Views from Butetown

Referendum Now?

2009-10-10T15:45:00.000-07:00

Rumours abound that the All Wales Convention will soon report and suggest that the time is ripe for a referendum on part 4 of the Government of Wales Act 2006. None too soon in my view. This will enable the National Assembly to pass Acts, rather than rely on Westminster to approve powers to pass Measures in bites of subject areas. The process of transferring powers, The Legislative Competence Order system seems to not be functioning properly. In particular the Select Committee on Welsh Affairs seems to have taken on its self the role of second chamber to the National Assembly, and instead of deciding the constitutionality of a request for powers and the reasonableness of such a request it now seems to want to know in detail what possible Measures could flow from such a grant. In short it wants to control any future legislation. In the guise of “review” it seeks to restrict and control the National Assembly and the Welsh government. Alun Michael is a past master of micromanagement and excels in this role on the select committee, his grudge against the National Assembly for voting him out of office is clear for all to see, and carries over in his input into the deliberations of the Select Committee. As chief apologist for the current system he presents a reasonable sounding case for this level of enhanced “scrutiny”. In reality it impedes good governance and frustrates the ability of Welsh governments to control their own legislative program.

The LCO process is a mess, it must be intolerable for the Welsh Government to have its legislative program controlled by another legislature, especially as the time table is entirely in the hands of Westminster. How can they plan? How can they draw up policy that requires legislation when they have to go cap in hand to get specific legislative power for specific purpose? One could almost conclude that the current settlement is a conspiracy designed to ensure that the referendum passes with the full support of all Assembly members.

To the various posters on political blogs who disbelieve the pollsters, well some scepticism is sensible, but all the polls seem to point the same way, and unless everyone is manipulating the process this is highly unlikely. You can see from the BBC English language Welsh politics blogs that some of the posters there believe in a grand conspiracy encompassing much of Welsh civic society (all the voluntary organisations, trades unions, community groups etc) or at least all those parts of it receiving Assembly funding, the Welsh Political Parties (at least all the parties represented in the National Assembly) and all the Welsh print and broadcast media, to force further devolution on an overwhelmingly anti devolution Welsh Public. The scale of this can be seen in attacks on the Welsh Government for looking into the possibility of setting up a Stock Exchange in Cardiff or a Welsh Honours system – they see this as proof positive that the Welsh government is secretly plotting to make Wales independent. Nonsense of course. In living memory Cardiff and Swansea had stock exchanges, as did about 16 other towns in the UK. Indeed Birmingham has recently set up a virtual one... As for the honours system, well this is something most communities and private companies have.... Perhaps British Gas or Butetown are planning independence as well?

The current settlement fails basis test of reasonableness, its not reasonable that one government has to rely on the goodwill of another for its legislative abilities or the timetable for the implementation of its legislative program. The lace doily of legislative powers granted to the National Assembly impedes joined up government. Fragments of power are transferred over policy areas, requiring the Welsh Government and backbenchers to go back to the Parliament at Westminster every time they want to create a new Welsh Measure that falls outside the narrow confines of what is already devolved. A referendum is the only way forward, it does not give the National Assembly the powers it needs, only independence will do that, it doesn't even grant the Assembly the powers of the Scottish Parliament or give it any tax raising powers, however it would be a vast improvement over the current situation.

£42 Million Question

2009-03-07T06:59:00.000-08:00

Well it was inevitable, the announcement that the Welsh Assembly Government planned to spend £42 million doing up the civil service HQ in Cathays Park drew the expected storm of protest. Spending money on the government is never popular, so no surprise that this produced some headlines. The usual suspects trotted out their line that there were better causes, that this money should be spent on schools and hospitals and that the National Assembly, the Welsh Assembly Government and the civil service in Wales should be abolished. Now while I agree schools and hospitals should have money spent on them this doesn't detract from money being spent, when needed, on the actual infrastructure of government.

