Wales ‘dragging the UK down’ with ‘hare-brained, half-baked economic experiments’ says journalist

Wales is in danger of “dragging the UK down with it” as a result of “hare-brained, half-baked economic experiments” according to an economic journalist.

Matthew Lynn, who writes on business and economics for Bloomberg News, MoneyWeek and The Spectator, Wales was “one of the least successful economies in Europe” and needed “English taxpayers to bail it out”.

He was responding to the suggestion by Wales’ Future Generations Commissioner Sophie Howe that a four day week be trialled in the public sector, and a basic income pilot which will see 500 of those leaving care receive £1,600 a month for two years.

“In reality, Wales is already one of the poorest, least successful regions of Europe, never mind the UK,” Matthew Lynn said in the Telegraph.

“It has few new industries of any significance, and hardly any world-class companies, in painful contrast to thriving regional economies just on the other side of the border.

“Wales has plenty of genuine problems it should be fixing. Instead, it is embarking on a series of half-baked socialist experiments that are doomed to inevitably fail.

“There is no reason Wales shouldn’t be as rich as Ireland, or at least Bristol. Instead, it is dragging itself down, and taking the UK with it. ”

He added that it was “not as if Wales can afford utopian delusions”.

“In many ways, Cardiff and Swansea should be doing just as well as the English cities, while the devolved Labour administration could be using its powers, and pressing for more, to copy the success of the Celtic Tiger on the other side of the Irish Sea,” he said.

“Instead, it is saddling the country with a series of hare-brained, half-baked economic experiments. In reality, those are doomed to failure. It is already a lot poorer than it should be. But the emerging Welsh Soviet is about to make itself even poorer still.”

Matthew Lynn’s column is the latest in a series in the Telegraph over the last few days to strongly criticise the Welsh Government’s economic plans.

On Saturday the Telegraph‘s Chief City Commentator, Ben Marlowe, said that “Wales’s Soviet experiment with the four-day week will backfire” as there is “a danger that people will soon object to the very concept of work itself”.

‘Priorities’

Arguing for the need for a four-day working week last week, future generations commissioner Sophie Howe argued that it could eventually mean increased productivity and savings for society if it led to a healthier workforce.

A report by the commissioner and think tank Autonomy found that almost 60% said they would support the Welsh government piloting a four day week scheme and about two-thirds would ideally work a four-day week.

“It’s clear that following the pandemic, people across Wales are re-evaluating their priorities in life and looking for a healthier work-life balance,” she said.

“The escalating demands of caring for loved ones due to an ageing population and an increase in mental health issues, exacerbated by working long hours, are just some of the factors that make a shorter working week more appealing.

“The working week has not changed for more than 100 years and now seems the perfect opportunity for the Welsh Government to commit to a pioneering trial and build evidence for greater change across Wales.”

Senedd Member Jack Sargeant said that he backed a shorter working week: “We work some of the longest hours in Europe and this is clearly detrimental to workers’ lives and, the evidence suggests, to productivity as well.

“Those that oppose it make the same tired arguments that opponents of progress have always made,” he said. “The workplace and our lives are changing. Automation and AI will change it even more. A shorter week would be a great way of giving working people some of the fruits of these changes.”