Uncomfortable Facts

The Sunday papers are full of Margaret Thatcher’s death and the Wales on Sunday is no exception, it has a few articles on her time as PM including one looking at the social and economic legacy for Wales in statistics.

This passage from Professor Martin Johnes of Swansea University jumped out

(Welsh) GDP as a percent of the UK figure rose from 82.8% to 86% by the time she(Thatcher) left office.

To put this in perspective, Welsh figures for Gross Value Added show the nation has since slipped, falling from 78.1% of the UK level in 1997 to 75.2% in 2011.’

It stood out not simply because the defining political narrative in Wales of the 1980’s has been one of total economic destruction which isn’t reflected in the GDP figures of the same period, but also that it’s time welsh political debate moved away from pure emotion and bad parody to one where a healthy dose of facts and reality becomes the norm.

The full article is HERE

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