So what is this money for? The headlines don't tell us much, and the newspaper reports don't give much detail either. We are left with the impression of civil servants working in luxurious conditions while the rest of us face the cold winds of the credit crunch. All the focus has been on the building in Cathays Park, comprising the old Welsh Office Building, a grade 2 listed 1930s Portland stone building and the modern (ish) 1980s extention, which houses the bulk of the Welsh Civil Service. This at the time was the largest office building built in the UK. It houses thousands of workers.

So time for a few facts.

1. The money is to be spent over six years, that is £42 million is not to be spent in one year.
2. A total of 19 buildings in and around Cardiff will be refurbished, this is the sum for all those buildings not just one.
3. The work is necessary (so we are told) to bring the buildings up to a modern standard for health and safety.
4. The work includes upgrading the buildings to make them more energy efficient.
5. When completed the building will cost £5 million a year less to run, for the most part due to greater energy efficiency.

So it looks less like an exercise in featherbedding and more like an investment. An investment that will pay for its self in under 9 years and then give savings to the Welsh Government of £5 million a year. In times when we are all being told we must move to reducing our carbon footprint and government must save money doesn't this now start to look like, to coin a phrase, prudent expenditure?

This of course raises some questions. Such as why the media decided to give the spin on it that they did? Another knocking story, politicians eager to jump onto a bandwagon without finding out the facts is not exactly novel, but the unnamed Plaid politicians should know better.

Of course a similar crash program of refurbishment should be happening with our schools and hospitals, it would do much to invigorate our economy and keep those the building trade etc employed. Unfortunately the sums of money aren't available to do this, as the National Assembly for Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government have no borrowing powers. At a time when the UK government are spending billions on propping up the banks this sort of stimulus package is exactly what we need here. A general upgrading of all public buildings to conform to the latest health and safety requirement and to ensure maximum energy efficiency would save us hundreds of millions a year in running costs, if the savings for the 19 buildings are replicated throughout Wales. And as a bonus this would go someway to cutting our carbon footprint. Perhaps this is what, in part, Ieuan Wyn Jones was suggesting when he produced a paper calling for a £3 billion investment.

What Now?

2008-11-13T01:24:00.000-08:00

Plaid's decision to enter government with Labour was a move based on principle. It was to ensure that Wales had stable government and to ensure that Wales got the best deal with the strongest National Assembly that could be obtained. The Rainbow Coalition was rejected because the Lib Dems had shown themselves to be unreliable and there were doubts that the referendum could have been won without the active support of the Labour Party. Plaid rejected the extra power that the party could have had by holding the First Minister's position in favour of what was best for Wales. That was a courageous decision and one that has to be applauded.

They took the second fiddle position to Labour based on Labour's promise to advance the cause of devolution and to give a period of settled government. It looks as if Labour is reneging on that commitment. As ever Labour is putting party above country, despite what ever Alun Michael says this is a power grab by Westminster, a desire to control and dictate to the Government of Wales what it may or may not do in future - this is outwith their powers and in this case Mike German is quite correct.

This LCO sets a precedent. The National Assembly will be confined to passing anodyne legislation that no one objects to and/or policies pre approved by the majority of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee. This is not devolution its remote control.

The time in now for those elements in Labour who support devolution - real devolution that is - to stand up and be counted.

Plaid has some hard thinking to do, they need reassurances that the deal is still on and working. Having the First Minister unilaterally backing down does not bode well.

The government is not yet broken, but there is work to do to convince that the project is still worthwhile.

Devolution Settlement Starts To Fail?

2008-11-06T14:18:00.000-08:00

Well according to The Dragon's Eye the Wales Office thinks that the Housing Legislative Competence Order is "fatally flawed" - which is the first the Welsh Government has heard of this.
Essentially the dispute is over the thickness of the salami slice of legislative authority that Welsh Labour MPs are willing to concede to the National Assembly. At stake is the scope of the National Assembly to legislate over the “right to buy” for council tenants. The Welsh Government would like the power to suspend, or even abolish the right to buy council houses by tenants in those councils where there is a serious shortage of social housing. MPs believe that the LCO should be restricted to the immediate intent of the Welsh government, which is selective suspension of the “right to buy” and that additional power should not be extended without a further request for power to themselves via a new LCO.

