Welsh Labour Leadership hopeful Huw Lewis and Plaid Cymru’s Helen Mary Jones have disagreed very publically over what’s more important fighting the Conservatives or holding a referendum for full law making powers for the National Assembly which is expected to be recommended by Sir Emyr Jones Parry’s Commission next month.
I have already blogged on the lack of ideas from Welsh Labour candidates in dealing with the consequences of a Conservative Government for Wales and we saw further denial of reality on this issue on Sharp End this week from all three candidates.
Labour’s leadership contest has had its fair share of playing to the gallery and I think Plaid Cymru are being a bit naive over Huw Lewis’s and the other candidates comments about the Tories because Labour’s sole motive for signing the ‘One Wales’ agreement after the Liberal Democrats walked away from a Coalition again was to stay in power in Wales and keep the Tories out, it was a marriage of convenience for Labour to be ended as soon as possible.
But despite bad opinion poll ratings Labour remain the largest party and still drive the devolution process they need to remember that the Assembly was sold to many skeptical Welsh Labour members as a bulwark against future Conservative misrule, so the two priorities of the One Wales Coalition go hand in hand, something Plaid Cymru should keep reminding Labour of because it’s in both parties interest to fight the Conservatives and win a referendum on full law making powers to lessen the severe impact the continued recession and public service cuts will have on the communities they represent.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
‘Work doesn’t guarantee a route out of poverty’
That is the stark message according to new research published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation this week and will challenge much political thinking and policy making on helping people move our of poverty, it proves that the working poor need more and that applies more in her in Wales where the proportion of those living in poverty is above the UK average.
A study of the experiences and perceptions of work among residents living in six deprived areas in the UK highlights the fact that many are trapped in a cycle of ‘poor work/no work’ that fails to lift them out of poverty.
A team from Sheffield Hallam University found that poverty-level pay can force those in employment to work excessive hours, harming the quality of their family life. For those out of work, this can act as a disincentive to leave benefits, it says.
Many of those interviewed saw the value in working, in terms of increased self-esteem and reducing isolation, but gained little financially challenging the lazy and workshy myths peddled by many in the media about those on Benefits.
Other issues that the research highlights include the tensions between work and parenting, with many low paid workers unable to pay for childcare and their jobs lacking the flexibility to fulfill parenting responsibilities.
Project director Professor Ian Cole said that, for those taking part in the study, work at any price is not necessarily a route out of poverty.
'Many people have to juggle low pay and long or unsociable working hours with the demands of family life and they can barely make ends meet. 'There needs to be a stronger focus on the quality of work on offer,' said Professor Cole.
'Government and employers should work together to improve terms and conditions so that work can break the cycle of poverty and support family life.'
The study also challenges official policy that training or education can propel people into the job market or help career progression. While government has focused on raising skills, aptitude and motivation, the study revealed that there was often little opportunity for workers to progress in their current job, even when they had acquired skills or qualifications.
There is plenty to think about in this research for WAG and its policymakers and also the other political parties in terms of how to reduce poverty in Wales in the coming years.
A study of the experiences and perceptions of work among residents living in six deprived areas in the UK highlights the fact that many are trapped in a cycle of ‘poor work/no work’ that fails to lift them out of poverty.
A team from Sheffield Hallam University found that poverty-level pay can force those in employment to work excessive hours, harming the quality of their family life. For those out of work, this can act as a disincentive to leave benefits, it says.
Many of those interviewed saw the value in working, in terms of increased self-esteem and reducing isolation, but gained little financially challenging the lazy and workshy myths peddled by many in the media about those on Benefits.
Other issues that the research highlights include the tensions between work and parenting, with many low paid workers unable to pay for childcare and their jobs lacking the flexibility to fulfill parenting responsibilities.
Project director Professor Ian Cole said that, for those taking part in the study, work at any price is not necessarily a route out of poverty.
'Many people have to juggle low pay and long or unsociable working hours with the demands of family life and they can barely make ends meet. 'There needs to be a stronger focus on the quality of work on offer,' said Professor Cole.
'Government and employers should work together to improve terms and conditions so that work can break the cycle of poverty and support family life.'
The study also challenges official policy that training or education can propel people into the job market or help career progression. While government has focused on raising skills, aptitude and motivation, the study revealed that there was often little opportunity for workers to progress in their current job, even when they had acquired skills or qualifications.
There is plenty to think about in this research for WAG and its policymakers and also the other political parties in terms of how to reduce poverty in Wales in the coming years.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
What happened to Rhodri’s reforms?
