Who Cares About Wales?

Ajournalist widely acknowledged to be one of the leading voices in the country,Will Hayward has won 14 journalism awards, including being named Best RegionalJournalist at the UK's prestigious Regional Press Awards, and Welsh Journalistof the Year multiple times. He is the only regional journalist to have beennominated multiple times for UK Political Journalist of the Year, alongside thelikes of Robert Peston and Pippa Crerar. He is a columnist on Welsh affairs forThe Guardian, and a regular contributor to Times Radio, the BBC, BBC Wales, SkyNews and LBC. He works as the Welsh Affairs Editor at WalesOnline and theWestern Mail and specialises in long-form investigations into issues such aspoverty, politics and violence against women. He also regularly lectures inPublic Administration at Cardiff University's school of journalism.

Given the current situation in Wales, ‘Who Cares About Wales?’ is a pertinent question. Wales has the highest rates of child poverty in the UK, creaking infrastructure (c.6.5% of Welsh railways are electrified, compared to c.25% in Scotland and 100% in south-east England), and the UK’s highest rates of long-term limiting illness. Devolution has left Wales as ‘no longer Westminster’s problem’, but successive Labour Welsh Governments – unchallenged for power for 25 years – have had neither the tools nor the talent to truly tackle the huge issues Wales faces. Wales has had control of its own health and education systems for over two decades, so why are things getting worse and why is everyone not up in arms?'Who Cares About Wales?' forensically investigates and spotlights the ways in which Wales has been short-changed over the years, and how the current set-up leaves its people condemned in perpetuity to the lowest standards of living in Britain. The book aims to serve as a rallying cry to the people who call Cymru home: if history has shown us anything, it is that no one else is going to proactively try and fix Wales’ problems. The conversation needs to change if we are to avoid being doomed to the status quo as a third-class nation within the UK.This book does not advocate independence, devolution or abolishing the Senedd, it simply points out how the current situation is failing Wales and calls upon those who live here to demand and expect better. The aim is to inform and drive the conversation in a direction that will force those in power to think harder about how things can be improved for the people of Wales: a better-informed public is one that can hold elected representatives of all stripes to account.In-depth yet accessible review of the current way in which Wales is funded and run, complete with historical context, by probably the most respected political journalist in Wales, honoured year after year at awards ceremonies both in Wales and the wider UK for his investigative journalism.