Dylan Jones Evans and Valleys Mam are to be congratulated for tracking down the embarrassing and uncomfortable news for WAG, that the soon to be scrapped International Business Wales has had considerable success in the past 12 months in securing jobs and investment for Wales. As Dylan said in these tough economic times when so much Welsh economic and business news is awful this is something to be proud of.
The figures show IBW was successful not just in Welsh terms, but faired very well in UK terms out performing Scotland and Northern Ireland and bringing in nearly 8% of the UK’s total inward investment, it all begs the question of why the figures weren’t released by WAG, political expediency comes to mind.
But now we have the figures, it’s worth mentioning a few things
Firstly about the state of Welsh Business Journalism and its understanding of what makes a good business story and about its news gathering ability. It speaks volumes that it took two bloggers in their spare time to hunt down and break a story that by any journalistic standards would be considered worthwhile, especially after WAG announced IBW was being mothballed the previous week, it proves it’s not just in political journalism that Wales is badly served.
Secondly, where were the Opposition Parties in this, they should have flagged this up along with the press, I know the Assembly broke up last week for their Summer Break, but surely the political staff were aware that the figures for UK Investment were due to be published last week, they should have made sure they got hold of a copy or tracked them down from the UK Government, if WAG wasn’t co-operating and made the Opposition politicians comment on them at the very least.
It’s also worth asking whether there is a statutory duty on the Welsh Assembly Government to release these and other figures (even if they are uncomfortable politically) so we the public know how well or how badly Government department are performing, if there isn’t, it should be something the Opposition follow up when they get back to Cardiff Bay in the Autumn, but I’m not holding my breath.
This has been a sorry saga for WAG, but one that has a familiar theme because Welsh journalists and Opposition politicians are simply not holding Ministers feet to the flames over a whole range of issues; it means the Welsh Government gets away with murder over and over again and feels safe to ignore any criticism, even the legitimate kind.
However, this stonewalling approach may suit the parties in power and the Civil Service, but it does little to engage the public or improve the health of Welsh democracy and it certainly does little to persuade people of the argument that the National Assembly for Wales and its Government deserve more powers, maybe WAG should think about that over the summer.Any source
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