Why is Wales so poor? (Economy, language and more)

[editor]

Wales voted to leave Europe..

It wasn't as emphatic as your post suggests, and some people only voted for Brexit on the grounds that they've been so fucked by the current system, things couldn't get much worse. And, like a lot of people, I dare say some believed the outright lies that were pedalled by the Leave campaign.

854,572 (52.5%) voters in Wales chose to leave the EU, compared with 772,347 (47.5%) supporting Remain.

 

[davesgcr]

Bad best practise leads to poverty in Wales. People follow best practise until the money runs out. Perhaps Wales is not catching up. A more serious mind leads to more wealth, not a silly one. The UK I have noticed has fallen from 13th richest country in the world GDP per capita nominal to 25th richest country in the world out of 200. Wales could use greater sales techniques on foreigners. Wales could do with a bigger banking sector or IT sector. More higher value end services. Business men in Wales wrongly favoured setting up manufacturing companies instead of higher end services.

Back in the 1970's , the panacea seemed to be setting up "industrial estates and units" - that seemed to work for a while until globalisation kicked in , and outsourced much of the embryonic businesses - there actually seems to be a fair bit or higher tech / or maybe back office stuff in Cardiff certainly - less so elsewhere maybe. The key needs to be major improvements in high tech connectivity and the access to markets , not to mention proper electrification beyond Cardiff of the main lines (and something of course for North Wales rail wise) .....

Quite amazingly - WiFi is now available on pretty well every ATW train , so you can surf the net from Dovey Junction ..

 

[RobotHyper]

The Welsh have never been communist. Higher ambitions for its people, instead of lower ambitions. If all regions of the UK are following scientific pronciples of wealth creation, it is hard for a region to catch up.

 

[Plumdaff]

It wasn't as emphatic as your post suggests, and some people only voted for Brexit on the grounds that they've been so fucked by the current system, things couldn't get much worse. And, like a lot of people, I dare say some believed the outright lies that were pedalled by the Leave campaign.

854,572 (52.5%) voters in Wales chose to leave the EU, compared with 772,347 (47.5%) supporting Remain.

This is an interesting article about Wales and the Brexit vote, thinking about the possible diminishing of the 'Welsh effect' in Welsh politics, Wales as an effective one party state, and the effect of significant in-migration of retired English voters who are more right wing in large numbers into some areas of Wales.

One other thing Wales lacks is any form of real internal political media - I'd recommend the podcast Desolation Radio - one of the contributors is the author of the linked article, it's looks a specific Welsh political issues from a non partisan, Welsh left wing viewpoint.

 

[editor]

This is an interesting article about Wales and the Brexit vote, thinking about the possible diminishing of the 'Welsh effect' in Welsh politics, Wales as an effective one party state, and the effect of significant in-migration of retired English voters who are more right wing in large numbers into some areas of Wales.

One other thing Wales lacks is any form of real internal political media - I'd recommend the podcast Desolation Radio - one of the contributors is the author of the linked article, it's looks a specific Welsh political issues from a non partisan, Welsh left wing viewpoint.

That is interesting. So this is another thing we can blame England for!

It is estimated that over the last 10 years over a million English people have moved into Wales. As of now 20.8% of Welsh population is English-born. To put this demographic shift in context, this is the highest percentage of foreign born population in the EU apart from Luxembourg.

As well as being destructive to the Welsh language in-migration can impact attitudes towards the EU in two ways. First, the constant in-migration of people from England into former Welsh speaking communities and the simultaneous out-migration of young Welsh speakers has a cumulative impact: it erodes the local political and cultural apparatuses which previously incubated/fostered the alternative political and linguistuc culture which ultimately produced distinct political opinions.

Second, whilst migrants from England are a diverse group, in terms of voting statistics they generally tend to be more conservative and have emerged as more likely to vote UKIP. This is unsurprising given that many in-migrants are products of ‘white flight’.

 

[mwgdrwg]

That is interesting. So this is another thing we can blame England for!

On Anglesey I can go to the local supermarket and be in a minority, with more brummie and cockney accents than Welsh speakers. A Welsh speaking heart-land swamped in a generation.

The last point in your quote is spot on, they mostly seem to be UKIPpers, with the amount of posters and banners I see at elections.

Fucked up.

 

[RobotHyper]

Wales. Please God no.

 

[skyscraper101]

Wales. Please God no.

eh

 

[kebabking]

eh

its a bot. or someone who's talking to the people in his head.

 

[19sixtysix]

The last point in your quote is spot on, they mostly seem to be UKIPpers, with the amount of posters and banners I see at elections.

In the days of analogue TV I used to take calls from english folk who'd moved to wales and were complaining about welsh TV in English and Welsh. As a Scot I had to explain to them that moving to a different country will bring it certain cultural differences and the solution to getting your TV back was to move. The slogan " come home to a warm fire buy a holiday home in wales" was in my mind

 

[Poi E]

A former co-worker from Chester swore blind that he would not go to Wales because of the risk to his safety. As I have a deep affection for Wales I encouraged his misguided views.