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.

Saunders Lewis was almost ...

... right when he predicted that "the language would disappear some time about now if nothing was done to save it."

For 50 years activists and politicians have fought against the tide of linguistic greyness, the need for a homogeneous language to bind the countries of the world into a sameness, where it would be possible for a business in Germany to speak with a business in China, who in turn might order raw materials from Australia, and all that would be required is the English language.  Accurate?  who knows, but it is close.

In Wales we have Welsh, unfortunately for the aficionados it is no longer the language of the hearth, so as Saunders Lewis predicted it has disappeared as a viable language, other than in the minds and mouths of a tiny minority.  It is time that Wales politicians began a process to protect what we have and create a museum and associated linguistic archivists or conservators of the Welsh language, so that in the future people will be able to experience a long lost culture fully.

To do any less would be a travesty.

Dafydd, Dafydd, Dafydd, sometimes ...

... I wonder if you have been at the sauce ...

                                                                                    ... with your outrageous uttering, to wit ...

WalesOnline today the last day of 2011, where you call for the scrapping of the position as Welsh Secretary to the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.  Now, contrary to the agenda of Plaid and pals, there are those of us who quite like the companionship of Westminster, particularly as we live in a political world (Wales) that would if left to its own devices, send us reeling into a left wing nightmare that we can read of through the immortal words of George.

Does Cheryl Gillan (CG) pull any levers of government West of Offa's Dyke ?  Does she exercise any real influence at No 10 ? .......... who knows, and in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter.  What matters in the real world is our government at Westminster has an office with its fingers on the pulse of "Political Cardiff", and it's very obvious this is the case with CG's recent remonstrations with Carwyn Jones.

And why should Westminster keep its fingers on the pulse of political Wales, well, as Margaret Thatcher discovered to her cost, that had she known earlier, much earlier, nationalism in Wales would have been neutered at birth not nurtured through political ineptitude throughout its infancy.  And that must be the SoS's primary task, to do to the political elite of Wales what the little people are prevented, to criticise and raise very real fears loudly and publicly, to be our lightning rod for the excesses of our regional government, this cracach that yearns for greatness ...

... and there you have it Dafydd, although you politicians might think you have everything sewn up, the others who have very few voices, have Westminster as a last resort.  We have in Wales several modern day "Le Chat Botté", those who use political trickery and deceit to gain a level of power and influence unparalleled in modern Wales ...............

................ in government and out.  Then there is Cheryl Gillan to speak out as she has ... but does she speak for us, the new year will tell.

On the home front, there is a battle yet to be engaged, it is with the nationalist who wish for the hand of the princess that is called Wales (in a marriage), they wish to become its worthless master with its head fully engaged in anything that is not Britain.




Message to friends and foe ...
Wikipedia have a fund raising effort, follow one of the links and maybe leave a donation, I have, if only half my visitors contributed £10, then there would be £100,000 for probably the best source of information freely available on the internet, be generous this new year.

Perhaps, ...

Professor Sir Mansel Aylward said on today's BBC Wales Politics Show ...

"We're not going to get many more chances - in the past we had plenty of money and perhaps we spent it wrongly,"

If the NHS in Wales were a work of art, aesthetics might conclude it not worthy to be viewed in the worlds top galleries, The Louvre would say 'non' and The Deutsche Guggenheim might cry "nien";  whilst in Wales the public it should be serving is reticent in its public condemnation, and our political representatives are lounging at the Cardiff Bay club for useless rhetoric, oblivious to the reality of the situation.

Might we apply a criteria to politics as we do with a painting, could we call for quality ............

It's a roller-coaster world that a life-changing ...

... condition presents to the unwary, it focuses the mind, cutting through the crap and identifying those that would have you change your life to suit their unbecoming style, particularly politics, and it is here I would start.

There exists in cyberspace an anonymous creature that uses the penname "Welsh Ramblings", he writes here of Wales and his vision of a very socialist society, to give credit, there is consistency, a single minded purpose to drive Wales into the arms of a Albanian style dictatorship of the 1950's.  The latest diatribe consists of an attack on the WAG Labour administration entitled "Labour: against Welsh democracy", it is because the penny has dropped amongst the Cardiff Bay politicians that "First Past the Post" produces stronger government, I wrote following the last election that the Labour Party would have a governable majority were it not for the system that introduces losers into the political equation.