At the heart of this is whether the Assembly can be given the power to legislate without having to go cap in hand to the Welsh Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons each time. It would appear that the Select Committee want each LCO to be so narrow that they can only be used to pass one Welsh Measure pre approved by them, effectively giving them the power to veto Welsh laws and control the policies of the Welsh Assembly Government. This is not how the system was supposed to operate. The settlement built into the Government of Wales Act was to enable the Assembly to draw down legislative power field by field within subject areas. It was supposedly permissive. MPs were to agree the principle that the Assembly could legislate in that area and any proposed Assembly Measure was to be illustrative, they were not intended to look into future possible legislative measures.

Behind this is a power struggle, between the pro and anti devolution wings of the Labour Party. For the anti-devolutionists a nice side effect of this is to put a strain on the Labour/Plaid coalition. If, as now appears, the Secretary of State for Wales is siding with the Welsh Affairs Committee then the power struggle has intensified. It is up to the Labour ministers in the Welsh Assembly Government to now make a stand, support publicly the proposed LCO, argue for it and against this assumed authority of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee to dictate policy. If they don't Plaid will begin to wonder what is the value of being in a coalition with a party that is not prepared to support its own policies and which defers to Westminster.

If Welsh Labour can't deliver on this LCO then what hope is there of them fulfilling their promise on a referendum to transfer full legislative power?

The power to only pass those laws and make policy that agrees with Westminster is no power at all. Which is where a large chunk of the Labour party would like it to be. If they can detach Plaid from the coalition then Christmas will have come early for them.

A year and more on...

2008-08-23T06:29:00.000-07:00

Has the sky fallen in? Has Wales lurched into some Mordor morass of doom? I suspect not... yet to have heard some people the idea of a Plaid/Labour coalition was totally unconscionable, the two parties having so little in common that the coalition would fall apart in weeks. Its here a little over a year later, and apart from the loss of one minister going strong. What of the One Wales Agreement? Slow steady implementation by all accounts. Plaid ministers, though untried seem to have performed well, remarkably few public disagreements within the Assembly.

Contrast this with the noises off. Clearly the group most dissatisfied with the current Assembly Government are the Labour MPs from Wales. It looks like they have not come to terms with either the consequences of Devolution MKII or the new coalition. Witness the petulant outburst from my MP, Alun Michael – in response to the quite measured (given the circumstance) comments of the Presiding Officer, he lays into the Assembly for overwhelming the Welsh Affairs Committee with requests to give the Assembly legislative power in a number of narrow areas. Well given that this was the situation created by his party in rejecting the main recommendations of the Richard Commission, I am tempted to say if you can't cope this is your fault.

Peter Black sums it up rather neatly. I can't help but wonder if Alun Michael hasn't some unresolved issues with his rejection as First Secretary of the Assembly. He constantly steps into the limelight to take pot shots at the Assembly – its Presiding Officer - and the Welsh Government in general. Sour grapes me thinks....
The main obstacle that I can see to the Coalition working, as far as I can see, is the limited vision of Welsh Labour, who seem more keen on keeping the power in Westminster than letting the Welsh Government flourish.

Well we will see how things go. Expect matters to get more frayed when the general election come upon us...

A blast from over the water

2007-09-15T04:22:00.001-07:00

It seems that someone posting from the other side of the Taff is causing something of a stir in the political world....

