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silly me, east wales is ok so the rest of Wales is ok. my bad.
do people honestly believe that Wales is doing well economically? do people believe that without the public sector largesse or the 50% GVA subsidy we get from Westminster that we as a country/nation/region would be doing ok? I don't.
Wales without outside munificence would struggle to match Ceaucescu's Romania for prosperity and living standards. But rather than face up to the undeniable fact that our economy is structurally wrong (1 in 3 in the public sector) or that we don't have the same level as entrepreneurial spirit as the rest of the UK what we do is stick our head in the sand and pretend its all ok.
its not, its far from ok.
Mr Appeasement
every morning I leave my house at 6:30 to go to my Bristol office. During the working day the type of work we provide to clients are commercial due diligence, corporate finance, tax planning, business case preparation and monthly management accounts.
I usually get back to my Penarth office at around 7pm and spend two hours reviewing the work for the Welsh clients which is usually stat accounts and VAT returns. The difference in services provided is startling.
The Bristol based clients are far more likely to want business development services rather than just the bear minimum as required by law. During the first quarter business has grown 10% in Penarth and 30% in Bristol.
WG focussed on developing Welsh business by providing services through Business Eye, Business in Focus, Venture Wales, Entrepreneurial Action and so on. Start up businesses would see a 'mentor' who would draft a business plan. the mentor would receive a fee. Occasionally the start up didn't need a business plan just some funding for say a website, but that wasn't what was being offered. Entrepreneur Action - the flagship Cardiff based agency - became insolvent.
It is 2012, the shit winds started blowing 4 years ago in 2008. Only now have WG allowed Finance Wales to issue finance to B2C instead of just B2B - despite all on this forum and throughout Wales agreeing we have a quasi service based economy. Quick to react at WG - I'm impressed at 4 years, such reactions to the economic situation.
Please do not tell me what the Welsh are capable of compared to their English Brethren for I see it with my own eyes and I see it with their approach to business.
You may wish to believe that all is ok and we'll be fine but in my opinion without major structural change to our economy, our political landscape and the culture within Welsh business then we will fall further and further behind.
But as long as we compare to the worst examples from the PIGS some will see that as being ok.
how very noam chomsky
How unfortunate that your experience is so depressing. Luckily, plenty of people who live in the thriving communities of Cardiff and the Vale see the glass as half full rather than half empty. If you dont decide to follow your heart and move to your first love Manchester or your spiritual home Bristol, the news that Valley lines is to be electrified along with the GWR should cheer you. The commute to Bristol or your weekends away raving on Canal Street will be much easier to do by using public transport. As you whizz through the Severn tunnel, leaving the doom and gloom of Wales behind, you will be able to breathe more easily thanks to the investment of public money in Wales' infrastructure. God Save the Queen
not unfortunate or depressing at all, just an appreciation that if I want to grow my business the way I want I'll have to move it away from Wales.
as for M/cr
the stone roses
buzzcocks
mock turtles
chameleons
doves
the courteeners
inspiral carpets
Wu Lyf
The Smiths
Northside
Joy Division
New Order
of course Manchester's rubbish
if the Valleys are electrified before 2020 I'll show my arse in queen street
How Soon is Now? should be the Welsh national anthem.
I do find Jantra's assessments of the situation overly bleak.
Wales has fundemental problems, but as has been stated, East Wales is doing better than the vast bulk of Europe. You can't use one set of stats to make an argument and ignore the same data when it points to a different conclusion.
Bristol is a prosperous city, but the Cardiff GVA region is doing better than most English cities. Average wages are actually higher in Cardiff than Bristol according to National Statistics.
There are stats to support or undermine most arguments.
We all want Wales to drastically improve, but lets not use it as a hammer to knock every part of Wales, because Cardiff is doing fairly well.
Jantra, Wales GVA has grown at the same rate as Northern England and the Midlands over the past 14 years. Ive told you five times already. GROWN, our economy has GROWN
I've not said anything about Wales not growing have I.
Welsh growth was fuelled by the english subsidy and European objective 1 funding. If you strip away those two elements along with the public sector bloat that has happened in Wales between 1997-2008, how much growth do you think Wales would have seen?
Right Jantra, I'm sorry, but I think you do use statistics selectively and in some cases are letting theory override the situation on the ground.
That's not to say I (and the vast bulk of people on here)don't agree that Wales as a whole must do better, but it doesn't mean Wales is necessarily doing so much worse than other places on all economic measures, nor that there aren't huge disparities in wealth and performance within Wales.
