This shambolic government must come clean on what Brexit means for Wales
Leanne Wood
Buying a house is the biggest purchase most of us will ever make. For that reason, we take basic precautions. A look inside, reading through the specifications, land searches, a survey, and so on.
The UK Government is making sure people don’t get such basic information when it comes to leaving the EU.
Following a vote in the House of Commons last week, ‘Brexit impact assessments’ looking at 58 sectors will now be released by Whitehall. The Scottish Secretary has indicated the Government in Holyrood will see information on what Brexit will mean for the Scottish economy.
However, no such promise has been made to Wales. It seems as though the Welsh Government hasn’t even asked to see the analysis.
In fact, Ministers in Westminster have begun to deny that this analysis even exists.
It is for that reason I have today written to the First Minister, demanding clarity as to whether the Welsh Government is in possession of a Brexit impact study on the Welsh economy.
If they have this information, then they must make it public. If they have not been provided the information, then they must obtain it.
To deny Welsh policymakers, businesses and our citizens access to these documents is like blindfolding our country when we need to be looking more carefully and scrutinising what is going on than ever before.
Brexit is the biggest economic, social and political challenge to face Wales since the National Assembly for Wales came into being. It is therefore vital that Welsh policymakers and Welsh citizens understand its impact.
That is why in my letter to the First Minister I have also called on him to instruct the Welsh Government to produce its own analysis, regardless of what the Westminster Government does.
In the spirit of democracy, transparency and fact-based policymaking, his administration has a responsibility to comprehend and make clear what Brexit means for Wales.
Shambolic
We already know from independent analysis that Brexit is going to have a profound impact on the Welsh economy:
- We already know that Wales receives £245million more per year from the EU than we pay in.
- We already know that 200,000 Welsh jobs are dependent on trade within the EU Single Market.
- We already know that 90% of our food and drink exports are now at risk thanks to Brexit.
So then, what don’t we know? What more could Westminster be hiding from us in these 58 sectorial impact assessments?
What more could Welsh Labour be hiding, if they have been granted access to this analysis? Just how devastating and long-lasting are the effects of this atrociously negotiated Brexit bomb going to be?
Yes, Wales voted to leave the European Union, and Plaid Cymru has never disputed that fact. But Wales did not vote for the myriad of disastrous eventualities that this shambolic government is intent on imposing.
Whether the UK Government is forthcoming with a Welsh impact assessment or not, the Welsh Government must act.
It must come clean on its Brexit analysis. It must make us all aware of what Brexit means for Wales. It must do its job and work for Wales – whatever Westminster chooses to do.
Every day it becomes clearer that the referendum campaign was fought with misinformation, obstruction, and obfuscation of the truth.
We must learn from this and never allow it to be repeated. Our citizens deserve it, our economy requires it and our democracy demands it.
We all deserve and have a right to access the information in those impact assessments. Only then can we know how to move forward, stronger.
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The elitist and ever increasingly corrupt British will never come clean, they don’t do clean, just take a look at their history! I rest my case. So, can we get rid if them now?
The people in Wales have a right to know.
The reason why this is happening in the background outside public knowledge is because we in Wales still do not have its own independent media, produced in Wales, by Wales, for Wales.
The British don’t want us to know…..
Shame Plaid didn’t put more effort into the referendum.
Too happy to sit alongside Cameron and other shysters/banksters etc who did a good job of angering a lot of people already alienated and frustrated. Realised too late that the articulate case for Remaining ( and changing the EU ) had not been made ( and remains to be made) and now joining in with a whining assortment of Brit establishment types who also have a high dependency on EU.
We are already regarded at Westminster as part of western England. Our borders are a myth and transparent. The abolition of seven bridge tolls will intensify the lack of distinction between borders in the south east. The dominance of the English language has already been achieved. The question is how far this will spread beyond the eastern fringes to more western areas. Confidence in the ability of a Nation to respond to challenges is based fundamentally on its economic competence and enterprise. The greater the dependence on handouts the greater the interdependence. We must press hard on the identification of… Read more »
The usual old canards being trotted out by the sore losers of the Remain campaign. The Remain campaign got to make its case voluminously, at the taxpayers’ expense, threatening all sorts of economic collapse beginning from the morning after the vote. The voters saw through it, and hopefully remain smart enough to see through the continued post-referendum bluster as well. It’s not often that I agree with Leanne Wood about anything, but I certainly agree that the current Tory government is shambolic – the sooner we see the backs of them the better. Nevertheless they did actually win the election… Read more »
Some fair points here. People did know they were voting to Leave, and that the impact and future relationship would be decided by UK Government later. It’s now “later” and its right to consider the sectorial impact.
Leann Wood – Diolch am yr erthygl. Just the sort of contempt i’d expect from the tori fascist scum – Scotland can see the analysis – we can’t. Eos pengwern: no economic disaster? The pound has lost ca 12% of value against euro/dollar. I am a poor man a member of the precariat: what could i export (surreal question really)? But, i eat a lot of food that is imported from eu-land and so my food bill has gone up, but my precarious income is falling. You rich people might benefit from leaving the eu , but i shall get… Read more »
Thank goodness for Leanne Wood!
Not sure this is any more than posturing. We’re not going to really know how Brexit will impact Wales until we start on that road… and currently we’re still “negotiating”. A report at this stage is effectively guesswork. We all know its going to be bad. Honestly if Plaid wanted to have an impact on this it should have done more before the referendum. Its voice was ineffective then as it was in the elections. We can blame Wales not having a media on why people in Wales voted Brexit… but lets be honest that media would also have had… Read more »
They cant tell Leanne or any one else in Wales what Brexit means for Wales because they have no idea. They are jumping off a cliff into the deeps and have no idea where they will land.