You think Nation Cymru is anything other than a propaganda arm of the Welsh Government? You’d most probably be right…
In the article titled 'AirBnBs and second homes are no longer welcome' Stephen Price rallies nationalist spirit whilst fully supporting the imposition of the 300% council tax by the Welsh Government.
Stephen fails to acknowledge when he says
'I personally don’t think they’re going far enough. AirBnBs and holiday homes must no longer be a part of our national story and both need an outright ban'
that tourism is worth 4 Billion a year to Wales and employs 12% of working people in Wales. Obviously, without suitable accommodation, the tourists will not come.
Stephen fails to recognise that European rural areas, including small to medium-sized towns, struggle to maintain their populations and are failing to retain the young people that Stephen believes are missing in Wales, due, according to Stephen, to the shortage of and cost of housing. This is not the case. Young people want to live in cities where opportunities and nightlife abound.
I've seen this pattern repeated throughout the forty years that I've lived and worked in Wales. Young people leave to go to Bristol or London or similar and they often return when older, late forties or early fifties, bringing with them the wealth they have accumulated. This is the enrichment of Wales by transference of wealth from England.
I believe if Stephen could have his way he would ban people from leaving the village of their birth, in order to defend the purity of Welsh blood, to protect the local traditions, to build a homogenous and indigenous Welsh community. Of course, in a global society, with people moving like leaves on the breeze, to work here, to retire there, Stephen's hope for rural Wales comes across as xenophobic nonsense.
Stephen says
'If anyone wishes to enjoy a break in our country… book a hotel or stay at a holiday resort and actually support local people.'
This statement underlines Stephen's utter disconnection with the topic he is opining over. There are not enough hotels or resorts in Wales and those that Wales has are certainly not generally owned by local people. Whereas when I've rented a property in Wales through Airbnb, Booking or similar the owner has always been Welsh and often the owner is living locally. What Stephen wants then is a war on SMEs, an end to enterprise in rural Wales.
So, have a re-think Stephen and I would suggest limiting your opinioning to matters that you have good knowledge of, and, as for Nation Cymru? I guess this shoddy journalism got published because it chimes well with the Welsh Governments and so Labour policy, right? And who funds Nation Cymru? They’d have you believe a charity, the Books Council of Wales, and their 1000 subscribers. However, the Books Council for Wales is wholly funded by the Welsh Government, so the Welsh Government and 1000 subscribers fund Nation Cymru. Impartial, I think they are not…
https://nation.cymru/opinion/wales-has-accommodated-enough-airbnbs-and-second-homes-are-no-longer-welcome-2/
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