Edwina Hart has a grand plan that ...

... is just what's needed for Wales, details here, John Osmond can see a few problems with execution, particularly funding and an alliance with the UK Government.

The issue around funding is nonsense, if the city region is organised as a local authority it will have statutory borrowing powers, there is no reason to delay in the quest for Cardiff Bay borrowing powers.

I'm not certain an alliance between Westminster and Cardiff is necessary, unless the plan is for Cardiff Bay politics to become involved, if that is the plan the problem is not forming alliances, it is with professional politics interfering in matters they are rarely qualified for.

If Edwina Hart were a great politician she would construct a robust yet flexible framework (much like the British constitution) and let loose her creation to the people who will put fabric on her scaffolding.

As Aaron Hill's wrote in the "The Nettle's Lesson":

'Tender-handed stroke a nettle, And it stings you for your pains; Grasp it like a man of mettle, And it soft as silk remains.'

Remember the Local Government Act, all the powers needed rest there, add a lady's positive ambitions for Wales and what is there to loose ?
.

Whilst the "no vision" pundits bump their ...

... gums over at Wales Home regarding the Daily Mail, why would anyone read it, or when blinded by the vision of the China entrepreneurs revert to type and consider Wales of the 1890's, the BBC have published some really bad news for Wales ...

... the "get up and go" leadership of Westminster has announced 21 enterprise zones, some very close to home at Bristol, Birmingham and The Wirral near Liverpool, these close to home zones will compete for businesses and, just as important, people with skills that could be based in Wales.

How then might our WAG, and what a wag they tend to be at times, compete with the mighty Westminster, well our administration in Cardiff responded by saying ...

... it was looking at options and had received correspondence from a number of people regarding their potential structure and location ... furthermore ... It said Business Minister Edwina Hart would outline her policy when the assembly returns in September.

There we have it, our very own Edwina will work it out by September, ...

... a favourite of business men and women in Wales, not really, she is more like the grim reaper of commerce than saviour, having her well to the left socialist feet firmly on the Soviet side of the defunct Berlin Wall, precludes much dialogue with the men and women of ideas that can save the Welsh bacon.

I might have been better to have collaborated with Westminster, we might at least have moved from the "thinking about it" stage so favoured by our local administration and membership.

What to do when the woman is not ...

... really at home to the Assembly or Parliament, particularly as she is a minister ...

On two occasions she has been in contempt of the people, first towards the Assembly electorate, and then to Parliament.



The contempt she showed the peoples of Wales was when she refused to make public the McKinsey document which criticised aspects of the running of the health service, she at the time was the minister responsible for the health service in Wales.


The BBC reported on three previous occasions, the first when she was accused of withholding the report, the second when she made the ludicrous statement that the report was not a report, and she was publicly made a liar by her party leader Carwyn Jones when he revealed the study of the Welsh NHS by management consultants McKinsey cost £500,000.

And most recently she has been criticised by the Information  Commissioner found that "public interest favoured disclosure" of other information which the Welsh Government withheld about the reform and restructure of its health and social services department.

And what about our Parliament, the national government of Great Britain, this woman of politics is reported here  ... she refused to become part of British politics, was it because her less than competent abilities would demonstrate her inadequacies, or possibly the poor performance of the Wales administration. 

... and the greatest concern to the electorate in Wales, there is no simple mechanism where she can be called to book, how is this political dinosaur made democratic.

She should resign on the grounds she is contemptuous of the public.

... you couldn't make it up ...

... if you tried.
................................ Was David Davies all [tongue] tied up ...

................................when he met Edwina Hart at breakfast ...

................................ or was Edwina having a "bad hair" day ...

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Either way, it is disconcerting that our elected representatives are unable to talk about issues that effect the people of Wales, no-matter where they might sit in government.

Both Davies and Hart need to grow up, the old saying was "shape up or ship out", the electorate have put their faith in both of you ....................

................... to be able to share breakfast [and ideas] for the better governance of Wales.

I didn't realise how corrupt ...

... Greek society is, how incomprehensible, and the sheer Greek cheek expecting the poor of Britain to subsidise its debts that have been used for ...

