Should Wales have the power?

The likelihood of someone gleefully pointing out the dilemma facing Plaid as their leader takes a proactive stance over plans for Wylfa B in apparent defiance of his own party’s policies was as inevitable as the direction taken by Rhodri’s one-legged ducks.

But earlier this month, it was Mike German who was flagging up inconsistencies within WAG’s Energy Policy Statement – a document which seemingly endorses the ‘non-carbon’ nature of nuclear fuel as an energy source. His concerns at a lack of clarity are shared by others who are just as bemused by the willingness of One Wales Government ministers to assume the posture of honest brokers over nuclear strategy whilst adopting the fall-back position that any plant construction would ultimately need UK government approval plus the backing of its newly created planning quango.

Notwithstanding that this approach is neither credible or sustainable, those outside the bubble can be forgiven for concluding that whilst the expedencies of coalition politics can override policy considerations then it is doubtful that a Welsh Assembly would have the confidence, let alone the maturity, to actually make a decision even if it had the power to do so.

More questions over child death reports

We’re told that there are a few worried faces among Swansea Council spinners today. Their grim demeanour might have something to do with questions posed by the local press (and a few councillors) about recent serious case reviews into the unrelated deaths of three children and the possibility that key reports were altered at the request of social services to paint a less critical picture of events.

We understand that enquiries also include the circumstances under which a former head of childrens services was allowed to take early retirement following the death of Aaron Gilbert – a tragedy for which a single social worker was disciplined and then re-instated.

The egg man goeth

The word within Swansea Council is that their top legal eagle will fly the nest at close of business today. No specific reasons have been given for his sudden and unheralded flight - beyond mumblings about further headcount reductions. Speculation is plentiful as a result.

A distinctive figure around Calamity Hall and well regarded among the political administration, he has nevertheless become something of a hate figure for the 32 opposition councillors who reckon that it was his hand which prompted a recent Ombudsman investigation. There is no suggestion however that this is related to his exit.

Further updates on this and other related items can be expected.

More colouring-in fun for the weekend

The Guardian's creative director dislikes Labour's new poster which accompanies this weekend's launch of their pre-election pledges. Mark Porter describes the cornfield background and subtle messaging as "another example of the lack of boldness and originality in political communications".

We beg to differ. In fact, we think it has terrific potential. Now, where's that airbrush?

Update: First attempt.

Something smells

Swansea’s local paper reports that 62 year old ex-policeman Mike Green is to stand as BNP candidate against Neath MP Peter Hain when the general election is finally called. 

Green, who is described on the BNP’s website as “a former CID officer with the South Wales Police” is West Wales deputy organiser and was involved in running the now defunct West Wales Patriot blog. He still edits the White Police Association website – although it last posted on July 2009. (We suggest you cache the contents before it gets taken down as well).

A public speaker with a unique platform style, Green claims to be able to smell out crime. So it would be instructive to learn what he's sniffed out about allegations that fellow his fellow West Wales BNP activist Roger Phillips was recently arrested by Avon and Somerset police for issuing threats to kill.

Wales and Whitehall

Is it really such a big deal that Whitehall civil servants only have a passing understanding of devolution? The Welsh Affairs Select Committee apparently think so and cite the lengthy passage of LCO’s through the legislative millstones as examples – strangely omitting to mention that some of Westminster’s own bills fare little better in the same process.

Wales and Whitehall runs to 242 pages and for those who place emphasis on statistics, it mentions “Barnett” 116 time and "fairness” only once. However, among the evidence and summaries there is an underlying suggestion that the purpose of the report is not simply to arrive at a conclusion which most people have known and managed to live with for a decade. If anything, it appears to be an acceptance by politicians whose offices overlook the Thames rather than the Taff that devolution in Wales is all but irreversible – and that it was those damned apparatchiks who have been slowing things down all along.

It is a welcome if slightly disingenuous admission and one which nicely paves the way for a post-election referendum. Even so, there are those who will regard the assertion by committee chair Hywel Francis (who has a doctorate in history) that devolution was the “biggest constitutional change for Wales since 1536” as probably being too much, too late.

Hit the road, Ieuan

Travels arrangements for Wales’ deputy first minister will need to be revised following news that Highland Airways, who operate a north-south airline service have gone into administration.

