Bad Timing for the Welsh Conservatives

It was said at the time when Mohammed Asghar switched from Plaid Cymru to the Conservative Party that it could be storing up trouble for the Tories in the future and that prediction seems to be coming true as Mohammed Ashgar’s former Office Manager had lodged a complaint of Constructive Dismissal with an Employment Tribunal.

According to the Western Mail today ‘In interviews within days of his defection, he said the “last straw” that prompted his decision was the refusal of Plaid to sanction the employment of his daughter Natasha in his office. Ms Ashgar was herself a former Plaid candidate who quit the party and joined the Conservative Party at the same time as her father.

Now John Taylor, a Plaid councillor from Caerphilly who worked as Mr Asghar’s office manager, has lodged an application for constructive dismissal with the Employment Tribunal office in Cardiff. He has also named the Assembly Commission – which under the rules for remunerating AMs’ staff actually paid him – as a second respondent in the tribunal case.

In his application to the tribunal, Mr Taylor, 59, says he was taken on as an employee by Mr Asghar in July 2007.

The application states: “It was an implied term [of Mr Taylor’s contract of employment] that the claimant was employed to provide assistance to [Mr Asghar] an AM for Plaid Cymru. It was an implied term of the contract that the claimant would be working at all times within the Plaid Cymru political party.”

The application describes Mr Asghar’s decision to switch to the Conservatives as “a fundamental breach of the said express and implied terms of the contract”.

“Having taken the decision to defect to the Conservative Party ... [Mr Asghar] rendered it impossible and/or impracticable for [Mr Taylor] to continue in the said employment.”

It also seems that the Welsh Conservative’s were caught unaware of Mr Taylor application to the Tribunal and found out about this through the media. Whatever happens this is an unwelcome turn of event for the Tories who are hoping to win big in Wales in the coming weeks.

Should we be worried about the dumping of Constitutional Reform Bill?

As the Parliamentary horse trading between the Parties known the wash-up comes to an end, we know more or less which bills will make it on to the statues and which ones won’t.

There is some good news the telephone line tax thought up as a way for the Government to raise money to roll out broadband across the whole Country has been dropped, but another casualty is the Constitutional Reform Bill, which could have wider implications for Wales and the upcoming referendum of further powers, not because of what was in it but what it represent.

The fact that the parties couldn’t agree over reforming the Houses of Parliament after the expenses crisis shows a lack of understanding of the levels of anger in the Country and a lack of appetite for real reform, not something that is likely to help sell further powers to a skeptical Welsh public about the National Assembly.

And that lack of interest applies to the parties in Wales, we know Labour only moves on Welsh Devolution when it sees political advantage or when its dragged kicking and screaming to do so, which is why the Richard Commission recommendations were turned into the Dog’s Breakfast of the 2006 Government of Wales Bill along with others changes have been grudging and minimal over the past decade.

As for the Conservatives you only had to listen to the Q&A in Cardiff last night to see where their Welsh supporters stand on the Devolution, a questioner invited by the Party to the event asked after David Cameron talked of abolishing Quangos when he was likely to abolish the biggest one in Wales the National Assembly for Wales. No doubt the ‘he doesn’t represent our views’ comment from the Tory spokesman tomorrow will appear, but for all the rhetoric from David Cameron and Cheryl Gillan there remain question marks over how the referendum will proceed under a Tory Government?

Which leaves Plaid Cymru and the Lib Dems who do believe in more powers and delivering a Yes Vote in any Campaign, but neither is ever in a position to make the sort of changes that the Opinion polls tells the politicians we want, all they can do is try to persuade the other two parties into making changes which isn’t very satisfactory for them or the public.

I hope that i’m wrong and the Constitutional Bill may yet be revived in the new Parliament and politicians will find their reforming zeal which in turn will help us here in Wales, but the fact that it was dumped at all after such a turbulent period for MP’s doesn’t bode well for other Constitutional Reform across the UK in the years ahead.

Are all these safe seats?

Hat Tip to Betsan Powys

The worst kept secret in British politics was finally confirmed today and the General Election will take place on Thursday May 6th.

So the coming weeks will be a chance to have your say and influence who represents you right, well not everywhere in Wales according to the Electoral Commission. According to them in 24 out of Wales 40 seats the result is already decided and all four parties have seats on the list, although the majority belong to Labour with 18 the other parties have two each.

The constituencies named are Aberavon, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff Central, Cardiff South & Penarth, Cardiff West, Carmarthen East & Dynefwr, Clwyd West, Cynon Valley, Delyn, Dwyfor Meirionnydd, Islwyn, Llanelli, Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney, Monmouthshire, Newport East, Neath, Ogmore, Pontypridd, Preseli Pembrokeshire, Rhondda, Swansea East, Torfaen and Wrexham.

I would agree with most of diagnosis but they are working on 2005 figures and a lot has changed in Welsh politics since then, for instance Plaid Cymru are targeting Llanelli and could win it, the Conservative’s are targeting Bridgend and Delyn and if they win those seats David Cameron will certainly be on his way to No 10 Downing Street.

But they have also left out other safe seats like Labour’s Paul Flynn in Newport West, Hywel Williams in Caernarfon and People’s Voice Dai Davies in Blaenau Gwent does anyone seriously think those three will lose their seats and there are others.

So the election in Wales like the rest of the UK will be decided in the marginal’s like the Vale of Glamorgan, Cardiff North and the Vale of Clwyd as it normally is, but maybe all the parties should remember once in a while that safe seats are fine for the political parties not so good for the health of democracy especially when you are trying to regain voter trust.

Unions still drive Welsh political debate

While not agreeing with Dylan Jones Evans comments on the IOD and TaxPayers Alliance report or the report itself, today's article in the Western Mail has reinforced Welsh Labour’s view that it now has a big stick to beat the Tories with and proved a useful distraction to the fact that under Labour cuts are also planned.

Further confirmation of this view was highlighted by Wales’s largest Trade Union, Unison, who have been very visible in the Welsh press this weekend ahead of the expected General Election announcement tomorrow highlighting the impact on its members of large scale cuts.

First we had Unison Regional Secretary Paul O Shea over at WalesHome tells us that Wales can afford the cuts coming down the line whoever wins the General Election. Well affordable or not WAG and Local Authorities will have less money to spend in the future and ignoring the problems won’t make them go away, its better to face up to reality than bury your heads in the sand.

And secondly in today’s Western Mail we also had Dominic MacAskill, the head of local government at Unison Wales, said: “Vital services are being cut by councils across Wales, yet millions continue to be spent on expensive private consultants. This is nothing short of a scandal.

“Unison demands a cut to this level of financial waste, so that essential public services are protected during this period of financial crisis.

That will be the same Local Authorities that most of his members are employed in I assume because there is very little employment in the Welsh Private sector because Unison and their political masters refuse the space for the sector to grow. The irony being that if it was allowed to grow it could take some of the strain of massive redundancies that will follow when the public sector is squeezed and provide the Union with opportunities to grown in the private sector.

There is role for Unions in Welsh society to campaign for their members and the right to strike after all Wales still has its fair share of bad employers and those willing to exploit staff, but it also proves how little has really changed since Devolution and the birth of the National Assembly power has remained with Unions and Labour eleven years on despite the perceived decline and rise of other parties.

It’s also the reason why no Labour, Plaid Cymru or possibly Lib Dems politicians will comment on either of these stories.

'Atheism is also a form of religion'

I don’t normally post on religious matters but this article in the New Statesman caught my eye called ‘Demonising atheism is a bad way to defend faith’ which states that atheism is also a form of religion and that all faiths need to acknowledge that fact.