Will the budget make much difference?

Still not got much time to blog, but will yesterday’s announcements be that noticeable in 2013/4 and does it matter which Opposition Party gets their wish lists for the extra votes come December?

There are some worthy things announced, like the £12m for the new mental health facilities and the extra cash for the Flying Start early years scheme and yes times are tough and money is short, but even so this is a pretty limited and not very imaginative set of announcements.

The main announcements are below and the Draft Budget report is HERE

·         £65m for improving transport – including £40m for the Brynmawr to Tredegar section of the A465 Heads of the Valley Dualling Programme and £25m for improvements to the A55 Conwy Tunnel;

·         £30m for hospitals – comprising £18m to support the redevelopment of Morriston Hospital, Swansea and £12m for adult mental health facilities in Llandough Hospital, Cardiff and Glanrhyd Hospital, Bridgend;

·         £25m for schools & colleges – including £15m in 2013-14 to accelerate a number of schemes under the 21st Century Schools programme;

·         An additional £10m in 2014-15 for high-speed broadband to ensure universal access by 2015.  This builds on the additional £10m we are allocating in 2013-14 for Next Generation Broadband Wales from the Centrally Retained Capital Fund;

·         an additional £13m for capital investment in Flying Start. 

·         £12m to expand the Welsh Housing Partnership;

·         £10m domestic energy efficiency;

·         an additional £10m to support a programme of vital flood and coastal defence improvements across Wales;

Donate 5% of Profits from MTV’s The Valleys to local charity Petition

As someone who has family living in the Valleys and is sick of the negative stereotypes, continued exploitation and attitudes towards the residents i’m happily support and promote the call for Viacom MTV's owners to doante 5% of their profits of the show to a local valleys charity if we have to endure this car crash TV for the foreseeable future  - If you agree the Petition is HERE

And for all those Cardiff residents saying this is what Valleys folk are like and complaining they ruin their City on weekend, here’s a great last paragraph to an article from award winning author Rachel Tresize on the cynical exploitation of MTV with The Valleys 

‘After the 1794 opening of the Glamorganshire Canal, constructed to float iron and coal from the valleys to the nearest coast, (which happened to be Cardiff), international trade encouraged a dock and then a dockland to spring up around the canal’s mouth. Without it we’d find ourselves in a very different Wales: the valleys town of Merthyr Tydfil its capital and Cardiff a mere ‘hamlet’.

The full article is HERE

South Wales Evening Post – Wales best Selling newspaper

We all know that newspaper circulation for daily papers is falling and the Western Mail claims to be Wales’s National newspaper is misguided at best, but the figures from January to June 2012 prove it and despite the South Wales Evening Post strong showing, it along with all papers saw a decline in circulation in the first 6 months of 2012.

The South Wales Evening Post’s average daily circulation was 36,623, more than 6 thousand more than its nearest rival the Daily Post at 30,585 and then the next best is the South Wales Echo with 30,178.

Next comes the Western Mail with an average daily circulation of 25,435 then the South Wales Argus 21,437 and the Wrexham Leader with 15,314, worryingly the figures show falls of between 4 and 9% in average circulation in the 6 months to June.

It makes you wonder how we can call Wales a serious democracy with such poor newspaper circulation and  interest from those titles in the daily goings on in Welsh politics.

More details HERE