Rhodri Morgan speech to the Labour Conference in Swansea was lacklustre and a double dose of dull to say the least, especially if the commentators are right this was his last speech as Party Leader and First Minister before he steps down in September, so a mood of reflection about devolution over the past decade was to be expected but even on this he and the conference seemed underwhelmed by his achievements , added to that his jokes fell flat and at times the applause seemed laboured, this could be more to do with the general mood in the Labour party rather than the First Minister but his speech hardly sent the faithful away with a spring in its step ready to take the fight to the other parties in the upcoming European Elections.
Gordon Brown given all his problems in contrast seemed like Tigger when he addressed delegates in Swansea last night compared to Rhodri Morgan efforts today, he spoke warmly of Wales and its contribution to the world followed by the usual its only Labour not the nasty Tories who can get us out of this mess he had a hand in creating, be he also spoke of Labour’s commitment to the Welsh Language and Culture and a fully bilingual Wales, I can’t remember David Cameron being so wholesome in his praise for the language or welsh culture, nor Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg.
Labour certainly faces an uphill struggle in the Euroepan Elections if these speeches are anything to by.
On a final note who said that blogging doesn’t matter, as part of Gordon Brown's speech he referred to the Tory Job Advert by Cheryl Gillan for a Research Assistant that required no knowledge of Wales or devolution and surprise surprise gave the Tories a good bashing over it, Welsh Ramblings who flagged this story up should take a bow and the rest of us bloggers should keep up the good work.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
The Budget Blame Game
These two articles about this weeks budget about the SNP Government in Scotland and the Northern Ireland Executive saying the same thing that both the devolved bodies are blaming the UK Government for the financial and economic mess were are in and not grasping the harsh realities of the recession in order to take some tough decisions, fair point but that's the luxury of the block grant to the Parliament's and Assemblies.
All this talk will sound familiar with First Minister Rhodri Morgan and Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones saying much the same thing of late that its all Westminster fault and with the largest budget cuts of all facing the Assembly at £416 million, WAG knows needs further action is needed asap.
If all three devolved institutions want more financial independence, such as borrowing powers then surely this economic crisis is as good a time as any to show their economic prowess in job creation, attracting inward investment and reducing the over reliance on the public sector particularly here in Wales because after the next general election the budget cuts are going to be savage and all we will be left with will be hot air from the UK and Welsh Assembly Government.
All this talk will sound familiar with First Minister Rhodri Morgan and Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones saying much the same thing of late that its all Westminster fault and with the largest budget cuts of all facing the Assembly at £416 million, WAG knows needs further action is needed asap.
If all three devolved institutions want more financial independence, such as borrowing powers then surely this economic crisis is as good a time as any to show their economic prowess in job creation, attracting inward investment and reducing the over reliance on the public sector particularly here in Wales because after the next general election the budget cuts are going to be savage and all we will be left with will be hot air from the UK and Welsh Assembly Government.
A end to non events please
So this weekend is the final of the political non events (the welsh spring conference) with Labour in Swansea.
Much as the other parties say Labour is Wales is dying, they still consistantly out poll both Plaid Cymru, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and I often ask myself why? To add insult to injury despite polling the worst results in 2007 Assembly electionsthey still ended up in Government in the Assembly albeit with Plaid Cymru as partners, and Labour will probably end up with two MEP's despite Plaid and the Tories best efforts to take a a second seat.
With that background what should be discussed at the Conference is the way forward for Wales by all the candidates involved in the leadership race after all they will be the First Minister in a little over 6 months time, what will probably happen is a series of bland, uninspiring speeches and lots of praise for Rhodri Morgan and his leadership.
Maybe its no more than we can expect in public, but I hope these discussions are happening behind closed doors, my frustration is where all this leaves us here in Wales, what's the direction of travel what the plan for our education system, our health service and our business sector surely its not too much to ask of any new party leader?
Much as the other parties say Labour is Wales is dying, they still consistantly out poll both Plaid Cymru, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and I often ask myself why? To add insult to injury despite polling the worst results in 2007 Assembly electionsthey still ended up in Government in the Assembly albeit with Plaid Cymru as partners, and Labour will probably end up with two MEP's despite Plaid and the Tories best efforts to take a a second seat.
With that background what should be discussed at the Conference is the way forward for Wales by all the candidates involved in the leadership race after all they will be the First Minister in a little over 6 months time, what will probably happen is a series of bland, uninspiring speeches and lots of praise for Rhodri Morgan and his leadership.
Maybe its no more than we can expect in public, but I hope these discussions are happening behind closed doors, my frustration is where all this leaves us here in Wales, what's the direction of travel what the plan for our education system, our health service and our business sector surely its not too much to ask of any new party leader?
