Border control.
There's a lot of talk about communities on the Wales/England border struggling to understand the different rules, and that those differences are 'making a mockery' of the attempts to control the virus.
@DKShrewsbury was talking about it with @VaughanRoderick /1

Hands up, I don't get it. I don't understand the confusion. Are we saying that people are stupid?
There are borders everywhere demarcating different rulea. Even internally, we have borders. There are different Council Tax Rates between Gwynedd and Denbighshire /2

Different education systems - Gwynedd has bilingual schools, and Denbighshire has schools placed in language categories; different littering regimes; a blue badge holder can park the car for free in Bala, yet pay for parking in Corwen; I could be charged £100 for littering /3

in Llandderfel, but 1mm over the border in Llandrillo I'd be charged £75. Planning, business support, refuse, recycling, and much more besides are dealt with differently not just throughout Wales but from Cheshire to Shropshire to Herefordshire, and throughout the UK /4

These aren't small issues, either. As we've seen these are day-to-day issues of vital importance to us. When i travel to London, I don't complain about the congestion charge and argue that it doesn't exiat in Wales. When tourists from Birmingham park in Barmouth they don't /5

complain that the different parking charges are confusing.
The US is a federal State. The guidance around Covid-19 is different in New York from what it is in Massachusetts. Does this make a mockery of it? Is it a sign that federalism has failed? Guidamce around Covid-19 is /6

different in France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany. What then makes us uniquely bad? How is it that devolution, ir Wales cjarting its own path is a bad thing?
There are some in the UK Government and the UKs main opposition party advocating regional lockdowns /7

This is my personal favoured option. London should have been locked down in February or early March. But that's bye the bye. There are regional lockdowns in force in Australia, for instance. Andy Burnham,ayor of Greater Manchester, is urging a similar policy for the UK /8

If they think devolution is confusing, then they won't cope with regional lockdowns! The truth is that a lot has been made of something that isn't really an issue. Anti devolutionists and arch Unionists have jumped on it to push their agenda, and in the absence of other news /9

some of the press have picked decided to run with it. It's a red herring. We already have variations in legislation across the UK. People aren't stupid and can do their research. If there is an issue here, then it's the factbthat over 20 years the media has failed miserably /10

to explain devolution, and to educate the electorate. They're now having to catch up in a matter of weeks. If Flintshire does its own thing it's not out of spite to Wrexham, it's ecausebthe elected councillors of Flintshire thinks its in the nest interesets of their residents /11

If Wales does something different to England it's not out of spite, it's because the Gov. here (like them/loath them) thinks it's in the best interests of Wales. It's called taking (back) control. Democracy. Power closer to people. It's not a difficult concept. Live with it. /Fin

PS excuse the sausage fingers :)