"MPs...to rescue Welsh economy"

The headline of the Western Mail front page yesterday ("MPs unveil blueprint to rescue Welsh economy") was eye-catching because it sheds light on Wales' longstanding economic problems and also shows that Wales' MPs are doing something.

However, it seems to me like their "blueprint"- a new report by the largely pointless Welsh Affairs Select Committee- is nothing of the sort.

All they have pointed out are things that have already been agreed in the Assembly. Firstly, that Wales' transport network is not up to scratch. The legacy of under-investment goes back decades. Network Rail has only last year recognised that Wales even exists as an operational divison, and its functions are still not devolved- in Scotland Network Rail's functions and budget are scrutinised by Scottish Ministers and it is no coincidence that Scotland gets a higher share of Network Rail's investment than Wales does. The MPs have therefore called for rail electrification to include Swansea and the Valley Lines and to go ahead "as soon as possible".

The problem is that both the Labour and Tory parties have been talking about this for years. It was Plaid Cymru policy in the 1980s. When it does finally go ahead that's fine but our neighbours in England will be getting HS2. Any celebrations or back-slapping when they start finally getting around to it will leave a sour taste because Wales' deficient infrastructure has prevented our country from developing at the same level as other parts of the state, widening the already existing regional wealth inequalities. We have had enough reports and rail electrification is talked about in the Assembly every week. It's time for the UK Government to get on with it.

Secondly they identify low levels of entrepreneurship as a problem, and thirdly the issue is the lack of a good brand for inward investment. There are a few other areas, some devolved and some reserved, that the MPs also recommend action on. I'm sure those things need addressing but those are ongoing issues.

The Welsh Affairs Select Committee has therefore produced a 55-page document in stating the obvious. It seems strange to me that every politician of every party now agrees with improving Wales' infrastructure but neither of the two governments operating in Wales will actually put their money where their mouth is. There is no sense of urgency at all and by the time we get 1990s-style electrified rails, Wales will already have been outpaced by the development of the futuristic HS2 line in England. Yet here the debate is whether conventional electrification will even go as far as Swansea...even that has not been guaranteed by the Tory-Lib Dem UK coalition.

Rather than rail electrification creating new jobs in Wales it will therefore merely mean we lose fewer jobs than usual, because London will be connected by HS2 to Birmingham which will boost several of the English regions that border Wales. England will have a competitive advantage over Wales, exacerbated by our peripheral location. This is not to sound defeatist, but the reality is that the Welsh MPs from the British parties are only just catching up with what the Assembly is discussing on a regular basis, and their time would be better spent pressing their London masters to actually fulfil their obligations to Wales.