Democracy is left at the ballot box as the electorate make their choice, what comes after should be "winner takes all", who wants anything other than winners at the Assembly.

Peter Black today wrote ...

In fact the mandate for the Assembly's voting system lies in the 1997 referendum, when voters supported a partially proportional system of electing AMs, in which the constituency boundaries were tied to those for Westminster.

... Liberal Democratic bullshit, the electorate were given two choice questions:

• I agree that there should be a Welsh Assembly.
• I do not agree that there should be a Welsh Assembly.

... no mention of voting systems on that particular ballot paper, the recent referendum did ask the electorate whether it was their wish to move from the FPTP currently used for National Elections, the electorate made a categoric choice, it wishes to keep FPTP rejecting second place politics.  It was politicians and their familiars that created the Wales voting system, not the people.

... a message to Peter Black goes something like "........... the electorate, we do not like lies."

And to finish my Sunday night post, I was diagnosed as diabetic just three weeks ago, I am fortunate it is only Type 1; medication, diet and exercise has taken over my life, fortunately it doesn't affect the mind, not just yet anyway.

... and congratulations to Jon and Miranda on the arrival of Amelie, a pretty little girl.

WAG stags have nothing of quality ...

... to rut with !

The peoples of Wales have no opposition worth its salt, we only have an opposition of posturing ...

... bullfrogs, each of which has much to say about nothing.

... 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 ?

When the Rebeccas destroyed the Bolgoed ...

... toll-gate on the outskirts of Pontarddulais, 6 July 1843, I wonder if they realised their descendants would become the toll-gate builders of the 21st century.


Not built of stone and lime mortar with the perspiration of the mason as was the 17th century toll-gate, but paper and ink and a certain prejudice against anything East of the River Loughor where Pontardulais is located, by those with a certain agenda to keep out the steady march of time.


And this new toll-booth is the "Action Plan" published by members of the Assembly Government who consider a particular Identity to be preferable to prosperity, the identity of Welshness as demonstrated though the use of the Welsh language, as opposed to Welshness being expressed in the English language.  Is there a difference I wonder?

Background information can be found at "New homes seen as threat to Welsh language in Carmarthen".

It seems this action plan is deemed preferable to prosperity, the prosperity that might be brought by people whose only crime is to chase success as measured by the return on capital.  This action plan makes it markedly more difficult for inward investment, not because of the language, but because the Assembly Government has created another hurdle to be jumped, an unnecessary hurdle.  Try convincing the manufacturer intent on expanding into Carmarthenshire that it is not enough to be neutral towards language, to be indifferent, the business will have to add to the local definition of Wales through positive linguistic action, otherwise approval for the manufacturing plant could be disallowed.


On the wall of our 21st century toll-booth there is a very small sign under the price list, under the tariff that determines whether a proposition might gain entry, the very, very small sign tells the travellers ...

"survival of the language ultimately depends on individuals taking ownership of the language."

... but it doesn't add that there is always a place in Wales for success, there is a place for the entrepreneur, there is a place for difference, it is a sad piece of government ...

He doesn't get it does he, Andrew R T Davies ...

... that is, ARTY to his chums, PARTY to the hunting set and just plain CUCKOO to the rest of us ....

Peter Black had an interesting post ...

... when he listed 6 questions asked of Michael Ellis, the MP for Northampton North.


I felt the answers to questions 2 through to 6 were predictable, how else would a politician answer other than to let the world know his constituency and its electorate were as important as family.  But question 1 was different ...


... it enquired of the politician who was his Biggest inspiration.  ......... the answer he gave, "Winston Churchill" tells us a little of the MPs character, or does it, Churchill has been described variously as an exceptional statesman and orator, an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist, the only British prime minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and he was the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the United States, he was also considered to be a fair bricklayer.  So exactly what inspired the politician.


I wonder how our Assembly politicians might have answered, I would have modified the question slightly too ...

...  who was your biggest inspiration, and why ?

How might the part leaders have answered, how might the members of the government have replied, and how might the remaining Assembly members answered the very simple but searching question.


I did leave a comment with Peter Black asking how he might have replied to the question, having spoke to some of his constituency there is no doubt the man is held in high esteem, certainly he is not afraid to hold the Assembly Government to account, but I wonder who inspired him and why ........

