Quote Originally Posted by JamesWales View Post
Thats not strictly true.

Firstly we've had three different colours of govt in Westminster, so just blaming them sounds more like a Plaid type argument, that I don't think you are making

Secondly, Wales receives more Weatminate spending per head tha England by some distance. Also significantly more than we put in. What exactly do we expect Westminster to do?

Thirdly, the Welsh Govt do have signicant tax rasing powers which they choose not to use. They just want Westminster to make that difficult decision rather than themselves.

Fourthly, even if the purse strings were entirely held by Westminster and individual department budgets were set b Westminster (which they arent), how you choose to spend something still matters. If you give 1 million quid to two people, how they spend it matters. It can't just be a case of saying you want more.

I do get peoples ideological preference for one party or another but that shouldnt override the facts staring us in the face.

You criticise the Westminster govt, which is fair enough, but after a quarter of a century where stats are broadly comparable we are nearly always worse off in devolved areas.

Yesterday we learned it was in the area of cancer treatment. I mean, Christ alive, don't people care bot this stuff? I know I do.
All I'm doing is pointing out that the Welsh Government does not have total control over how it allocates and spends its money - it's the same in Scotland to a lesser degree. How can the Welsh Government be held solely responsible for what happens in Wales when it doesn't have total control? That's not being party political because the same would be true if we had a Plaid Cymru. Conservative or any other party Assembly Government.