Welsh Lib Dems want voters to punish Labour and Plaid for their economic shortcomings, claiming that the One Wales government has failed the people and wasted European funding intended to boost growth. Ministers meanwhile insist that PROACT, REACT and a host of other acronyms are doing the business in employment terms against the backdrop of a flat-lined global economy.
Jenny Randerson is unconvinced and wants a different approach. However, and we’re sure that it is more of a problem in presentation, but the alternative idea of “an innovation fund to boost research and help to transform that research into new businesses and patents” does sounds an awful lot like the Technium concept which fell so badly out of favour six months ago.
The woeful lament to be heard from the back of the bandwagon is that “a lot of public sector projects are unsustainable". Strangely, this uncompromising view comes from Swansea council leader Chris Holley who has lately become better known for his whingeing rather than any kind of actual leadership.
We cannot be sure if he includes his multi-million pound boulevards proposal in this dire assessment but it is an admission that is sure to piss off many Welsh local authorities of Powys who have long argued that Swansea has had a disproportionate share of structural funding in the past. No doubt they will now expect his backing, in his capacity of Welsh local government EU spokesman, in their latest calls to redress the imbalance of targeted investment.
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