Thursday, April 23, 2009
A vote but not a referendum
The main reason for the One Wales Coalition between Labour and Plaid Cymru was always the referendum on full law making powers which according to the One Wales agreement was to be held by 2011, the next Assembly Elections.
Many journalists, bloggers and party hacks have speculated that it will or wont take place, but it seems there is a third option, a vote in the Assembly by the required two third of AM's that a referendum is winnable will then put the ball in any new, probably Conservative Government in Westminster court to act on, the question is then how do they respond?
From the IWA blog Richard Wyn Jones of the Wales Governance Centre in Cardiff University says this would be the strategically sensible course for the Conservatives. However, he predicts they won’t adopt it. Instead, he says they will “muddle on” and then be forced by the Assembly to allow a referendum. As he put it, “It is not sensible politics for the Tories to allow themselves to be put in this position, but who among them will expend the political capital to avoid it?”
The Conservative’s present commitment is to maintaining the status quo, that is Part 3 of the 2006 Act. This is apparently on the advice of Lord Roberts of Conwy, who last July delivered a 20,000 word report to David Cameron on the The Way Ahead for Welsh devolution. So far this report has not been made public - and few Tories have been able to read it in full, apparently. Instead, a summary excerpt was released on 5 November last year, co-incidentally the same day that Barack Obama was elected President in the United States (a good day to bury news). Lord Roberts was, apparently, recommending another “in-depth examination” of the whole issue once the Conservatives were in power.
We wait and see with interest what happens with our politicians in Cardiff and London over this issue.
Many journalists, bloggers and party hacks have speculated that it will or wont take place, but it seems there is a third option, a vote in the Assembly by the required two third of AM's that a referendum is winnable will then put the ball in any new, probably Conservative Government in Westminster court to act on, the question is then how do they respond?
From the IWA blog Richard Wyn Jones of the Wales Governance Centre in Cardiff University says this would be the strategically sensible course for the Conservatives. However, he predicts they won’t adopt it. Instead, he says they will “muddle on” and then be forced by the Assembly to allow a referendum. As he put it, “It is not sensible politics for the Tories to allow themselves to be put in this position, but who among them will expend the political capital to avoid it?”
The Conservative’s present commitment is to maintaining the status quo, that is Part 3 of the 2006 Act. This is apparently on the advice of Lord Roberts of Conwy, who last July delivered a 20,000 word report to David Cameron on the The Way Ahead for Welsh devolution. So far this report has not been made public - and few Tories have been able to read it in full, apparently. Instead, a summary excerpt was released on 5 November last year, co-incidentally the same day that Barack Obama was elected President in the United States (a good day to bury news). Lord Roberts was, apparently, recommending another “in-depth examination” of the whole issue once the Conservatives were in power.
We wait and see with interest what happens with our politicians in Cardiff and London over this issue.
Language legislation wont hurt welsh business
This is a new angle on an old debate, a Minister from the Catalan Government was in Westminster this week speaking to the Welsh Affairs Committee with a message that opponents of welsh language legislation wont like - it wont necessarily hurt welsh business.
Tomos Livingstone reports that Bernat Joan i Mari, secretary for language policy in the Catalan Government, “Cost could be felt to be a problem [for business] at the beginning, because when something is changing, there is sometimes a fear about what’s going to happen.
“At the beginning there was this suspicion among companies in Catalonia, but in fact the feeling has changed so much that nowadays no-one avoids Catalonia because of the language.”
He said multi-national firms including Google, Microsoft and Easyjet had complied with the legislation with little difficulty, and that “there are no enterprises which go out of Catalonia” as a result of the rules.
Companies have to provide a service in Catalan if requested by consumers. The state provides free training courses for businesses. Less than 1% of disputes result in penalties, the MPs were told.
Is there a chance despite many objections that the Welsh legislation from the Assembly to update the 1993 Act could be passed sooner than we think and if so its would real boost for the One Wales Government or has there been a trade off between Labour MP's and WAG over something more controversial further down the road like blocking the referendum on full law making powers maybe?
Tomos Livingstone reports that Bernat Joan i Mari, secretary for language policy in the Catalan Government, “Cost could be felt to be a problem [for business] at the beginning, because when something is changing, there is sometimes a fear about what’s going to happen.
“At the beginning there was this suspicion among companies in Catalonia, but in fact the feeling has changed so much that nowadays no-one avoids Catalonia because of the language.”
He said multi-national firms including Google, Microsoft and Easyjet had complied with the legislation with little difficulty, and that “there are no enterprises which go out of Catalonia” as a result of the rules.
Companies have to provide a service in Catalan if requested by consumers. The state provides free training courses for businesses. Less than 1% of disputes result in penalties, the MPs were told.
