Outside the tent, pissing in

Rockin' Rene Kinzett, tory group leader and erstwhile Lib Dem gives the ruling regime at Swansea Council a right roasting on his blog. Whilst no-one could fault his indictment of one-sided interests at work in Calamity Hall, it has to be remembered that the parliamentary hopeful wasn’t nearly so concerned about issues of accountability for the first two years in office when he occupied the role of a scrutiny committee chair whilst also acting as the official spokesman for the Lib Dem-led administration.

Headlines

MPs 'family firm' revolt continues

30 October 2009

Counting the acronyms

The media’s favourite self-appointed public spending watchdog - aka the Taxpayers Alliance - has recently published ACA-to-YJB: A Guide to the UK Semi-Autonomous Public Bodies (SAPBs) which is worth a scan.

Stated by the TPA to be “the only comprehensive and accurate guide to the UK’s public bodies sector”, it lists the 1152 quangos responsible for £91 billion of public expenditure. We managed to spot a few obvious Welsh omissions which tend to slightly challenge their research and overall claims of omnipotence. There is also a mis-match in a couple of sections which are either typos or evidence that the Audit Commission needs a kick up the accountancy section.

But such minor inconsistencies or even an undercover agenda are unlikely to bother the headline writers who clearly regard the Alliance as a tax-free gift and a lot less inconvenient than an FoI request.

Is anything else on offer other than bigger stilts?

It was interesting to read an item among all the otherwise expert analysis that it is possible to look at the referendum predictions from the YouGov poll from a different perspective and arrive at a further conclusion from the obvious one that the result will be tight. Despite claims published in the Western Mail that “42% of the Welsh electorate would vote Yes in a referendum on law-making powers for the Assembly”, the truth is that no-one is actually sure if that kind of percentage turnout is in any way achievable.

Whilst additional powers are naturally considered crucial among the political villagers of Cardiff Bay, pro-devolutionary forces - and their opponents – may have problems in convincing the tax-paying public that constitutional reform should also figure among their own priorities of employment, house prices and the cost of living.

Perhaps what we need are a few practical examples of how Wales - rather than the Welsh political establishment – would benefit. There is plenty of scope although we would probably not see control & construction of social housing returned to democratic local government control. It is unlikely that anyone will even talk about reversing the transfers. Waste management will probably remain under 'arms-length' control whilst economic development will stay a centralised under-resourced strategic function. Privatised utilities & services would stay that way and bankers would continue to get their bonuses.

Like we said, perhaps we need a few practical examples ....

Silly Burghers

We read that Swansea councillors earned themselves a ticking off from the presiding officer for twittering at a council meeting the other day. Wendy Fitzgerald felt that a group of individuals including Peter Black and Rene Kinzett should spend a bit more attention dealing with the issues they were elected to address rather than sending out obscure texts.

Council leader Chris Holley however disagreed with the ruling – but only, it seems, because his daughter Nicola was among the transgressors who apparently feel more at home with social networking than social services.

Thankfully, the small task-force of WAG appointed officials who are monitoring the council’s ability to turn-around its failing children’s services were on hand to witness the Administration's priorities in action.

Headlines

More NHS investment announced
26 October 2009

Trio con brio?

According to the local paper (no link available as yet), three defecting Swansea Labour councillors have formed their own political group - despite earlier statements that they only planned to remain outside the tent, etc. Their action is reportedly a 'proportional' response to expulsion letters they recently received plus the result of an oddball legal requirement for them to register either as a new group or join an existing one in order to take their seats in the chamber.

The new faction have decided to call themselves Communities of Swansea; a catchy title presumably intended to carve out a distinctive political niche whilst possibly drawing in other disaffected individuals. It apparently left their former Labour colleagues unimpressed. We're told that the only discernible reaction was one bank-bencher who was spotted doodling somewhat graphic alternatives for the COS initials.

Views are quite mixed on the ability of the three 'vetrans' to redefine local representation in Swansea as opposed to the chances of them succumbing to the Lib Dem osmosis that has successfully gathered in other such flotsam in the past. But if they can stay faithful to the principles embodied in their name then they might be just turn out to be what Swansea needs at the moment.

