And the reason Plaid ...

... decided to ditch their traditional support in favour of courting the Lefty vote of Wales ...

... the two colour map of Wales !

... the Grey of no overall control (dominated by dissent, disagreement and cultural dreams), and the unambiguous red of the Labour Party.

Plaid thinkers and policy makers believe the only way to power is via the valleys of the South, fortunately for political Wales Amazon is subverting nationalism, other casualties of this subversion include the high street and out of town shopping !

Is this an example of economics controlling politics ?

A new constitution for Plaid is a ...

... little too late to save its bacon, as I wrote at the BBC blog of David Cornock:

One of the reasons nationalism in Wales is a lost cause rests with the internationalism of culture, when the e-reader recently came of age with the "Fire" version, culture as epitomised by the Plaid movement was lost to the film-makers of Hollywood and Far East programmers ...

What is expected by political pundits is a lurch to the left in an attempt to garner the traditional Labour faithful disenchanted by a decade, or more, of the party settling into the centre of political life;  unfortunately for the 5% who yearn for separation, the majority prefer the comfort of belonging to a larger family that is Britain.

IDEA from Harvard ...

... that Carwyn Jones and Co. could adopt;  the "IDEA" brand developed for non-profit sector at Harvard, it stands for ...

... brand "integrity"
... brand "democracy"
... brand "ethics"
... brand "affinity"

The Labour Party certainly has the pedigree, and then there are the deeds, no-one can deny them the deeds that helped shape social justice in Britain.

A Welsh IDEAL, a Welsh Labour IDEA ........

First posted at the BBC David Cornock.

Well Carwyn, for Wales read England.

In today's (£) Times ...

The failings that spell trouble ahead for Britain – one in five can’t read or write.

Politicians dreaming of a high-tech, skills-based economy leading a march to recovery suffered a rude awakening at the hands of the European Commission yesterday. Britain, it says, is held back by having too many illiterate and innumerate adults with no qualifications and is not doing enough to help them.

According to research by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, the number of low-skilled jobs will fall by 51 per cent this decade, while medium and high-skilled jobs will rise by 16 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively. The Commission said that Britain could gain “significant economic and social benefits” from doing more to address the needs of people with no qualifications, including increasing their capacity to benefit from vocational training. "Given the long-term trends in demand for higher skills, the UK has not yet addressed its basic skills problems sufficiently. Many challenges remain, and there is no certainty that the UK can ensure that enough of the young people entering the labour market will have adequate skills in the short to medium term," it said. 

A report by the World Literacy Foundation found that one in five adults in Britain was “functionally” illiterate.

Brussels also told the Government that it needed to pursue a long-term strategy to improve the capacity and quality of its infrastructure, such as easing the pressures on transport and energy networks. It said that as part of the Government’s austerity measures, public sector net investment would fall sharply by 2014-15, "exacerbating shortcomings in transport infrastructure". It also said that a lack of housing supply was a potential source of instability. “The high levels of household debt accumulated over the past decade are linked closely to high house prices and represent an important imbalance in the UK economy,” it said

Rachel Reeves, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said: "This is just the latest international organisation to warn that the Conservative-led Government urgently needs a plan for jobs and growth."

It's all devolved, the responsibility in our green and pleasant land rests firmly in the lap of the Labour led administration at Cardiff Bay.

Plaid Cymru alliance with trade union ...

... ( PCS) is no different to an alliance between politicians and any other interest group, it is the imposition of a sectional interest upon the whole of society, in this instance the imposition of sectional interests upon civic society found in Wales.

Following a meeting between  Darren Williams, PCS’ campaigns officer for Wales and Plaid Cymru leader Monday last, he confirmed that the union was prepared to work alongside anybody they believed shared their objectives.  He confirmed that Peter Harris, PCS Wales secretary met Leanne Wood to talk informally about a few proposals for taking forward some campaigning work.

There is a darker side to this alliance, minority politics (Plaid has been reduced to a minority party in Wales) can by association with other radical minority interest groups disrupt the life of people disproportionate to any numerical influence gained at the ballot box.

Is there a positive note that democracy can bring from this alliance ...

... Wood has coupled a trade union with her political party in a public manner, there can be no doubt as to where Plaid Cymru would take Wales, to an even darker place than Carwyn Jones who yesterday suggested WAG might buy Cardiff Airport, nationalisation in the 21st century seems so out of place, so 19th century.