It’s the part of the political narrative that doesn’t fit and yesterday YouGov polls reinforced the fact that Rhodri Morgan remains hugely popular with the welsh public and yet Welsh Labour is on its knees, but maybe a better way to understand it, is how will history judge his time in charge of the Labour Party in Wales, especially on modernising the party and reforms which he failed to implement.
At the time Rhodri Morgan was elected at Labour leader there was a call for a one member one vote system for the party in any future Welsh Leadership election to avoid the kind of bitter wrangling that caused such divisions in Welsh Labour after two bruising leadership elections, something I was reminded of when former Welsh Secretary Ron Davies spoke about it as one of the three big challenges that Rhodri Morgan faced and failed to deal with during his tenure as First Minister when asked for his views on Rhodri’s retirement earlier this year, the two others being growing the Welsh economy and dealing with the constitutional question.
And he's not alone the Labour leadership voting system is something that the political analysts see as a weakness in the current race as this piece from Adrian Masters blog highlights
‘One of the main things they each surely have to do over the next couple of weeks is highlight their differences from each other. This is always tricky to do for politicians in the same party because it risks opening divisions. Yet not to do so is also risky because it leaves the candidates open to accusations that they're all the same.
That's precisely the charge leveled by Dr. Richard Wyn Jones in last night's Westminster Hour on Radio 4. He blamed the voting system itself, the complicated electoral college that would-be leaders have to win.
"You've got to say nice things about the unions; you've got to say nice things about the Co-operative party; you've got to say nice things about Labour students," he said.
"This is a system designed for blandness and what we're seeing in the election so far is a fairly bland collection of remarks about change and development and reaching out - all kinds of predictable stuff."
All three camps deny its a problem and you wouldn’t expect anything else in the middle of the campaign, but its possible Labour wouldn’t be struggling as much if these reforms and new campaigning techniques had be introduced by the outgoing Welsh Labour Leader Rhodri Morgan sometime over the past 9 years.
At the time Rhodri Morgan was elected at Labour leader there was a call for a one member one vote system for the party in any future Welsh Leadership election to avoid the kind of bitter wrangling that caused such divisions in Welsh Labour after two bruising leadership elections, something I was reminded of when former Welsh Secretary Ron Davies spoke about it as one of the three big challenges that Rhodri Morgan faced and failed to deal with during his tenure as First Minister when asked for his views on Rhodri’s retirement earlier this year, the two others being growing the Welsh economy and dealing with the constitutional question.
And he's not alone the Labour leadership voting system is something that the political analysts see as a weakness in the current race as this piece from Adrian Masters blog highlights
‘One of the main things they each surely have to do over the next couple of weeks is highlight their differences from each other. This is always tricky to do for politicians in the same party because it risks opening divisions. Yet not to do so is also risky because it leaves the candidates open to accusations that they're all the same.
That's precisely the charge leveled by Dr. Richard Wyn Jones in last night's Westminster Hour on Radio 4. He blamed the voting system itself, the complicated electoral college that would-be leaders have to win.
"You've got to say nice things about the unions; you've got to say nice things about the Co-operative party; you've got to say nice things about Labour students," he said.
"This is a system designed for blandness and what we're seeing in the election so far is a fairly bland collection of remarks about change and development and reaching out - all kinds of predictable stuff."
All three camps deny its a problem and you wouldn’t expect anything else in the middle of the campaign, but its possible Labour wouldn’t be struggling as much if these reforms and new campaigning techniques had be introduced by the outgoing Welsh Labour Leader Rhodri Morgan sometime over the past 9 years.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Another small step
Amid the unrelenting gloom of the recession, unemployment, MP’s expense scandal, the growth of the BNP and the never ending war in Afghanistan, a good news story is a welcome sight.
YouGov’s publication of new opinion polls today on General Election voting intentions, views of our potential next First Minister and which way people will vote in a referendum of law making powers plus the decision to start conducting regular Welsh opinion polls is a significant and welcome step forward for Welsh politics and recognises the different voting habits and patterns in Wales from the rest of the UK in both the National Assembly for Wales and Westminster elections.
It also means that political journalists, commentators, lobbyists, voters and us bloggers will no longer have to rely on just the annual BBC Wales St David’s Day poll or take our best educated guesses about people’s voting intentions or their views on the constitutional question; we will have regular opinion polls to give us a clearer picture.