Was it written in Welsh, because for certain, something was ...

... lost in translation.

The auditor general for Wales said there had been varying degrees of success with projects provided under the assembly's Merlin contract with Siemens, which started in 2004.

... the budget for the 10-year contract was a minimum of £220m, but the auditor general found the Welsh Government had spent £270m over the first seven years.

That's £50 million over budget with 3 years to go, the report card might read "should try harder".

Darren Millar AM Public Accounts Committee chair is reported to have said ...

I am concerned... that the Welsh Government is unable to demonstrate that the contract as a whole represents value for money.  The Welsh Government also had "not monitored effectively the costs and value for money of services delivered under the contract".

Darren Millar should write on the report card "are we trying".

A Welsh Government spokesman said ...

"We welcome the report by the auditor general for Wales which states that the Merlin contract is delivering core ICT services effectively, but added "It would be inappropriate to make any further comments at this stage as the report is likely to be considered at a future Public Accounts Committee evidence session and we will comment more fully after that meeting".

... this is translated as ...

We prefer not to comment, with a little time most people will forget how inept we have been.

... and the report card reads "obviously the government isn't raising the money itself, tax-raising powers might sharpen the political minds in Cardiff Bay and save the poor taxpaying public a bucket full of cash".

Maerdy, house of the reeve, little Moscow, a dreadful ...

... example of yesterday's industry long gone, the remaining people in need of help.

Modern Maerdy is without a doubt one of the most deprived areas in Britain, to live there, needs must for many, you must travel south out of the valley each day to work, and the area of deprivation doesn't stop at the town boundary but extends to Ferndale and Tylorstown ...

Before or during 2003 the area was awarded Communities First and Objective One European status to tackle problems like environmental improvements, long-term employment prospects and health concerns.

... there is little doubt that very real need exists.

It might seem perverse, but the next step developing an solution to the Maerdy problem is to go North to Leeds, a prosperous town only a few miles from Bradford, a town very much like Maerdy, a town in desperate need of development to attract business and opportunity for the people who live there.  Who wants to develop in Bradford, a city that has suffered from de-industrialisation and has some of the poorest levels of social deprivation in the UK, with widespread pockets of exclusion and rates of unemployment in some wards exceeding 25%, when Leeds is so much nicer, it seems not many.

So if "If the mountain will not come to Muhammad" then Maerdy must be moved to Cardiff, or Newport, or Swansea, or anywhere that developers see as nice, charming, delightful, lovely, pleasant.

Unfair, possibly, but reminiscent of the ghost towns of the "wild west", the reason to move Maerdy town is that "king coal" with its associated employment has long gone, it is time to move on, but what politician in Cardiff has the strength of purpose to turn this deprived town into a ghost town, could the valley become a reservoir, and take the people to a place that developers will build.

The film "Field of Dreams" has an appropriate sentence, "If you build it, he will come", of course Maerdy will need a different sentence "if you demolish it, they will go", to the charming, delightful, lovely, pleasant places at the bottom of the valley, along the coast to the Bristol Channel.

WAG has the wherewithal to fix the Maerdy problem no-matter where it is found, unfortunately there is a bag full of political cowardice on the shoulders of our elected representatives, the politicians are not up to their radical heritage.

The nationalist consider Maerdy heritage, I wonder why ?

Plaid dream team, music to the ears of ...

... the extreme left wing of the "separatist agenda" (Plaid Cymru), and a blessing in disguise to the traditional political parties of Wales.

Whether it is wishful thinking of the nationalist buffoonery or reality in making, the report from Wales-on-line is food for thought, Plaid Cymru sidelined ex-MP Adam Price is reported to be contemplating a future party leadership bid in partnership with left-wing AM Leanne Wood, where in the future might have been the next question, but Plaid AM Lindsay Whittle is on record as writing "Whoever will be our new leader must now recognise it’s an interim post in my opinion."

I wrote during June of the dream team, and during July of the abyss, both were early predictions of the future Plaid Cymru leadership, it seems the insider at the headquarters of the "separatist agenda" has got it right, there has been talk of rule change as I wrote during July as confirmed by ...

