Welsh Liberal blogs

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have accused the Conservative Government in Westminster of levelling down Wales in yesterday’s budget, stating that measures announced by the Government do not even come close to replacing lost EU funding. The accusations come as a newly released impact study by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) showed that the UK economy will be 4 per cent smaller as a result of Brexit, in addition to the 2 per cent smaller it is set to be from the COVID-19 pandemic. The announcement from Chancellor Rishi Sunak yesterday also outlined that Wales will receive a £254 million cut in development funding after it was revealed Wales will receive just £121 million in funds from the so-called ‘Levelling-Up’ Fund in comparison to the £375 million a year it would have received if the UK had remained in the EU. Commenting Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader, Jane Dodds MS, stated: “We are now seriously beginning to feel the consequences of this Conservative Government’s ob...

  Small and medium-sized businesses across Wales, from tech start-ups to hairdressers and cafes, will pay an extra £99.4 million a year due to the rise in national insurance, research commissioned by the Liberal Democrats has found.  Boris Johnson broke his 2019 manifesto promise by raising employer National Insurance Contributions by 1.25 per cent, impacting thousands of small businesses. House of Commons Library research has detailed the impact of this tax rise on small businesses across the country. It is estimated that the average micro-business employing up to 9 people will pay more than £1,000 extra a year as a result of the tax hike.  The top 10 most impacted areas of Wales include the country’s business hubs in major cities and local authorities with a high number of small businesses, including rural regions. As well as the capital, Swansea, Carmarthenshire, Powys and Pembrokeshire are all expected to hundreds of thousands extra in tax following the broken p...

Figures obtained by the Welsh Liberal Democrats have shown that Wales has received almost half the post-Brexit funding for small businesses that Northern Ireland has received. This is despite the fact that Wales has a population of 3.1 million compared to Northern Ireland's 1.8 million. In 2019, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Wales accounted for 62.4% of employment and 37.9% of turnover .   The figures show that across the UK less than half of the £20 million post-Brexit Government fund to help small businesses deal with new rules for trading with the EU has been handed out to companies. Out of the £8.4 million that has been handed out England has received £7.2 million, Scotland £476,539, Northern Ireland £434,234 and in Wales just £230,159.   The Welsh Liberal Democrats have claimed the figures show that the Tories have “shamefully left many small Welsh businesses high and dry” and called on Rishi Sunak to reopen the fund during his budget next week. ...

    The Welsh Liberal Democrats have accused Welsh Conservative MP’s of ‘blatantly ignoring’ the issue of river pollution. The accusation comes as MPs voted for legalisation designed to tackle river pollution on October 20. The Lords Amendment 45 to the Environment Bill would have placed a legal duty on water companies in England and Wales “to make improvements to their sewerage systems and demonstrate progressive reductions in the harm caused by discharges of untreated sewage.”   The Amendment was rejected after 265 Conservative MPs voted against it, including ten Welsh Conservative MPs, including David T C Davies, despite the fact the River Wye, which has reported serious pollution problems in recent years, travels through his Constituency. Likewise, Brecon and Radnorshire’s MP Fay Jones did not register a vote, meaning she either abstained or did not attend the vote. Again despite the fact that the River Wye originates and travels through her Constituency. ...

  The Welsh Liberal Democrats have called on the Welsh Government to reconsider its presence in the middle eastern states of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar due to concerns over the human rights conditions in the two nations. The Welsh Government currently has offices in 12 countries, including in Dubai, the UAE and Doha, Qatar. However, the Welsh Lib Dems believe, that the offices should be reconsidered and the resources of Trade and Invest Wales potentially moved to countries with better records on human rights and democracy as part of an ‘ethical trade policy for Wales’. Both Qatar and the UAE rank extremely poorly on several human rights metrics. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s World Democracy Index, Qatar ranks 126/167 nations while the UAE ranks 145/167 making both countries “authoritarian regimes”. The countries also perform poorly on woman’s rights, with a male guardianship system still in place that means most women still need the permission o...

  The Welsh Liberal Democrats have called on the Welsh Government to forge ahead with its own deposit return scheme, citing the “unacceptable” delay of plans by the Conservative Government to introduce a joint England, Wales and Northern Irish scheme. A Deposit Return Scheme, also known as a bottle deposit scheme, encourages people to recycle drinks containers such as plastic or glass bottles. People pay a small deposit for the container which is paid back when it is returned to a collection point. In Norway, the scheme has led to 95 per cent of bottles being recycled. Research from Wrap Cymru estimates that 400,000 tonnes of plastic waste are generated in Wales each year, with 67 per cent of that waste being packaging. Another report by the Marine Conservation Society found that there were 29 drinks containers for every 100 meters of beach in Wales. The Conservatives first announced they would seek to introduce a UK-wide deposit scheme in 2018, but earlier this year quietly...

  The Welsh Liberal Democrats have called on the Welsh Government to deliver on its long promised Clean Air Act for Wales, stating that the “health of Welsh people cannot wait any longer for its introduction” and that Welsh Labour had “not acted fast enough” to secure the Bill’s introduction. The Welsh Labour Government has consistently promised a clean air act for Wales, but its introduction has faced repeated delays. Such an act would likely contain measures such as implementing World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, mandating the Welsh Government to produce an air-quality strategy every five years, introduce a “right to breathe” and require local authorities to monitor and assess air pollution and take action to reduce it.   Poor air quality currently costs Wales considerably, with an estimated 2,000 people dying a year in Wales and many more having their average life expectancy cut short. The cost of air-quality related health conditions for the Welsh NHS appr...

  Read Ed Davey's message October is Black History Month — an opportunity to celebrate the enormous contributions that Black people have made across our country. From Mary Prince to Paul Stephenson, so many Black pioneers have transformed our society’s cultural and political landscapes. We owe a great debt to everything they have achieved.  Yet here in the UK, far too many people’s lives are still blighted by discrimination, inequality and injustice. This Summer, the Euros championship exposed the best and worst of our country’s relationship with race. The incredible achievements of Black players like Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka made us all proud. They united the whole country behind them — and most courageously, these young Black men took the knee to protest the racism that they have sadly experienced. But they were met with abuse from a small minority of the public. These heroes were booed and subjected to vile, racist online abuse ...