The news hook for the piece was the publication of new data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) which showed how the gap between rich and poor in Wales was smaller than anywhere else in the UK. 90% of Welsh households, we read, have a combined income of between £400-£650 per week, and millionaires are pretty few on the ground.
Instead of celebrating this (qualified) good news as a sign the nation’s wealth was more evenly distributed than elsewhere, the paper quoted a succession of very rich people arguing pretty much the opposite.
First up was the Director of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in Wales David Rosser saying that equality was all very well, but what we really need is more mega-rich people getting even richer so they can create jobs for the proles. Next came the millionaire owner of designer sprog-tog-shop JoJo Maman Baby, Laura Tenison, who bemoaned the “fact” that “more than half the population seems to work for the Assembly or in local government” and complained our “flabby public sector strangles entrepreneurship”.
