The Coalition’s Impact on Wales

Wales has experienced the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government rather differently from the other nations of the UK. While the macro-economic consequences of the Coalition government’s austerity agenda have largely been common, as a poor part of the UK with a high public-sector dependency, the economic cost of austerity on Wales has been heavier than average. Austerity has also had direct consequences — via the magical workings of the Barnett Formula — on the resources that Wales and the other devolved nations have available to use within areas of policy that are otherwise under their own control. Devolution, and the existence of a Welsh Assembly and Welsh Government, has meant that many flagship policies of the UK government have not been implemented in Wales. Major elements of the Coalition’s domestic agenda, such as the reforms to schooling and the NHS, have concerned only England. However, with its devolution dispensation being rather more limited than that of both Scotland and Northern Ireland, Wales has experienced the Coalition in a rather more ‘full-on’ manner than have the UK’s other two minority nations.