Plaid at Caerphilly ...

... seem to have buried their heads in the sands when in charge of our borough, WalesOnLine report here, a mistake of £21.80 I can understand, a mistake of £218.00 I could forgive, even a mistake of £2180 might be human error ...

... but £218,000 is stretching things just a little, and when Plaid Cymru Colin Mann (currently of the opposition Plaid group) was deputy leader and cabinet member with responsibility for finance said:

“None of my colleagues has any recollection of being involved in the car allowance decision. I’ve tried to find out when this was done, but so far haven’t been told properly what went on."

...so what were our local politicians actually doing with our money, were their hands on the tiller or were their separatist heads in the clouds, and although Colin Mann was responsible for finance, who was actually in charge ....

... or was it Dickens "The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come" were Plaid ever to gain governance of Wales.
.

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.
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No discrimination in Caerphilly ...

... an update, the timely response from Cllr. Fussell.

Hello Mr Tyler,

The Apprenticeship and Trainee (A&T) scheme has been designed to attract any local individual who may be currently going through or completed education or further education. The council has linked with training partners and government agencies to support the delivery of the schemes and these include Active Pathways, Job Centre plus, Princes Trust, Stepping Stones 14 to 19 Unit, ACT, ITEC, College Ystrad Mynach, Educ8 and a few more.

In its delivery the council have taken on board apprentice posts within its own services and these posts allow the individual to continue to progress their education via college , university. In addition some graduate posts have also been created in specific council areas.

It's accepted that the partners for the A&T scheme are local educational and training establishments and that most applicants will be from the immediate Caerffili County, however this may not always be the case and its not a deciding factor when going through the application process.

I hope that I have answered your question in as much that we source apprentices and trainees from a wide pool of establishments who deliver a service to people who may live in Caerffili, but not necessarily so.

Regards

James Fussell

Cabinet Member for Human Resources
(Ward Member for St Martins)

No discrimination in Caerphilly then ....

... but in the less than civilised areas a different tale !

Discrimination in Caerphilly ...

... by the Plaid administration, the tip of an iceberg or isolated case.

Naturally I have asked Cllr Fussell the question ...

Could you define your expression “local people” in the context of the article.

I wonder how non-local people are disbarred from the opportunities, might it be place of birth or could it be related to where a person has lived during the previous decade ?

There are other movements in Wales using petitioning to gain legal discrimination to prevent "non-local people" being given social housing, with Caerphilly leading the way where will it end ...

... is my daughter a non-local, she was born in England, my wife has only lived in Wales for ten years, is that sufficient qualification to become "local" ............

... another crackpot idea...

...  writes someone called Ray Davies of Bedwas in the borough of Caerphilly.

The idea disparaged by the writer in the Western Mail today can be read here in fair detail, the letter in question can be read here, it is the penultimate letter to the editor.

So what's it all about ...

The drinks company Diageo is to pay for 10,000 midwives in England and Wales to be trained to offer advice on the dangers of alcohol during pregnancy.

And the primary objection ...

The British Medical Association has expressed concern about the drinks industry funding such a scheme.

And who is going to train the midwives ...

The training programme will be run by the National Organisation for Foetal Alcohol Syndrome UK (Nofas-UK).  Susan Fleisher, from the charity, said the scheme would have have huge benefits.

Vivienne Nathanson from BMA said there were concerns over the scheme.

"I think the issue for us would be if money is given by the industry, it must be given to an honest broker, a third party."

I wonder why Vivienne doesn't think the National Organisation for Foetal Alcohol Syndrome UK is an honest broker, does she and the BMA have evidence I wonder, or is it sour grapes the money wasn't given to them to disburse as it saw fit.  If you search the BMA website for "Foetal Alcohol Syndrome" you get .... nothing, only "Sorry no results were found for your search."

Which brings me back to Ray Davies the letter writer of Bedwas .......... thank goodness he is not in politics, or is he ...............

I feel lucky, when I get .....

