Two fascinating articles about New Labour's the first is about Gordon Brown Relationship with Peter Mandelson and why their relationship was never full broke in the New Statesman and the second one in the Economist on the public service spending debate and New Labour's legacy could be a new anti public sector investment consensus in British politics.
The articles are HERE and HERE
Friday, June 19, 2009
Great Cartoon on the MP's expense debacle
Sadly its to big to fit on to the blog, click here to see it in full.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Limited Aspiration and Debate
Is it a surprise that people don’t always rate the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) and the National Assembly for addressing the serious issues, today the parties has been debating the merits of free prescriptions following the Conservatives announcement that they would reintroduce prescription charges for those that could afford savings the NHS around £30 million per year if they were in charge in Assembly Government.
I’m not dismissing it as unimportant and there are merits in both positions it’s the fact that Free Prescription is always described as WAG’s flagship policy, i.e. the most important from the Welsh Assembly Government, not Patient Waiting lists, Education standards, economic development, housing or job creation.
To me it says a lot about the limited aspirations of our politicians and political parties that the most important policy implemented is regarding free prescriptions which to my mind was always a vote and headline grabber as around 90% of people had them free before anyway.
It’s high time to for our politicians to raise the level of debate and the nations political aspiration otherwise how do they expect to engage the wider public in the National assembly future?.
I’m not dismissing it as unimportant and there are merits in both positions it’s the fact that Free Prescription is always described as WAG’s flagship policy, i.e. the most important from the Welsh Assembly Government, not Patient Waiting lists, Education standards, economic development, housing or job creation.
To me it says a lot about the limited aspirations of our politicians and political parties that the most important policy implemented is regarding free prescriptions which to my mind was always a vote and headline grabber as around 90% of people had them free before anyway.
It’s high time to for our politicians to raise the level of debate and the nations political aspiration otherwise how do they expect to engage the wider public in the National assembly future?.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Gordon’s new PR Man
The Prime Minister has appointed Simon Lewis as his new PR Guru figure in 10 Downing Street, he was the man hired by Buckingham Palace to restore the Queen and Royal Family’s images after the Death of Princess Diana, and he also is the brother of the Daily Telegraph’s Editor Williams Lewis according to the Financial Times
So much for more transparency and no more spin in your Government eh Gordon
So much for more transparency and no more spin in your Government eh Gordon
Monday, June 15, 2009
The Calman Commission, Some thoughts
Today saw the launch of the final report from the Calman Commission, set up by Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in Scotland to look at the devolution in Scotland and where is goes next and also in response to the SNP winning power in Edinburgh.
The report makes recommendations to devolve powers over organising elections, the election of Scotland representative to the BBC Trust, air guns, drink driving and speed limits but it’s the ones on Tax Changes that will grab the headlines and cause the most debate in the devolved Executives but probably not in the UK Government or Treasury.
There are a few specific measures that could be apply to Wales, such as part of the Tax Changes to the Scotland Parliament would leave a needs based Barnett Formula making up the rest of Scotland’s Budget as opposed to the current population based allocation which is what we have now, Wales being poorer would in theory get more money in its block grant.
Secondly the recommendation of upgrading of the four Finance Minister meetings to a Joint Ministerial Committee to look not just at spending but Tax and Economic Policy would give a Welsh Finance Minister real input into UK economic policy and fight Wales’ economic corner better in the future.
Finally in UK political terms the reaction has been muted, no real surprise there but ignoring some of these issues isn’t going to make then go away whatever you believe, and there could be good news for at least one Party leader as BBC Scotland political Editor Brian Taylor wrote it gives David Cameron options on Devolution if he becomes Prime Minister, Brian says ‘He (David Cameron) needs a framework which enables him to say that he has listened, he understands, he responds. He needed a think tank, while in opposition, to draft detailed plans. Calman supplies just that. Idologically, the Tories support the concept of taxation allied to representation. As a party, they could argue, if they chose, for lower taxation in Scotland.'
The report makes recommendations to devolve powers over organising elections, the election of Scotland representative to the BBC Trust, air guns, drink driving and speed limits but it’s the ones on Tax Changes that will grab the headlines and cause the most debate in the devolved Executives but probably not in the UK Government or Treasury.
There are a few specific measures that could be apply to Wales, such as part of the Tax Changes to the Scotland Parliament would leave a needs based Barnett Formula making up the rest of Scotland’s Budget as opposed to the current population based allocation which is what we have now, Wales being poorer would in theory get more money in its block grant.