Planning gain, efficiency loss

We’re told that Richard “Sticky Dick” Lewis is the subject of a few f-words within Swansea Council’s planning department as a result of his new found zeal. Having ‘forgotten’ to intervene a while ago so that an application for a modestly sized mansion in his own ward could be decided by committee rather than by officers, the Gower councillor is now attempting to make amends big time.

In fact, of the 24 schemes to be decided by the committee next week, Lewis is personally responsible for making sure that half of them appear on the agenda - even though many of them are not in his patch. Officers are narked that Lewis’ actions are working against improvements introduced after auditors pressed for changes to speed up the process.

As one member of staff put it, “the p---k thinks that he is covering up his tracks but he is just screwing up the system for everyone”.

But who is going to stop him? Especially as the newly-incarnated Lib Dem is also the committee’s chairman and considers himself fire-proof - thanks to Holley & Co.

What does the right care about rights anyway

The story goes that David Cameron was advised by his strategists some time ago to single out the Human Rights Act 1998 as a harmless and relatively inexpensive sacrificial offering for the law-and-orderites and Europhobes within his party. He is said to have been rather luke warm about the suggestion at the time. However, his reservations did not stem from being unconvinced that the Act impeded successful deportation of criminals but that the idea was too closely linked with earlier speeches by leadership rival David Davis about the need for a British bill of rights.

But when the former shadow home secretary won a by-election and screwed up any future chance of senior office in the process, ‘reform’ of the HRA quickly became main opposition A-list platform material.

It may be that Kier Starmer, DPP director has heard the same story or that like many others in the judiciary he is just aghast by such apparent tory willingness to put the UK’s legal standing out in a limb for the sake of a legislative make-over to produce a ‘British law for British people’ – if that is actually possible.

As one academic put it when the idea first surfaced as a Cameron-backed proposal three years ago, "Either this is going to look very much like the Human Rights Act or it's going to look very different, and if it's going to look very different we will still find ourselves falling foul of the Human Rights Act if we stay in the European Convention on Human Rights." And as far as anyone is aware, no-one in CHQ is suggesting that particular split – for now.

Ming Campbell, then Lib Dem leader, also pointed out this contradiction in that repealing the act would mean people having to go to Strasbourg in order to vindicate their rights under the European Convention – but only if they were sufficiently well-off or had access to the necessary resources.

“Essentially what he's doing is taking away from ordinary individuals the opportunity of challenging decisions of government where they believe their individual human rights have been infringed”, he said.

The fact that an establishment figure like Mr Starmer is standing up to be counted in defence of human rights and that tory MPs are demanding he is sacked for his actions probably says all that needs to be said on the matter.

Stupid is as stupid does

Whilst Cammers does his utmost to shatter some shibboleths on inclusiveness so Nick Bourne effortlessly re-establishes the party's inflexible image in Wales by rejecting the proposal for an independent pay panel for AMs. Not exactly terrific timing considering the present public mood about freebies and stuff - something which he of all people should understand. It also contrasts badly with a more acceptable stance established elsewhere on expenses.

All in all, we have agree with Che Grav-ara on his assessment, i.e. the man is plain stupid.

BNP in Swansea - still a concern

Whilst there appears to be some doubts expressed about the accuracy of leaked BNP membership details, the breakdown for the Swansea locality is interesting. According to the spreadsheet, membership across the city's three constituencies has dropped slightly but whilst local trends show a decline in the east by a third, numbers have almost doubled in the west during the same period.

A total membership of 51 may not sound very great but it probably stands comparison with even some of the mainstream parties in the area - especially when it comes to putting activists on the streets or leafleting. The level of protest that greeted the WDL march over the weekend is a credit to all who took part but these figures should serve as a reminder that fascism is still at work in the community- and still gaining credibility.

How many weeks to go?

More paranoia in the Hart4Labour camp - and some of it probably justified - as a critical health spending story by Shipton (who else?) appears in today's Western Mail just as an "I Love the NHS" message is sent by Carwyn to all party members.

