It was real privilege to be invited to No 10 Downing Street last week to the annual St David’s Day celebrations with politicians, business people and various celebrities.
And even though the event took place a couple of days before March 1st, it was brilliant to see Welsh products on show which included the new Aston Martin DBX (which is being built in the Vale of Glamorgan), Julien Macdonald’s new fashion range, and food and drink from home grown firms such as Patchwork Traditional Foods, Llanllyr Source and Teifi Farmhouse Cheese.
Yet there is so much more we can do to highlight the best of Wales outside of the UK to the wider World. Certainly, that has been appreciated by the Welsh Government who have recently appointed Eluned Morgan as its first international relations minister with the clear message that Wales is open for business and cultural exchanges.
Such an approach is long overdue especially as there is an impression globally that we have never done as much as the Scots and the Irish in making the most of our culture and heritage to raise the profile of the Welsh economy.
To be fair, Wales is finally making more of its diaspora than it did a decade ago and trying harder to bring together those business people who have develop successful careers overseas and would love to contribute to their home country’s economic success in any way possible.
This includes the Wales Week In London – which has now been extended to a month of different events across the UK’s capital city – as well as the Global Welsh initiative which is reaching out to Welsh business executives across the World to work together to make a difference.
Yet, an increasing number of people would argue that the most important change that could boost the profile of Wales is for St David’s Day to be made a national holiday here in Wales.
Indeed, whilst the other devolved nations of Scotland and Northern Ireland have bank holidays on their patron saints’ day, successive UK Governments have so far refused to do the same for Wales.
Not surprisingly, I have heard some say that as we are the poorest nation in the UK we cannot afford more time off work but would it really be such a massive impact if we were to lose eight hours every year to celebrate our national day (which equates to only two minutes extra work every other working day for the rest of the year)?
And rather than being a burden on the economy, could this actually provide a timely boost across the nation as it does in Ireland? For example, the St Patrick’s Festival generated £62 million last year with over 100,000 overseas visitors arriving specifically for the festivities and to spend money not only in Dublin but across Ireland.
Given this, perhaps it is time for the National Assembly for Wales – which voted unanimously in 2000 to support the granting of a bank holiday on St David’s Day – to make an unequivocal economic and cultural case to the UK Government for this change.
Certainly, I am sure few would argue that not only should we have one day in which we come together to celebrate our nation, but that day could and should be used as a catalyst for properly increasing the profile of Wales across the World.