In addition, I'd rather you were in charge of economic development than Edwina Hart, so I'm not arguing with your theories, just saying you are being a bit selective.
1-Wages between Cardiff and Bristol. National Statistics post this information yearly. I can't remember the precise title of it, but it's here on this factsheet from centre for cities:
http://www.citiesoutlook.org/summary/cardiff
http://www.citiesoutlook.org/summary/bristol
Cardiff-Average Weekly Earnings 2011- £471
Bristol-Average Weekly Earnings 2011- £461
All the talk of more expensive houses etc in Bristol, while good for economic theory and debate merely exacerbates the situation for the average citizen.
2-In terms of the Welsh public sector. Firstly, I don't have the ideological opposition to the public sector that I suspect you do, and I want a stronger private sector, not a weaker public sector.
That said, Wales does have higher public sector employment, but in most cases, by merely 2-3% As evidenced below, and regularly by the national statistics.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/nov/16/public-sector-employment-statistics-map-by-authority#zoomed-picture
3-In addition, this report on public sector cities. The top 3 are all in south-east England, Cambridge and Oxford=1 and 2. Public sector employment doesn't equal bad.
That said, I agree that an economy dominated by the public sector is not ideal, but again, Cardiff is below the following: Oxford, Cambridge, Belfast, Dundee, Liverpool, Plymouth, Newcastle, Glasgow, Leicester, Sheffield.
4-Unemployment (arguably the most important data of all from a human perspective) Wales is above the UK average but below 3-4 English regions, and substantially below London.
5-GVA/GDP data for Wales is poor, there is no denying it, but again, it's parts of Wales that are really struggling. The (I'm sure we all agree) gerrymandered region of West Wales and the Valleys is poor, down there with Cornwall. But Cornwall's status isn't used to hammer the entire of the Westcountry, and neither should West Wales and the Valleys be used to hammer all of Wales.
Indeed, looking at this data, Eastern Wales has a GDP way above most of France, and much of Spain and Germany and Italy, and ABOVE most English regions.
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/1-13032012-AP/EN/1-13032012-AP-EN.PDF
So, yes, Wales has structural weaknesses, but it isn't all bad, and I think it's unhelpful to always portray it as such.
And someone tell me how the heck you do weblinks!
^^^^^^^
Bravo Sir!
James
re: public sector. I am not against the public sector in anyway. I just wish ours were more efficient and productive. The Germans manage their public services with 1 in 8 employed people. Here in Wales it is 1 in 3. Anyone who has been to Germany will know their public services are far in advance of ours. Not only that but they pay less taxes per capita too!
So we have higher taxes in the UK (Wales) but inferior public services. I am a patriot. I truly believe the Welsh are equal to the task of the Germans. I think we could deliver public services much more effectively and much more productively. That is all.
I do not buy into the argument that Wales cannot achieve the levels of productivity and efficiency as the Germans. To suggest otherwise is nonsense. The problem is we are too left wing to even contemplate improving productivity, become more efficient and delivering better services for less cost.
the state should be there for the people. The public sector should be there to provide public services. Neither should exist to provide jobs for the people. We should have the fewest number of people in our public sector as is required to deliver the services we need.
Remember Jantra that in Germnay Doctors and Nurses do not count as public sector workers. We have quite a high number of Government department too such as the DVLA, Newport Patent office, all of the W.G, local authorities, MPs, the Royal Mint, BBC etc and as a country of only 3 million people with all these departments of course we are going to have a large public sector workforce.
The fact is that the U.K and Germany are similar. We have many tiers of Government devolved in our case and Bundeslander in Germany. ThE Germans however do not have such a lopsided economy as Britain. Berlin isn't a London in any sense, and the German Government didn't decide to locate so many jobs into a region such as Saarland which is the smallest and one of the poorest in Germany.
Why not compare Wales to Portugal? Seems we are doing much better than them economically, and then we can compare with countries with similar GDPs such as Spain and Italy.
In terms of debating with Jantra, why does anyone bother, its a like ever decreasing circles. Its his way or no way, even when you agree with the blighter its like pulling teeth.
Who made him go last time?? re post whatever it was, ruing my evenings reading of late
Jantra specifically questioned my statement that average median wages are higher in Cardiff than Bristol.
It's all statistics, and statistics depends on your inputs..even those population stats between cardiff and bristol are very arbitrary indeed, and exclude (for example) Penarth from Cardiff, and include in the Bristol stats areas that are far less connected to that city than Penarth is to Cardiff.
That's mainly my point..statistics can be used to prove or disprove pretty much anything. I appreciate that concept is nothing new to intelligent people on here, but it needs stressing sometimes.