But we get what we vote for in a democracy ....... someone at the Assembly might like to remind the sitting members that they have a job to do that requires a quality of purpose, hot topics such as Education and Health .......... buying airports is such political bullshit ...

... is Carwyn singing to Wood .............. "move over darling" ?

Does Wales have a Plague Party ...

... in waiting, waiting for that crisis that will send the electorate over the edge into "a plague on all your houses" state of mind.

Today's (£/$) Times has an analysis of Greece where Bill Emmott writes that he would vote for the Greek Plague Party (real name Syriza), Alexis Tsipras, the young head of Greece’s Plague Party (Syriza), says that he intends to call the Germans’ to demand better terms on the financial rescue loan and so stay in the euro.  Angela Merkel is going to agree to that, particularly as she has her own plague party snapping at her heals, in Germany it is called the Pirate Party.

The commonality between Syriza and the Pirate Party seems to be a frustration born out of austerity and disconnected politicians, the aftermath of a decade or more where everybody maxed out on their finances including governments, a frustration that doesn't see any end in sight.  In Wales we have the unusual circumstance that in the face of national austerity, we have a regional administration diametrically opposed to the Westminster administration which has been dealt the most uncomfortable hand of political cards, no opportunity for a plague in Cardiff Bay.

I'm sure that our separatist party in Wales would welcome an opportunity to wear the plague party mantel if it thought it could tip the electorate over its edge into independence mode, Alex Salmond has managed a scottish pseudo plague party that might just succeed, but in Wales the commonality is we can always combine to create an opposition to Westminster, we create temporary plague parties at the drop of a hat by combining the unconventional.

For Greece its Plague Party could begin a domino effect upon the Euro where the European underbelly jumps ship, in Germany its Pirate Party is nudging the electorate to ask the question "do we need to share our prosperity with the rest of Europe?"  If I were a banker I would be dumping the Euro, if I were a industrial leader I would be looking for opportunities elsewhere, if I were the UK government I would probably be making preparations for opposition.

In Wales UKIP is probably the party in residence to take up the "Plague Party" mantel, not Plaid Cymru, UKIP can appeal across politics left to right, and there is nothing in its constitution to cause undue concern to the electorate ........ after a crisis everything would return to normal ...

... what's normal in Wales ?

Uncivil ...

... civil servants, the story by Kathryn Cooper, Robin Henry and Georgia Graham of The Sunday Times :

Civil servants use company to cut their income tax to 2%

SENIOR civil servants could be benefiting from personal income tax rates as low as 2% using controversial pay deals that cost the country tens of millions of pounds in lost revenue.  Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury, said last week his department had identified up to 2,000 officials who could be minimising tax because they are paid through companies or agencies, rather than the government payroll.

A Sunday Times investigation has found the use of these pay deals is widespread across government. In some cases companies can be used to reduce a personal tax bill to 2% a year compared with up to 50% if the individual were on the government payroll. The companies must also pay corporation tax, but the overall tax bill would still be about half that paid by a salaried employee.

Chris Savory, a consultant who was employed as an interim senior manager at the General Social Care Council (GSCC), is one of those who have benefited. He was paid a total of £222,000 by the GSCC through his company, Interim Public Finance Management, for his services from April 2010 to March 2011, on which corporation tax would have been paid. Accounts for the company show it lent him £58,636 that year.

It is common for company directors to take their pay as a loan because tax is paid at just 2% on the interest, compared with up to 42.5% if it is paid as a dividend and up to 50% if it is taken as salary. If a loan is outstanding after nine months it must be repaid or converted into a dividend — although accountants said there are ways round this. Savory confirmed he had been paid through his company and had taken a loan, but said it had been converted into a dividend in the tax year to April 2012. “I am not doing anything that isn’t perfectly legitimate within the rules,” he said.

Adam Morris, communications director at the Youth Justice Board until September 2010, was also paid through his personal service company. The board paid £62,128 to Adam Morris Communication for his services during 2010-11. The Youth Justice Board confirmed Morris had been paid “off payroll” and said it had sought assurances from his accountant that tax had been paid. In future, any civil servants on a contract of more than six months who earn more than £58,200 will have to prove they are paying income tax and National Insurance in full. However, The Sunday Times found that such agency contracts were common across government.