Is there a chance despite many objections that the Welsh legislation from the Assembly to update the 1993 Act could be passed sooner than we think and if so its would real boost for the One Wales Government or has there been a trade off between Labour MP's and WAG over something more controversial further down the road like blocking the referendum on full law making powers maybe?
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Smaller Public Sector is Needed say Plaid Cymru Advisor
Plaid Cymru Eurfyl ap Gwilym the party's economic advisor wants a culture change at WAG following today's budget - a fair point most objective commentators would agree with, the less Wales is over reliant on one industry (the public sector) for jobs and job creation the better for us all.
He writes: “It would be a missed opportunity if all that the Welsh Government does is tighten up on spending across the board. Now is the time to critically review what has happened in the public sector over the last decade. Successes and failures should be identified on the basis of outputs rather than inputs such as money. “Despite large increases in public spending, many of the outcomes have been disappointing.”
These are more harsh words for the Welsh Assembly Government following Professor Kevin Morgan's former Chair of the YES for Wales Campaign less than glowing report on 10 years of devolution and the quality of politicians in Wales at the Institute of Welsh Affairs Conference in Cardiff on Monday.
If this is what Dr ap Gwylm believes what is he doing about it, has he told his boss Ieuan Wyn Jones and spoken to Rhodri Morgan and the rest of the Labour Minister to discuss around the Cabinet table to get them take some action or is this Plaid Cymru's attempt to divert attention from the fact they have their own problems in Government?
The Western Mail article is here
He writes: “It would be a missed opportunity if all that the Welsh Government does is tighten up on spending across the board. Now is the time to critically review what has happened in the public sector over the last decade. Successes and failures should be identified on the basis of outputs rather than inputs such as money. “Despite large increases in public spending, many of the outcomes have been disappointing.”
These are more harsh words for the Welsh Assembly Government following Professor Kevin Morgan's former Chair of the YES for Wales Campaign less than glowing report on 10 years of devolution and the quality of politicians in Wales at the Institute of Welsh Affairs Conference in Cardiff on Monday.
If this is what Dr ap Gwylm believes what is he doing about it, has he told his boss Ieuan Wyn Jones and spoken to Rhodri Morgan and the rest of the Labour Minister to discuss around the Cabinet table to get them take some action or is this Plaid Cymru's attempt to divert attention from the fact they have their own problems in Government?
The Western Mail article is here
Where have they gone?
Interesting story on Conservative Home that 27 of the 100 of David Cameron's 'A List' wont be standing as candidates in the forthcoming General Election - that's over a quarter who have either pulled out or will stand at a later date.
The 100 'A Listers' are priority candidates from under represented groups picked to make up for the lack of ethnic minority, female and other groups among Tory MP's and also to make the modern Conservative party look and feel more like the electorate that it will serve after surely winning the next general election.
At a time when the part is riding high in the polls and guaranteed to win many seats, this is surely an unwelcome distraction and does raise questions about how much the Conservative's really have changed under David Cameron?
The full article is here
The 100 'A Listers' are priority candidates from under represented groups picked to make up for the lack of ethnic minority, female and other groups among Tory MP's and also to make the modern Conservative party look and feel more like the electorate that it will serve after surely winning the next general election.
At a time when the part is riding high in the polls and guaranteed to win many seats, this is surely an unwelcome distraction and does raise questions about how much the Conservative's really have changed under David Cameron?
The full article is here
A Fair Price?
Today's Budget from Alister Darling had some truly scary figures in it, public spending was going to be cut and Andrew Davies has already predicted £292million pounds worth of cuts.
So from today's here in Wales the Welsh Assembly Government's Budget will be cut by £416m for 2010/11.
The Scottish Parliament Budget will be cut by £392 for the same period
The Northern Ireland Assembly Budget will be cut £122 for the same period
So I make that £24million difference in budget cuts between Wales and Scotland. WAG's overall budget is £16bn per year, the Scottish Parliament is £33billion per year, this is Wales price for Labour's working relationship between the Government's in Cardiff Bay and Westminster, is it a fair price to pay?
Read WAG's statement on the budget here
So from today's here in Wales the Welsh Assembly Government's Budget will be cut by £416m for 2010/11.
The Scottish Parliament Budget will be cut by £392 for the same period
The Northern Ireland Assembly Budget will be cut £122 for the same period
So I make that £24million difference in budget cuts between Wales and Scotland. WAG's overall budget is £16bn per year, the Scottish Parliament is £33billion per year, this is Wales price for Labour's working relationship between the Government's in Cardiff Bay and Westminster, is it a fair price to pay?
Read WAG's statement on the budget here
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