...Plaid Cymru spokesman said it was too late for any rule change motion relating to the election of the party leader to be put before next month’s annual conference.

This would require a change in the party’s constitution, and would have to be submitted at least two months before conference by a party unit like a constituency or the Assembly group. Other units would then have the opportunity to submit amendments.

....... a spokesman for Ms Wood said: "Leanne is speaking to various people in the party before deciding whether to stand for the leadership."

Grist for the mill, much like the phoney war of the 1930's, the Nationalist and Socialist dream team are the perfect storm ..................

Well no-one can accuse Plaid of being ...

... inconsistent.  The left wing tomfoolery, 1950's socialism by any other name, continue to produce evidence of its narrow unimaginative vision, it seems to pour from the fingertips of the "separatist agenda" like some honeyed but bitter medicine, the latest is the exhortation for the Labour Party to continue its "great leap forward" in the tradition of Mao Zedong, by keeping central control of those aspects of our lives that provide our local needs, the Local Authority.

Rhodri Glyn Thomas, AM for Carmarthen East, demonstrates the unswerving adherence to central control when he writes ...

"Labour need to ensure that they have a long term strategic vision for Welsh communities so that they don’t risk slipping into a situation where cross council delivery creates chaos for front-line services."

 ... the problem for this Plaid politician is a vision of the future where political control would be lost to him and his.

Might it be that the Labour Party of Carwyn Jones is releasing the bindings that have held Wales back in its search for a better social and economic tomorrow, whereas a year ago we might have written of the Labour Party ...

"the economic and political dominance of one group that does not share power and privilege in an egalitarian fashion"

... and this group would include the occasional political prosthetics of Kirsty Williams and Ieuan Wyn Jones hanging onto the shirt tails of the Labour Party.  But today the Labour Party could be about to relinquish some of its dominance by encouraging our Local Authorities to take up the mantle of service provision designed for the locality it serves, including shared services with other authorities, education from Offa's Dyke to the Gower with the Heads of the Valley as a northern boundary might be a possibility if our councillors have the stomach for cooperation, a little large possibly but an example of the possibilities of cooperation



So for the likes of the 2nd division resident at Tŷ Gwynfor, a message from Oscar Wilde ...

"consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative"

... and the separatist agenda is nothing if not consistent and unimaginative.

... government in Wales, with and without Plaid, are ...

... condemned as dictators without a compass in today's Western Mail ...

THE Welsh Government has been accused of having an “endemic” inability to see policies through as it “flits from one priority to the other”.

Two aspects of the accusation springs from the pages of our newspaper ...

1. endemic inability to see policies through
2. flits from one priority to another

Whilst the report is a discussion of Schools and pupil results, it is yet another demonstration that central statist control of society is failing the people of Wales.  Those of a certain age might remember reports in the British press during the 1950's and 60's, before and after the death of Stalin, where central decisions made in Moscow were rarely if ever achieved.  The strategy of the Soviet was to issue further directives, planning every aspect of life.

And here in Wales a half a century or more later the same is happening, fail with a short term objective and create another, and  WAG continues in its futile attempts at micromanaging every aspect of our lives.

Planning versus the Rule of Law, more than two centuries ago Immanuel Kant said ...

‘Man(kind) is free if he(/she) needs obey no person but solely the laws.’

... an example of how Wales failed the people of Wales by imposing extra costs (taxes) relates to the forthcoming "carrier bag levy", read it here, the planning methods applied are tardy to say the least, all that was necessary was a simple law that insisted that free bags given by retailers were compostable, no tax, no social complexity, the obligation would revert to the bag suppliers under severe penalty if non-compostable bags were supplied anywhere West of Offa's Dyke.

... if only our statist administration at Cardiff Bay could restrict itself to creating a scaffold of liberty and equality upon which the rest of us could construct our lives without interference.

... democracy Peter Black, a reminder ...

... from the great political thinker de Tocqueville.

"Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom," he said. "Democracy attaches all possible value to each man," ............ "while socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude".  Said in 1848.

... and today in his blog Peter Black, I thought him the voice of the liberal tradition in Wales, became a tyrant when he wrote ...

"... that raises questions over Murdoch and his company being fit and proper people to own any media in this country. The Americans may be content with Fox News setting the agenda and targeting individual politicians but such practises are anti-democratic and need to be stamped out." ............... restraint and servitude of the left leaning politicians.

