“Anthony Cook the Gwlad candidate in the Caerphilly by-election for the Senedd has scored a hit.

Anthony’s personal statement made when he was chosen as the Gwlad candidate led with the need for urban regeneration in the towns of Caerphilly County Borough. He was the only candidate to lead with it. A major local issue.

The Labour Government in London has responded by awarding £21.5m to Caerphilly for urban generation under the Pride in Place scheme! Could this be a generous bribe from worried people in far away London?”

Anthony says “This is extraordinary. I put forward urban regeneration as my top concern and here is the Labour finally coming up with some money even if only for cosmetic improvements to libraries, toilets and parks. This does not address the fundamental problem of town centres, not enough people. As the Gwlad candidate, I want to see more fundamental change with transparent reliable local access to funds, not politically directed “competitions” so that public institutions move back into town centres. The bias in VAT, that zero-rates new buildings but punishes town centre repairs with VAT, should be removed so that that the private sector also comes back into town.

This is a UK wide scheme but the timing of the announcement is very convenient for a Labour government on the political ropes and likely to fail badly in Caerphilly.

This also shows how overcentralized Britain is. The state of libraries, public toilets and parks used to be matters for local government. . This money is not a gift. It used to be that local government had enough control over funding to make such spending decisions themselves. It is money that never should have left Caerphilly in the first place. Even in the worst days of the 1930s such things were under local control. Now local authority budgets are so tightly controlled that decisions about funding the few libraries and public toilets facilities are made in London. Caerphilly was notably late receiving these funds from London. Gwlad believes that decision making about budgets should be made at the level of those affected, be that in County Borough, the Senedd or indeed, for the time being, the Westminster Parliament. Concentrating all the power in London, whether Labour, Conservative or English Nationalist Reform is in power, destroys democracy”

Europe is full of small countries, some smaller than Wales, which have powered ahead, economically and socially, since achieving their independence. Gwlad believes that Wales should be one of them: a prosperous, independent market economy enjoying good relations with its neighbours and comfortable in its own skin.