... up in the morning, there is no sound of helicopters engaging military establishments or armed checkpoints.  Can you hear the sounds of thousands protesting against government atrocities, and the sniper fire in the distance, reports of dozens killed.  And it doesn't matter whether I belong to either the Shia or Sunni peoples in Bahrain, I know that I will not be abused by a secret police.

The FIA have stamped on the face of humanity by caving into the wants of the Bahrain government by re-scheduling this years race in the face of the suppression of the people of the country.  "This is welcome news for all of Bahrain," said Zayed Rashid Alzayani, he also said ""As a country we have faced a difficult time, but stability has returned ... ", he didn't mention the secret police attrocities.

... back home in the Caerphilly basin where I live, my Saturdays and Sundays will not include the sounds of Bernie Ecclestone's Formula 1, there are some things more important than two hours of sport ............. not being kidnapped during the night by Bahrain's secret police is one, freedom of association another, and the freedom to protest against injustice is so important to humanity.

Bernie Ecclestone, by re-scheduling the race sends a message to me that secret police kidnapping, preventing free association and preventing protest is OK by him, obviously we have different sets of ethics.

In Wales we have little to protest, soon there will be the official opening of the Assembly in Cardiff, our elected representatives will be there to welcome our Queen, except Leanne Wood the Plaid Cymru member; we have to ignore her behaviour she is allowed bad manners.  We demonstrate the the rest of the world that British democracy accommodates even those who would destroy our world.

Ron Davies, a former man of many things, said ...

... the Labour Party is scared witless.  This is the man, who is described as one of Plaid Cymru's highest profile candidates, this is a man of many political colours, or rather a man who wears many coloured political coats.  A failed Labour Party politician, a failed "Forward Wales" politician,  the charity of local authority independent (no one wanted him) politics, and then a leap across a political divide to Plaid Cymru the separatist party of Wales. 


His supporters in Plaid Cymru have taken to insults in order to assist this inconsequential buffoon of Wales politics, an internal Plaid document emerged describing his Labour rival, Jeff Cuthbert, as a "three-legged carthorse" who should be sent to the "knacker’s yard".  Despicable Plaid Cymru refuses to apologise for its cretinous description of a hard working Welsh Assembly politician, Plaid, and Ron Davies in particular remind me of a Blackadder Christmas special and the line spoken by the Queen ...


"I remember when I was young putting out biscuits and a drink for Father Christmas - And then scoffing it all because I was a princess, I could do whatever I want!"

In his own words "Ron Davies acknowledged that he was receiving treatment for a personality disorder which led him to seek out risky situations", so Plaid would foist on the people of Caerphilly a politician with personality issues ...... no thanks.

... we prefer Mr Cuthbert to represent Caerphilly, a man who wears a coat of one colour, albeit red, he is a constituency politician who places the public before the politics of the Plaid gutter.

A love story in Caerphilly politics, ...

... Plaid leader Lyndsay Whittle and co-conspirator Ron "moment of madness" Davies, both cosying up to project an image of success to the voters of Bargoed in the run-up to the Assembly elections on 5th May next, unfortunately they have used taxpayers money to create a pamphlet that includes photographs that projects them both as leaders of largess, a dishonest projection.

Other politicians in the Caerphilly area, if they had kept their eyes on the ball, would have noticed other examples of the Davies-Whittle Assembly election ticket, they seem to be personally responsible for every future project in the borough, a cynical use of taxpayers hard earned money is not an uncommon event in the world, but in this instance with Davies standing as Plaid’s Caerphilly constituency candidate and Mr Whittle on Plaid's South East Wales regional list there is a smell that lingers.

Would I, a Conservative, vote for Ron "moment of madness" Davies, absolutely not, this year I will lend my vote to the Labour Party candidate, I had to take a deep breath before writing that, I will vote for Labour not because I have a deep seated abhorrence for the nationalism that Plaid stands for, but because Davies has changed his coat so many times I believe Davies will represent the views of Davies, not the electorate.

The use of taxpayers hard earned money to promote political careers is a "Love Story" that sticks in my throat, shame on both politicians, shame on the council officials who approved the pamphlets.