Reply With QuoteHow dare the UK government award over £200m to 11 different Welsh projects, just a couple of months ago from the levelling up fund.
It includes £50m towards the Cardiff Crossrail project.
You'd better let those English taxpayers know.
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I just can't fathom how you can make an argument that one countries taxpayers should be paying for an infrastructure project in another country that doesn't have an inch of it inside their country?
Otherwise you can argue England taxpayers should be paying for the South Wales metro, the severn bridge (which was built for free in-leu of a toll rather than the UK government investing.) It never ends.
Why are the Welsh such a pushover as a nation? I can't imagine that happening with in any other country in the world let alone Scotland.
Even the Welsh conservatives think it's a joke. 5 billion pounds+ is a huge amount of money that is being basically robbed.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-61495454
Surely there is a petition against this sh1t?
How dare the UK government award over £200m to 11 different Welsh projects, just a couple of months ago from the levelling up fund.
It includes £50m towards the Cardiff Crossrail project.
You'd better let those English taxpayers know.
I can't tell if this a joke.Originally Posted by The Bloop
Just in case you're serious, that is absolutely peanuts compared to the money Wales lost from exiting the EU.
Not a joke (and I'm not a supporter of them either incase you're wondering).
I'm fully aware that it's peanuts, and that we haven't received our fair share of HS2 money, but just for the sake of balance for the OPs point, thought it was worth mentioning. With a general election on the horizon, no doubt, there'll be a few more sweeteners coming this side of the border in the next year or so.
Because we live in the UK .
Exactly DML. It's not often I agree with you but England is not some foreign country. It's part of our UK.
if Wales got 5bn of infrastructure spending that would be absolutely massive -
I agree, Wales should get it's share of funding, but it has to be said that more public money is spent per head in Wales than in England, so the 'tax payer' argument doesn't wash.
The argument here (which is true) is that people from North Wales will benefit as anyone going from Wrexham, Bangor et al will get to London quicker as a result. Like I said, that is demonstrably true, but I still think Wales should get it's share of HS2 funding, not least because it's politically sensible to do so.
I'll explain this in simple terms. The UK is in the UK and pays , say £50 billion. It then gets back, say £25 bilion. All that 'EU funding' for pointless projects was actually us receiving half our money back. The 'EU' doesn't have one single euro - it's all contributions from the taxpayers of member states..
on the other hand membership of the EU was worth a lot more than the membership fee to the UK economy.
Also at least the money we got back was occasionally spent on infrastructure projects in Wales, unlike Westminster who will always spend it in the South East
Wales gets more money "per head" compared to England, because the population here is older, poorer , with worse health, and that is unlikely to change as long as Wales is in this unequal Union.
where Wales doesn't get it's fair share in spending is in infrastructure spending which could actually help to transform the country
The Westminster govt spends far far more in Wales than the EU ever did!
well there was plenty of people on question time saying its not true from a bit further up the warrington area last week
I don't disagree with you there.
I'm just providing an answer to the question, and that is because if ever the HS2 project were completed then people from Wrexham, Caernarfon and Holyhead will be able to get to Birmingham, Oxford, London etc much quicker - thus there is considered to be a benefit to Wales.
I don't agree with the whole HS2 project. Electrification of the GWR made sense, we can now get to London in 1hr45mins, but does that really need to be much quicker than that?
There are many reasons to criticism HS2 but undoubtedly it will make some journeys quicker. That much isn't in doubt.
The isolated valleys around Bridgend are amongst the poorest regions of the UK , even with government support . The support from both Welsh and UK government isn't enough but its absolutely vital .
Wales receives £16bn in fiscal transfers per annum. We aren't doing to bad out of the union.
HS2 is a UK project, much the same as the barrage was, or the Severn Bridge.
how much of those fiscal transfers are for infrastructure?
also the barrage which wasn't approved?
or the second severn crossing which was funded at a completely exorbitant rate mostly by the Welsh
I'll explain it in simpler terms. The money we gave to the the EU gave us access to their market which to our economy is worth far far more than the £9 billion net we gave them in 2018 - https://fullfact.org/europe/our-eu-m...ee-55-million/
We have access to their market now, but don't have to pay billions for it, so that's good news.
it doesn't matter how much fiscal transfers are for infrastructure. If the needs of Wales are different then public spending will be on different things.
As for your claim that the Severn Bridge was funded by the Welsh, the entire suspension bridge is in England, and was funded from central government before the Barnett formula was even thought of.
of course it matters how much is for infrastructure, why can people not see this?
Wales spends a higher proportion on pensions, health issues social security etc BECAUSE we have less money spent on infrastructure offer the decades, it is not a good reason to justify not spending as much on infrastructure as England.
imagine there are 2 towns, one is wealthy with a good rail link , the other is poor with mostly unemployed people and no rail.
if you have a pot of money for infrastructure, do you spend it on the poorer town? or do you further upgrade the rich town because you already spend more in benefits on the poorer town? that is the choice that the UK is continually making and it's bullshit.
the second Severn bridge was paid for by private finance - which cost about £200million - then the agreement made by the Tories was that they would be able to charge for using the bridge until they had made £1bn of profit in 1991 values, after any expenses to maintain the bridge, as this was paid for by motorists it basically came directly from the Welsh economy not paid for by central government at all.
the Welsh paid for it 5 times over!
that whole deal should be a national scandal.
But barely on the same terms and look at the problems it causes.
Well, people would say the old arrangement caused problems too Eric, but we risk repeating a seven year old debate, and I take your point. Onwards and upwards!
As General Melchett said: "If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through."
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