Edwina's campaign team are pissed that the Bridgend AM make more references to problems within a devolved health service rather than to successes achieved since 1999. Carwyn's assertion that "no-one has a monopoly on good ideas" and stating that its time for "common-sense solutions – particularly where red tape seems to get in the way of patient care" all chimes a little too neatly for some with the comments of unamed auditors about a wasteful and badly planned reorganisation.

There are no outright accusations of collusion (yet) but you cannot help but feel that it's only a matter of time before someone makes sure that questions are raised elsewhere about the levels of competency demonstrated in delivering the LCO process - or rather the lack of it.

Huw must be loving it.

Bad day for the BNP

First come the accusations from a group of former military leaders that the reputation of the armed forces is being tarnished by right-wing political "extremists".  Then a document apparently listing thousands of British National Party members gets posted on the internet – which includes the names of former senior members of the military, doctors and professors.

A BNP spokesman said he could not confirm that the list was genuine, and accused the "whole establishment" of trying to "derail" the party.

Let’s hope so.

Update: Ve vas only joking - BNP claim threat to hang generals was a bit of 'black humour'.

Pop Quiz

Today’s quiz involves some guesswork as to which is the odd one out from the list below. The clue is that all but one has been mentioned at length on Peter Black’s blog in the last few days.

• Alex Salmond and Libya
• Peter Hain and the BNP
• David Cameron and the Sunday Telegraph
• Michal Kaminski and Wikipedia
• Kirsty Williams and expenses
• Lib Dems and free prescriptions

Strangely, it’s the u-turn policy shift by Welsh Lib Dems in finally embracing free prescriptions that fails to get a mention by the AM – despite his apparent active role in changing a long held stance.

Then again, he didn't mention a £112,000 wag-mobile either.

The odd couple

To several observers, a telling aspect of Kirsty Williams’ criticism of Anagram is not so much that she makes it in today’s Wales on Sunday but that even now she only feels able to sort of go on the record.

Despite the predictable yada-yada about youth, radicalism and other stuff during the leadership contest, Williams appears to be a fireball on a slow burn. Her supporters point to a shrewd understanding on her part that she firstly needs to consolidate her relatively new status within a party that sometimes holds to a different definition of federalism than you might find in a dictionary. And she is gradually winning hearts & minds in the right places – just as she hopes to continue doing in Wrexham this weekend.

However, having successfully portrayed herself during the campaign as the person best placed to replicate the kind of electoral breakthrough her party has achieved in Welsh local government in the last decade, her internal critics - especially those in the Randerson camp - suggest that this will need something more substantial than periodic bouts of pensioner-bashing in the Senedd chamber. Some of her colleagues, whilst employing just the right balance of regret and frustration, seem all to willing to highlight that her chances of actually delivering wins at Westminster as well as Cardiff Bay remain very slim given current trends.

Plaid are already predicting a takeback of Ceredigion on or before 3rd June 2010 and current polls confirm a frustrating regional picture replicated elsewehere in the UK of a party that is unable to effectively capitalise on Labour’s electoral unpopularity let alone claim back a social reformist agenda hijacked by Cameron's almost reconstructed tories.

The truth, as one commentator points out, is that more people read what Lembit has to say than Kirsty on any given day, and the added uncomfortable irony, which will not be lost on the Welsh leader or her loyal followers, is that the MP for Montgomeryshire might well end up being the last man standing when the general election dust finally settles.

One can only guess at the Daily Sport headline on that one.

Surgical switch

Following on from yesterdays post on neurosurgery, it turns out that RT was more or less on the right track in asking the questions he did. How intriguing.

According to reports issued today, adult brain surgery will be permanently centralised in Cardiff because of the nationwide shortage of junior doctors. However, the corollary is that more patients from Mid and West Wales who need spinal surgery will be treated at Swansea.

An official statement confirms that “Complex inter-cranial neurosurgery will continue at the University Hospital of Wales but any pre and post-operative care will be carried out at Morriston Hospital.

“However, more patients from Mid and West Wales who require spinal surgery will go to Morriston instead of travelling to UHW as at present.