By the way, based on the much discussed regional GDP stats for the EU.
Our region (east Wales) does better than 21 out of the 25 regions of France..
Jantra, I know you are an accountant but...If Wales is on 50 and grows 12%, and England is on 70 and grows 10%, then they end up on 56% and 77%. The gap has gone from 20% to 21%! Even though Wales grew more. I hope you can see the big hole in your reasoning. If you can't, and you are typical of Welsh accountants then maybe your maths is the reason that Wales isn't performing as well, economically speaking, as you yearn for.
What is more, to say France is largely rural is just hilarious. Have you been there? Most people in France live in urban areas
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2212.html
http://www.indexmundi.com/france/urbanization.htm
France is 85% urbanised, the UK 80%, according to all of the figures I could find.
Mr Appeasement
Wales has not grown at a greater rate than England though has it?
France 301/sq mile
UK 662/sq mile
France may have urban areas (Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg, Toulon and so forth) but the majority of the country is big wide open space. This does not contradict the claim that France is mainly rural and that majority of regions are actually rural in nature. France is half as dense as the UK but has more people living in urban areas. it follows that these urban areas must be in a select few places, meaning more regions of low density ie rural than say the UK
27 French Regions
NB I holiday in Barjols twice a year, a lovely little town in provence. I'm quite au fait with France thank you.
No, Wales has grown at the same rate as most of England, so in real terms the gap hasn't widened. Basic maths.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_by_population_density#section_2
France, population density 295 people per square mile
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales
Wales, population density, 361 people per square mile
So the Uk is slightly less urbanised, Wales is slightly more densely populated than France. You are talking out of your chapeau again Jantra. I hope that when you holiday in Provence that you make use of France's publicly funded electrified rail network to travel round that highly urbanised country that is generally less prosperous than your home city. Au revoir Jantra, or let's all hope, adieu.
paris (ile de france region) 11.3m metro area
lille (nord pas du calais) 1.6m
Nantes (pays de la loire( 1.0m
marseille (provence alpe cote d'azur) 1.9m
lyon (rhones alpes) 1.6m
bordeaux (aquitaine) 1.1m
french population density
thats about one third of the french population in those six cities. if you add on the towns and cities around those major urban areas you'll quickly see around half of france's population live in six regions, meaning the other 21 regions also have about half the population.
the majority of France is rural, as the population density map shows. comparing East Wales with 21 rural regions of France is not a fair comparison. lets compare East Wales with the six major regions of France, rather than the rural regions of France
I've omitted Nice, Strasbourg and Toulouse but the principle is the same
edit
I've had a look at James link showing the euro analysis above. only one french region has a lower GDP than Wales (and not the 21 claimed). That is the overseas region (guadaloupe, reunion etc)
it is also not true that Wales is only 2-3% behind the rest of the UK in terms of public sector employment
UK average = 23%
Cardiff = 26%
Swansea = 33%
our two biggest cities are 3% and 10% greater than the UK average.
Thew GDP figures for East Wales are 99.3% of the EU average. This is higher than 21 out of 25 French regions. It is also higher than 25 out of 37 UK regions, including Outer London, Kent, Essex, East Anglia, Greater Manchester, all of Yorkshire, Lancashire etc etc..
Data here has public sector employment in Wales at around 23% (admittedly from 2008). Lower than Northern Ireland, around 1% higher than N.E England, Scotland and around 2% higher than North West England, Yorks and Humber etc. The UK average appears to be around 20%.
So yes, Wales is only a few percent higher than the UK average, and comparable to many regions.
Source-Page 38 of the first reference on this: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171766_258253.pdf
I dunno, you just seem keen to run down all of Wales all the time..gets frustrating.
East Wales is better than 25 out of 37 uk regions. Do me a favour.
Wales public sector ratio is more like 30%, it's certainly more than 23%. East Wales may be near the eu average, but what about the rest of Wales? Surely we have a responsibility to the country as a whole?
I hate it when people dont compare like with like, so some hard figures:
Cardiff: Pop 341,054 Area 140km2 LUZ 861,400
Bristol: Pop 441,300 Area 110km2 LUZ 1,006,600
They is the facts. Now discuss.
So essentially, Wales's most successful economies (i.e. East Wales) are those that have the best connections to and are the most integrated or inter-dependent with those over the border in England. Good thing the WAG is prioritising electrification to Swansea over The valleys then I suppose?
Again, it's all statistics. Ebbw Vale (close to England) is one of the poorest regions.
