Welsh football success (in English leagues)

Across the Welsh media you will hear how great a year it has been for Welsh football. The evidence for this claim is strong:

• Swansea City enjoyed a comfortable second season in the Premier League and won the League Cup;
• Cardiff City will join them in the Premier League next season after dominating the Championship;
• Newport County return to the football league for the first time since the late 80s;
• Wrexham won the FA Trophy.

All four clubs are Welsh sides succeeding in the English league and cup system. The reason for Newport’s exile by the Football Association of Wales in the 90s was a refusal to join the League of Wales (now Welsh Premier). At the time eight clubs refused to leave the English pyramid, most eventually gave way until only Newport County and Colwyn Bay remained as rebels.

Twenty one years after the League of Wales launched it is clear that Newport County made the right decision to stay in the English leagues. Barry Town, at the time a fellow rebel, have been in free fall in the Welsh structure after a short lived spell dominating the League of Wales. This season they failed to complete their fixtures. Llanelli FC’s attempt to go professional fell apart this season. The Welsh Premier clubs continue to make a minor impact at best in the European competitions, often knocked out before the domestic season even kicks off and it is hard to see that those clubs who joined the League of Wales have gained a great deal from doing so. Surely, all would happily swap places with Newport.

My aim in writing this article is not to condemn the Welsh Premier clubs, but to suggest that we should take a long hard look at whether the structure has been good for Welsh football. The evidence that it has been is far less convincing than that for the glorious season for Welsh clubs in the English leagues.

Podcast Episode One – Counting Councils

Newport as a sporting hub

I’d like to put forward an idea. Newport could become a hub for some of the minority sports which gained interest during the Olympics. We all hope that County are promoted and the Dragons have a better 13/14 season than they’ve had this year, but there are a lot of other sports out there which this city could host.

Take a look at the way in which Bath University has become a hub for so many sports – all this began with a vision. Another example would Manchester which has become the base of Taekwondo or Lilleshall in Shropshire which is the base for artistic gymnastics.

Newport has some great venues, especially at the sports village but I get the impression many are under-used. Let’s look to make Newport a hub for volleyball, handball or alike. It could create a niche for the city which we have enjoyed to an extent due to the velodrome, but we must move with the times. Once Newport had one of only two velodromes in the country, now it is the smallest of four. The vision behind the project in Bath did not reap rewards overnight but the profile of the city for sports certainly gained when the likes of Amy Williams and Michael Jamieson picked up their medals, Newport could be the base for the next generation of sports stars.

This article was originally posted on the Newport People’s Republic Facebook Page on 4th March 2013 in response to their call for ideas for the city.

Savings can be made, but only with a vision for the future

The following letter sent by me was published in the South Wales Argus on 14th February 2013:

I have been careful not to oppose every spending cut proposed by Newport City Council.

I fully accept we all have to live within our means, but two aspects about the process have left me with real concerns. Firstly, there has been a drip-drip of possible spending cut announcements. The initial budget consultation did not, for example, mention the idea of shutting Newport Stadium. The council should be up front about what they are proposing. Secondly, I fear that the current council leadership lacks a vision for the city. To me, culture and sport are just as important as retail in the regeneration of the city, but cuts to GMSS, art exhibitions, street art and the stadium suggest that view is not shared by the Labour administration in Newport.

Insufficient effort seems to be being made to improve the profitability of such activities or to involve outside bodies in helping to provide the service at a lower cost. The local authority must save money but this has to be done with a vision for the future of the city.

Submission to the Silk Commission on Welsh Devolution

I have submitted the following document to the Silk Commission which is examining Welsh Devolution. If you wish to submit your views you have until 1st March 2013 to do so.

Submission:

I have never been an enthusiast for the form of devolution which took place in 1999 as I feel the practical political ties are different from the cultural and historically important borders of Wales. Newport and Cardiff have stronger ties with Bristol and London than with Bangor, whilst Wrexham has much closer day-to-day links with Liverpool and Manchester than it does with Swansea. I am far more supportive of devolution to empower local government.