The airline was awarded a three-year contract to run the north-south Wales route from May 2007 and received £800,000 a year funding from the Assembly government. Political opponents have dived in to repeat their earlier scepticism about how flights could ever have been viable whilst inferring that it was all a coalition concession from Labour – if not a personal perk for the member for Ynys Mon.

Some Plaid AMs have been known to have been deeply uncomfortable with the stark contradiction presented by the under-used shuttle service (known by staff as ‘Ieuan-Air’) and party pronouncements on carbon footprint reduction priorities. Whether the news will put them and their coalition buddies into more or less of a spin remains to be seen.

Can human rights make it onto the election agenda

Although in danger of being shunted off the front pages by post-budget squabbles and political suspensions, the news which should be making an impact is that a parliamentary committee is questioning if the range of measures introduced since 2001 are still a valid and justifiable response to the threat of terrorism.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights has today published a 69 page report on counter–terrorism policy and human rights entitled: Bringing Human Rights Back In - no grey area there.

According to the Beeb, the committee questions whether ministers could legitimately argue, nine years on, that a "public emergency threatening the life of the nation" remained.

What the committee also have to say is that they are unconvinced by government denials of complicity in rendition and torture of suspects. They state:

"We are concerned about the Government’s narrow definition of what amounts to complicity in torture. The Government’s formulation appears to be carefully designed to enable it to say that, although it knew or should have known that some intelligence it received was or might have been obtained through torture, this did not amount to complicity in torture because it did not know or believe that such receipt would encourage the use of torture by other States.

This is a significant and worrying change in definition. We also argue that, in light of recent developments such as the publication of the full High Court judgement in the Binyam Mohamed case, the case for setting up an independent inquiry into the allegations of complicity in torture is now irresistible."

But will this become an election issue? What are the chances that human rights - or its decline in the UK - will be raised during the much-heralded leadership debates? The questions are entirely rhetorical, of course.

Campaigner claims BNP man arrested for death threats

Picking up on earlier post by Welsh Ramblings, we've also been sort of keeping a watching brief on any developments following police investigations into BNP West Wales organiser Roger Phillips for issuing threats to kill against an anti-fascist campaigner.

Mark Watson, who handed Avon and Somerset police a copy of a recorded call from Phillips in which he allegedly made a series of threats, has recently published a YouTube video claiming that the 42 year-old 'businessman' has since been arrested and released on bail. No corroboration is available as yet but perhaps the sieg-heiling slap-heads who have been sending in their semi-coherent comments to this blog in recent weeks might care to confirm the story.

Pulped fiction

There something slightly accident-prone about the Ogmore constituency for Plaid candidates. Their former PPC, Sian Caiach, was de-selected after a clash with party chairman John Dixon who claimed she was leaking to the press on internal matters. Now new hopeful Danny Clark has been forced to tear up 1500 leaflets which, among other things, wrongly claim that policing is to be cut in a particular village when the opposite is planned.

It’s all grist to the mill for smirky Huw Irranca-Davies, who is alleged to have highlighted the errors. The Labour MP known for his wikipedia interventions, has so far managed to keep his own counsel on the One-Wales agreements. He is however said to be just itching to give Plaid a working over under parliamentary cover. Given the embarrassment among Party of Wales officials over the leaflet, we can anticipate that it will be reciprocated.

One of them

It’s a charming delusion on the part of Commissioner Black, whilst decrying the emoluments available to the Cardiff Cracach, that he somehow thinks he is not identified in many circles as being one of them himself. Or don’t second homes count?

Swansea stays in special measures

It was not quite the optimistic event that had been planned, which might have explained the poor attendance, but it was hardly the disaster that it could have been. All in all, Swansea Council spinners could give each a brief nod of accomplishment as the CSSIW team gave their feedback whilst a subdued administration and opposition waited patiently so that they could claim association with any good bits - or 'green shoots' as the deputy minister mentioned in her statement.

Neverthess, although the intervention group parachuted in last year to support failing childrens services reported some progress, it was nothing on a scale that could justify a lifting of special measures. As a result, they will remain at Swansea. Only two areas out of fourteen showed significant improvement but that did not prevent an attempt at a bit of feeble back-slapping by house-trained councillors who actually seem to think that they are achieving something.

Earlier, deputy minister Gwenda Thomas stated she had been advised that the department continued to be “inconsistent” and needed further improvement. She added that a “reality check” would be made in September. It would probably be a good idea for governance and scrutiny roles within the council to undergo a similar kind of examination – given that those involved apparently remained in total ignorance for so long about the circumstances behind three unrelated child deaths.

