Sion Barry is reporting that the top civil servant vacancy in the Business, Enterprise, Technology & Science department is to be filled shortly after being advertised through Cardiff headhunting firm Ogders & Berndston.
He states ‘It is understood that she has struck up a good working relationship with interim head of the department James Price, who has to be a front-runner for the new role permanent if he has applied.
Mr Price was brought in last year after former director-general Gareth Hall was given a new role in North Wales.
Mr Price was highly regarded by former Minister for the Economy and Transport Andrew Davies and also played a key role with Plaid’s Ieuan Wyn Jones – Mrs Hart’s predecessor in the department – in helping to implement his Economic Renewal Programme.'
Sion also goes on to also make some interesting suggestions about who else might be considered to fill the role ‘With public sector job losses in Whitehall, the role will no doubt attract interest from experienced civil servants in London.
Having a former senior Whitehall civil servant at the helm of the department could
be a very positive move, not only in bringing an outside perspective, but in providing a deep understanding of the workings of the UK coalition Government.
There is also scope for going outside of the UK civil service and appointing someone from the private sector – or if in the public sector someone with notable private sector experience.
In a move designed to make the role more attractive to candidates from the private sector, the director-general role is also to be offered as a seconded post for up to five years’.
Whoever ends up getting the job it seems there will be little room for changing course and trying to help revive the welsh economy as Edwina Hart has publically stated she is sticking with the discredited Economic Renewal Plan plus that the previous Welsh Government introduced in July last year.
Its a shame for the 115,000 currently unemployed in Wales and the tens of thousands of welsh people about to be hit hard by the UK Government's welfare changes(some of which we in place before they came to power) who need real jobs and not more 'training places schemes' dressed up as job creation from the Welsh Government if its really serious about turning things around.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Huffington Post launches UK Edition
Launching a new media platform in the week the News International scandal storm is breaking over the heads of the media, politicians and the Metropolitan Police is very good timing indeed.
The US Huffington Post is the brainchild of Arianna Huffington and has been going since 2005, it covers a everything from politics to technology to celebrity gossip, sport and beyond like it’s new UK counterpart and its UK launch is the latest in a series of 12 additional roll outs of the media platform across the world.
The UK version is available here.
And for what it’s worth there are links to the ever shrinking Welsh media on the front page – a small acknowledgement that Wales is real and matters.
The US Huffington Post is the brainchild of Arianna Huffington and has been going since 2005, it covers a everything from politics to technology to celebrity gossip, sport and beyond like it’s new UK counterpart and its UK launch is the latest in a series of 12 additional roll outs of the media platform across the world.
The UK version is available here.
And for what it’s worth there are links to the ever shrinking Welsh media on the front page – a small acknowledgement that Wales is real and matters.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Labour’s given up on lobby briefings
It’s a worrying but perhaps not entirely surprising development now that Labour is solely in charge of the Welsh Government that it hasn’t given a weekly lobby briefing since the Assembly eventually returned to work after May’s elections unlike the three Opposition parties.
Maybe it’s the fact the new Minister’s still aren’t quite up to speed with their new portfolios and want to avoid awkward questions, who knows but according to BBC Wales Political Editor Betsan Powys the Government’s lobby briefings may disappear all together.
She writes ‘There was no government briefing (28th June). There hasn't been one since the election and rumour has it that it might never reappear. How the new Welsh government intends to communicate its policies with the lobby - and with you - is still a work in progress.’
To outsiders lobby briefings may seem unimportant but they remain the main way of Government’s and Opposition Parties gaining a wide platform and audience for their policies, political spin and rebuttals which generate the news stories, blog entries and tweets that are the life blood of politics. It also raises questions about why Labour is now choosing to ignore these opportunities given the low profile of Welsh politics among the electorate.
As for the ‘do it yourself’ idea of the Welsh Government bypassing the press to reach voters there’s a touch of the Pravda about it, the Welsh media have plenty of faults and some Welsh journalists are too willing to swallow the party line, but they still have a place and reach a far larger proportion of the Welsh population reporting Welsh news, including the goings on in Welsh politics which have a direct impact on people’s lives, something that is surely preferable to the unchallenged propaganda that the Labour Government would pump out daily.
But what really grates is at the same time as Welsh Assembly has the ability to make laws the need for scrutiny has never been greater, Labour feels able to withdraw from the weekly lobby briefings and media scrutiny of its Programme for Government safe in the knowledge that not only is there nothing anyone can do about it, but that it will make no difference to voters view of the Party come election time - Welsh democracy at its finest.
Maybe it’s the fact the new Minister’s still aren’t quite up to speed with their new portfolios and want to avoid awkward questions, who knows but according to BBC Wales Political Editor Betsan Powys the Government’s lobby briefings may disappear all together.
She writes ‘There was no government briefing (28th June). There hasn't been one since the election and rumour has it that it might never reappear. How the new Welsh government intends to communicate its policies with the lobby - and with you - is still a work in progress.’
To outsiders lobby briefings may seem unimportant but they remain the main way of Government’s and Opposition Parties gaining a wide platform and audience for their policies, political spin and rebuttals which generate the news stories, blog entries and tweets that are the life blood of politics. It also raises questions about why Labour is now choosing to ignore these opportunities given the low profile of Welsh politics among the electorate.
As for the ‘do it yourself’ idea of the Welsh Government bypassing the press to reach voters there’s a touch of the Pravda about it, the Welsh media have plenty of faults and some Welsh journalists are too willing to swallow the party line, but they still have a place and reach a far larger proportion of the Welsh population reporting Welsh news, including the goings on in Welsh politics which have a direct impact on people’s lives, something that is surely preferable to the unchallenged propaganda that the Labour Government would pump out daily.
But what really grates is at the same time as Welsh Assembly has the ability to make laws the need for scrutiny has never been greater, Labour feels able to withdraw from the weekly lobby briefings and media scrutiny of its Programme for Government safe in the knowledge that not only is there nothing anyone can do about it, but that it will make no difference to voters view of the Party come election time - Welsh democracy at its finest.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Cameron’s lack of interest in detail costing him dear
We can safely assume from the deafening silence of Coalition Minster’s today, that the Prime Minister has in the six months since the letter was written, talked his Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and most of the Cabinet around to the idea that up to 40,000 families losing the roof over their heads as well as the additional staffing and financial burden on Local Authorities caused by changes to Housing Benefit is a price worth paying for Labour’s mismanagement of the economy rather than a calculated attack on those who can’t fight back.
The Government’s big idea remains to slash and burn the welfare budget so that other department’s don’t have to cut as deep or hard, but as always with benefit changes there are big financial as well as human costs to factor in to these decisions that always end up costing Government’s money, something David Cameron is learning the hard way.
You’d like to think today's revelations and yesterday’s threat of legal action from disability charities will make the Prime Minister take more interest in the details of his welfare policy shake up, but judging from past experience I doubt we’ll see any change.
The Government’s big idea remains to slash and burn the welfare budget so that other department’s don’t have to cut as deep or hard, but as always with benefit changes there are big financial as well as human costs to factor in to these decisions that always end up costing Government’s money, something David Cameron is learning the hard way.
You’d like to think today's revelations and yesterday’s threat of legal action from disability charities will make the Prime Minister take more interest in the details of his welfare policy shake up, but judging from past experience I doubt we’ll see any change.
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