So what have we learnt today, firstly that Labour’s troubles don’t seem to be easing despite considerable Labour leadership exposure, the Tories are more than holding their own and on course for more MP’s, Plaid Cymru is doing OK but still seems unable to capitalise on Labour woes in the way the SNP have done Scotland and that the Lib Dems could be wiped out at Westminster, secondly judging from the responses from the Leadership campaigns to the poll whoever becomes First Minister looks likely to remain in denial about Labour’s problems until after the General Election results next year and finally most people are in favour of a parity with Scotland but the YES Campaign still has work to do if it’s to win a referendum on full law making powers.
More HERE and HERE
YouGov’s publication of new opinion polls today on General Election voting intentions, views of our potential next First Minister and which way people will vote in a referendum of law making powers plus the decision to start conducting regular Welsh opinion polls is a significant and welcome step forward for Welsh politics and recognises the different voting habits and patterns in Wales from the rest of the UK in both the National Assembly for Wales and Westminster elections.
It also means that political journalists, commentators, lobbyists, voters and us bloggers will no longer have to rely on just the annual BBC Wales St David’s Day poll or take our best educated guesses about people’s voting intentions or their views on the constitutional question; we will have regular opinion polls to give us a clearer picture.
So what have we learnt today, firstly that Labour’s troubles don’t seem to be easing despite considerable Labour leadership exposure, the Tories are more than holding their own and on course for more MP’s, Plaid Cymru is doing OK but still seems unable to capitalise on Labour woes in the way the SNP have done Scotland and that the Lib Dems could be wiped out at Westminster, secondly judging from the responses from the Leadership campaigns to the poll whoever becomes First Minister looks likely to remain in denial about Labour’s problems until after the General Election results next year and finally most people are in favour of a parity with Scotland but the YES Campaign still has work to do if it’s to win a referendum on full law making powers.
More HERE and HERE
Monday, October 26, 2009
Isn’t it time we tried something new?
We had more bad economic news last week that the UK and Welsh economy are still in recession despite many predictions that it would at least in a technical sense have ended in the last 3 months. So the report by credit agency Experian also released last week that said Wales along with the Midlands and North East is experiencing the severest impact of the recession even before the job and service cuts in the public sector even begins is very worrying indeed.
According to the Guardian ‘Analysis by data company Experian shows that the recession – in terms of unemployment, debt, fraud and increasing demand for public services – will not hit some areas of the UK for another seven months and, in some places, will be felt for many years after growth resumes.
Experian found that the south, from Kent through to Cornwall, was feeling the least impact from the recession; the midlands, Wales and the north-east the severest impact; with Scotland between the two extremes.'
Wales has two local authority areas in the top 10 list of UK areas suffering the most namely Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil, but the map also shows large parts of Mid, West and North Wales in the same category. The other issue of concern raised in the report is that London and Edinburgh will recover quickly from the recession, there was no mention of how Cardiff would fair and seen as Cardiff and the M4 corridor they are the main drivers for Welsh economic growth that's not great news.
Lots of people are worried and many are suffering badly in this recession and even though our politicians have taken small steps to help there is probably more than can be done. I just wonder if our politicians have the vision to try new things to help the Welsh economy grow, i’m not talking about swallowing Thatcherite ideas whole, but taking on board ideas from business themselves and creating what the politicians and policymakers always talk about Welsh solutions to Welsh problems.
According to the Guardian ‘Analysis by data company Experian shows that the recession – in terms of unemployment, debt, fraud and increasing demand for public services – will not hit some areas of the UK for another seven months and, in some places, will be felt for many years after growth resumes.
Experian found that the south, from Kent through to Cornwall, was feeling the least impact from the recession; the midlands, Wales and the north-east the severest impact; with Scotland between the two extremes.'
Wales has two local authority areas in the top 10 list of UK areas suffering the most namely Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil, but the map also shows large parts of Mid, West and North Wales in the same category. The other issue of concern raised in the report is that London and Edinburgh will recover quickly from the recession, there was no mention of how Cardiff would fair and seen as Cardiff and the M4 corridor they are the main drivers for Welsh economic growth that's not great news.
Lots of people are worried and many are suffering badly in this recession and even though our politicians have taken small steps to help there is probably more than can be done. I just wonder if our politicians have the vision to try new things to help the Welsh economy grow, i’m not talking about swallowing Thatcherite ideas whole, but taking on board ideas from business themselves and creating what the politicians and policymakers always talk about Welsh solutions to Welsh problems.
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