Dear Sir or Madam
In your article 'MP furious at (Council) tax increases' (Cowbridge & Llantwit Gem, February 20th 2020)
 you quote Alun Cairns as claiming that he had 'negotiated a new settlement which sees Wales receive
£120 for every £100 spent in England'.
 Mr Cairn's '£120 for every £100  spent in England' relates to the annual block grant Wales receives from
Westminster  to cover public expenditure in devolved areas of government, specifically to
any consequential payments added to match any activity undertaken by England in these areas. All
political commentators, with the exception of the Tory Government, have always argued that public
expenditure levels between regions ought to be dictated by need rather than population size, a concept
first mooted in 2010 by the independent Holtham Commission. So Mr Cairn's contribution has involved
finally giving ground after 10 years of Welsh Assembly pressure to a needs based not population based
formula. Without agreeing to review what ratio this should be, they have settled on £120 for every
£100, £5 above the current level of £115, which happens to be the level recommended by the original
Holtham Commission.
The £120 also only becomes available if England actually spend the £100 in the first place. And the
succession of austerity budgets that the Tory party have delivered over this past decade have  seen
Wales's Block Grant, in both real terms and per capita, decline by 5% since 2011-12. This has resulted in
the Welsh Government having to divert funds intended for local councils to cover the deficit, which in
turn has meant these councils having themselves  to increase their rates to fund their operations. So the
rise in rates so strongly condemned by Mr Cairns is a direct result of his own government's austerity
policies.
Mr Cairn also conveniently omits to mention that the £120 for £100 so called deal only relates
to devolved activities, the block grant only actually accounting for a quarter of Welsh Public
Expenditure. Looking at  the  total spend, Wales comes in at only £111 per head above England's £100,
which must mean that there are areas of government, specifically non devolved areas still handled by
Westminster, where England's spend must be decidedly greater than Wales.
And such is the case, particularly in the area of  investment as opposed to social protection. Wales,
whilst accounting for 8% of the railway network, only receives 1% of Network Rail investment, and this is
before we have added the £100bn for HS2 into the equation. Research & Development spend is £5 a
head in Wales compared to £54 just in London.  Where is this investment Mr Cairns talks about?
I feel Mr Cairns has misled and misinformed us a touch.  Is it not  time  that he stopped being the
Conservative Party's obedient mouthpiece in Wales, and fulfilled his proper job
description positively representing Wales (previously) and the Vale of Glamorgan in
Westminster?.

It’s hard today not to feel sad, even worried about the future of Wales. But don’t lose hope. The red wall may have crumbled faced with that blue wave, but the green dam stood strong. How can we build it higher in other parts of Wales? Well, here’s how you can help:

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Diolch.

Dear editor

I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or get my history books out when I read the recent letter from Terry Greenwood blaming the latest PISA results on the fact that we now teach Welsh in schools.

Was it really nearly two centuries ago that the infamous blue book was first published describing Welsh people as ignorant, lazy immoral and speaking a guttural language that needed to be eradicated because clearly 175 years on it seems those beliefs still persist amongst some people who would happily see Welsh, the oldest language in Europe, wither on the vine.

In his letter Mr Greenwood resorts to the often used but totally inaccurate retort that our educational system is failing because Welsh is taught in school and by implication of course suggests that were children to learn another language, say French or German as in other parts of the UK performance would improve.

Mr Greenwood is of course right in saying that schools in Wales lag behind other countries but it is certainly not our language that is to blame far from it. Of the 200 comprehensives in Wales a mere 50, 25%, are Welsh medium/bilingual however in the recently released Times top 10 list of Welsh schools four of the ten, 40%, including the first and third placed were Welsh medium/bi-lingual an outstanding achievement by any standard especially given that Welsh medium education is still in its relative infancy. In fact many non-Welsh speaking parents now choose to send the children to Welsh schools precisely because they provide a far better standard of education and English medium schools in the same area.

Let me conclude by saying that I am a non-Welsh speaker from a non-Welsh speaking family. Born in Cardiff in 1960, like many back then I was denied the opportunity to learn my own language but have always been supportive of our wonderful language and it’s widening use and I look forward to hearing the 1 millionth Welsh speaker.

After all Welsh is our language, Welsh speaking or not, born in Wales or not it belongs to all of us and is part of our unique, rich culture and heritage and who knows after we reach the 1 millionth speaker we may even start to teach Welsh history to Welsh pupils in Welsh schools now wouldn’t that be something.

Andrew Murphy

So glad to help out with the amazing @FflurElin in @PlaidPontypridd ! Balch i helpu yr anhygoel Fflur Elin ym Mhontypridd. #walesitsus #NiYwCymru

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