• ... children who inherit dead parents pensions.
• ... MPs paid 16 monthly salaries each year.
• ... bonuses paid to civil servants who wash their hands.
• ... university professors who use research funds to buy card and houses.
• ... luxury holidays for state employees.
• ... €8 billion paid to power workers pension fund.
• ... ministries where only half the staff turn up for work.

... and it goes on and on and on ...

The Greek deputy prime minister Theodros Pangalos, who recently said the people are as much to blame as the government for the country's €350 billion debt when he said "We ate the money together"....

.... and they continue to eat the money together, people retire at 40 but have to turn up in person at the bank once a year in order to prove they were still alive; the children of thousands of dead Greeks had been receiving their parents pensions for decades.

Chemists in Greece earn €35 for every €100 worth of drugs provided, in Germany it is €3.80, there are 4 times the number of teachers per pupil than in Finland which allegedly have the premier European education system.

It seems that Greece has one of the worse investment climates in the world, 96th place between Papua New Guinea and the Dominican Republic; if a Greek island were put on the market there is the issue of 2500 official licences and permits needed to conclude the sale.

It seems that every 6th Greek pays "fakelaki", "small envelopes", the slang for bribes to the tune of €1500 for each household, a total of €1 billion annually.  This is the country that wants the poor of Anglesey to subsidise its corruption.

Investors ask the question "Is there any point in investing", and then walk away, and so should the governments of Europe, walk away and don't look back ...

... unless you can give the honest taxpayers of Europe a good enough reason to continue the bailout of corruption.  I cannot think of a single good reason to bankroll this country.

In Wales our Assembly Government only wasted £100 million on business that generated no business, I think it is small thanks to their ineptitude, it could have been a £1 billion if they had really tried hard.  But we probably have a government neck to match the Greeks, our home grown Hart refuses to speak to our Westminster Government.  Is there something nasty in the Assembly Woodshed I wonder ...

... could it be for Wales read Greece.

No rush he said, ....

... Carwyn Jones that is, it's just a shame he didn't tell his cabinet.  Or more to the point, Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones and Health Minister Edwina Hart, both pieces of legislation contraversial, both pieces of legislation questionable.  Jones wants to slaughter badgers even though the reason for such action is rapidly reducing and Hart wants your body organs to become WAG property even though compulsion has been demonstrated in Spain as being ineffectual.

So how do the political representatives in opposition resist unneeded and unnecessary legislation in a unicameral legislative body where a single group holds a very dominant position, seemingly in perpetuity, the Welsh Assembly Government is in effect a dictatorship that cannot be effectively opposed except at the four yearly elections.

If a politician were able to challenge the government of the day, with a large enough body of Assembly Members, 20% for example, to put the question to the electorate in a referendum might be a good first step,something similar to Denmark where ...

Where a Bill has been passed by the Folketing (Welsh Assembly), one-third of the members of the Folketing (Welsh Assembly) may, within three weekdays from the final passing of the Bill, request of the President that the Bill be submitted to a referendum. Such request shall be made in writing and signed by the members making the request.

Just as with the Danish model, it shouldn't be designed to hamstring the day to day running of government, therefore certain administrative areas such as budget might be excluded, for example in Denmark its constitution continues ...

Finance Bills, Supplementary Appropriation Bills, Provisional Appropriation Bills, Government Loan Bills, Civil Servants (Amendment) Bills, Salaries and Pensions Bills, Naturalization Bills, Expropriation Bills, Taxation (Direct and Indirect) Bills, as well as Bills introduced for the purpose of discharging existing treaty obligations shall not be submitted to decision by referendum.

With a population of five and a half million, Denmark is not so dissimilar to Wales, though its Parliament consists of 175 members, one member to 30,000 people, the combination of MP's and AM's is a very close match.

Would sufficient people support a petition to the Assembly to create such a tool for our elected members to hold the Welsh Assembly Government to account, or is such a concept alien to Welsh democracy, accountabil;ity to to whole electorate, not just to its particular agenda.