Stephen Park, appointed to the board of the Department for Communities and Local Government as interim finance director between March 2010 and January 2011, was paid £335,135 through an agency. Meanwhile, his own limited company, Ashley Interim Management, paid dividends of £130,000 for 2011 and £100,000 for the previous year.  The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) confirmed that at least three of its senior staff were employed through third parties in 2010-11. Jonathan Dodworth, interim finance director from May until October 2010, and David Clausen-Thue, his successor, were paid £236,183 and £160,516 respectively. A spokesman said: “These individuals were all contracted to the RPA on an interim basis while permanent staff were recruited.”

Ofwat, the water regulator, paid Rob Ashley, interim director of policy and communications between 2009 and 2011, £475,000 through an agency. He also has his own consultancy, Robert Ashley Ltd.

How are these practices condoned by the very same people who insist that those at the bottom of the food chain in Britain are pursued for economic crimes, because lets not mince words, these very uncivil servants are committing crimes against those who pay their very inflated wages.  If the current government were not spineless, these practices would be stamped out Tuesday morning.

How do you explain to the poor of Anglesey or the North East of England that they must continue to pay heavy taxes so that the scummy servants can benefit from their poverty ........ and lets not the last government led by the Labour Party get away without assigning responsibility, when did these crimes against the taxpayers begin ?

Well done The Sunday Times ...........

Plaid Cymru drubbing ...

... in Caerphilly ...

... and in the rest of Wales ?

Plaid have been sold a pup ...

... by the supporters of community councillor Leanne Wood (aka Plaid Cymru Party Leader), she just doesn't have the polish that the First Minister has in abundance.

When she failed to trap Carwyn Jones into criticising his own Labour politicians in the Rhondda, a local issue for Woody (she's a Rhondda girl), he wanted to out Plaid's indifference to the plight of working men and women throughout Britain .... but he changed tack, from his list of "questions awkward" came his killer stroke to send her to the back of the class with a dunces cap firm on her head .....

“Does she (Leanne Wood) have full confidence in Neil McEvoy (extreme Plaid of Cardiff), someone who she’s condemned in the past?”

Her response was ....

"I’m not responding to that !"

... with crossed arms reminiscent of "Brian's" mother in Monty Python's Life of Brian.

 

Carwyn voiced the sound ....

"Aaaaaaah"

 ... laughs all round (the debating chamber and hills of Wales).

McDonalds have a lot to ...

... teach our home grown politicians, because no-matter how you view their food, and the Chicken Legend with Batavia lettuce and Spicy Tomato Salsa in a bakehouse roll makes a mouth water, they know how to get things to the customers ............

In Wales, like so many parts of the world, we have a housing crisis, at least that's how politicians refer to it ......... crisis ..........we should have a solution at hand, there are enough politicians across the political divides of our green and pleasant lands, there are ...

Plaid Cymru, the home-grown separatist party without an original idea that can be shared, it said :

It (Plaid Cymru) wants to devolve primary legislation to housing, and pledge more affordable housing over the next four years.

Liberal Democrats, the mishmash of liberal tolerance that they couple with a we know best relationship with the world, it said :

They (the Welsh Liberal Democrats) place emphasis on bringing empty homes back into use, bringing more private money into housing and protecting any new social rented housing from being sold under the Right-to-Buy scheme for a minimum of 25 years, in areas where this is needed.

Conservatives in Wales on the other hand seem to have lost the plot completely when they were reported as saying :

The Conservatives pledge to tackle the problem of 'garden grabbing' and halting inappropriate development on flood plains in the countryside.

The Labour Party come to the rear of this motley crew with help upgrading the insulation, bathrooms and kitchens of those living in social housing :

They (Welsh Labour) say it remains committed to a strong mix of social and private housing, and promises a further £1.2bn to deliver the Welsh Housing Quality Standard for all council and housing association tenants across Wales.

Now to be fair, the current Welsh Assembly Government has put its toe into the waters that hold a real solution for those in need of good homes, I reported it last Tuesday, the Ely Project.  The only things this excuse for governance had to stump up was a loan of £6 million (chickenfeed by political standards), and I think public sector land, why no other plans ?


Now back to McDonald's, I wonder what they would do if they were sitting in Cardiff Bay with the "motley crew", I think they would have a programme up and running within 18 months delivering at least 10,000 homes (social housing) a year for a decade.  It money for old rope, in the UK if the people living in the homes fall an bad times the government picks up the tab, it's better business than the Quarter Pounder Deluxe with Bacon, unfortunately in Wales .........

