Judging from Iain Dale's trip to Crewe & Nantwich, Tamsin Dunwoody's prospects of becoming an MP next week are not good at all, and that leaves Gordon Brown's fate hanging in the balance...
Friday, 16 May 2008
The return of Ron
As expected, Ron Davies will sit on Caerffili Council's cabinet:
He will be in charge of regeneration and the countryside after his election as an independent councillor.
His wife Lynne Hughes was also elected to the council as a Plaid Cymru member.
Mr Davies told the BBC Wales News website he was excited by the challenge of the new post on Caerphilly council but he "hadn't a clue" where his political career might take him.
Cerphilly is a Plaid Cymru minority administration supported by two independent councillors and the leader is Lindsay Whittle.
"I have fought half a dozen elections against Lindsay and there has never been a cross word between us, so we will work well together," said Mr Davies.
Ron 'hasn't a clue' where his political career might take him, eh? What are the odds that he stands as Plaid Cymru's candidate for Caerffili in the generals? Just asking...
Made in Wales, praised in Brussels
It's not often Wales, let alone policies made in Wales, gets a mention on Euronews:
Jobs and research have moved up the priority list for the EU's next six years' Cohesion Policy. Brussels calls it a "radical shift... earmarking significant investment for competitiveness and growth in line with the Lisbon Strategy". Funding "to improve the quality of the environment" was assigned the lion's share for the 2007-2013 cycle. Topping 347 billion euros overall, the Cohesion spending breakdown is as follows: 105 billion towards the environment, 86 billion for research, 27 billion on small and medium-sized companies, 26 billion to education, 19 billion into employment schemes and 10 billion to counter poverty. The EU's Commissioner for Employment, Vladimir Spidla, talked about how countries have redirected attention towards removing social barriers: "For example, in Wales there is a project for single mothers. Having children keeps them out of the labour market. This project gives a third of them a chance to find a steady job." In presenting the results of negotiations with the EU member states, which include the participation of Regional Policy officials, Spidla said that one in nine people out of work finds a job with EU support.
There you go: Made-In-Wales policies being considered as cutting edge in Brussels, yet the Welsh people being considered as too immature to have lawmaking powers in London.
By the way Vlad, if you're including Wales as being among EU "countries", can we have full national status for Wales within the European Union? Just asking.
The Welsh Affair
Writing in the Welsh American news magazine Ninnau, Dafydd Wigley critisizes Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy’s apparent bid to put a brake on the devolution process following the recent council elections:
"...the Secretary of State for Wales, Paul Murphy, went on television to state that the election results showed that further devolution was no longer the political priority of Welsh voters. People, he said, were far more interested in the delivery of public services.
“In making this statement he was speaking diametrically against the policy of the Welsh Labour Party. This underlined the growing tension between the Labour Party in Wales and their Labour colleagues in the UK Parliament. Undoubtedly Welsh Labour leaders in the National Assembly saw their disastrous local election performance as a result of the incompetence of Labour’s ruling regime in London.”
In the past fortnight we have seen mounting tension between Cardiff Bay and Welsh MPs in Westminster, who seem to be abusing the LCO process for their own ends, namely to curb devolution and the threat lawmaking powers will ultimately pose them, leading as it inevitably will to a cut in their numbers.
Betsan Powys noted on Wednesday:
There's concern that while the Assembly LCO Committee wanted to work jointly with the Welsh Affairs Select Committee to scrutinise the Order, "this has subsequently proved not to be possible".
And there's yet more disappointment that despite cross party support in the Assembly for the conferral of powers in relation to the physical punishment of children - it isn't, of course, happening. You must remember the 'Slap in the face of the Assembly' headlines.
And then there was that half-hearted invitation from the MPs to AMs to 'observe' their scrutiny ... but not join in.
The conferral of powers in relation to the physical punishment of children is an example of our democratically elected Welsh Government and Opposition coming to an agreement and yet being denied legislative power by the Welsh Affairs Select Committee, of whom Dafydd Elis-Thomas was critical last week on Dragon's Eye:
"They tend to want to double scrutinise and look at policy and look at measures because they have a policy interest as Members of Parliament...it's not for them to make legislation. What we are seeking are the powers, that is what the issue is about. That's a constitutional matter and therefore I think that's more appropriately addressed by the Justice Committee, the constitutional committee of the House of Commons."
Such a situation is politically unsustainable. The eleven members of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee may represent Welsh constituencies, but they neither represent Wales as a whole, nor have they any mandate to make or break Welsh legislation.
It is time, as the Llywydd suggested, for the Welsh Affairs Select Committee to be relieved of its role in the LCO process, and the job handed to others more capable of objectivity and less interested in undermining the evolution of devolution. Equally it is time for the Secretary of State for Wales to serve and not to govern.
Bilingualism is democracy
Translation of Adam Price MP's column in Golwg yesterday:
Whatever you say about the spokesmen of CBI and the editors of the Western Mail on the eternal question of the Welsh language's proper place in the life of Wales, they've been consistent and in agreement across the ages.
When the original language quango -the Welsh Language Council (appointed by the last Labour Government)- published its final report on the future of the language, the editorial 'English Voice' attacked the recommendations under the title 'The Unreality of a Bilingual Wales'.
The then Welsh Secretary decided that the future of the Welsh language was a matter for the Assembly. The recommendations were laid to rest, along with devolution, on St David's Day the following year to the joy of the WM scribblers in Thomson House.
Now that we finally have an Assembly the future of the language is back in our hands. Democracy is my word for the process which over the years has compelled profit making companies to do things which are for the common good but which they would not have done otherwise - not employing children,killing their workers through lack of safety, poluting the environment, paying women less than men, and so on.
The plain truth is, in a capitalist system that is driven by the motive of making a profit, for better or for worse, an element of 'compulsion' is needed to ensure a civilised society.
Most of us do not doubt the need to regulate companies which employ, produce and market in order to make money. After all these companies depend on us as a society to to ensure a legal system and so on to protect their interests and accomplish their needs.
Society offers a license for the companies to operate, on the condition that the companies respect and contribute to supporting that society. This goes beyond paying taxes - it includes an adherence to obeying laws which crystalize the values of the indigenous society.
For the Western Mail and the CBI bilingualism is not of sufficient worth to be requisite for anyone in the private or voluntary sector. This is a pity, as the CBI has lost the opportunity once again to close the gap which has existed for a century and a half between the business culture in Wales and the Welsh and Welsh speaking culture.
The attitude of our national English paper is even more of a dissappointment. We can hardly see these people running the Welsh language news service now. That would be a real unreality.
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