Like all other government departments, the focus of the Office for the Secretary of State for Wales (
OSSW) over the past 12 months has been on playing our part in the fight against coronavirus (COVID-19) and ensuring that Wales receives the support it needs from the UK government. Whilst that fight is far from over it is now time for us to devote the same energy and determination to leading the economic recovery in Wales. We want to build back better in Wales as part of levelling up our whole United Kingdom.
Our number one priority will be jobs. We’re backing business large and small through the government’s Plan for Jobs and creating green jobs with the government’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution. This Outcome Delivery Plan sets out the foundations for the economic growth that will drive the recovery: improving our
It was built, in all its Edwardian Baroque glory, as the civic headquarters for a place that was not yet a city, never mind a capital. But the new fifth Cardiff Town Hall, its white facade of Portland stone designed to sparkle on even the greyest day, was a statement of intent when it opened in 1904. Wales, it proclaimed, exists. The building, its style somehow echoing that of the Beaux Arts capitols and assemblies of the new world, was the first structure in a whole civic centre complex called Cathays Park. Here was a national museum, courts, university, war memorial, police HQ and, eventually, the stripped classicist home of the Welsh Office and then the Welsh Government.
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Sir Keir Starmer s UK Labour Party has struggled but Welsh Labour, led by Mark Drakeford, inset, is thriving. Pictures: PA and Huw Evans Agency WHEN Keir Starmer appeared on breakfast television this week and played down his party’s chances in the upcoming elections, he was accused of getting his excuses in early. Friday morning’s loss in the Hartlepool by-election, despite the seat having never before elected a Conservative MP, therefore hadn’t come as such a shock but it still set the scene for a day of Labour misery. But in Wales, despite nerves over some small majorities, Labour will remain the largest party in the Senedd after the twin threats of Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives failed to materialise.