“The plans will allow surgeons to sub-specialise, increasing their expertise and services, which will improve outcomes for patients.

Reaction and fallout will no doubt emerge as the day progresses and politicians & patients groups catch up with events.

Update (18 Oct): Based on the ambivalent page 6 treatment given to the announcement in Saturday's EP and the total absence of any mention by caller or studio presenter on this morning's Swansea Sound phone-in, the Assembly's spin-corps can congratulate themselves on a job well done.

Still in two minds?

The local Swansea paper reports that tory health spokesman Andrew RT Davies was yesterday demanding clarity over the future of complex neurosurgery in South Wales. According to the Cardiff based AM, the present service is in imminent danger of collapse and the temporary arrangement of shared facilities between Swansea and the capital must be tackled immediately.

Nothing particularly new in the comments themselves but the timing is a bit odd given that the lamentable situation, caused by on-going staffing issues, does not look any more likely to be resolved in the next three months than during the preceding period.

Is RT merely adding a new dimension to the Labour leadership contest or does he know something?

Economical with the inward investment

Alan Cairns had a right old tantrum on air this morning over the ‘outed’ inward investment body, International Business Wales. Whatever contrived outrage the AM for south Wales west and tory spokesman had summoned up for the interview was soon overtaken by irritation at getting dissed & dismissed when he attempted to assign all the IBW's ills to Rhodri Morgan and Ieuan Wyn Jones viz. for scrapping the WDA in the first place.

It was probably just bad luck that he managed to encounter an amazingly well briefed Beeb presenter who pointed out that: (1) the announcement to incorporate the agency pre-dated the One Wales Government and (2) tory economic heavyweight Ken Clarke has been proposing a similar fate for English development agencies for some time. But for all the shouting over each other, Cairns managed to making a good point rather badly on the fitness for purpose of inward investment practices in recessionary Wales.

Whilst most businesses claim to mourn the loss of the WDA, the truth is that they miss the handout culture the agency engendered and which had given Wales an effective but under-the-counter competitive edge within the UK for over a decade. All that pretty much stopped as a result of anschluss and the IBW is now little more than an expensive hangover from the days of golden goose chases that saw high-flyers attempting to entice US corporations to set-up shop in the valleys.

That particular story stops at Chapter Eleven nowadays and indigenous growth within the knowledge economy is the new catchy but otherwise meaningless political mantra. You do not have to be an economist to know that investment in these trying times means public investment, in all its various manifestations,and that Wales cannot even afford to build new M4 link road yet alone deliver a step-change in economic strategy. The reality is that things will need to first get better in Tokyo before they get better in Treorchy.

As regards all the recent aggro, the general view is that matters would have merited no more than a few headlines if Rodders could have resisted a knee-jerk compulsion to side with his former profession. As one of the First Minister's colleagues privately observed, the old Rhodri would have made an glib comparison with the troubled European outfit once run by former Lib Dem leader Mike German and moved on. Calling Kirsty Williams a liar for fingering a bunch of self-indulgent civil servants was a mistake. Taking the word of those officials at face value was an even bigger one.

Oddly enough, whether IBW is an embarrassment for IWJ is a subject that seems to have been avoided entirely by the usual suspects within the Plaid Blogroll to the extent that they are not even taking shots at the messenger. You have to wonder how long that can last.

Be careful what you order

Staying in is the new going out, according to those who report on recession-led social trends. But home entertainment definitely seems to have its downside.

The Western Mail recounts today how a Cardiff woman received abusive calls from a vendor after cancelling an overdue fast-food order whilst the Evening Post carries a story of the Swansea man who was taken away following a delivery dispute.

Seems the best way to avoid getting a grilling is to cook for yourself.

Shape of things to come

Past and present Welsh tory opposition spokesmen, such as Jonathan Morgan and Andrew RT Davies, who have been vocal in their criticism of a creeping politicisation of the health service will no doubt greet the announcement of a five year plan to improve the NHS as further chilling evidence. They are right to be concerned.

Sooner or later the significance of choosing an October date for regime change will also dawn on them as well.

Moving on?

