COLUMN: We need to stop the Mid Wales ‘brain drain’

MyWelshpool has provided all local political parties with an opportunity to get their point across in the run-up to next year's expected General Elections with monthly columns and, today, Russell George, the Welsh Conservatives' Member of the Senedd for Montgomeryshire, makes his voice heard. 

"Looking back over almost 25 years of Labour run Wales is stark.

Sir Keir Starmer, “a Welsh Labour Government is the living proof of what Labour in power looks like.” If you want to see how a Labour government would operate at UK level, look no further than their record in Wales.

Whether it’s on health, housing, education or the economy, Wales is the sick man of Britain.

One-in-four people in Wales are on an NHS waiting list and inhumane two-year waits, which have been virtually eliminated elsewhere in the UK, still stand at over 30,000.

A continuous failure by Labour to build even half the homes that Wales desperately needs is exacerbating a housing crisis. Our education system is languishing at the bottom of the British PISA and GCSE rankings. And Welsh pay packets are the lightest in Britain.

The Labour Party is also presiding over a ‘Brain Drain’ here in Mid Wales and have managed the decline in our public services making them an unattractive place to work – a lethal mix which is currently placing immense strain on our local services and economy.

We need to give people a reason to stay here in Montgomeryshire, with better healthcare, access to dentists, good education and opportunity.

Wales’ percentage of people aged 16 to 64 fell from 63.7% in 2008 to 61.2% in 2020. This has a huge impact because we need young people to work in our public services and drive the economy. With an increasingly older population, how are we to care for the elderly without more doctors and nurses for example.

Instead of addressing these longstanding issues, the Labour Government in Cardiff Bay is distracted with a whole host of vanity projects; increasing the number of politicians in the Senedd, trying to gerrymander the voting system, rolling out blanket 20mph zones, cancelling road building, and even consulting on banning meal deals. Is this really what devolution has become?

I want to see a Welsh Government that focuses on the areas of devolution it already has power over. Montgomeryshire needs dentists, carers, housing, medical professionals and a fully functioning local economy that gives young people a chance to have a high skilled job near the community they grew up in.

I want to see the Labour Welsh Government ditching the wasteful spending on pet projects like more politicians, and meddling with constitutional matters.

Wales already has the powers it needs to deliver a better economy, better schools and better hospitals but the Labour Party is presiding over a broken Wales that effectively undermines the purpose of devolution.

Wales needs a government that grabs devolution by the neck and invests in local communities, is attractive to for businesses and properly funds the NHS using the full £1.20 per head of the Barnett formula.

As Welsh Conservatives, we would use the full £1.20 instead of the Welsh Government’s £1.05 spend on Health. We’d introduce a comprehensive retention and recruitment plan and we have vowed to create 150,000 new apprenticeships, cut tuition fees for students studying STEM and modern foreign languages, refund tuition fees for those who chose to work as doctors, nurses or teachers, and offer free bus travel and discounted rail travel for 16-24-year olds."