Basically the whole East/West Wales split for EU statistical purposes is gerrymandered bollocks, designed to make a big chunk of Wales as statistically poor as it can be. The upshoot is that East Wales does okay.
Recognising both is important (I think people concentrate on the west Wales figures and then use that to hammer all of Wales)
Now the shops are open again would all those on this thread stop talking about the economy and go out and start spending!
On a different note...
^^Same name, different ship
http://shipfinder.co/about/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/MS-Balmoral-MMSI-308785000-495x329.jpg
James
you are correct - you need to consider all the data. Therefore would you think wales is a better place to be that Kent, Essex etc when considering the economy only? do you think wales performs better than those areas? bear in mind a lot of people live in those areas but commute into london where they generate their own personal contribution to GDP?
I spent a bit of time in Harwich recently, which is as far as you can go from London in Essex. It has a direct rail link to Liverpool street (electrified), it is obviously a ferry port and it's just across the water from Felixstowe. There is a dual carriageway that is better than the South Wales M4 about 10 miles from the town. It is within half an hour by train and road from Ipswich and Colchester. Plenty of people commute to London.YET the town is poor. The only place to buy clothes, bizzarely, was Peacocks in an out-of-town retail park. I have never seen so many cheaply dressed people. There werent any nice bars or restaurants or shops. More recently I spent time in Watford. It makes Newport look like Cardiff. It has a rail link to Euston that takes fifteen minutes YET the town is poor! Again, we asked around for a decent restaurant, I checked on Tripadvisor and a Chinese place on the High st was praised. We went and it was like a trip back to the 80s, gloopy sweet and sour etc. We went for a drink afterwards and honestly, the place is in a time-warp. Compared to Cardiff, there are plenty of poor places in the South East. A friend has been working in Kent, in the Medway and Thanet areas (which are about 40 miles apart). He was shocked by the poverty and lack of sophistication.and ambition. There are many,many places like this all over South East England.
Mr Appeasement
Bizarrely, you seem to be comparing the best of what Wales has to offer with the worst of what the South East of England has to offer. Why not compare Kensington & Chelsea with somewhere in the neath valley just for consistency? As always, we compare what we have in Wales with the shittest parts of elsewhere and then think we are lucky. We really do set the bar low if our comparators are the arseholes of any region. We need to look at the best.
Cardiff isn't that bad by all means, but its not as great as other UK cities thats for sure. Likewise, Wales isn't the worst economically, but lets not kid ourselves that we aren't near the bottom in terms of productivity, performance and wealth because we are. We only have the wealth we do because of the westminster subsidy and the euro objective 1 funding. If we didn't have that then i'd say we'd be a lot worse as a nation.
All I want is a business friendly government who understands what is required to make signficant structural changes and not play petty party politics. Welsh Labour have messed around for far too long preferring public sector largesse than economic development of the productive sector.
I find it quite shocking that (in the economic sense) parts of Wales are akin to impoverished parts of Romania and yet posters are trying to suggest this is due to gerrymandering. Whether it is gerrymandering or not to score political points, parts of Wales have very little economic output and this needs to be addressed.
WG/Welsh Labour and their pathetic approach to business via the likes of Venture wales, entreprenuer action, business eye, business in focus type agents have done nothing to stimulate the real part of the economy that drives it forward: the SME sector. I'm talking businesses £5-100m turnover, of which we have comparatively few in Wales. These business are based locally, employ indigenous staff and spend their money pretty much locally. These are the businesses WG needs to encourage, not Rhodri Morgan's plan of getting as many start ups as possible to make it look like Wales is an entreprenuerial nation.
Setting up a 'Disco Dave and his wheels of steel' wedding dj business may be good for the start up stats, but it really doesn't promote long term economic growth.
I disagree with you, Jantra. I think that Cardiff is the best British city and nothing you say will change that. Manchester with its hideous architecture, ugly people, big-headed chip-on-it's-shoulder attitude, horrible accent, dreary weather,appalling crime rate and gang culture isnt compensated by a few trendy bars and restaurants. Bristol with its joke accent, terrible divisions along class lines, crappy shops, yardies and traffic jams isnt compensated by a few trendy bars and restaurants and a slice of medieval city centre. Cardiff is great.
Tell me again how London subsidizes us?
http://www.clickonwales.org/2012/04/boris-wants-devo-max-for-london/
Northern Ireland, London and Scotland all receive more public expenditure than Wales.
You think kids growing up in Cardiff have no opportunities? A laughable thing to say, in addition to quite insulting.
CARDIFFWALESMAP
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