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Giant UK Government branding only applied to offices in Wales and Scotland

19 Jun 2021 4 minute read
UK Government branding being applied to Tŷ William Morgan House, Cardiff Central Square.

Giant UK Government branding applied to the front of a new civil service office in Cardiff at a cost of almost £15,000 is not being replicated at similar buildings in England, Nation.Cymru can reveal.

Tŷ William Morgan in the capital’s Central Square is one of 16 new UK Government ‘hubs’, but a freedom of information request shows it is one of only two such offices with branded facades – the other is in Scotland.

The prominent branding comes amid a move towards “muscular unionism” by Boris Johnson’s government, which has also recently ruled the Union Jack must be flown above the Welsh flag and ordered civil servants to stop referring to “the four nations of the UK.”

Wales Secretary Simon Hart said Tŷ William Morgan, which provides offices for 4,000 civil servants but could also be used to host cabinet meetings, “shows the UK Government’s commitment to Wales and to strengthening the Union” when he officially opened the £100m building last January.

But the building sparked a constitutional backlash earlier this year when a large UK Government sign was applied to its façade.

One Twitter user posted a photo of the branding on Twitter, saying it would make the “ideal backdrop for the next Yes Cymru march”. In response, one Yes Cymru member called it a “control statement from Westminster” and Sebastian Walters commented: “No such branding on any other government building I’ve ever seen… if it’s here and in Scotland you have to wonder whether they’re trying to subconsciously affect popular opinion.”

‘Decision’

HM Revenue and Customs, which is the main occupant of the hubs, was asked through a freedom of information request seen by Nation.Cymru to confirm which of their 16 buildings had such signage.

The reply states: “There is UK Government branding on the façade of two government hubs, Ty William Morgan/William Morgan House, Cardiff and Queen Elizabeth House, Edinburgh.”

In Cardiff, the front of the building was branded at a cost of £14,677. But in Edinburgh, some £53,317 was spent on applying the UK Government sign and crest on all four sides of the building as well as Union Jack “flag abstracts” being applied to one side.

A statement explaining the decision says: “The UK Government signage may sometimes be more appropriate than the HM Government signage.

“The UK Government signage may be used for shared occupancy buildings in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland that house central government organisations in situations where the remit of at least one of the organisations in the buildings cover the whole of the UK, not just the country in which the building is located.

“The decision is made on a case-by-case basis by the governments departments or organisations involved.”

‘Off-putting’

Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts said the decision to brand only the buildings in Wales and Scotland showed the Conservatives are “more concerned with outward appearances and symbolic gestures than solving the real problems of people in Wales.”

The party’s Westminster leader told Nation.Cymru: “From erasing our nationhood on the international stage, to grabbing back devolved powers, to splashing out on excessive right-white-and-blue branding – this Tory governments anxiety about the future of their precious union becomes clearer every day.”

Senior Labour politicians have also spoken about the Conservatives’ pro-union push in recent weeks.

First Minister Mark Drakeford warned a strategy based on “flying more Union Jacks about the place” is “very off-putting for many people” and would “end in tears.”

Economy minister Vaughan Gething accused the UK Government on Tuesday of embarking on a “new era of aggressive centralisation” and former Prime Minister turned Welsh Government advisor Gordon Brown wrote: “Muscular unionism is what it’s called – putting up more flags and badging bridges and roads with an UK flag on them. It won’t work.”

Speaking to the Welsh Affairs Committee this week, however, Simon Hart said that the UK Government was keen to become a more visible presence in Wales.

“Where I think there might be some tensions is around the fact that UK Government is not remotely ashamed to say that we intend to be a more prominent and visible government for the UK in Wales,” he said.

“We want to do – in a post-Covid world – much more along the levelling up and strengthening the Union agenda much more, very clear and visible activity which will touch much more people’s lives, sustain jobs, underpin livelihoods.

“There are some in Welsh Government who for some reason consider that to be a threat and that everything we do should go through Welsh Government.”


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cudyll
cudyll
2 years ago

If this wasn’t so unnecessary and sinister it would just be spoilt childish behaviour. It smacks of totalitarian displays of propaganda.