Rumours are circulating in Calamity Hall of a possible exit by main man Paul Smith. The Swansea Council chief executive is apparently “undergoing considerable stress” over burgeoning performance and financial headaches facing the authority. Additional aggravation is said to come from intransigence by influential directors and senior politicians on a number of budget decisions.

It is no secret that Smith is frustrated at the interminable squabbling between political groups which hinders effective debate on a number of vital key issues. In reciprocation, several councillors on both sides of the chamber are critical of his low-profile, light-touch approach which they feel contrasts poorly with the ‘damn-the-torpedoes’ methods favoured by his ill-fated predecessor Tim Thorogood.

No official statement is expected for the moment, other than vague denials, but the fact that word is leaking out should register with the leadership. Perhaps it was intended that way(?)

Called to Order

The sad loss of Patrick Hannan leaves a substantial gap within Welsh public affairs broadcasting. A familiar and trusted name for those wishing to gain a no-nonsense insight into the political world, he provided clarity, balance and a touch of sardonic humour where it mattered. He had his opinions and they sometimes showed. But he always posed the questions you wanted to ask and more often than not made sure he got the answers.

Authoritative without being bullying, he set a standard of journalism over 40 years that few within his industry have been able to emulate.

Tory fights for standards

Swansea tory leader Rene Kinzett, who castigated his council colleagues the other day for being "past it" - and thus earning himself a booking in the process - is a keen exponent of dragging political and social conventions into the 21st century. But only up to a point it seems.

The Swansea West parliamentary hopeful complained on Twitter that too many people were wearing jeans when he dined at Morgans Hotel over the weekend. Rock 'n roll!

Money, money, money

MPs stand to find something nasty in the post tomorrow, according to the Sunday Telegraph. The paper claims that “at least 325 MPs will be ordered this week to repay money or provide further details of their parliamentary allowances by the head of an official inquiry into the Commons expenses scandal.”

There are widespread expectations within the media that further revelations to be published, following an investigation conducted by former senior civil servant Sir Thomas Legg, will result in a fresh bout of mea culpas, resignations and reselections.

“Others.. who escaped censure in the summer’s disclosures will face being dragged into a second wave of a scandal that threatens to dominate politics for the rest of this year”, says the Sunday Times with undisguised glee.

Whilst there is probably still a public appetite for yet more details of the labyrinthine mortgage arrangements of honourable members and how basic garden maintenance is an allowable expense, it is the continuing absence of anything resembling either contrition or actual reform that is most likely to piss off the electorate.

To quote some famous dead dude, the House needs to be put in order - and fast. Peter Riddell makes the same point but a lot more cogently than we could manage.

Insidious on Sunday

Sid expresses his doubts about tory plans to banish the bean-counters.

Typos

It's encouraging to see that Peter Black is finding it just as hard as us in coping with the absence of a sprllchexk function in the updated Blogger editor. This and other limitations have prompted arguments discussions among Jaxxlanders on the merits of moving to a new platform. We will keep you in the liip.

Watching the reporters

Conspiracy theorists in the Hart4Labour camp are reportedly making a big thing of the fact that it was Martin Shipton (and not the Western Mail’s health correspondent) who did yesterday’s piece on the no-redundancy policy arising from NHS mergers in Wales. The view among loyalists is that the article was timed to take the shine off news of Jane Hutt’s declaration of support for EH who now has 10 votes in the bag.

It’s an intriguing possibility, in view of the journalist’s record of deep appreciation for the AM for Gower, but what does it really matter anyway given the paper’s success rate in influencing political leadership changes?

More interesting, at different level, is a further reference to the views of the West Wales Business Initiative and its secretary, Wyn Price. The interesting aspect is that other than making an appearance before the Assembly’s E&L committee, other details about the anti-public spending outfit are a bit scarce.

Price, who has received plaudits from elsewhere does not seem to have an active website link to his business at the moment. But the background provided by VM is that he was WDA official in west Wales at a time when the agency’s relationship with the private sector was a just a little blurred.

Actually, as memories of recent political history begin their almost inevitable blue rinse cycle, it’s not a bad idea to get a reminder of what once passed for economic development in colonial pre-Assembly Wales and how decent journalism involved a lot more research.

