Nothing to Report

So another week passes in the exciting world of Welsh politics. So what has happened that so animates the masses? What event has awakened the interest of the nation and has caused such fierce debate around countless half-empty beer glasses in thousands of pubs up and down the land? Well? What?

Nothing of course.

Therein lays the problem for the Welsh people. So long as they have a glorified county borough council sitting in a poor quality hole in a rather pretentious and already decrepit-looking Cardiff Bay, nothing will ever happen to convince the Welsh people that their £50,000-a-year AMs are providing anything like value for hard-earned money. Naturally there is some relief to be had from the fact that we are no longer governed in a rather cavalier fashion by that colonial administration known as the Welsh Office. After all, we now enjoy the opinion of (supposedly) accountable individuals who preside over the mundane level of government the Assembly represents.

Mundane?! Let the cry go up! Mundane indeed! What of the free bus passes for the elderly?! What of the free school breakfasts for our dear darling ever-spoilt children?! What of the end to prescription charges?! What of them?! True enough, these are no doubt worthwhile introductions. I simply fail to see why it took 60 AMs on vast salaries with umpteen minions apiece to bring into effect these lovely thoughts. Surely a request from one senior civil servant to a slightly less senior civil servant to sort out this good idea he/she/it had while sitting in the bath the other night would have been sufficient? But then if this is all the Welsh Assembly has the power to do, the poor dabs could be forgiven for trying to talk it up.

For my part, I can’t see a load of cross-looking Saxons sitting on Offa’s Dyke looking covetously across the border. As much as it would upset many Welsh people to know it, our beloved neighbours really have got more important things to do, and more important decisions to make. I only wish the same could be said for those idle mouths down in oh-so-fashionable Cardiff Bay, who enjoy the salaries and the comfortable surroundings of an important governing body worthy of comparable respect, but not the will, the courage, or the authority.

PS: For those of you expecting great things from the new Government of Wales Act, I wouldn’t hold your breath.