Mark Drakeford – Kent alumnus, former First Minister of Wales, and current Finance Secretary in the Welsh Government – visited us in March to deliver a lecture on ‘The UK in the 21st Century and the Case for Social Democracy’. The central theme of Mark’s lecture was how the UK can be maintained as a voluntary union of four nations.
The lecture pointed to historical and more recent tensions threatening the unity of the UK, starting with demands for Home Rule back in the 1880s and including more recent episodes such as Brexit. Mark stressed the need for an active case for the Union, particularly in the face of continued high support for independence in Scotland, similar support for independence among young people in Wales and the growth of the Catholic community in Northern Ireland. What, Mark asked, might that case look like?
Mark focused his arguments on the need for the UK to offer its citizens a ‘social solidarity’ union, comprising four key components:
- Citizenship rights, with individuals having equal access to high quality public services. Mark emphasised that public services needed to be available for all; public services just for the poor tended to be poor public services, he argued. He pointed to examples from Wales, notably the provision of free school meals for all children. He also pointed to areas where devolution to Wales has allowed for innovation in public services, such as the introduction of an ‘opt-out’ requirement for people over organ donation.
- Labour rights, involving a rebalancing of the rights of people in the workforce against business owners.
- Ownership rights, with greater common ownership of key public services, such as water.
- Democratic rights. Mark commended greater representational equity via the adoption of a proportional electoral system, while referencing Gordon Brown’s commission in proposing a directly-elected House of Lords representing the nations and regions.
While recognising that his social solidarity union would not appeal to all voters, Mark commended it as a means for progressives to build mutual bonds between citizens and, ultimately, of cementing a more successful and integrated union of nations.