Carwyn Howell Jones is a British politician and the First Minister of
Wales. The third politician to lead the Welsh Government, Jones has been
Assembly Member for Bridgend since 1999. In the coalition government of Welsh
Labour and Plaid Cymru, he was appointed Counsel General for Wales and Leader of
the House on 19 July 2007. He was elected to succeed Rhodri Morgan as the
Leader of Welsh Labour on 1 December 2009. On 9 December he was nominated as
First Minister by the National Assembly, and was sworn into office the following
day. He is a Welsh speaker, and is also a member of Amnesty International and
the Fabian Society. Early life
Born in Swansea, he was raised in Bridgend in a Welsh-speaking family. He
was a pupil at Brynteg Comprehensive School in Bridgend, and then studied at
the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he joined the Labour Party during
the 1984–5 Miners' Strike. Professional career
Carwyn Jones graduated from Aberystwyth University with a LLB degree in 1988 and
went on to the Inns of Court School of Law in London to train as a barrister.
He was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1989 and subsequently spent a further
year in Cardiff in pupillage followed by ten years in practice at Gower Chambers,
Swansea - specialising in Family, Criminal and Personal Injury law.
He left the Swansea legal practice to become a tutor at Cardiff University for
two years on the Bar Vocational Course. Jones has warned students studying for a
law degree at Aberystwyth "Don’t assume that it’s a passport to a job. Ten times
more lawyers graduate than can be found jobs."
Jones said in a BBC interview that he subsequently considered trying to become
an MP, but in 1999, "had a chance" to stand for the Bridgend constituency in
first elections for the Welsh Assembly, a seat he has held ever since.
Political career Jones was a County Borough Councillor
for Bridgend for five years, where he eventually chaired the Labour group.
Jones became a Member of the National Assembly of Wales for Bridgend in 1999.
Jones was appointed Deputy Secretary in the National Assembly for Wales in March
2000. In July 2000, he was appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary for Agriculture
and Rural Development in the Welsh Government, before the title was changed
to Minister in October 2000. His responsibilities in this role included
the environment, countryside issues, town and country planning, sustainable
development, agriculture and rural development. In June 2002, his brief was
expanded when he was appointed Minister for Open Government in addition to his
other duties. During this time, he was responsible for the Welsh response to
the 2001 Foot and Mouth disease outbreak.
After the 2007 election, he was appointed Minister for Education,
Culture and the Welsh Language, responsible for the Department for
Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills and the Culture, Welsh Language and
Sport portfolios. After his party entered into coalition with Plaid Cymru,
Jones was reappointed as Counsel General for Wales and Leader of the House.
Following the announcement of Welsh Labour Leader and First Minister Rhodri
Morgan in September 2009 that he would be resigning both posts in December
2009, Jones entered the subsequent election to become his successor, where
his opponents were Edwina Hart and Huw Lewis. On 1 December 2009, Jones was
elected the new Leader with over 50% of the vote.
First Minister of Wales After winning the leadership election in
2009, Jones was confirmed as the third First Minister of Wales on 9 December
2009. Since the defeat of the Labour Party in the 2010 United Kingdom general
election, and the resignation of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, Jones has
become the most senior Labour elected representative and government minister
in the United Kingdom. He was appointed as a Privy Counsellor on 9 June 2010.
Following the 2011 elections to the Welsh Assembly, Labour increased their
number of seats to just one under the amount needed for a majority. Jones
opted to form a minority government as opposed to continuing the coalition,
allowing Labour to govern alone. = "Blame London for Everything"=
As First Minister, Carwyn Jones has been criticised for an alleged tendency to
blame the Conservative-led UK Coalition Government for the woes of the Welsh
economy in order to deflect criticism of his Welsh Labour Government. In November
2011 the then leader of Plaid Cymru Ieuan Wyn Jones said at First Minister’s
questions: "We've had a programme for government that contains no targets.