A blogger going by the name of Keir Hardly has been taking pot shots at the Welsh language, describing it as "brain dead" and going on to say "The Welsh-identity totalitarians should not be permitted to foist the language on the unwilling". Apparently he believes that teaching the language to school children is an impediment to their progress and it should be made "non-compulsory" - unlike all the other subjects in the curriculum. And who is this person? None other than Labour activist Dave Collins, a school governor is Grangetown, a candidate for Cardiff city council and an assistant to Ann Jones, Labour AM for the Vale of Clwyd. Now with Plaid in government with Labour I expected to see some backbiting and sniping from the Labour sidelines on issues of Language - particularly from the awkward squad of dissafected Labour MPs (see the fuss made by some MPs over the use of Welsh at Cardiff General station) - but I was surprised to see this from someone so closely associated with the Labour Group in the National Assembly for Wales. Clearly he has not taken stock of what is happening in Grangetown, where the demand for Welsh medium education is growing and the number of Welsh speakers is rising quite rapidly...

For those that missed it, don't try looking for it via the blog spot that it inhabited, instead check ORDOVICIUS for details instead as its now been "sanitised" into oblivion.

What is quite remarkable is that Grangetown is a ward that Labour desperately need to win back if they are to take control of Cardiff's city council again. Now given that Plaid have an effective presence there, is it really a good idea to run a fairly anti Welsh language line in the ward? I suspect not... expect to see a lot of back tracking on this!

Foot and Mouth

2007-08-13T01:40:00.000-07:00

Animal welfare issues seem to the fore, first Shambo gets culled and now a foot and mouth crisis. Fortunately we have seen swift action limiting the spread. But you have to wonder, in both the bovine TB cases and foot and mouth if there alternatives? The mass slaughter of animals for disease prevention is a bit of a blunderbuss and costs a fortune. Likewise proposals to gas badgers seems - to coin a phrase - overkill. Maybe its time we investigated vaccination as a route? Putting sizable money into researching a vaccine for bovine TB could potentially save millions - and I am sure the farming community would welcome it. I am sure there are problems with this approach, and I'd be glad of some comments on this.

Meanwhile we are in the silly season for stories, £500,000 for Prescot's autobiography... well good luck to him, but I don't see me rushing to buy, I will wait until its in the remainder bin :-)

Speaking of silly season stories, it seems the Tories are suggesting that 14Billion can be saved by cutting red tape. No details yet but apparently this can be done by doing away with things like the working time directive and health and safety laws..... I think this may well play badly with people who are told they have to work long hours and in unsafe conditions. John Redwood claims though it will lead to higher salaries and better working conditions - we will have to see the small print.

Several Days in...

2007-07-21T05:51:00.000-07:00

Well we now have a shiny new coalition government and what happens... nothing. The UK media seems to have largely let this event go by without so much as a note. OK we get coverage here in Wales, but as far as the rest of the print media is concerned Wales is invisible. TV has been little better. A few brief mentions on the BBC and next to nothing elsewhere. I know Wales is a small nation, far away from the main centres of power and influence, but surely we deserve more than this? The BBC ran for days with stories about a potential contender for the nomination for Mayor of London for one party, a matter of little import to anyone outside London. Yet here in Wales we have an event of considerable import for the future of the UK and nothing.

Perhaps we should take the broadcast media to task for failing in their public service obligations? Certainly you have to ask why there was no coverage from those papers that regard themselves as papers of record.

Its popular to portray people, like myself as "Welsh Wingers", but I ask you is the media being fair?

A Time for Reflection

2007-07-10T01:20:00.000-07:00

A Time for Reflection - and a timely reminder that for all the brickbats politicians are human. The sudden illness of the First Minister, Rhodri Morgan stalls the finalisation of the cabinet. Well these things can wait, after all we have waited 9 weeks already, a bit longer will not hurt.

I wish Rhodri well and hope that his recovery will be swift.

