A serious attempt at new thinking or reinforcing the status quo?

Carwyn Jones stated back in February that new ideas for public service delivery in Wales were needed and to help make this happen he would start the Public Policy Institute for Wales.

And true to his word a statement was made by the Welsh Government on the matter yesterday it states ‘The Welsh Government has launched an open competitive process to establish a Public Policy Institute for Wales.  The process is designed to elicit applications from a wide range of interested parties, including think tanks, research institutes and Higher Education, and enable the Government to consider a number of possible models.

Potential applicants will be invited to a pre-tender conference in September, with firm applications invited by November.  The selection will be made by the First Minister on the advice of an expert panel chaired by a senior independent individual with Board level or similar experience of a major think tank or research institute.

The Institute will be established for an initial three-year period subject to a process of evaluation and review. The financial envelope for the Institute will be in the range £250-£450,000 annually.

The Public Policy Institute is a Programme for Government commitment. Its purpose will be to promote better outcomes for the people of Wales by strengthening the links between the Welsh Government and independent sources of expert policy advice, and thereby improving the effectiveness of policy and delivery in Wales.’

Despite the time laps and the risk it could end up reinforcing the status quo by being too ambitious in its thinking for civil servants and Labour Ministers, we could at long last be seeing the start of serious policy making in Wales that is aimed at tackling our long standing social and economic problems, with both the Public Policy Institute and the recent launch of David Melding’s Think Tank Gorwel to add to the Institute of Welsh Affairs and the Bevan Foundation.

Officially taking the Mick

Merv the Swerve, the Bank of England Governor has today slashed the UK Growth rates to zero for  2012,  just 2 months on from his forecast of 0.8% growth for 2012, that means the UK Economy hasn't grown for over 2 years.

Meryn King like his political masters Dave and George are continuing to solely blame the Eurozone which is a factor, but so is their poor handling of the UK economy and continued reliance of the City of London for tax revenue. 

The Governor helpfully added that there is still no need for a ‘Plan B’ which reminded me of Groucho Marks line ‘the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’.

I bet the three Amigos (Mervyn , Dave and George) are praying Team GB athletes keep on winning more medals to distract from the incredibly bleak economic outlook facing Wales and the rest of the UK and the bad Government and Bank of England decision making since the crash started back in 2008.

Almost a half a million for Welsh Government SpAd’s

H/T Matt Withers

With the Olympics providing a useful distraction Government’s everywhere are using these two weeks to publish the less palatable information about what they are getting up to on our behalf in the hope that it sinks without a trace.

And this was the case for the Welsh Government who helpfully wrote this at the end of their statement on Special Advisors and salaries earlier this week ‘This statement is being issued during recess in order to keep members informed. Should members wish me to make a further statement or to answer questions on this when the Assembly returns I would be happy to do so.’

In the statement we found out that there were 11 full and part time SpAd’s in Cardiff Bay costing almost half a million 1 April 2011 to March 2012. The period includes the two month fag end of the One Wales Government. 

Now I don’t object to the Welsh Government having SpAd’s they can add  value to the political process, but if the Welsh Government are spending that sort of money annually, we should be able to ask if those in these jobs are more than party members and officials climbing the greasy pole as opposed to experts in their field providing Minister’s will useful advice.

The full statement with names and salaries is HERE