We've had no action around the economy. The only conclusion I can draw from your
failure to act is that you have decided to sit back, let the economic crisis do
its worst and blame the Tories for everything. Don't you think our young
people deserve better than that?" On 8 September 2012 UK Deputy Prime Minister
and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg also accused Carwyn Jones of "blaming
London for everything" rather than taking action himself. Clegg said: "My
view has been for some time now that Carwyn Jones and his colleagues have
alighted on a very simple political strategy which is do very little and
blame a lot. I think people are starting to tire of the endless finger-pointing
from Labour in Cardiff. They want things to happen." Clegg said the First
Minister "is very good at blaming London for everything and terrifically stirring
in his speeches about how more needs to be done to help the Welsh economy and
yet he does exactly the reverse." Mr Clegg claimed the Coalition Government
was is "doing all the heavy lifting, not the Welsh Government". A spokesman for
Carwyn Jones, said: "We’ve again witnessed another graceless visit to
Wales by Nick Clegg. People would be right to ask themselves – why does he
bother coming to Wales, if all he wants to do is hurl insults about issues that
he’s clearly very poorly briefed on? The fact is, the Welsh Government is utterly
focused on making up for the failure of the UK Government to stimulate adequate
and sustainable growth to enable Welsh companies to survive and expand during
these extremely difficult times. Business leaders right across Wales are
telling us they need much more support from the UK Government. So they’ll be
scratching their heads at the incoherence of the Deputy Prime
Minister’s message and the paucity of ideas emanating from the UK Government.
Wales deserves much better than this." = Cardiff Airport=
On 28 February 2012 Jones told the Welsh Assembly "We would like to see many
routes emerging from Cardiff Airport, but the airport must get its act
together... Last week, I went to the airport and the main entrance was shut.
People could not go in through the main entrance; they had to go through the
side entrance. It is important that the airport puts itself in a position where
it is attractive to new airlines, and, unfortunately, that is not the case at
present." . His criticism led to accusations that he was "talking down"
Cardiff Airport whilst aviation industry professionals commented he was out of
his depth in this area. However Carwyn Jones returned to this theme on 7 March
2012 saying "With the condition of the airport at the moment I would not want
to bring people in through Cardiff Airport because of the impression it
would give of Wales...I have to say the time has come now for the owners of the
airport to decide to run the airport properly or sell it." Byron Davies AM,
Shadow Minister for Transport, said: “It is a bit rich for the First Minister to
publicly attack and run down Cardiff Airport, when he has failed to seize
opportunities, which would massively increase the range of routes available
from Cardiff, introduce direct routes to North America, opening our economy to
trade and business with one of the world’s biggest economies". LibDem AM
Eluned Parrot said: “The First Minister needs to stop talking our capital city’s
airport down and instead he should be doing all he can to encourage visitors
to Cardiff Airport. His comments are hardly going to encourage tourism and
business to Wales. On 20 March 2012 Carwyn Jones, undaunted, again attacked
Cardiff Airport saying "business people" had complained to him "week after week,
for many months about the airport." He asserted he had put their points to the
owners of the airport but "they have been met with a shrug of the shoulders.
That is just not good enough. I know of situations, and have seen them myself,
where people have been locked in the baggage hall and where the front door
was not open and people had to go in through a side door—I had to do that the
last time I used the airport." On 29 May 2012 it was announced Carwyn Jones
would personally chair a "Task Force" on Cardiff Airport with the aim of
“maximising its economic impact, commercially and for Wales”. On 27 June
2012 the Task Force, comprising tourist chiefs, local government spokesmen and
trade unionists, met for the first time. No airlines were invited to attend. A
bid to obtain the full minutes of the meeting under the Freedom of Information
Act was refused by the Information Commissioner
= Scottish independence referendum= In 2013 Jones came out against Scottish
independence in the September 2014 referendum.
Personal life He is married to Lisa, and the couple
have two children, Seren Haf and Ruairi Wyn. Jones enjoys sport, following both
codes of rugby in Bridgend. He also enjoys walking, cycling and golf. Jones
is patron of Kenfig Hill Male Voice Choir.
References External links
Carwyn Jones AM Website Blog of Carwyn Jones AM
Biography at the Welsh Assembly Government
Carwyn Jones profile at Wales Online 5minutes with Carwyn Jones