The slow death of ITV Wales, cuts at BBC Wales and the emasculation of the Western Mail have been much discussed. But the weakening of the Welsh media is only part of the story. The decline of civil society has been going on under the radar.
The Ramblers have dispensed with the post of Director for Wales, leaving the highly experienced Beverley Penney without a job. Oxfam Cymru have downgraded the role of Welsh Director – making clear they didn’t want a ’spokesman’ when they recently filled a vacancy. And the WWF have made redundant the well respected Morgan Parry as their Director for Wales.
Add to this the fact that the CBI Director for Wales, David Rosser, has widened his responsibility to take on the west of England, and a pattern begins to emerge.
There is no doubt that the NGO sector is far from immune from the general economic downturn. I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of the redundancies. But when cuts have to be made it seems that the post of Director for Wales is among the first to be sacrificed.
Add to this the view in the higher echelons of the Welsh Civil Service that when cuts begin to bite WAG’s funding for a number of Welsh charities is likely to be seen as ‘low hanging fruit’, and therefore easy pickings.
It is generally agreed that we are in for a grim few years. But the implications go beyond jobs.
A few less members of the chattering classes, you might think – no bad thing.
Wales already has an immature and underdeveloped media and civil society. Though there was a blooming in the sectors following the establishment of the Assembly, it now appears to be being pruned.
In my view the issue of ‘capacity’ is going to be one of the dominant themes of Welsh Government over the coming years. Capacity of AMs to cope with a bigger role and workload; capacity of the Civil Service to meet the challenge of greater scrutiny and greater demands; capacity of the media to adequately report on it all; and capacity of our civil society to inform a divergent policy agenda without a resource base to meet the demands.
Just as we need to be preparing to meet the challenges of a new chapter of the devolution story, we are losing some of the characters we need to make it a compelling tale.
Update: I also understand that Save the Children didn’t replace Keith Towler as Programme Director for Wales after he was appointed Children’s Commissioner
Annabelle Harle 11:32 pm on 20 July, 2009 Permalink
I think it’s in part a vicious circle – we have so little Welsh press, the London organisations don’t read about their Wales offices’ activities in the paper and assume they’re not doing anything. Whereas most people in Wales read the London press and know there won’t be anything about anybody’s Wales offices anyway, unless there is a trapped kitten or a talking dog involved.
The lack of information in the press that people in Wales read about the non-Westminster institutions governing Wales is a serious problem as you say.
daran 5:50 am on 21 July, 2009 Permalink
Thank goodness someone has started to say something on this issue. Without a doubt, there is significant resource reallocation happening at the moment. It would be useful if WCVA together with Publc Affairs Cymru were looking at this issue and, indeed, some sort of map of existing posts/roles could be drawn up. What is not clearly known, cannot be defended.
Gina 8:35 am on 21 July, 2009 Permalink
WCVA you are joking they are a major part of the problem, lets look outside the usual suspects or we will stay in mire we are in now.
The capacity outside of WAG is there, it just is not allowed to emege, its tribalism and politicking and nepotism again.
David Jones 9:10 am on 21 July, 2009 Permalink
2 thoughts…
CAPACITY
In the lead-up to the next election we will see an interesting battle-ground emerging as both parties vie to convince voters that they are better placed to wield the surgeon’s knife on the public-sector with greater precision.
Then the discussions should turn to the effectiveness of delivery.
So, Lee, if “Capacity” equates to “Delivery”, than this analysis is spot-on.
SCRUTINY
Perhaps the trick to unlocking better delivery is this scrutiny role.
Various parts of the public sector have formal scrutiny roles – with the NHS having the most mature systems (and here I declare an interest as one of the out-going Non-Executive’s on the Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust).
But other areas of the public sector do not seem to enjoy similar scrutiny. Does, for example, the Career’s service in Wales have a permanent external scrutiny function ?
Dr. Christopher Wood 2:38 pm on 24 July, 2009 Permalink
Just an observation, but the ‘pattern’ is likely to become more resolved as the USA shows increasing signs of distress in the American small business sector. I noticed before the real estate collapse in the UK that there were signs of ‘chill winds” blowing in the US real estate market (letter published warning about this in the WM or Echo), I saw a similar warning sign, but this time in the American small business sector in the Washington DC metro area – this is very significant because the DC area is normally largely insulated from economic woes because so many people here work for the government or contractors working for the government. Why should anyone in the public or private sector in Wales be concerned about this? As small businesses fold in the USA there will be less requirement for imports into the USA from Europe/UK/Wales …
Michael Cridland 1:47 pm on 26 July, 2009 Permalink
Welsh civil society is not in decline! Its dead! its been dead for years. Its just not had a proper funeral. The evidence is apathy! the third world poverty in the council estates, binge drinking in the cities. A public transit system that would not even greeted with envy in a Third world country. Tesco laying of workers. People angry and campagning about green fields instead of education and jobs! None of the passions of the 80s. Ordinary people’s concerns ignored even on the blogs. I do see light and a resurrection ahead. It will come only with the destruction (in Wagnerian terms a “gottdamerung sp) of the political class and its sordid culture, just like 5th Century Rome or 18th Century France.