'WAG under fire as investors go north after grants are cut'

So the parties are unveiling their Manifesto this week and depending whose launching, they will either be full of reasonably fresh ideas that will never see the light of day or rather dull policies that offend few but are likely to be implemented.

And speaking of policies one of the the last WAG policies is unraveling, it seems Scotland is benefiting from WAG’s decision to change the grants for companies and turn them into loans in benefit other parts of the UK.

In the Western Mail, Martin Shipton wrote ‘The Assembly Government’s decision to cut back on business grants has been criticised in the wake of evidence that Scotland is attracting substantial inward investment projects by continuing its grants policy.

Amazon, the online retailer, has created 950 jobs in Scotland and a number of leading international manufacturers have announced plans to create thousands of jobs in the renewable energy sector – one of several areas seen by the Assembly Government as crucial to Wales’ economic future.

The European arm of Mitsubishi Power Systems said last December that it would invest up to £100m in a research and development centre in Edinburgh for offshore wind turbines, creating up to 200 jobs.

Lena Wilson, chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, said this followed four years of relationship building, during which she had been to Japan three times to meet Mitsubishi and John Swinney, Finance Secretary in the SNP minority Government, had also visited the company in Japan.

Allan Lyall, vice president of European operations at Amazon, told the Financial Times: “Our decision to base this major expansion in Scotland, against stiff international competition, is due not only to the excellent local workforce but to the impressive professionalism of Scottish Development International.”

At a time when every pound of investment is being fought over by countries around the world to help create jobs, it makes WAG’s decision on turning grants into loans look even more stupid than when it was announced.

It's also further proof that scrapping International Business Wales and not replacing it, is beginning to backfire as well – but never mind the same clowns will get re-elected to do more damage to Wales in a couple of weeks – how depressing!

More from the RMG Clarity Poll

Amid all the headline grabbing of a new Opinion Poll showing almost 51% of welsh voters are backing Labour in the Assembly elections published earlier this week, other questions in the survey went unreported but are worth a look.

The pollster RMG Clarity also asked voters whether they would ever see an Assembly without the Labour Party in Government in their lifetime and whether the Conservatives would ever be a part of an Assembly Government in their lifetime

The Results are below

Two fifths of respondents (40.2%) do think that they will see a non Labour-led Assembly in their lifetime, although slightly more (41.6%) do not think they will see this.

Three-fifths of respondents do not think that they will ever see the Conservatives as part of the Assembly Government (60.2%), although a quarter (25.1%) think it is possible.

Q6. Do you think you will ever see the Assembly led by a party other than Labour in your lifetime?

Yes 40.2%

No 41.6%

Don't know 18.2%


Q8. Do you think you will ever see the Conservatives be part of the Assembly Government in your lifetime?


Yes 25.1%

No 60.2%

Don't know 14.7%

They show very predictable results and perhaps prove that Welsh politics only changes when Labour needs it to.

The full results are here