Secondly the recommendation of upgrading of the four Finance Minister meetings to a Joint Ministerial Committee to look not just at spending but Tax and Economic Policy would give a Welsh Finance Minister real input into UK economic policy and fight Wales’ economic corner better in the future.
Finally in UK political terms the reaction has been muted, no real surprise there but ignoring some of these issues isn’t going to make then go away whatever you believe, and there could be good news for at least one Party leader as BBC Scotland political Editor Brian Taylor wrote it gives David Cameron options on Devolution if he becomes Prime Minister, Brian says ‘He (David Cameron) needs a framework which enables him to say that he has listened, he understands, he responds. He needed a think tank, while in opposition, to draft detailed plans. Calman supplies just that. Idologically, the Tories support the concept of taxation allied to representation. As a party, they could argue, if they chose, for lower taxation in Scotland.'
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The politics of the Welsh Economy need to change if real progress is to made.
Anyone who takes an interest in Welsh politics knows that there is an ongoing dialogue of the deaf between our politicians of all stripes when it comes to the welsh economy, the issue of why the welsh economy is where it is depends solely on you political persuasion rather than any rational economic debate, so the only economic discussion they have is the about who’s to blame for Wales problems?
The arguments go something like this the Conservatives blame both Labour Governments for the drop in GVA and failure to protect manufacturing and invest in Research and Development over the past decade. While Labour and their partners in the Assembly Government blame the Conservative for the devastation of the welsh economy in the 1980’s with pit and steel closures meaning they are starting from a low base making their efforts to create new industries and jobs especially in hard hit areas much more difficult.
In this context this week’s Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report showing that parts of Wales were poorer than part of Poland was worrying and business leaders, business owners, economists, financiers and academics would have been extremely concerned even more so in a recession at some of the findings, but in political terms this report seems to have hardly registered with the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), it might as well have compared parts of Wales to sub-Saharan Africa for all the notice and action that will be taken of this the latest in a long line of reports to highlight the worrying trends in the welsh economy.
If WAG ignored it then you can bet you life the opposition parties in the Assembly have jumped all over the report to reinforce their message of were right your wrong and we told you so while dismissing any attempt by WAG to answer the criticisms, neither approach moves the discussion about the future direction of the economy forward but it does allow them to score cheap political points in the Assembly Chamber.
If the politicians both Government and Opposition want the sustainable economic development that they all say they are all committed to, then they have to be willing to move from their comfort zones of blaming each other and accept some responsibility for past failures because it’s the welsh public who are the real losers from this inability to deal with the past and also accept current realities. It’s going to be difficult for many of our politicians but isn’t it time they started looking at the bigger picture and acting on the economic development advice that has been previously ignored by all sides and help the economy grow, surely it’s worth a try.
The arguments go something like this the Conservatives blame both Labour Governments for the drop in GVA and failure to protect manufacturing and invest in Research and Development over the past decade. While Labour and their partners in the Assembly Government blame the Conservative for the devastation of the welsh economy in the 1980’s with pit and steel closures meaning they are starting from a low base making their efforts to create new industries and jobs especially in hard hit areas much more difficult.
In this context this week’s Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report showing that parts of Wales were poorer than part of Poland was worrying and business leaders, business owners, economists, financiers and academics would have been extremely concerned even more so in a recession at some of the findings, but in political terms this report seems to have hardly registered with the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), it might as well have compared parts of Wales to sub-Saharan Africa for all the notice and action that will be taken of this the latest in a long line of reports to highlight the worrying trends in the welsh economy.
If WAG ignored it then you can bet you life the opposition parties in the Assembly have jumped all over the report to reinforce their message of were right your wrong and we told you so while dismissing any attempt by WAG to answer the criticisms, neither approach moves the discussion about the future direction of the economy forward but it does allow them to score cheap political points in the Assembly Chamber.
If the politicians both Government and Opposition want the sustainable economic development that they all say they are all committed to, then they have to be willing to move from their comfort zones of blaming each other and accept some responsibility for past failures because it’s the welsh public who are the real losers from this inability to deal with the past and also accept current realities. It’s going to be difficult for many of our politicians but isn’t it time they started looking at the bigger picture and acting on the economic development advice that has been previously ignored by all sides and help the economy grow, surely it’s worth a try.
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