Things can only get better

Swansea Council receives a presentation this afternoon from the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales. They are reporting on their findings from assessments made earlier this year. Whether the details covered by recent Serious Case Reviews have ever actually been taken into account during CSSIW checks has not been clarified. Swansea's childrens services were put under special measures by WAG ministers this time last year following a succession of poor results.
Current betting is that the local authority will be issuing a statement claiming significant improvements regardless of what is in the report.

Is there really a Byers market?

For a number of observers, the suspension of ex-ministers Stephen Byers, Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt appears to be the only bit of clarity in a sleaze-fest that is otherwise short on consensus among political correspondents.

Last night, Sky News pundits were adamant that the three would-be lobbyists would receive no more than a kicking. One tabloid was questioning why a shrewd sod like Byers would be venal and stupid enough to agree to meeting – leading most readers to conclude that the paper had answered its own query.

Others, no doubt aggrieved at not getting a sniff of the impending scoop, wondered why the Sunday Times and Channel 4 had targeted the individuals involved. Would ex-Labour ministers really be more likely to influence a minority Conservative government than one of the number of tory MPs who were standing down, they pondered?

Some even suggested an element of internecine payback for Hoon and Hewitt’s demands for a secret leadership ballot back in January, although it seems excessive even by Labour standards.

Whatever the motivation, and it may simply be that it is a good story with topical overtones, the expose has knocked Brown’ comeback chances significantly and might even make the accession of Miss De Peiro slightly less than a sure thing.

Update: Nick Robinson has his own views.

Oh Lord, won't you buy me ...

Courtesy of Bo Beau D'Or - a talent that defies classification

Still in the thick of it

In case you haven't been keeping up with pre-election events, we suggest you read Malcolm Tucker's briefing in yesterday's Guardian to fill in any gaps. Just make sure that you're not eating or drinking at the time as the possibility of a soaked/splattered keyboard is a very real one.

Just a question of emphasis?

Having put considerable effort into maintaining a low media profile for today’s publication of three serious case reviews, Swansea Council spinners must be dismayed that Birmingham City Council chose the same day to announce the sacking of six social workers for not doing their jobs properly and showing "no sign whatsoever" of adhering to expected standards.

Meanwhile, there is a growing awareness and disquiet among Swansea councillors about significant  differences in emphasis between the internal briefing they were given last night and some details which appear in the subsequently published case reviews into the unrelated deaths of three youngsters who had all been identified as vulnerable.

A lengthy press release issued by the Board carries an apology from Social Services director Chris Maggs on behalf of the agencies involved along with assurances that lessons have been learned and that all recommendations have been accepted if not implemented.

One case review states it found that

...over several years, the social work staff in Swansea Social Services Department and their immediate managers failed to apply the law, appropriate procedures or any elementary standards of professional practice in carrying out their duties and responsibilities. The failings extended to poor administration and to meeting basic recording requirements.

The official press release makes no mention of disciplinary action.

Links

Swansea Safeguarding Children Board - Serious Case Reviews

Swansea Council - Internal Briefing

Did the peers crumble under pressure?

Hopes among Conservative election strategists that events would transpire to allow a tactical shift away from the dodgy ground of political donations, tax-havens & non-dom status took a knock yesterday. Leaked cabinet papers and other revelations which emerged before and during a slightly stage-managed session of the Commons Public Administration Committee have ensured that the Ashcroft Chronicles will now run to several volumes.

Today’s papers discuss the fallout and the Guardian reflects on William Hague’s vulnerability for being too closely associated with the man from Belize who might have said yes but apparently meant something else.

The Times focuses on the role of James Arbuthnot, chief whip under former tory leader Hague, and how circumstances might have allowed a 'misunderstanding to arise' over the final agreement – following what  is later described as a four-month campaign to enable the peer to avoid millions of pounds in UK tax.

The Independent recounts statements over how the vetting committee which approved Ashcroft’s entrance to the Lords was misled about his non-dom tax status.

But it takes the Telegraph to finally re-establish a sense of perspective by balancing claims by their Lordships at having the woolsack pulled over their eyes with a story on how the union Unite secured £18m from taxpayers in ‘a money-laundering’ deal with Labour’. So there!