In my view, those pushing for further devolution at a Wales-wide level need to consider the performance of the institutions thus far.  During the first 13 years of devolution, Wales has performed poorly in terms of economy, education and health care when compared to England. Some will argue that this is about the Government rather than the institution, but I would suggest that the “small p” political desire to have a Welsh version of every public body has contributed to some of these failures. The measure of successful devolution is not whether there is a dragon on the logo and an opportunity for the political class to sit round a big desk in Cardiff, but whether the service to the individual user is enhanced.

It cannot be right that more and more power is devolved to the National Assembly without an audit of performance on the powers already in place.

Notwithstanding that, I believe it is possible to distinguish between  policy areas which are fit for devolution and those which are not. Policies which provide a safety net for people, both socially and in terms of security, should be fair and equal across the UK.  These include health, welfare, law and order, and defence. Policies which owe more to aspiration are far more logical to devolve, creating a competitive basis for new ideas which can be adopted by other parts of the UK if they are successful. Such aspirational areas of policy include education, culture, economic development and planning.

The opportunity should remain for the Welsh Government further to empower local government on specific matters which are currently decided at the Senedd.

There is undoubtedly a logical case for devolving some taxation powers to Wales. There is a problem having an administration which can spend freely without needing to make a case to the electorate for the right to do so. However, I remain sceptical about allowing powers over personal tax to be handed to an Assembly which has yet to prove it can exercise its existing economic functions to the benefit of the people of Wales. I would be open to the idea of devolving some business taxation to allow for greater competition which could be used to boost the attractiveness of Wales as a place to do business.

Hello World!

Last week, the Prime Minister pledged to hold an in/out referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union (EU) if the Conservatives win the next General Election. Prior to the referendum there would be an attempt at renegotiating Britain’s relationship with the EU.

I am very much open minded to see what can be achieved through renegotiation, however if the vote was today I would support leaving the EU.

It would be a disaster for Britain to be isolated in a globalised World, but the EU is more a constraint than an asset. Free of EU political interference Britain could become a nimble flexible player on the World stage. I want Britain to be at the forefront of World affairs and to lead the way in striking free trade agreements and freedom of movement deals with other nations, but I do not believe the EU is the best structure to serve that ideal.

The EU, or more specifically it’s common market predecessor, had every opportunity to be a force for real economic and political change in the World. Free markets tend to do more to encourage democracy than political intervention and one can only wonder if the EU had stuck to its common market roots whether it could have spread to the Middle East and North Africa increasing trade opportunities and as a by product increasing democracy. Instead the EU opted for a more defined political structure acting as a legislature. Of course, the EU has introduced some good legislation as well as bad, but the good aspects could have been introduced in Britain. Where cross-border agreements were necessary there would have been nothing to stop two or more nations’ governments agreeing on a joint policy.

I used to be of the view that we had to be in the EU to reform the EU. My view changed as I watched the way the EU operated. The final straw for me was watching the Republic of Ireland being forced to vote twice (for a second time) to provide the EU with the answer it wanted. That is not democracy and without people being able to influence the institution we cannot reform it.

My outlook is internationalist, I want Britain striking deals with European nations but I also want to see us building relationships with Brazil, India and other fast growing economies. Whilst the EU has a tendency to look inwardly, we need to be looking out to the World at large.

There are those who suggest leaving the EU would harm Britain, I think it would open up new opportunities for this nation to adapt swiftly to make the most of new opportunities.

It is perhaps worth noting that life outside the EU does not seem to have harmed Switzerland with its low taxation and high quality of life nor Norway, which topped a study by the United Nations in 2011 which looked at life expectancy, literacy, education, standards of living, and quality of life for countries worldwide. Britain was ranked 28th.

We do not need the EU to have a great relationship with European nations and free of the EU we are better able to build new relationships across the globe.