Plaid Cymru, Wales’ self-styled nationalist governing party, seems to have forgotten which country their taxpayers live in.
In a £300,000-a-year foreign aid project, the Welsh government has shovelled out taxpayer money to schemes that include beekeeping classes for disabled Ugandans, “financial literacy” training for LGBTQI+ Ugandans and sending them money for trees.
This was called out by Reform UK Wales back in June of this year, when the party put forward a motion to end all Welsh government international spending – but this was rejected by members of the Senedd. Since then, the scheme has not slowed down and the minority administration is seeking new projects in Africa to bankroll.
Cai Parry-Jones, Reform’s finance spokesman in the Senedd, said: “It’s ridiculous the Welsh government spends money on these projects abroad, and it’s no wonder Labour were booted out of Wales for wasting money like this.
“The new Plaid government also supports this international spending, so expect more of the same. It’s time we put the Welsh people first. Welsh money should be for Wales. Full stop.”
This follows on from yet more wasteful foreign aid spending inflicted on the British people by the UK Labour government.
With Andy Burnham approving £40 million for infrastructure and green energy projects in Caribbean countries this Tuesday, it begs the question: why does our political class seem to think that its first duty is to improve people’s lives in every country but Britain’s?
The Prime Minister’s response to all this wasteful foreign aid spending appears to be to do more of it.
As he plans to devolve more funding to regional authorities, the Welsh government is demanding that he gives them greater powers over Wales’s finances. This would give it even more power to waste Welsh taxpayers’ money on projects abroad that, according to the Wales and Africa Grant Scheme, which has been receiving Welsh government funding since 2013, “deliver benefits to Wales and Africa”.
How do initiatives like radio phone-in programmes to “introduce Montgomeryshire farmers to Ugandan farmers”, at the cost of just under £20,000, benefit the Welsh people?
The grant scheme justifies the £25,000 of taxpayers’ cash spent on inclusive beekeeping by stating that: “We will train organisations in Uganda, Ghana and Wales in disability-inclusive beekeeping to reach marginalised people and develop a disability-inclusive beekeeping training package.”
Meanwhile, Welsh patients wait for treatment and public services are stretched to breaking point. Plaid – like Labour before them – prefer to finance initiatives for other country’s citizens rather than their own.
This all ends under Reform. Charity begins at home – and Welsh money belongs in Wales.