Councillors get the official line

Following on from this morning’s post, we understand that Swansea Council officials are presently giving their side of the story to councillors - behind closed doors. Suggestions that the local authority has sought to downplay reaction by publishing all three serious case reviews on the same date have been denied – despite allegations that some draft reports have been available for nearly a year.

Councillors have been told that the three young people, identified only by initials, all had a history of substance abuse and that the circumstances of their deaths had warranted a serious case review by an independent person.

It is understood that the details of all three cases will be published to councillors early tomorrow morning and that the press will get their copies at midday. A statement from deputy minister Gwenda Thomas is also to be published.

Suspicions have already been voiced among some political groups that the reports which detail extensive departmental failings were deliberately delayed to allow senior staff to either resign or take early retirement.

It is not yet clear if there will be calls for a full independent public enquiry into what are described as ‘corporate-level concerns’. However, it is understood that one councillor is preparing a Freedom of Information request that will demand copies of correspondence within the authority and to external agencies on how the reports were commissioned and the arrangements for publication.

Fairness for all - except the innocent

Stuart White writes on Liberal Conspiracy what many Labour supporters & voters are probably saying among themselves, i.e. that the party of the left is getting it just as wrong on civil liberties as it did over Iraq.

The imposition of ID cards, biometric passports and body scanners is something that ministers can just about argue in their constituencies as a necessity in the face of terrorism. But the retention of DNA samples taken from people who have been arrested, although never charged with any offence or convicted, is a stance which already sits very uncomfortably with the “fairness for all” message that activists are supposed to deliver through letter boxes in coming months.

How then will they feel about reported plans by Alan Johnson to transform the UK government’s unwillingness to comply with a European Court of Human Rights judgement into a campaign message that “Tories are soft on crime” – because they also question the legality.

The Guardian reports that:
Ministers intend to reject a Tory compromise that DNA profiles of innocent people be kept for only three years, and instead make it an election issue.

Home Office sources indicate that the government is "in no mind to weaken" its DNA provisions and argue that the Conservative compromise will involve the police having to go repeatedly to the courts if they want to keep a DNA profile beyond three years.

Labour has already produced a campaign video which effectively accuses the Tories of being "the burglar's friend" for voting against the changes to the DNA retention regime.

It adds:
The government's crime and security bill, which includes the controversial DNA retention regime, has already passed through the Commons and is scheduled to have its second reading in the Lords on 29 March. Peers killed off an earlier attempt by the government to keep innocent DNA for up to 12 years and it is expected the six-year proposal will face renewed opposition.

Getting the retaliation in first

Swansea councillors get briefed today on the contents of serious case reviews which report on findings of enquiries into events that led to the separate deaths of three youngsters whilst in the care of the city’s social services department.

It is believed that only verbal briefings will be given - and by the department's director. Copies of the reports produced by the Swansea Safeguarding Children’s Board will not be published until Friday. But there is already some confusion among political groups as claims fly about that some councillors have already received advance copies.

As expected, events have prompted an official re-think to the effect that a press conference is now unavoidable but actual details will not be available until later. One suggestion for the delay is that agencies are reluctant to turn up and get pilloried by the media when social services are so clearly in the frame.

No doubt we will hear more as the day progresses.

More posters

Thanks to a contributor for sending a link to the Guardian's guide to political posters - which includes this one.

Mind the gap

It will be interesting to see if campaigning parties in Swansea West constituency take up this offer from Unity at Liberal Conspiracy to apply a Graph-Fix service to what he describes as “y-axis” abuse on election materials. The view in the Lib Dem camp is that tory contender Rene Kinzett will be unlikely to challenge anything as he has hardly been seen out of the stump this year. They also claim that local Conservatives have all but conceded that the seat is not winnable given the handicap of a part-time candidate and the majority of their resources diverted into the fight to win neighbouring Gower.

Then again, as we've mentioned before, the result from 2005 was achieved when the Lib Dem candidate was Rene Kinzett - who also held the role of spokesman for a hotch-potch political administration at County Hall which was still being given the benefit of the doubt. How times and circumstances have changed.

Questions continue over social services reports

We hear that some Swansea councillors have been asking uncomfortable questions in advance of the serious case reviews due to be published on Friday. Among these is a request for details about senior staff who have been allowed to resign or take early retirement from the social services child protection section during the periods covered by the three highly critical reports.

