Head of Welsh Civil Service expressed concerns over Carwyn’s SpAd appointment

The head of Wales Civil Service Permanent Secretary Gillian Morgan has been reported as being furious at the appointment of a top civil servant to a Special Advisor role in the new First Minister Carwyn Jones team. So much so that she expressed consternation to Whitehall and Civil Service Heads of Department in Cardiff Bay over Lawrence Conway’s appointment.

According to the Western Mail ‘One source told us: “The Permanent Secretary was not happy about Lawrence Conway’s appointment at all. No-one can remember anything like this happening at Whitehall. There’s a glass wall between career civil servants and special advisers, and the conventional view is that the boundary should not be crossed.”

We all know that the Civil Service is supposed to be politically impartial, but given the dominance of Labour in Wales for so many decades it’s difficult to believe that there aren’t considerable numbers of party members and supporters in the Civil Service and others who have been appointed to roles ahead of more qualified individuals as a result of their political affiliations.

No surprise WAG's response to the story was that they don’t comment on gossip – all I can say is maybe they need to learn the difference between gossip and cronyism which this is and is rife in Welsh political and public life.

Tories want to ‘Wales proof’ their policies

With the real possibility of ending up with more MP’s than AM’s in Wales after the General Election it seems the Conservative Party may have woken up to the fact they need to show to the wider electorate they are serious about respecting the role of the National Assembly for Wales and devolution rather than continually undermining it and their own AM’s in Cardiff Bay as has been the case of late.

The Tories idea is to appoint MP's to Wales proof their policies is a smart move, but why is it only being done a few months before the election and is this latest initiative a recognition by the Conservative leadership that not all policy will apply to Wales with the creation of a National Assembly and that the recent poster campaign poster in Wales featuring the deficit and the NHS was at best mis-communication and at worst indifference to post Devolution Wales.

The other part that stood out in the brief article was shadow Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan wants the Wales Office to have an enabling role under the new Tory Government. Giving the Wales Office a bigger role in running things may win over a few die hard Welsh Tory MP’s, but it won’t help the relationship between Cheryl and the First Minister, WAG and Assembly more generally, it looks like we’re in for a bumpy ride ahead.

The blunt truth about poverty is that we don’t care enough

Yesterday’s reports from Save the Children and Education watchdog Estyn paint a pretty grim picture of childhood for some of the poorest kids in Wales, its a national disgrace and should shame those in Government in London and Cardiff into action.

People were rightly shocked and appalled yesterday to discover that 15% of children live in Wales live in severe poverty the highest in the UK and above the UK average, but what does it say about us when it takes a damming report like the one from Save the Children to make people realise that poverty levels in Wales have been bad for ages and while things have improved for some families, many more still live hand to mouth in 2010 in one of the richest countries in the world.

What makes all this worse is that the current Labour Government in Westminster and Cardiff Bay has set the goal of eradicating child poverty by 2020 which is a good thing, but even before the recession hit they weren’t going to reach the target and on yesterday’s figures it looks even more unlikely. But do we really think the Conservatives will be any better at tackling the problems, their draft Election manifesto doesn’t contain the eradication pledge for 2020 despite David Cameron supporting, it and there are rumours that he wants to use different measures of counting the number of people in poverty or shifting the goals posts as its known, just like the Government.

At least WAG has some excuses as the main levers for dealing with poverty remain at Westminster but even their programmes like Communities First tackling poverty and social exclusion in the 100 most deprived wards are patchy, the Audit Committee is looking currently looking at its impact, however there are fewer excuses on the Education front.

Education Watchdog Estyn’s annual report published yesterday shows that the poorest kids are still falling behind England and the situation has been the same for the past three years and that the most able kids from those backgrounds are not getting the support, encouragement or opportunities to succeed either. We can only hope that Carwyn Jones interest in Education is more than a leadership campaign promise.

Saying that you want to eradicate child poverty and provide good education and opportunities for every child is one thing, delivering them is another. I just hope that these reports have had the desired effect of shocking Minister into taking action to start changing things asap.

The debate over public service cuts goes on, but the Welsh Parties are strangely silent

The debate continues at pace over what will probably be the defining issue in the General Election campaign and that is how deep and when public sector cuts should be made in the years ahead, and all parties Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats are trying to win us over by announcing shiny new policies and pointing out the flaws in the others.

Yet here in Wales with a workforce that is heavily reliant on the public sector for jobs and knowing that job and service cuts will have a big impact outside as well as inside the public sector there has been precious little debate on these issues from any of the parties, apart from the usual electioneering over the impact of Tory cuts and Labour’s incompetence for causing all the recession and budget deficit.

It’s even starker when you see what’s happening on in Scotland, the SNP Government has announced that Government Ministers and Senior Civil Servants are taking ay freezes and have asked Quangos bosses to not take their bonuses (not all are agreeing mind you) and the Scottish Tories have called for public sector pay freeze for those earning over £18,000 along similar lines to George Osborne’s proposals.

Whether you agree with those ideas or not it shows that the Scottish Government and Political Parties are engaging with the issues, which is more than can be said for the Welsh Assembly Government which seems to have buried its head in the sand an and Opposition that is happier to score political points than put forward ideas of its own.

Is it too much to ask for some leadership from WAG on this they do run the place after all?

Have your say on the future direction of the Welsh media

The poor state of political and business coverage in the Welsh media is a recurring theme in the Welsh blogosphere, so any chance we get express our views and take some action at the same time is welcome.

This opportunity comes form the current bidding process for a pilot for the ITV Wales News Franchise, what the UK Government is calling Independently Funded News Consortia (IFNC) and three companies are in the running are Llanelli-based independent television production company Tinopolis which produces Question Time, second ITN has joined forces with newspaper groups Newsquest, Northcliffe Media and Tindle, independent television production company Boomerang and the existing ITV Wales news team and the third bidder is a consortium consisting of Ulster Television and North Wales newspaper group NWN Media who currently run Swansea Sound and the Wave.

I’m not sure if the other companies are doing the same but UTV NWN bid known as WALES LIVE is asking for viewers opinions on what they want to see from the franchise on its website.

Whether they win the franchise or not it’s worth sending your thoughts on what you think the Welsh media needs, for me its more politics, business and investigative journalism that Wales is crying out for.