............ we have an enormous amount of political .....

..................................... bullshit .

... the governance of Carwyn Jones seems ...

... to be stepping up a notch, no windbag rhetoric that emanates from the combined orifices of the other "forlorn hope" parties languishing at the bottom of the Wales political pile, and "the proof of the pudding is in the eating".

.... in this case the pudding is the newly announced project in Cardiff that will provide 700 much needed homes.  Other political parties will read this and weep, in the run-up to the local elections next month this is proof positive that Labour is working for all the peoples of Wales, without fear or favour ...

... and at the next Wales Assembly election Carwyn will be able to walk the new streets of the project and introduce the people housed by the project as a Labour success, I think the message might be ...

..... come on in, its good with Labour !

Divergence, can we live ...

... with it, particularly when our neighbours are getting better results for the same tax dollars !

Today in the Sunday Times reporter James Charles writes of a £1 billion boost for housebuilding that seeps across Offa's Dyke ...

DAVID CAMERON is to use £ 1 billion of taxpayers’ money to guarantee thousands of risky mortgages in an effort to kick- start a housing market recovery and boost the construction of new homes. Under a government scheme to be launched tomorrow, banks will be encouraged to offer mortgages to borrowers with only a 5% deposit, provided they use the money to buy new-build flats and houses worth up to £500,000.

The housing minister, Grant Shapps, has said that up to 100,000 first-time buyers and home movers will be helped by the Newbuy scheme over the next three years.

However, loans on new homes are notoriously risky, and banks hate lending more than 75% of the value — so the government has had to underwrite the risk to persuade them to take part.  It means up to £1 billion of taxpayers’ money will be used to protect banks against losses if buyers default on their loans.  The scheme is a calculated bet that increasing demand for homes will provide a quick economic boost.

This is Westminster working for Wales.

Then we have Osborne bringing down corporation tax to 20%

GEORGE OSBORNE is to signal more cuts in corporation tax in the budget, setting out a plan to reduce it to 20%, significantly lower than other large western economies. Treasury sources say the chancellor is determined to give priority to business in his speech on March 21, despite political pressure to use it to announce populist tax changes

Osborne has already cut corporation tax. It was 28% when he took power, is now 25%, and will shrink to 23% over this parliament. He is expected to set a new target of 20% for later years.  America has a basic rate of 35%, and France 33.3%. In Germany it is 15% but additional social taxes mean an effective rate of more than 30%. Ireland, which lures multinationals with low taxes, takes 12.5%.

Other business-friendly measures from Osborne will include details of infrastructure and credit-easing plans outlined in the autumn statement. Treasury officials have been working on the credit-easing plan — a government guarantee that will both make available and cut the cost of loans to small and medium-sized firms — and have reached agreements with most of the banks. The scheme is said to be ready to proceed from budget day.

This is Westminster working for Wales.

Now what about business confidence ?

GKN is in advanced talks for an ambitious £800m deal to buy Sweden’s biggest aerospace company.  The FTSE 100 engineering group is set to swoop on Volvo’s aircraft business, which makes engines and components for the world’s largest aerospace and defence manufacturers.  If GKN clinches the deal, it would represent one of the biggest acquisitions by a British manufacturing company since the banking crisis.

.... The move to snap up the Volvo division is a sign of the confidence running through Britain’s manufacturing sector. It could also mark the start of a deal spree in the industrial sector, likely to be led by American giants such as GE, Dover and Honeywell, that have built up huge war chests during the economic slowdown.  GKN employs 40,000 people in more than 30 countries. It is a supplier of aircraft components to both Airbus and Boeing and makes parts for most of the big carmakers.  The company raced into pole position for the Volvo business after MTU Aero Engines, Germany’s leading engine maker, dropped out of the auction. Other bidders included the buyout groups Carlyle and Nordic Capital.
Volvo put its aero engine business up f or sale in November. The division makes the RM12 engine for Saab’s Gripen fighter jets, used by the Swedish military, as well as supplying engine components to the three main jet engine manufacturers — Rolls-royce, GE and Pratt & Whitney.  GKN’S aerospace division is its biggest after Automotive, the car parts unit. It recorded sales of £1.5 billion in 2011.  The group l ast month reported a 15% increase in fullyear pre-tax profits to £417m, on sales up 13% to £6.1 billion. On Friday GKN’S shares closed at 212.5p, valuing the company at £3.3 billion.

