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Last week, during an exchange in Parliament, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones told Welsh Liberal Democrat MP David Chadwick he “might want to be a little more grateful” for £445 million that had been announced for Welsh rail improvements.

That amount, spread over a decade, is supposed to fund five new stations, improvements in north Wales, and now — it turns out — the long-overdue redevelopment of Cardiff Central station.

It was a gobsmackingly arrogant response, as Chadwick rightly pointed out. But more than that, it was revealing.

This wasn’t just a misstep in tone.

It exposed something deeper: the idea that Wales should be thankful for crumbs, and that the Labour government is doing us a favour by offering anything at all.

That sentiment might have been expected under the Conservatives.

Coming from Labour, it’s a betrayal of their promise to do politics differently.

Disclosure: David Chadwick is my MP. But this isn’t about loyalty to him — it’s about a UK government, now led by Labour, falling into the same patterns of arrogance and obfuscation that defined its predecessor.

The facts are clear: Wales has been short-changed, patronised, and misled, and the expectation that we should be “grateful” for it is nothing short of insulting.

Let’s look at the numbers.

The £445m includes £300m earmarked for five new stations and associated upgrades.

But earlier estimates put the cost of those projects, plus the required mainline improvements, at £385m.

Now we’re told Cardiff Central — whose redevelopment was initially thought to be funded separately — must also draw from the same pot.

That means less money, stretched further, and it raises a serious question: what exactly is new about this funding?

The answer, unfortunately, appears to be: very little.

This announcement has the hallmarks of political repackaging — old commitments dressed up as fresh investment, with the vague promise of future benefits.

The lack of clarity from the outset was bad enough.

Worse is the growing sense that this Labour government is not offering a real departure from the centralised, dismissive habits of the Tories.

That’s a shame.

The opportunity for change was there.

Labour could have shown that it understood the structural injustices built into how rail funding is distributed — not least the scandal of HS2 being classed as an “England and Wales” project, despite every inch of it being laid in England.

The Welsh Government estimates that this misclassification cost Wales more than £430 million.

If Labour had committed to addressing that, or even just acknowledged the problem, the tone of this debate might be different.

Instead, we’re being gaslit.

Told to be “grateful” for being short-changed.

Told this is a historic investment, even as the numbers don’t add up.

Told it’s a victory, when it looks a lot more like continuity with Conservative policy — just with a red badge.

And perhaps that’s the most damaging part of all: Labour is eroding the idea that change is even possible.

By failing to deliver a clean break with the past — in tone, in policy, in respect for devolved government — it risks confirming the worst cynicism about politics.

That it doesn’t matter who you vote for, because the attitude from Westminster stays the same.

The people of Wales deserve better than this.

We deserve clarity, respect, and investment that matches the scale of our needs — not paternalistic lectures and sleight-of-hand funding.

If Labour wants to build a stronger union, it needs to start treating Wales not as a recipient of favours, but as a nation with equal standing — and equal rights to investment, infrastructure, and dignity.

Until then, Westminster: don’t expect gratitude.

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