... it was the "fit and proper ... and ... stamped out" that quickened my pulse, a term that might be expected from a dictator but not the Welsh Assembly, or is PB taking notice of arch-dictator Edwina Hart.

I'm afraid any media organisation that might bring to book politicians and their associated party is a welcome addition to our fragile pseudo-democracy, such action is not anti-democratic, it is part of democracy, holding to account our elected representatives, if there is a problem  ...

... it is a question of monopoly in the UK media, as has been ably demonstrated by the Murdoch tribe, but monopoly is the enemy of both economics and democracy, and as such can be discouraged through strong monopoly legislation that also encourages competition, good legislation could cover all economic activity

Fortunately for the electorate PB is not involved in this particular legislative arena, else he might "stamp out" other freedoms we value so much.

If the monopoly question is addressed without fear or favour what happens to the BBC .....

Returning to "fit and proper", PB might like to consider the question of "requests for information", by and large ignored by certain ministers, would a WAG minister refuse a request from the Sunday Times I wonder.

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.

One story, two pictures ...

... from BBC Wales, the dour Secretary of State for Wales ...

From Wales online, its good news week ...

The story is the Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition comes up trumps for Wales.

BBC Wales news, or Western Mail.

The nationalist carpetbaggers want BBC Wales for themselves, the news is they probably have it but nobody is saying it in public.

The BBC headline is "New Tory ...

... leader to set up cabinet".

I might have been a little more impressed if Andrew RT Davies had said ...
 
"I intend to 'up-set' the cabinet",

... because there is scope.

Power and Responsibility, those ...

... attributes we naively thought the great and the good would exercise on our behalf as a norm with its excesses only appearing rarely, how wrong we have been.

As a subscriber to The Times and The Sunday Times, paper and on-line, I have helped finance through News International Newspapers Limited some of the excesses of public life being debated in the media around the world.  As Matthew Paris wrote in today's Times ...

Please don't protest: "I didna ken." C'mon reader, ye ken ...

1. prison officers complicit in the supply of drugs ...
2. banks or energy suppliers. ... cartels, robbing their customers.
3.  Many sporting records that still stand ... have been fuelled by performance-enhancing drugs
4. Insider trading. It’s absolutely endemic
5. The stock exchange has all but lost its original purpose — the financing of new business...
6. Insurance has become an almighty racket, ... citizens parted from billions by the unscrupulous sale ...
7. The policing of the criminal law is riddled with corruption.
8. This goes for the Crown Prosecution Service too.
9. The easing of credit ... that will strangle (us) them when interest rates rise.
10. Dentistry and the NHS ... Where’s the market?
11. The way that British ministers and mandarins ... to take up positions on the boards of companies in the fields that they have until recently supervised is an absolute disgrace. We’re not talking shades of grey here. It’s outrageous.
12. So is the “government-relations” lobbying industry.
13. The social services departments of local authorities are an incompetent and occasionally vicious element in public administration, particularly as regards child protection.
14. The way children get allocated to state schools is indefensible, and a huge anxiety to parents.
15. The public sector is chronically incapable even of understanding, let alone managing, large IT projects; and private sector contractors are guilty of daylight robbery.
16. When all is told there will have been some shocking war crimes in Afghanistan
17. Euro-MPs’ expenses. Enough said.
18. EU budgeting. Enough said.
19. Lawyers. That the practice of law in England has for centuries been a stitch-up to enrich a professional monopoly
20. August will be unusually dry or wet.

... there is a perfect storm coming, and now is the best time for that storm when money is tight, when the people who will always pick up the tab have nothing else to lose, when politics and politicians will be held to account for the excesses, because Power and Responsibility rests with "Parliaments" ... and with those people who manage the organisations we do business with, every aspect of the business from employee welfare to customer satisfaction.

I discovered recently that parliament is a collective noun for a group of owls or rooks, wise owls or noisy rooks I wonder.

Carwyn Jones and the Welsh Assembly Government would do well to keep their heads down for some of the debris caused by this perfect storm in waiting could very well be coming our way.


... the thunderer reminds us that ".. you must own your mistakes, or your mistakes will own you", Bethan Jenkins might like to take that little ditty on board.