The NHS in Wales is not run by Steve Barclay or Rishi Sunak. Health is a devolved matter, which means our NHS is the responsibility of health minister Eluned Morgan. 

But you wouldn't know it reading about today's ambulance strikes or striking nurses in recent days.

That's the media's fault, will be the refrain from some. Too much of our media is dominated by London-based outlets who only quote the UK government and forget about us here in Wales. 

Maybe. But the Welsh Government needs to take responsibility here.

The line from Baroness Morgan and her colleagues is very much, 'we can't pay you more unless the UK government gives us the money to do it'. 

This is an abject failure to take responsibility that harms the very democratic institutions which they work in. 

Yes, the devolution settlement is flawed and yes, our government's room for manoeuvre is limited by financial constraints from Westminster.

The UK Treasury can borrow more to increase NHS wages (though we know more borrowing is not without consequence after the calamitous Kawsi Kwarteng budget) while the Welsh Government cannot. It does not have the power to do so.

But it is disingenuous to say it is powerless. The Welsh Goverment is free to spend its money how it wishes. It can choose to take money from one area and spend it on another.

It can also raise taxes. It can increase how much income tax we pay, or land transaction tax on the sale of homes, for example. 

South Wales Argus: Nursing staff on the picket line outside Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llanstrisant, South WalesNursing staff on the picket line outside Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llanstrisant, South Wales (Image: Huw Evans Agency)

So our ministers do have choices. They may be unappealing choices, but choices nonetheless.

They may not want to raise income tax when people are struggling to make ends meet, and we don't have enough higher earners to shoulder the burden here by just raising the top rate.

They may not want to take money away from schools or local authorities in order to better pay nurses and ambulance drivers because we know such decisions would have serious and damaging consequences.

But to pretend they are poweless is a betrayal of devolution. Baroness Morgan and First Minister Mark Drakeford should be explaining their decisions and priorities, not simply passing the buck.

Doing so makes our Senedd seem like an irrelevance. Which is hardly the best way to convince the public of the arguments to expand it with more members. 

A strong and serious Welsh Government needs to own its decisions and mistakes. Saying 'it's not our fault' is no longer good enough.