And the Welsh Assembly First Minister, he should be remembering that GKN was spawned in 1759 when the Dowlais ironworks opened, he should be asking the question "... how many new jobs will GKN bring to Wales", it would be high value employment ............, the problem is we haven't been growing skills, instead we wasted a decade or more building an impoverished people (nation building) rather than fitting them for the future !

For how much longer can we continue to place our trust in those without vision ...........

More good news from Westminster ..........

A GROUP of City financiers has announced plans for a chain of more than 2,000 schools, 10% of the state system, with profits shared among staff in the style of the John Lewis retail chain.  Clarendon Academies, which would be the largest school group in the country, has been given approval by the education department to work with schools and is in talks with three of them.

The schools would be expected to generate a surplus, with half going to teachers in the form of benefits such as additional pension contributions, and help with housing costs. The rest would go to a central charity to fund building projects at the schools. Investors, who include unnamed wealthy individuals, would receive a fixed return on money lent to the venture.Clarendon plans to combine the traditional academic curriculum of independent schools with the centralised administration of former local education authorities (LEA), with efficiencies generating a surplus from government funding. The best state sector anti-truancy policies could, for example, be combined with a private-school approach to sport.

Clarendon has been set up by Nigel Brassard, an investment banker, and Edwin Richards, a private equity investor, and its educational programme devised by Martin Stephen, former high master of St Paul’s, the £18,825-a-year boys’ school in London, and Philip Limbert, executive head of Invicta, a girls’ grammar school in Maidstone, Kent, and Valley Park, a nearby comprehensive.Stephen said: “We are trying to broker a compromise between the ethic of the independent schools, which is very traditional, and the clout of the old LEA.”  Running state schools for profit is controversial and opposed by the Liberal Democrats. A contract won by the Swedish company IES to run a free school in Suffolk is one of the few examples.

... unfortunately the schools will not be crossing the Dyke, apparently there is a red and green line drawn in the political sands of Wales.

... and more good news for tenants of Social Housing ...

A massive £75,000 discount is proposed ............. another red and green line in the sand, England only I'm afraid.

Vince might think radical; we say rational ...

... thought would not disenfranchise a young person, the example :

A pupil (.............the leveller ...................) with 13 A* grades at GCSE, five A grades at As-level and three A*s predicted at A-level, Kanter was turned down last year by four leading British universities. He did not even get an interview.

The 18-year-old, now studying abroad, was so keen to study medicine that he had organised work placements in GP surgeries and hospitals, and helped at camps for children suffering from cancer. 

Surprised by his rejection, he contacted professors and doctors from the Russell Group universities to which he had applied and asked them to look personally at his application. “I was told by two that it was inexplicable and they could not understand what was going wrong,”

 Vince Cable is expected to announce his favoured candidate Les Ebdon, vice-chancellor of Bedfordshire University,to head up the "Office for Fair Access (Offa).  Ebdon is on record as saying he intends to be "iron fist in a velvet glove", he wishes universities to admit "poorly" or "un" qualified students else he intends to penalise the institutions by denying permission to charge fees of more than £6000.

Vince Cable once again demonstrates a poor thought process whereby universities are required to dilute the talent moving through its doors, the message is :

PLEASE KEEP OUT *

*unless from a disadvantaged group, as approved by the Dept. Social Engineering (Sunday Times 19 Feb 2012)

The liberal traditions would be to raise the education of all the children of Britain so that the most able are not left at the door of advancement through talent, the prefered principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities should be championed, we do not disadvantage some because they entered the world with familial advantage;  if Zak Kanter did not deserve entry to the 4 leading British universities, there would be no case to answer, but .........

.... professors and doctors from the Russell Group universities to which he had applied responded to questions by Zak "I was told by two that it was inexplicable and they could not understand what was going wrong,"

....he told The Sunday Times last week.

There are serious flaws in the system that are allowing hard-working students to consistently fall through the net.

Zaks problem, replace ...

A pupil (.............the leveller ...................) with 13 A* grades at GCSE, five A grades at As-level and three A*s predicted at A-level, Kanter was turned down last year by four leading British universities. He did not even get an interview.

with ...

A pupil at City of London, a top private school, with 13 A* grades at GCSE, five A grades at As-level and three A*s predicted at A-level, Kanter was turned down last year by four leading British universities. He did not even get an interview. 

Vince Cable, closet socialist, as most Liberal Democrats, once again undermines British excellence on the grail of dumbing down society.

