Thought for the Day

After the political hysteria here in Wales that has followed the General Election and the latest ITV Wales/YouGov poll showing Labour ahead of the nearest party by 22% points in voting intentions for the National Assembly for Wales, I’m left wondering and not for the first time what’s the point of Welsh politics if only Labour can win and only Labour benefits from Devolution?

Welsh Labour at their worst

The worst of the Labour Party was on display at the Welsh Grand Committee earlier via their MP’s we had sneering, pettiness, bullying, heckling, cat calling of opposition speakers, constant interruptions, MP's openly challenging the Chairman’s authority and shouting down the Chief Secretary to the Treasury as well as calling Tory MP’s liars, refusing to ask questions and generally undermining proceedings its a timely reminder to voters and other parties that Welsh Labour are in politics for themselves, nobody else.

Procedures may not have been followed to the letter (although David Cornock says Labour and Plaid knew before they admitted to) about Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander’s appearance at the Committee, but it was an opportunity for Welsh MP of all parties to grill him on the substantial impact the budget will have on Wales, instead Labour turned it into a three ring circus with Peter Hain and Wayne David as the ringmasters.

Labour will think that they have secured a big victory, but all they are doing is undermining their role as MP’s and the business of Westminster thereby strengthening the hand of those who want more powers to the National Assembly for Wales, something the likes of Wayne David and his ilk still bitterly oppose.

So if Danny Alexander is invited to address the Finance Committee in Cardiff Bay following a similar meeting at the Scottish Parliament Finance Committee, lets hope that the Labour Circus tent is left well and truly at Westminster and our Assembly Members show more tolerance, intelligence and wit than Welsh Labour MP’s did today.

More from David Cornock HERE and coverage of this mornings session from the Committee is HERE

Another Cheryl Gillan own goal

I don’t know if the Civil Servant being moved after having words with Cheryl Gillan story in the Western Mail today is true, but the fact the paper has established that the Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan had stayed in the 5 star St David’s Hotel in Cardiff when she visits Wales shows an appalling lack of judgement on her part especially when money for families in Wales is tight and about to get tighter.

The Conservatives favourite phrase 'Were all in this together’ was no more than a good election soundbite, but now the new Welsh Secretary has proved it’s and continued to show what a liability for the party she is as well.

Let’s hope that she finds herself a decent Special Advisor who knows something about PR as well as Wales so she can try and limit the considerable damage she has already done, not only for her sake, but because it’s proving a gift for her opponents and is reinforcing prejudices that were barely hidden towards the Conservative Party in certain sections of Welsh society.

Calls for a ‘Training Wage’ to replace unpaid internships

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has called for a ‘Training Wage’ of a minimum of £2.50 per hour for graduates to replace unpaid internships after research carried out by the CIPD found that nearly 40% of Internships are unpaid and are therefore only open to those graduates who could afford to work for free and who lived close to the businesses and organisations offering the opportunities.

The proposed training wage of £2.50 an hour – which is the current minimum rate of pay for apprentices – would be introduced under the plans, to cover all interns and apprentices regardless of their occupation or industry sector. Any position that is advertised as an internship would automatically trigger a legal obligation on the part of the employer to pay at least the training wage throughout the entire duration of the internship, helping to reduce complexity surrounding the issue of payment for young people and also support better enforcement arrangements.

From HR magazine ‘Tom Richmond, skills adviser at the CIPD, says: "The continued existence of a major loophole in the national minimum wage legislation has created a lot of confusion and concern around the issue of whether interns should be paid or not. We believe that the introduction of this Training Wage would reflect the contribution that interns make to their organisations, which is likely to be less than that of a fully-trained member of staff, at the same time as avoiding concerns over reductions in the number of internship opportunities that may result from all interns being paid the full minimum wage.

"Alongside the introduction of the Training Wage, a number of related issues would also need to be discussed, including which working rights interns should be entitled to. Nevertheless, the creation of the Training Wage would represent a significant step towards ensuring that internships promote social mobility, provide young people with valuable experience and help tackle exploitation in the workplace. What’s more, organisations would still be able to recruit young talent at a reasonable rate during this difficult economic period and beyond."

At a time when graduates are being hit hard by the sluggish economy and taking jobs they are overqualified for and limiting the opportunities for others who are unemployed, giving graduates experience in their field of expertise and receiving at least some remuneration for doing so seems like a good idea to me.

New Europe wide study on Health shows the impact of cutting welfare

Medical Researchers have recently published new data in the British Medical Journal looking at Europe wide data on the effect in people’s health if they are in receipt of benefits which are subsequently cut.

According to the BBC ‘Analysis of European data showed that a £70 reduction in welfare spending per person is associated with a 2.8% rise in alcohol-related deaths and 1.2% rise in deaths from heart disease.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, the UK research team said ordinary people may be paying the ultimate price for budget cuts.
One expert added that social support was vital for health.

The study comes after the government announced sweeping budget cuts, including reductions in tax credits for families, housing benefit and maternity grants.
To pick out the effects of welfare funding on health, researchers looked at government spending in 15 European countries, including the UK, from 1980 to 2005.

Generally the trends showed that when social spending - including support for families and the unemployed - was high, death rates fell, but when they were low, rates rose substantially.

In fact, for every £70 drop in spending per person there was a 1.19% rise in overall deaths.

The biggest effect was seen in illnesses linked to social circumstances, such as heart disease.

And a more in-depth look showed that this link was specific to social welfare spending and independent of healthcare spending.

The analysis also showed that reducing other forms of government spending, such as on the military or prisons, had no such negative impact on the public's health.
There are currently around 200,000 heart disease deaths each year in the UK and around 9,000 deaths from alcohol.'

It’s hardly a new or startling insight that a lack of money and poor health are related, but it’s certainly one that needs to be repeated over and over if the Con/Lib Dems Government is not to repeat the same mistake as previous Tory and even Labour Governments by dumping people on to welfare and expecting them to sort their lives out.