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A WHOLE new approach to boost the Welsh economy is desperately needed after the devastation of 2020.

Or else a viable High Street and thriving locally run businesses could well prove to be a thing of the past.

A new initiative piloted by the Northern Ireland Assembly, could possibly show the way forward for us in Wales as well.

Their Executive have just approved a measure to give £100 retail cards to every adult in Northern Ireland to spend in the local economy, between now and March.

With an adult population of 1.4 million , every individual spending the retail cards could pump £140 million into the local economy of Northern Ireland.

The Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon is said to be thinking of a similar scheme for Scotland.

‘This is the kind of the outside of the box thinking we need here in Wales’ said Karl James Langford, Gwlad’s Senedd candidate in the Vale of Glamorgan next May.

‘We have to think up whole new ways to support our local high Street and businesses after all that’s happened to the sector this year’.

Mr Langford said a raft of new measures were needed to support the Welsh High Street, or else the job losses here next year would be calamitous.

Having different governments for different parts of these Isles is not just a matter of affirming individual national identities.

It can also facilitate best practice, with new initiatives being trialled in the different locations allowing the other governments to respond and adapt to them based on outcomes achieved.