In the longer term I suspect it will strengthen Rhodri's resolve to step down after the coalition has bedded down and speculation will now rise as to who his successor will be. Remember this will be a "one man one vote" election for Labour members and there will be pressure on the Unions and affiliated organisations to conduct a poll of their members before they cast their votes in the electoral college. Plenty of opportunity for those die hard anti Plaid people to go for a leader who will be tough on their coalition partners - I wonder if they will be able to resist? And if so who would they put forward? Possibly we could see Huw Lewis emerge as their standard bearer? Lots of ifs and buts there.

A week is a long time in politics, as has been amply shown by the last few weeks in Wales. Who knows what we will see in two years. We could have had a general election where the Brown bounce has run out of steam and have a Tory government, a minority Labour government or even a Westminster coalition in place. From this end its impossible to judge the outcome. What ever happens at Westminster will greatly influence what happens here in the bay.

We live in interesting times!

Light at the End of the Tunnel

2007-07-08T01:29:00.000-07:00

Light at the end of the tunnel

After yesterday's vote perhaps its time to see who the winners and the losers are.

The big winners clearly are Labour - they have clung on to power when all looked lost and political exile was their only realistic option. Expect now more talk from its leadership of how it will now implement all of its manifesto and how Plaid are the junior partners.

The other big winners were the Tories, finally they get the coveted position of the official opposition, with all the airtime and perks that come with that post. Devolution has given the springboard to present themselves anew to the Welsh Public as a revitalised and distinctive Welsh party. Much of the credit for this has to go to Nick Bourne - who has some very unreconstructed Tory chairs of constituency to deal with. His succession to the leadership after Rod Richards has been the great unsung success of the last Assembly. The new Red/Green coalition has given him the platform he needs to take the Tories into second place and finally overtake Plaid at the next Assembly election.

Plaid are also winners, though possibly not as big winners as the previous two parties. Government, and the experience of government will grow the party's credibility. Coalition with Labour will blunt those venomous attacks on the party for being racist from certain Labour hacks - it renders that line of attack as laughable - for who would believe that Labour would ally with a racist party? The implementation of Plaid policy by the new coalition will also lay the charge of "sci-fi" economics from all three of the other parties. In short it will slay some old lies about the party and lend the party considerable credibility.

Overwhelmingly the major loser in this process have been the Liberal Democrats - who now look split and totally marginalised. Back as second opposition party behind a reinvigorated Tory party they face a difficult time. Just what do they represent, and what can they offer? A leadership election and probable bad local government elections next year will further diminish their credibility as a leading party.

Again to a lesser extent Trish Law is a loser, for a brief time she held the balance of power, that is gone - not that I think she relished that position. But life is difficult for independents, I wonder to what extent she will now be drawn into the orbit of the Liberal Democrats? There was some sign that she was getting tacit support from them in the last assembly, will this continue?

We also see a clear split between the Westminster parties and the Welsh Parties for Labour and the Tories... both Westminster Parties are far more devolution septic than their counterparts in the assembly - and both parties Westminster parties will have some opportunity to make mischief.... Legislative Competence orders and Assembly Measures will both be laid before a Welsh Committee of MPs before they get to be approved/declined. This gives quite a lot of power to this body to veto and obstruct the National Assembly.

On a closing note, who goes Dafydd El or Rosmary Butler? And who will replace who ever steps down?

A New Day a New Wales

2007-07-07T05:09:00.000-07:00

What a difference a few weeks make. After the election to the National Assembly it seemed that what ever happened Labour would be in power, secure in the knowledge that the Liberal Democrats would come to their aid. However, as we all know this was not to be... Then we had the promise of the Rainbow Coalition, a progressive non-Labour alliance of parties on governing on a radical program. And now it looks like Labour are doing the incredible, supporting a coalition between themselves and their arch rival Plaid Cymru.... Who would have thought it?

Now the question is how much mischief can the party rebels make from Westminster? Potentially quiet a lot, which of course is the weakness of the current devolution settlement.

All we need now is for Plaid to put the icing on the cake an see who gets what in the new settlement.

We live in interesting times.