Quornby
Quornby
2 years ago

Gordon Brown knows it won’t work because he tried it himself, sdodoing hypocrite. It was also tried in Kenya and umpteen other places…. It didn’t work anywhere.

Gareth Wyn Jones
Gareth Wyn Jones
2 years ago
Reply to  Quornby

Is that before or after the wholesale murder and torture in Kenya instigated by Churchill?

Richard Edwards
Richard Edwards
2 years ago

A useful future Embassy in Wales ? Da Iawn Boris – forward planning at its very best 👍🏼

Gareth Wyn Jones
Gareth Wyn Jones
2 years ago

Like the new tunnel to Eire, thanks

Robert Downinh
Robert Downinh
2 years ago

The Nazis did much the same.

Moya Russ
Moya Russ
2 years ago

I have a feeling that this is really going to backfire. I voted against devolution but came to see the value of it. Now I have become a person who truly believes if the people of Wales need a chance to break away from the dying throes of a Union which has done us no favours.
I feel increasingly reluctant to be identified with a government that I. believe acts only to maintain itself in power rather than serve its people.
Stop the Westminster gaslighting… we are not too poor and too stupid to run our own affairs

Kerry Davies
Kerry Davies
2 years ago

Never have the English looked or been more inadequate. Sad, innit?

Charles Evans
Charles Evans
2 years ago
Reply to  Kerry Davies

What’s it got to do with the English? It’s a daft decision by the UK Government – I doubt they consulted all 56m English before doing it?

Chris Franks
Chris Franks
2 years ago

All part of the covert and not so covert tactics of the UK Government
to undermine the identity of Wales.

Shan Morgain
2 years ago

It could have been stated more explicitly that this is a huge waste of public funds: £14,667 in Cardiff, £53,317 in Edinburgh. (The greater spend in Scotland presumably reflects greater anxiety about the closer propsect of Scots independence.) Total spend almost £68,000. How many Covid masks would that buy? school computers? It’s the Tory way – look after appearances, and central control, not real things and real people’s needs. In Cardiff, the front of the building was branded at a cost of £14,677. But in Edinburgh, some £53,317 was spent on applying the UK Government sign and crest on all… Read more »

Shan Morgain
2 years ago
Reply to  Shan Morgain

Formatting (quoted speech, Bold) does not work.

defaid
defaid
2 years ago
Reply to  Shan Morgain

It does, but only after I tap ‘Read more’.

j humphrys
j humphrys
2 years ago
Reply to  Shan Morgain

That’s wallpaper money to Bunter.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
2 years ago

This and the grovelling Arch Oilman…

Gareth Wyn Jones
Gareth Wyn Jones
2 years ago

If it’s got a jack put it back!

Wrexhamian
Wrexhamian
2 years ago

The anti-Senedd rhetoric of Simon Hart is that of a man who has his hand around Cymru’s scrotum and can squeeze at his leisure. There’s a long hard fight ahead to keep him and his cohorts at bay.

Nick Randall-Smith
Nick Randall-Smith
2 years ago

Next step is propaganda leaflets with a picture of Boris on one side and the Union flag on the other dropped from planes over urban areas?

Erisian
Erisian
2 years ago

Just more childish nonsense from from the Boris brigade. They can put up as many recruitment posters for YesCymru as they like.

Kevin Morgan
Kevin Morgan
2 years ago

It seems the growing support for Welsh Independence has set the alarm bells ringing in Westminster. Barking orders to fly the union jack does not mean the Welsh should oblige. At the end of the day the Union Jack that excludes Welsh identity, despite Wales having a flag of it’s own, overshadows the Welsh Flag, which is a bitter reminder that Wales was over run by the English 400 years ago. The only option for Wales to regain it’s sovereignty is to take our country back by force. What else can we do if we are not allowed our identity,… Read more »

G Jones
G Jones
2 years ago

Wow, there’s some bitter people on here?! Gwenwch, bobl!

David
David
2 years ago

I work there an agree, BUT to be fair once you step inside you would never know it every thing is bilingual an theres big wall prints of Wales an the cafe is calledSosBan Fach. AND old Boris has been there already…

Last edited 2 years ago by David
Pr : Garry william Cullen
Pr : Garry william Cullen
2 years ago

I wouldnt be surprised if those window and facades need replaced every 2-3 months

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