A report in the Independent claims that one of the first things that David Cameron would do as Prime Minister is to rush through legislation that would cut the number of UK MP’s by 10%, the story’s not new, but we now have a time scale and I suspect that the boundary changes wouldn’t take effect until the election after next.
These changes are of course being proposed following the expenses scandal that is still rocking Westminster to try and clean up its image, its politics and reduce the overall costs, but at what other costs and where does this leave Wales?
On the practical side do those proposing the changes and redrawing the electoral map have a good enough knowledge of Wales’s geography or population spread to ensure we don’t not to end up with vast new constituencies that bare little relation to the people in them.
As for the politics a cynic would say that it’s to protect any majority the Conservatives win in the upcoming General Election, although the Tories wouldn’t be the only party to alter the electoral boundaries when in Government that’s for sure and according to the article Labour are most worried about the new changes further loosening their grip on Wales.
But the other issue is more important in Welsh terms and that the one no-one seems to want to talk about, reducing the number of Welsh MP’s is linked to transferring further powers to the National Assembly for Wales something that all parties in Cardiff Bay least have been signed up to for sometime. Does this mean we can expect more powers for Cardiff Bay or more hostility or is the confusion deliberate like so many Tory positions on Devolution?
So where does this leave the Welsh Conservatives, where do they stand on the issue and how will they fare if they continue to tow the UK Party line after all it was by charting a different course that the Tories turned the party’s fortunes around in Wales.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
WAG’s economic record is poor, but the Opposition Parties haven’t sold us an alternative
It’s been a rare week in Welsh politics, the economy has been front and centre of debate and discussion among the politicians, media and bloggers, even the Financial Times had a piece and for good reason.
Whether Bosch’s announcement means we have reached a tipping point, one that has shaken the politicians, particularly Labour and Plaid Cymru ones out of their complacency over economic matters and whether they will begin to listen to people outside of the usual suspects and advisors who actually know what’s going on the ground who knows, but the fact that I ask the question at all show that small waves have been created inside WAG at the very least.
To make progress these sort of changes need to filter down in to the Chamber in Cardiff Bay where the Bosch statement and debate on Tuesday saw the usual well worn and rehearsed arguments over the state of the Welsh economy from each of the parties which amounted to a lot of hot air and political posturing that achieves nothing and is certainly no use to the 900 people who are losing their jobs.
Bosch’s closure is just the latest in a long line of WAG’s failures in economic development which they won’t acknowledge and their economic record is made worse by taking the Welsh Development Agency (WDA) into a risk adverse civil service and failure to make the most of European Funds, however there is another part to this story and that’s the failure of the opposition parties over the past 11 years to come up with a convincing alternative narrative on the economy that the public can buy into and believe in.
Neither the Conservatives or Lib Dems have unsettled the Welsh Assembly Government week in week out over its poor response to the financial and economic crisis in the last 18 months or on the bigger economic picture, yes they have both scored some direct hits and diagnosed problems but not enough to worry anyone in WAG or often enough for the voting public to notice.
The Welsh Lib Dems have been almost invisible; it makes you wonder if they have been relying on Vince Cable if so it hasn’t done them any good. But it’s the Conservatives who have the least excuses; they were given a ready made list of questions and statics to turn into an attack and ideas from their economic commission on a plate and apart from a few questions from David Melding they have largely ignored what’s been on offer by Dylan Jones Evans and others, only Tory AM’s know why they haven’t use the information.
Being in Opposition means more than holding the Welsh Assembly Government to account, you also need to sell an alternative vision and I admit it’s not an easy task, but it’s not impossible either and the failure to connect is even more stark when you see the latest YouGov poll that shows the most important issue for people across Wales was the economy.
This scale of the recession is an opportunity to move on from the petty politicking and endless blame game around the Welsh economy and give Wales something other than the norm of job insecurity, low wages, factory closures and lack of investment in Welsh businesses, sadly it’s an opportunity that all sides so far have failed to grasp.
Whether Bosch’s announcement means we have reached a tipping point, one that has shaken the politicians, particularly Labour and Plaid Cymru ones out of their complacency over economic matters and whether they will begin to listen to people outside of the usual suspects and advisors who actually know what’s going on the ground who knows, but the fact that I ask the question at all show that small waves have been created inside WAG at the very least.
To make progress these sort of changes need to filter down in to the Chamber in Cardiff Bay where the Bosch statement and debate on Tuesday saw the usual well worn and rehearsed arguments over the state of the Welsh economy from each of the parties which amounted to a lot of hot air and political posturing that achieves nothing and is certainly no use to the 900 people who are losing their jobs.
Bosch’s closure is just the latest in a long line of WAG’s failures in economic development which they won’t acknowledge and their economic record is made worse by taking the Welsh Development Agency (WDA) into a risk adverse civil service and failure to make the most of European Funds, however there is another part to this story and that’s the failure of the opposition parties over the past 11 years to come up with a convincing alternative narrative on the economy that the public can buy into and believe in.
