Yesterday instead of not answering awkward questions about why Wales hadn’t managed to secure £355million of investment from Jaguar Land Rover to create 750 new jobs, the Business Minister Edwina Hart who has been invisible for the entire summer rearranging her department, suddenly appeared at Cardiff Business Club last night to announce the creation of 5 new Welsh Enterprise Zones.
The hurried announcement was classic Welsh Government; the areas chosen are highly political Cardiff, Deeside, the Vale of Glamorgan and Ebbw Vale either solid Labour or areas they need to keep voters sweet and then throw in Anglesey as a token gesture given its poor and up North.
The decision is a u turn from a Welsh Government that was dismissive of the value they bought and hell bent just a few short months ago from not having ‘Tory’ Enterprise Zones in Wales, but it looks like the business lobbying over the summer has changed minds. And besides Ministers know the Opposition won’t make any headway calling them to account over this, what’s left of the Welsh Business media are ineffective or in Edwina’s pocket and the public aren’t interested in political squabbles as long as there is some job creation.
Edwina and her team also managed to create a lot of noise last night with the suddenness of announcement which usefully changed the political and economic narrative away from the news about Jaguar Land Rover not coming to Wales. However further concrete details besides the 5 areas and sectors were hard to come by, probably because the Minister and Civil Servants don’t fully know themselves and even if the Opposition asked questions they wouldn’t get any worthwhile answers.
So there you have it the Welsh Government has created a useful distraction by its announcement of new Enterprise Zones safe in the knowledge there is unlikely to be any political price to pay for such blatant politicking and inefficient management of the Welsh economy - but Welsh voters seem happy to keep endorsing this at every Assembly election and as my teachers used to say you get what you deserve.Any source
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