Celebrate the Welsh renaissance

Don't listen to the doom-mongers over British steel. The Welsh economy is doing perfectly well, says Matthew Lynn. But it could do even better.

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Low taxes would create another bridge to Wales

The steel industry is shutting down, with thousands of people thrown out of work. Old industries are getting hammered. Public-sector cutbacks are ravaging local economies. To listen to the hysteria around the possible closure of Britain's last major steel works in Port Talbot, you'd think Wales was turning into another Greece, except with fewer olive groves a hopeless economic basket case, stuck in permanent depression.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.