh land (via The Crown Estate) and Welsh energy in the hands of Westminster.
Look at Scotland and how far they have come in the 10 years since the SNP had a kicking in the Scottish elections. They have realised that the Tories are irrelevant and that Labour is the enemy in Scotland. Wales needs to realise this now whilst we still have a chance.
"Wales needs to realise this now whilst we still have a chance" - absolutely and time is running out on us. The western areas will take a couple of generations to rebuild to being even remotely welsh again, as did the coal valleys after the industrial revolution, though it's debatable whether that is possible without mass population movement from the remaining truly welsh areas to to counterbalance the influx from England, as happened when welsh speakers went south to the mines, to be joined by English and Irish workers, giving us the most truly welsh parts of Wales today. Diversity zealots and the Multi Culti luvvies are dividing communities in the cities, by encouraging non-UK incomers to remain true to their overseas roots and languages, giving rise to the same groups of Urdu and Romanian speaking youth around parts of Newport and Cardiff, with no notion of Britain, let alone Wales. This the result of Tony Blair and Brown harvesting built-in Labour dependant voting blocs. It may sound Daily Mail like, but the issue of hearing more Urdu, Punjabi and Polish around Newport, is the same as only hearing English in Bangor, Aberaeron and Ammanford. Now if we could get all these different groups into Welsh medium education and feeling Welsh, as well as them being proud of their roots, then fab, they would make their own unique brand of Welshness to add to what we have already, plus useful Welsh links around the world, but it's not the reality in most cases.
ReplyDeletePlaid will control its current areas for a limited time to come before sheer volume overtakes them and we lose the older Plaid voters. The excellent examples of English people who join Plaid or sympathise are few and far between and not enough. There are just too many people escaping to the country.
Until we rejuvenate the economy in the welsh speaking and valley areas, we will continue to lose population and home grown population, being replaced by others. This of course suits the 3 Unionist parties in their own ways in various parts of Wales. Retirees in Conwy/gwynedd fringes, plus Monmouthshire and the Vale, World Immigrants in Newport/Cardiff poorer areas, Escape to the country/crafty, arty farty people in Ceredigion/Carms/Llyn Peninsula and Scousers/Mancs and Brummies in the north coast and around the cambrian coast.
Time is running out to get control of our economy, natural resources and governance, before we become a 2 party state like England is becoming and tied forever to Westbritain
When you think about it, it's bloody clever.
ReplyDeleteThe UK Government (aided by its Cardiff subsidiary) economically neglects large parts of Wales. Inevitably there is an outflow of the indigenous population, particularly the young. This should result in population decline with empty homes and deserted villages.
This doesn't happen because it's disguised by a population influx that either doesn't need to work or else has its own funding: retirees, good-lifers, tourist-trappers, the riff-raff imported by social housing providers., etc.
With the result that the UK State anglicises Wales and thereby removes a political threat; turns Wales into a social security / pensions 'economy' - 'can't afford independence'; but this population transfer is all done on the cheap and without attracting too much criticism.
"retirees, good-lifers, tourist-trappers, the riff-raff imported by social housing providers., etc."
ReplyDeleteThis says so much about you Welsh. Of course there are no Welsh retirees, good lifers, tourist trappers or even social housing riff-raff, are there?
This one takes the biscuit. "........ and dump their rubbish and old people in."
What nasty and spiteful comments to make about people.
Typical Welsh, tribalistic, inhospitable, unwelcoming and somewhat racist.
We'll keep a welcome???? You must be kidding.
And where do you live then?
DeleteAnon 04:31, I live an area that attracts the kind of people I'm describing, and I'd say that less than 5% of them are Welsh.
ReplyDeleteWhat's offensive about the terms I used: 'retirees', 'good-lifers' and 'tourist-trappers'? What do you call them? As for 'riff-raff', believe me, I'm being generous. For here I'm talking murderers, rapists, all manner of other criminals, problem families, drug and alcohol abusers, etc. What term would you use - model citizens?
Its not even so much the terms that jumped out, but this part: "With the result that the UK State anglicises Wales and thereby removes a political threat; turns Wales into a social security / pensions 'economy' - 'can't afford independence';" It does seem a bit much to say that the UK state overall has a plot to anglicize Wales
DeleteCheck out Jacs blog, he regularly exposes this sort of thing. The Chinese have done it with Tibet, the English are doing it with Wales.
Deletehttp://jacothenorth.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/shorts-100512.html
Very true. The Labour party is the enemy of Wales. We need a Labour free Wales similar to when we had a Conservative free Wales some years ago. When the Conservatives returned to Wales a larger section of them were more Wales/Welsh friendly. The problem with certain sections of Plaid Cymru is that they've been brainwashed by the Labour media to think that the Tories are our enemy.
ReplyDelete