Hoteliers mirror Welsh voters on home rule issue

By Angela Frewin

Welsh hoteliers seem to be as split in their views on home rule as the overall population, which delivered what an Anglesey hotelkeeper called "a rather muted yes vote" last week.

Roger Weston, owner of the Ty Mawr Country Hotel in Brechfa, Carmarthenshire, said he was sitting on the fence, admitting: "I can't see it making any difference."

The thumbs-up for the decision came from Mike Williams, general manager at the Hotel Portmeirion in Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd.

He was confident that home rule would prove "very good for Wales" and for tourism, and that North Wales would benefit in particular from better funding. The no votes, he added, came principally from areas near the English borders.

But David Robertson, partner in Ye Olde Bulls Head Inn, Beaumaris, Anglesey, was deeply disconcerted at the "appalling" lack of information and serious debate on the implications of home rule.

The campaign was, he complained, driven by "emotion and sentiment rather than clear-headed common sense". And he feared that, long-term, the move could hit him through taxation and business rates.

Robertson has been told that Wales has a deficit with the Exchequer equivalent to £2,000 per head.

If the new Assembly is to improve education and health, as promised, Robertson can see only two possible sources of income.

One is the European Parliament (where Wales will be a small fish competing against highly deprived areas in the south). The other is for the Welsh Assembly to gain tax-raising powers of its own.