In Wales there is a different system, yet the aspirational nature of self improvement through education is hampered by dogma, a dogma that refuses to acknowledge excellence and worth where there is a hint of familial advantage.  Might the local Liberal Democrats (of Assembly fame), those obsequious flatterers of Vince Cable, send a message to Westminster that it is bad to disadvantage any young people because of circumstances outwith their control.

DNR, do not resuscitate ….

... written on the patient notes, the patient could be our beloved NHS, or might it be Wales Education, do you get my drift, those elements of government that do not work as intended.

Could it be time to cut off the life blood to failure and let others provide alternatives.  Our Labour led government have demonstrated they the ability to discard failed (embarrassing) organisations, funding to the All Wales Ethnic Minority Association (Awema) was cut off with alacrity just a few weeks ago; can we look forward to those who failed to heed warnings, and gave such poor oversight, falling on their sword, somehow I doubt it.

Those working at the sharp end of the NHS in Wales are echoing the words of David Cameron when he describes our health service as failing.  Those hard working nurses who deliver care are worried for their futures, and should we be surprised, how many times have they been reorganised since devolution, how many directives requiring a diversion of energy and effort have been imposed upon them, how much money was delivered by Westminster yet not delivered by WAG, it's about half a £billion this year alone.

When Carwyn Jones, and other left leaning politicians, turn their back on the very experience that generates the wealth used to fund the public services, I wonder whether the DNR label might not better be attached to the Assembly and all those that sail in this very sorry excuse for governance.

Sunday came early, and Wales is waking ...

... to the realisation that the Westminster coalition are right.

We might not like the personal effect that jobs lost have, those who work in the private sector are well used to the uncertainty of industrial life, now the public sector are feeling the effects of cutting our cloth to meet the countries real needs as jobs disappear, they were never real jobs, they were the political largess of previous administrations.

The police, fire service, ambulance, nursing, those that keep our homes clear of refuse and streets clean of the detritus the less than caring strew as they go about their business, these and others are people who make up this army and feel the true costs of the needed financial adjustments of government.  There are the retired whose savings have shrunk in real terms because interest rates have dropped so low, the annuities that halved almost overnight, the rising costs of living in an unfeeling world.

There are there are those that place the blame entirely on the shoulders of modern day witches (bankers) and their familiars, the witches black cat of old was replaced by a sales pitch that promised never ending credit with a payback date so far in the future that it was irrelevant.  And this credit was used in the pursuit of unbridled spending, unfortunately we were buying goods and services from the Far East; goods of dubious value.

There are those who seem to escape the effects of the economic rebalancing act, in the front of this army of corpulence are the politicians in opposition, followed by the politicians of devolved administrations, the lawyers, the leading civil servants et al, they have a common denominator, they cause the spending of our taxes, they play with the ultimate "big boy toy" that is humanity.

Yesterday at Walesonline there was an article that poured journalistic and political scorn on the current economic rebalancing of the British economy for example, Shadow Wales Minister and Llanelli MP Nia Griffith said ...

"...the cuts were "sucking the lifeblood out of the Welsh economy" and warned that reductions in tax credits, changes in public sector pay and pensions and the hike in VAT could have "catastrophic" consequences for businesses.

The reality however is somewhat different, people left comments with the story, those who support Nia Griffith scored a negative -57 whilst others recognised the reality of poor government scored a positive +77.

Someone who writes as "dogsbody" submitted ...

... you would think we in Wales were taking all the brunt. All the economy is doing is rebalancing the waste of the last 17 years. Too much public sector soaking up resources and not enough done for real job creation.

So when the political pundits speak of "socialist Wales", they are not quite right are they !
So when the political pundits speak of "nationalist Wales", they are not quite right are they "

Wales is still that non-conformist liberal land that doesn't have a voice ........

........ for the record Plaid doesn't offer that voice, although Dafydd Elis-Thomas wearing different clothes might come close, the others without exception are FoS.

Miliband was he right when ...

... he said today in Glasgow :

... achievements like the Equal Pay Act and the minimum wage "do not belong to one nation of the UK", he says. "They are British achievements."

... and continued with :

The story of the Scotsman, the Englishman, and the Welshman is not just the start of a good joke. It is the history of social justice in this country. 

