21st Century Socialism — Mark Drakeford AM
It is an enormous privilege and a profound responsibility for me to be appointed First Minister of Wales at a time when we have profound challenges ahead amongst which Brexit is the most pressing and threatening. The Cabinet which I formed shortly before Christmas was designed to maximise our ability to meet the Brexit demands, by keeping in post key Ministers in the fields of the economy and health, while strengthening our capacity in areas such as international trade. We will fight with determination to get the voice of Wales heard and the interests of our country and its economy safeguarded whatever the outcome of the negotiations while retaining a daily focus on the bread and butter issues which matter most to people’s lives in Wales. My new cabinet, defined by talent, commitment and passion, has a majority of highly capable women. Together we will act collectively, providing a 21st-century application of the radical, socialist principles which form the mainstream of politics in Wales.
Our core priorities include an environmentally positive economy that will provide the high skilled manufacturing and service jobs of the future and which is digitally advanced. At the same time, we will place a new emphasis on the foundational economy providing those basic services on which every citizen relies and which keep us safe, sound and civilized, for example, social care and housing, key public services that have been starved throughout these years of austerity. We must re-energise these community-facing service industries through fair pay, better training and career development.
With our Well-being of Future Generations Act, we understand that we borrow the fragile planet on which we live from those who come after us. While on the surface Wales remains an environmentally rich and beautiful country, we know there are threats to species and biodiversity which emerge in impacts on water quality, air quality and the wider Welsh economy. We will do more to promote new green industries in coastal energy, new markets in carbon and water management, new opportunities for sustainable food production and mitigation of climate change effects. We must make an investment in renewable energy a cornerstone of our energy strategy for the Welsh economy. We have in abundance the raw material for the sustainable energy of the future: wind, water and waves. This is where the future economic prosperity of many Welsh communities is to be found.
Health and Social Care is a much-stressed field of delivery and it remains a key priority for a Welsh Labour Government to keep our NHS as a public service, publicly funded and publicly provided. Today, the Welsh NHS treats more patients, more successfully than at any time in its history. But we must continue to speed up diagnosis and focus more on prevention. We want to remodel the relationship between patients and clinicians so that health outcomes are genuinely co-produced. Our staff are our major asset and diversification of the workforce remains a key objective, so that the scarcest clinical skills are concentrated where they are most needed. The future funding of social care is a major challenge and we will look to better ways to fund and support this most critical of services, including the possibility of a new, universal social insurance model for the future.
Support for our hard-pressed public services and our commitment to give much more prominent focus to housing has led to two new cabinet post that combines both responsibilities. The packed agenda of change on housing will include, for example, development and planning, tenant security, CPO powers and driving new legislation where needed to deliver more and better development. On local government, we will retain the existing 22 authorities and generate more powers and freedoms for them to organize better, accelerate regional working, strengthen community councils and promote co-production as a routine way of delivering the services that citizens want and need.
Education is one of the most important ways we have of achieving our ambitions, for ourselves, our families and for Wales. We protect our investment in childcare support and early years education and our Childcare Offer. We need an education system from school to apprenticeships/college/university that, while teaching the core skills, knowledge and values of a progressive society, includes digital and financial literacy, and is forward-looking and flexible. We have a radically ambitious programme of reform across the education world in Wales, and will continue to implement it over the rest of this Assembly term.
No brief rehearsal of Cabinet priorities can do justice to our underlying ambitions to sustain the reputation of Wales itself, as an inclusive, bilingual, outward-looking and, confident society. Nor does it reflect the practical ways in which we will organize ourselves to apply 21st-century socialism to the challenges we face in promoting fairness, social and economic justice, and greater prosperity, and a society in which those whose needs are greatest always find themselves at the front of the queue.
The Brexit-threatened future has never been more uncertain and challenging for Wales and the UK. We have much to do in Welsh Government to protect and advance our country, but we go forward with confidence, energy and determination, knowing that hope remains the most compelling characteristic of the Labour message.
Mark Drakeford is the Assembly Member for Cardiff West, Welsh Labour Leader and First Minister of Wales.