After watching that disappointing performance from the boys last weekend at the Principality, my thoughts turned to the even greater travesty of the latest Welsh budget from Labour. Like our Six Nations display, the draft budget was a phenomenal missed opportunity.
Labour’s decision to cut health and education spending in real terms was a tremendous mistake that will do nothing to cement Wales’ comeback.
Before we look at these decisions in more detail, we must firstly dispel the myth that the Labour Government perpetuate, day-in, day-out, that unpopular decisions made in their budget is entirely the fault of the UK Government.
It is a dangerous fantasy that Labour like to hide behind to avoid any and all responsibility or scrutiny.
Labour in Cardiff Bay, hold the levers of power. Health, education, the economy and so many other areas are devolved, not to mention the tax raising powers that are available to them.
Wales receives an uplift in the form of £1.20 for every £1 spent in England and an additional £1.2 billion from the UK Government in Barnett consequentials.
We should not forget that Labour are the only party in our history to have cut the NHS budget. They did that right here in Wales, so no wonder we are well behind England with our waiting lists.
Their latest budget involves a real terms cut of £250 million to health and social services once again, this is despite 1 in 4 people in Wales being on an NHS waiting list, with a quarter of them being on there for over a year and 50,000 waiting over 2 years.
Wales continues to have the lowest GCSE and PISA results in Britain, yet Labour are also cutting education in real terms, by £140 million.
Why is this the case and where has the money gone?
It may be something to do with the fact that Labour insist on allocating funds, budget after budget, to pointless projects such as their Constitutional Committee, on unwanted Senedd reforms, blanket speed limits and on non-devolved areas.
However, a constructive opposition is one that points out the flaws of the Government, but also provides an alternative plan.
The Welsh Conservative Action Plan addresses the people’s priorities here in Wales by directly reprioritising £100 million, axing Labour’s vanity projects and realigning other elements of the budget.
Our six-point action plan sets out to address the extensive backlog in our NHS by introducing Care Hotels to reduce bed-blocking and deliver surgical hubs to end waiting in Wales.
We would support microbusiness to grow and create jobs, as Wales needs more than just one FTSE 100 company. Additionally we should be future proofing Welsh businesses by helping them go green.
Ensuring councils make use of their billions in reserves to freeze council tax to assist bill payers with the cost of living is another key priority. Finally we would kickstart empty houses back into homes as 20,000 sit empty here in Wales.
These are the people’s priorities and a Welsh Conservative Government would implement these policies to rectify the longstanding issues brought about on Labour’s watch.
On tax, despite calling for the devolution of tax-varying powers, Labour have so far refused to use them.
They are reluctant to use the levers at their disposal to fund their socialist vanity projects, out of fear of losing favour with the people of Wales who quite rightly do not want to see their taxes go up.
At least Plaid Cymru want to use these powers, but they want to levy hundreds of millions of pounds in tax on the lowest paid to add to the cost of living, further.
On top of this, their sums do not add up. Their oxymoronic plan to raise taxes on NHS workers to fund higher pay for them has a multi-million pound shortfall. Yet another example of Plaid’s voodoo economics.
Cost of living pressures are felt more so here than elsewhere in the UK as pay-packets have fallen behind our counterparts in Scotland by £3,000 since the dawn of devolution. This is Labour’s hidden tax on workers.
What Wales desperately needs is a Government that aspires to reduce the tax burden on Welsh people and businesses. We have an opportunity to make Wales the most competitive place to work and to do business that is currently being squandered by the left-wing establishment in Cardiff Bay.
It is clear that only the Welsh Conservatives can be trusted to put the people’s priorities first and properly fund health and education after 25 years of Labour mismanaging Wales’ budget.
Peter Fox MS is the Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Finance