It was a Scotsman, Keir Hardie, who founded the Labour party a hundred and twelve years ago. An Englishman, Clement Attlee, who led the most successful Labour government in history. And a Welshman, Nye Bevan, who pioneered that Government's greatest legacy, our National Health Service. 

My father would have related to every word, and I guess I couldn't have disagreed, if he carries on like this he can backfoot Salmond and Co .............

To reform or not reform, that ...

... is a question for the people.

The referendum of 5th May this year asked the public whether they wished to keep the first-past-the-post system for Westminster elections or switch to the alternative vote (AV), the reply from the electorate to our politicians was a 2 to 1 in favour of the current "First Past the Post" system, an unambiguous rejection of change; in Wales the national vote rejected the proposed change by a margin that matched very closely the national vote.

So when an anonymous Labour Party spokesman (Wales) says:

"... our position is crystal clear - the Tories in Westminster have no mandate for changing the electoral system in Wales".

... they are utterly wrong, the referendum gave Westminster a mandate.  Of the 440 voting areas across the country, the Yes votes supporting change made up the majority in only 10 areas.  The 10 areas are: Cambridge, Camden, Edinburgh Central, Glasgow Kelvin, Hackney, Haringey, Islington, Lambeth, Oxford, Southwark; I don't see a Wales constituency in the list.

So why are Carwyn and chums so afraid of a change that would revert to the peoples preference, it is must be because they are afraid the "also ran" parties, including my Tory preference, who would be put out into the cold by the electorate. It's obvious that publically they must be seen to oppose the proposed change because the buffoons and poltroons of politics, and organisations that hang onto the coat tails as "reformers", because of the heinous label being bandied about by probable losers...

"Gerrymandering."

Fortunately for all, the electorate prefer a winner to a loser, so Carwyn's bluster is just that, I am sure behind closed doors there is the expectation of great things to come .......... from the left wing !

... they didn't ask me either, ...

... but they don't have to in Wales, they didn't teach me to read and write either ...

... so I couldn't "opt out", I'm not sure what "opt out" means, I can't remember "opt out" in our classes at school, why have the politicians hung my body in the cold room with the pork ...

... am I the Assembly bacon ?

... don't listen to them Carwyn, they have little ...

... to offer Wales, I refer to the Liberal Democrats and Plaid, both parties are more interested in popular opinion rather than what Wales needs, you on the other hand have allies amongst the more conservative voters with a social conscience from all sections of society.

So why might you listen to any advice I might have, simple, my advice is no advice, just keep your eye on the ball and deliver your promises, although your department that deals with businesses is a more than a little weak, at times it seems very odd to the electorate, certain experiences seems to be missing ... and there is more to Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies, he has said some aspects of the programme (that's your current programme under discussion) were of concern, as was the track record of some ministers.  I read that as support.

Now no advice doesn't mean I have nothing to say, I might suggest you look at Felixstowe for vision, it opens a new deepwater terminal today that will increase trade through the port by 50%, could you find a little time to understand how flexible Standard Chartered runs its business so that it is able to add 1000 people to its payroll during this last year, and let us not forget individuals such as Major-General John Page who had an abiding concern for those less fortunate or less forceful than himself, he died this month age 88.

It's all to be found on-line with The Times.

Oh, and lets not forget, you have enough time to fix things before the next election .....

Marketing froth, or is there something more ...

... afoot, well it doesn't seem democratic, and considering "Labour gave a cast-iron guarantee at the last Assembly election that they would retain the current structure of 22 for their entire term of office ( - source Betsan Powys)", it smacks of a dictatorship, or does it.

Out go 22 democratically elected councils and in come 22 democratically elected tiddlers + 6 super imposed quangos with bully boy Local Government Minister Carl Sargeant sitting on a strategic shoulder, much like a pirates parrot but with political cudgel, it does come across as "dictator in motion", it might have been different if only he had asked first ....

.... or could it be simple gerrymandering of outcomes, in a little less than 5 years the Labour Party will be going to the polls and unlike the remainder will be able to gainsay every success found in the reorganised government enterprises (police, education etc.), the not so successful outcomes will be discarded as so much flotsam.

A win-win situation for Labour as the left leaning electorate jump the Plaid ship, and Liberal Democrats haemorrhage its faithful to the call of Carwyn, this is all about winning the next election, not about serving the public. If it was about serving the public Sargeant might have suggested a single police force, after-all there's only 3 million of us, but he doesn't suggest, he dictates, tricky old world our 21st century Wales.