Pointed comment from the Sharp End

Gareth Hughes, ITV Wales' political commentator, finds himself added to our list of blogs that are worth a look. Although somewhat blunted at the Sharp End these days, freelance Gareth has a background in the community-based public sector world that pre-dates his present journo incarnation and which will hopefully emerge in some of his posts. He also supports Bangor City which shows that he has (almost) a life elsewhere.

We look forward to reading his brand of insightful commentary in the future.   

Closed and opaque

Today’s cabinet meeting at Swansea Council has thirteen items on the agenda requiring a decision. Over half of these will be made behind closed doors.

A full page of legal explanations for this entirely unacceptable situation is provided but none of the jargon offered even slightly changes the patent fact that the Lib Dem-led administration is full of shit in its claims about openness and transparency in its day-to-day dealings.

It seems that voters in Swansea do not merit sufficient respect to be told the amount of proceeds gained from flogging off yet more publicly-owned assets (as reported in private cabinet papers) because the information “relates to the financial or business affairs of particular people”. Similarly, details of a highways scheme and a business plan for the Quadrant centre are deemed to be somehow too senstive to be seen by outside eyes.

But the most bizarre example of corporate secrecy is the 24 page report entitled “Partnership Agreement between the Council and First Cymru Buses in relation to the introduction of the FTR Metro Service”. We can only speculate at the contents – and why it needs to be decided in private session - but you have to ask why a an establised fait accompli in introducing bendy buses to Swansea's streets now needs a formal cabinet nod at such a late stage.

Making the same mistakes

To some, the prospect of spending £1.1m on public art in a Swansea’s SA1 docklands development makes as much practical sense as planning the lunch menu for the UK lunar expedition. Yet this ring-fenced windfall, gained as a percentage of cash invested in the waterfront, is a powerful indicator of the area’s resilience in the face of economic recession. It is also an opportunity to contrast this successful “hands off” approach to development with the control freakery applied by the council and their commercial partners in the city centre.

Whilst house-trained politicians mumble the usual boulevards written down for them, traders such as Peter Birch – who is finally living up to his 'independent’ tag – quite rightly point out that a relocation of Tesco from the Marina to Parc Tawe would deliver a double whammy to a commercial hub already dying on its feet from strategy overkill.

Even if it were feasible that, having battled through the hard yards of planning appeals to trade on the former gasworks, the store would actually agree to up sticks and leave behind a prime site to a potential competitor, then it would take some hefty inducements and a shedfull of trading safeguards. The irony is that the only way that the council & Hammersons could finance the move is by selling on the land to another cash-rich supermarket giant.

And in the remote event of a deal actually being done, the result will be a reincarnation of Parc Fforestfach at Parc Tawe. In future, visitors will only need to negotiate the gyratory system that highways planners have in mind for the Tawe bridges before finding free parking on the city’s eastern gateway. Punters will never have to venture anywhere near the pound stores and charity shops left behind in the city centre.

The difficult bit that Holley & Co consistently fail to mention when jabbering on about a £1 billion in city centre development is that investment demands a return and a quick one at that. It has to come from somewhere and it is usually in the form of rentals. It is disturbing that no-one in Calamity Hall seems to remember the market factors that turned St David’s into a ghost precinct within less than two decades of its opening. Or perhaps, worse still, it has just never dawned on them.

Time they started learning lessons from SA1.

Big Apple gets a reprieve

Spotted on Facebook, it seems that the Big Apple at Mumbles Head is going to be repaired after all. There were fears that the promotional feature which has lasted 80 years would have to be demolished after a boy racer tried to park in it earlier this year. The owners have now apparently announced that this bit of local folk heritage (which says a lot about Swansea) is to be reinstated to its former err... glory in time for next year's summer season.

Can't help feeling that the decision was down to a 27 thousand name on-line campaign petition rather than any commercial motive but it's the smart move nonetheless. Nice one.

Update: It's official.

Headlines

Swansea has some of the best services in Wales

Swansea Council Press Release - 5 October 2009

Return of the blue meanies?