Neither the Conservatives or Lib Dems have unsettled the Welsh Assembly Government week in week out over its poor response to the financial and economic crisis in the last 18 months or on the bigger economic picture, yes they have both scored some direct hits and diagnosed problems but not enough to worry anyone in WAG or often enough for the voting public to notice.
The Welsh Lib Dems have been almost invisible; it makes you wonder if they have been relying on Vince Cable if so it hasn’t done them any good. But it’s the Conservatives who have the least excuses; they were given a ready made list of questions and statics to turn into an attack and ideas from their economic commission on a plate and apart from a few questions from David Melding they have largely ignored what’s been on offer by Dylan Jones Evans and others, only Tory AM’s know why they haven’t use the information.
Being in Opposition means more than holding the Welsh Assembly Government to account, you also need to sell an alternative vision and I admit it’s not an easy task, but it’s not impossible either and the failure to connect is even more stark when you see the latest YouGov poll that shows the most important issue for people across Wales was the economy.
This scale of the recession is an opportunity to move on from the petty politicking and endless blame game around the Welsh economy and give Wales something other than the norm of job insecurity, low wages, factory closures and lack of investment in Welsh businesses, sadly it’s an opportunity that all sides so far have failed to grasp.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Mohammed Ashgar is advertising for new staff
The Welsh Conservatives newest AM Mohammed Ashgar is advertising for an Office Manager to work for him in Cardiff Bay, does this mean the issues surrounding the employment of his former staff when he was with Plaid Cymru have been sorted out and does anyone know what job his daughter is employed to do within the Conservative Group in the National Assembly, especially after revelations that he wanted to employ her which seemed to one of the reasons he left Plaid Cymru, they wouldn’t let him because it would have broken new Assembly rules following the Jones Commission recommendations on pay and expenses.
I’m sure the Conservatives are keen to keep these employment issues as low key as possible.
I’m sure the Conservatives are keen to keep these employment issues as low key as possible.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Obama and the Whitehouse bubble
Being a sceptical soul I never bought into the hype surrounding Barack Obama, he is after all a politician, but I was fascinated by his campaign and how he managed to derail Hilary Clinton’s equally formidable Presidential campaign and then John McCain’s hopes to win himself a historic election in 2008. However his meteoric rise has been followed by an equally sharp fall to earth over the past 12 months and in an article from the Huffington Post its tries to answer how Obama got to this stage and offer some advice to the President for his second year in Office.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Insular Civil Servants
Hat Tip to Tomos Livingstone
There are some interesting snippets coming out of the Welsh Affairs Committee latest inquiry that are confirming many long held suspicions, as I blogged about recently.
The latest is from former WAG Finance Minister Andrew Davies giving evidence to MP’s currently looking at the relationship between Westminster and Cardiff Bay who said that few Welsh Civil Servants took up secondment opportunities to work in Whitehall compared to their Scottish counterparts in Holyrood who work for the Scottish Parliament. It would be interesting to know why they don’t go and whether Welsh Ministers could overcome the problem by recommending people for secondments.
Maybe the lack of interest has got something to do with the other concern often raised about the Welsh Civil Service and that is the quality of those appointed. I was talking to a friend recently who was shocked at the poor quality of Civil Servants being recruited, they attributed it to the current application process that is in place, they get people who can fill in forms and think in straight lines, not the sort to lift their and Wales horizons.
There are some interesting snippets coming out of the Welsh Affairs Committee latest inquiry that are confirming many long held suspicions, as I blogged about recently.
The latest is from former WAG Finance Minister Andrew Davies giving evidence to MP’s currently looking at the relationship between Westminster and Cardiff Bay who said that few Welsh Civil Servants took up secondment opportunities to work in Whitehall compared to their Scottish counterparts in Holyrood who work for the Scottish Parliament. It would be interesting to know why they don’t go and whether Welsh Ministers could overcome the problem by recommending people for secondments.
Maybe the lack of interest has got something to do with the other concern often raised about the Welsh Civil Service and that is the quality of those appointed. I was talking to a friend recently who was shocked at the poor quality of Civil Servants being recruited, they attributed it to the current application process that is in place, they get people who can fill in forms and think in straight lines, not the sort to lift their and Wales horizons.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Another reason for Wales’s economic mess
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry after reading the article from the Federation of Small Business today, it calls for a business minded approach from the National Assembly to dealing with the Welsh Economy,
Its not that i disagree with it or many of the proposals in it, Wales is in desperate need of an a economic policy infrastructure the think tanks, better local, regional and national statistics, its own quarterly GDP figures so politicians and the public can understand the economic challenges we face and to improve things, but it’s extremely worrying that that one of the two main Welsh business and economic lobby groups the FSB Wales (the other being the CBI Wales) have taken until January 2010 to say what most Welsh economists have been saying for some time, and what the FSB and the CBI should have been lobbying for when the National Assembly for Wales was set up 11 years ago.
