Where angels fear to tread, a battleground ...

... David Cameron knows not to enter, he knows better than to take up the gauntlet thrown down by Salmond, to travel north of the border to debate the forthcoming referendum would be to run a gauntlet created during the Thatcher years, irrelevant in the 21st century, but having a bitter taste that has crossed generations.  Why would Cameron gift an opportunity to Salmond, rightly he judges the debate should be between equals, and scottish equals at that.

Of course, Cameron is no angel ... but neither is Salmond, both are deft at dealing a very dodgy hand of cards.

BBC report.
.

Thank the Lord for Leanne ...

... Wood, with such articulate leadership ...

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-24295595


... Plaid needs hell to freeze before taking office, again, thank the Lord.

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 ?
.

The GR8 DB8, wk1, and it ...

... is being used by Scottish Nationalists to dignify the sordid process of separation.

When Alex Salmond second in command Nicola Sturgeon spoke to the Scots, reported here, she said "you'll retire earlier with the SNP than you will remaining with Britain !"

The SNP closed the door on honest debate and confirmed to the electorate, that the candy behind this particular game is "humbug".

A few facts ...

The SNP government-commissioned Fiscal Commission also recently concluded that Scotland will soon have more pensioners per head of working age people than the UK. It reported: “It is projected that without action, Scotland’s dependency ratio will increase more rapidly compared with the UK – reflecting the particularly sharp increase in Scotland’s pension age population.”

The Department for Work and Pensions said “Pensions spending per head is already higher in Scotland than in the rest of the UK, and in future, Scotland will have a higher proportion of elderly people. But by pooling our resources, we won’t need to rely on volatile and declining North Sea revenues to pay the pensions of Scotland’s elderly.”

The truth ...

10% of the population of Britain, that includes Scotland, have 60% of the countries wealth.

90% of the population of Britain, that includes Scotland, are unlikely to ever earn much above the median income of £20,000.

The likelihood of these figures changing through separation is zero.

Blue smoke and mirrors, so who gains through this sleight of hand ?
.

It's almost time ...

... to hand over for good.  The last six months have been busy, to busy to write, busy preparing to hand over the warehouse to J.J., next Friday I cross my particular Rubicon into retirement, a life no longer governed by the clock, the timetable, the rota .... instead there will be ... time !

My early upbringing taught me not to waste time, use every second of it, and starting early my first shot is across the bows of Caerphilly CBC.

The story .... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23801990 ...

... not the involvement of Pickles, but the table at the end of the report entitled "Councils which allow blogging and filming of public meetings"

Caerphilly does not allow democracy into Public meetings, there can be little justice where dissent can be silenced, so to begin a tiny skirmish I sent an email to the leader of the council Harry Andrews, to-wit :

 I read with interest, BBC web, that Caerphilly CBC do not allow blogging or filming of public meetings.

What plans and timescale do CCBC have to extend democracy in the borough by following the example set by both Monmouthshire and Anglesey ?

Kind regards

John.

 It's quite possible that CCBC have plans to democratise our local authority, a grand scheme, but somehow I doubt it, politicians prefer not to share power and influence with the electorate.
.
 

How will Carwyn cope with this cranky kid ?

Kirsty Williams has her proverbials in a twist over the use of £17m spent on staff pay-outs, which include the ubiquitous confidentiality clauses, there is a little issue the Lib Dem leader might like to consider ...

Tina Donnelly, director of the Royal College of Nursing in Wales, said she believed the spending on compromise agreements was the result of previous government policies to reorganise the health service in Wales and the costs incurred when shedding staff,  "constant reorganisation, every two to three years, does have a price.

How our politicians forget the true costs of their constant meddling ..........

The other cranky kids are without ideas hanging about the street lights in Cardiff Bay, elections soon ...
.

Plaid seems to be ...

... in disarray, Rhun ap Iorwerth the Plaid candidate for Anglesey walks in one direction, whilst Plaid grass-root support walks a well trodden path in the opposite direction, of course the grass-root support might be less influential than it would have people believe.

In a nutshell Rhun ap Iorwerth spoke to BBC's Vaughan Roderick, and during the interview he was the unrepentant supporter of the new Nuclear Wylfa B power plant, his is the pragmatic politicians approach to electioneering, tell it to the electorate exactly as they wish to hear it, in this case they yearn for jobs and prosperity.

Now the grass-roots in the morphed shape of MH, read his diatribe here, calls Rhun ap Iorwerth calls him dishonest, a liability, a cookoo in Plaids nest....

 ... the people of Anglesey see MH and chums as head in the sand buffoons.

The peoples of Anglesey prefer prosperity, being able to buy meat occasionally, as opposed to the poverty of narrow nationalist visions.

.