Mixed messages in the Sunday pulp on Cammers & Co apropos the pressing pre-election issues. Europe – or rather the Lisbon Treaty and the scary prospect of President Blair - figures highly for some. Others concentrate on the upcoming conference and how “welfare reform” is back on the agenda.

According to the supportive sources, the Conservative leader says he will turn his back on advice to play it safe in favour of “straight talk, leadership and radical new direction this country is crying out for” – or whatever Andy Coulson puts down for him in a News of the World ‘exclusive’ article by DC himself.

The coded message in the Sunday Telegraph is that the Tories are “ready to campaign on jobs and unemployment by scrapping the government's flagship New Deal, a costly programme dependent on state intervention which aims to bring down youth unemployment”.

No real indication of what measures other than state intervention – direct or indirect – can tackle joblessness but, hey, when the message is massive change then who cares, right? Maybe they'll dig up Wille Whitelaw and get him to do his short, sharp shock routine to conference. Or maybe the TECs will make a comeback. All that matters is that things are going to get better, similar, different.

As Cammers puts it himself, “ News of the World readers will see a big difference between a Labour party obsessed only with its own survival and a Conservative party not playing it safe - but making the tough decisions the country needs to get back on its feet.”

Just who is going to find it tough is just one of those troublesome details that can wait until later.

Reporting on the three amigos

We don't intend to publish regular posts on the Labour leadership contest (honestly, why this sort of thing can't be settled the good old fashioned way with pistols is beyond us) but since there appears to be no other political news in Wales at the moment, we might at least comment on emerging reporting trends.

The are initial signs that some within the media are slightly unsettled by the prospect of having a First Minister who does not represent a Cardiff constituency or live within dashing distance of Llandaff studios. A refreshing exception is Phil Parry, whose insights into the challenges and constraints facing candidates highlights the balancing act needed to be different without appearing too different. Tom Bodden, in the Daily Post, plays it straight by seeking out commment on the contenders whilst a helpful contribution from Shipton of the Mail suggests that two out of the three could be unseated at the next Assembly elections.

Once we can all steer past Rhodri's legacy and semi-deification there is a possibility that policies might get a mention but for the moment the process is one of candidate recognition - which is something that Plaid seem to have already been addressed elsewhere.

North and South

Our attention was drawn to a strange logic at work on the Valley’s Mam blogsite – not one that we usually read – and which implies an imbalance of investment in Wales between north and south. Not much new in that particular message but the suggestion from VM that much of it is down to local ministerial clout is an intriguing one.

Who is the Assembly member for Ynys Mon, again?

Absent friends

A noticeable absence among the accolades bestowed today by political contemporaries as Rodders does his long goodbye was Russell Goodway, erstwhile leader of Cardiff council, who has had one or two things to say about the First Minister in the past. Plenty of time.

Back to the Future

According to one academic, the establishment today of seven new health authorities health boards in Wales, “probably signifies one of the biggest steps yet on the devolution journey”. Perhaps he should have also added that it represents an almost nostalgic return to the pre-Thatcherite days when health care provision was managed and dispensed by state sponsored monoliths which were staffed by nurses in familiar uniform colours, offered free visitor parking and where the only example of an ‘internal market’ was the weekend car-boot sale.

Despite the odd splash of cold water from the likes of Lib Dem Peter Black, it has been a politically successful transition from the post-Hutt era and one that has gained popular support. It has also been achieved over the dead bodies of a small battalion of senior clinicians – but then, who needs to stuff gold into mouths when you have the entire range of health unions singing your praises?

If devolution means having the ability to be different so that can actually make a difference then Mrs Hart has done the business. She has also done her socialist credentials no harm in the process and at a time when Labour in Wales needs to revisit its origins and rehearse the creed – but all that is purely coincidental, one assumes.

It may not be the kind of ‘irreversible change’ that used to make up the old-style socialist rhetoric but any future tory-dominated rainbow coalition with a mind to cut back on spending would find the task of dismantling what goes into effect today a hard if not potentially suicidal prospect.

Update: Far more potential for savings among the quangos. (Thanks to NS for the link).