Its not that i disagree with it or many of the proposals in it, Wales is in desperate need of an a economic policy infrastructure the think tanks, better local, regional and national statistics, its own quarterly GDP figures so politicians and the public can understand the economic challenges we face and to improve things, but it’s extremely worrying that that one of the two main Welsh business and economic lobby groups the FSB Wales (the other being the CBI Wales) have taken until January 2010 to say what most Welsh economists have been saying for some time, and what the FSB and the CBI should have been lobbying for when the National Assembly for Wales was set up 11 years ago.
Families ‘rely on two incomes’
Almost two thirds (63%) of families with children rely on both parents working to make ends meet according to a new survey from Scottish Widow insurers and the wider survey shows some worrying trends.
It found that 60% of those households with children are accruing more debt while struggling to pay food and other household bills, a very troubling development indeed
The average household with dependent children owes £8,653 in short-term debt, such as credit cards and loans, compared with £7,003 for households without children.
Families with children also typically have higher mortgages, with an average of £91,648 still outstanding on their home loan, £3,000 more than when the same research was carried out a year earlier.
Clive Allison, protection director at Scottish Widows, said: "The days of one parent going out to work while the other takes care of the family is just not an option for many people.
"More than half of families with dependent children now rely on two incomes to maintain a decent standard of living, and as our statistics show, this isn't likely to ease off any time soon. For many families, sacrificing half their income when they have children is a luxury they just can't afford."
Those households without children are almost half a likely (36%) to have two people working full time.
It found that 60% of those households with children are accruing more debt while struggling to pay food and other household bills, a very troubling development indeed
The average household with dependent children owes £8,653 in short-term debt, such as credit cards and loans, compared with £7,003 for households without children.
Families with children also typically have higher mortgages, with an average of £91,648 still outstanding on their home loan, £3,000 more than when the same research was carried out a year earlier.
Clive Allison, protection director at Scottish Widows, said: "The days of one parent going out to work while the other takes care of the family is just not an option for many people.
"More than half of families with dependent children now rely on two incomes to maintain a decent standard of living, and as our statistics show, this isn't likely to ease off any time soon. For many families, sacrificing half their income when they have children is a luxury they just can't afford."
Those households without children are almost half a likely (36%) to have two people working full time.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Equal Societies do better
With so much tragedy on our TV screens after the Haiti earthquake, and the loss of 900 jobs at Bosch with possibility of more to come if the suppliers go to the wall and the UK and Wales’s economic problems continuing it’s difficult not to be pessimistic about the way things are.
There’s an old Radiohead song with the lyrics fitter, happier, more productive that could easily have been the political mantra of recent times but now seems out of step with the reality faced by many and one increasingly appearing in many new books on poverty and social justice in the UK, the most interesting of these from a policy perspective is The Spirit Level: Why more Equal societies almost always do better written by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett which backs up what many of the left have been saying for some time.
They two authors have gone down the evidence based root and looked at the impact of inequality on individual and communities in areas like health, income and concluded that greater equality becomes grounded and 'built in' to the models of present and future societies.
But more than that they have actually taken the step of putting their actions where their thoughts are and have founded a non-profit making trust - entitled 'equalitytrust.org' - so that the data and evidence, which is presented within the pages of their book, can be better distributed and accessed on a broader scale.
No surprise that it is Scandinavia and Japan that come out on top of the equality tables but can we achieve these things and believe what the health and social benefits might be if the UK was more like these countries. Social emancipation, controls on earning differentials, wealth redistribution, and improvements in productivity, and people feeling part of the community may be how we get there. Share ownership, more participative management methods and technological trends that point towards free access may show the way. Whatever we do, the message from the data seems clear: "greater equality is the material foundation on which better social relations are built".
If we are all to share the pain that sluggish growth and big deficits cut of the coming years then politicians of all parties need to do more than pay lip service to more equal society and reading this book would be a good start.
There’s an old Radiohead song with the lyrics fitter, happier, more productive that could easily have been the political mantra of recent times but now seems out of step with the reality faced by many and one increasingly appearing in many new books on poverty and social justice in the UK, the most interesting of these from a policy perspective is The Spirit Level: Why more Equal societies almost always do better written by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett which backs up what many of the left have been saying for some time.
They two authors have gone down the evidence based root and looked at the impact of inequality on individual and communities in areas like health, income and concluded that greater equality becomes grounded and 'built in' to the models of present and future societies.
But more than that they have actually taken the step of putting their actions where their thoughts are and have founded a non-profit making trust - entitled 'equalitytrust.org' - so that the data and evidence, which is presented within the pages of their book, can be better distributed and accessed on a broader scale.
No surprise that it is Scandinavia and Japan that come out on top of the equality tables but can we achieve these things and believe what the health and social benefits might be if the UK was more like these countries. Social emancipation, controls on earning differentials, wealth redistribution, and improvements in productivity, and people feeling part of the community may be how we get there. Share ownership, more participative management methods and technological trends that point towards free access may show the way. Whatever we do, the message from the data seems clear: "greater equality is the material foundation on which better social relations are built".
If we are all to share the pain that sluggish growth and big deficits cut of the coming years then politicians of all parties need to do more than pay lip service to more equal society and reading this book would be a good start.
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