What appears to be driving these enquiries is an allegation, as yet unsubstantiated, that ex-staff & managers ignored their legal responsibilities in one or all of the three cases and that professional misconduct charges should follow.

Update: Looks like earlier hopes by council spinners at down-playing have been dashed by events in Wrexham. Nothing worse than a media trend when you're trying to keep a lid on things.

Are they serious?

Why do you get the feeling that the people behind the Conservative poster campaign are either having creative problems or just going out of their way to make sure their efforts get dissed?

If ever a poster lent itself to a counter theme depicting non-dom, tax-avoiding, tory paymaster Michael C-Ashcroft  then surely this is the one.



Update: First attempt - click on Cameron Poster just below the title box.

Figures show tories 17 points ahead

These figures just reported. But before anyone gets too excited (or despondent), the background is that some clever-clogs has taken the list of MPs expenses payments, as calculated by Sir Thomas Legg, and worked out the average repayment per party. The percentages are based on those figures against the total amounts considered to be owed before any appeal, successful or otherwise.

If you're interested, the average repayments per (over-claiming) MP for each party are:

Conservative £4,831.09

Labour £2,749.58

Lib Dem £2,649.59

Others £2,288.34

It probably all makes sense to someone.

Welsh BNP organiser sends threats to peer

We’ve recently been getting various comments from sehr kleinen Führer Edwards and some other anonymous pro-BNP bums. They seem to have mistaken this blog for a newspaper website where they can post their fascist crap at will – a belief which suggests that they’re either on drugs or that they should be.

Meanwhile, we see that West Wales BNP organiser, Roger Phillips spent part of last weekend making some ugly threats on Facebook against Labour peer Baroness Uddin - who recently escaped action over her expenses. No similar threats, as far as we know, were made against the four (white) parliamentarians who are facing charges.

Doing the business

The local council may be cutting services and putting up the shutters - when its not screwing traders - but at least Swansea’s business community showing some vision and attracting investment into the city.

Virgin Atlantic airline is creating more than 200 jobs over the next two years with the opening of a customer service centre in recently upgraded premises. Meanwhile, Swansea Drydocks aims to create a further 85 jobs through  maintenance and breaking-up contracts.

Just along Fabian Way, opposite the former Ford plant, Swansea University is currently seeking planning approval for its Bay Science and Innovation Campus which should further transform the eastern approaches to the city through a £500m development.

No doubt a statement will be issued by the Bladder-in-Chief at Calamity Hall ‘welcoming’ these announcements and hinting at some kind of personal involvement. But the call centre is a deal agreed with the assistance of the Assembly government and a local property owner whilst the docks scheme is a private sector project.

As for the university campus expansion, this is actually sited in Neath Port Talbot where the planning process is widely recognised by developers as best-in-class compared to it’s big city counterpart.

Says it all, really.

Questions mount up over Swansea's social services

We understand that a question sent in to yesterday's Swansea Sound phone-in asked studio guest Chris Holley whether Swansea Council would be issuing an apology for the deaths of three children who died whilst in the care of the local authority. The official reports on the actual circumstances of each case will be published this coming Friday as a batch job - an action that has caused considerable concerns among social care professionals elsewhere in Wales.

As expected, the Lib Dem leader side-stepped the awkward issue and came up with something inane about any comment being 'premature' at this stage - which is more than a bit ironic since one of the serious case reviews involved has reportedly been available since 2007.

A further query posed was whether he felt it was appropriate for the Swansea Safeguarding Childen Board, which will publish reports & recommendations arising out of the three deaths, to be chaired by the city's own director of social services. The reason for the question is because teh second job requires him to objectively put together an explanation for what is understood to be a catalogue of departmental failings. He also has to come to a conclusion over who was at fault and  if there are now sufficient proven controls & enough trained staff in place to prevent a repetition of these tragedies. This potential conflict in roles was greeted by the same mumbled evasions from Holley - and not pursued by the show's ever-amenable host.

But the main unanswered question for many is just how much leading political post-holders (past and present) knew about these horrific cases and if they have been in any way party to shabby arrangements that have introduced delays in the publication of hugely critical reports until just a few days before Assembly inspectors are scheduled to give their feedback on improvements.

BNP need a map

Starved of real election cash until their shady paymaster releases funds, the BNP are reduced to hijacking threads on the EP website. A recent instance was an attempt by the fascist nurk standing as PPC in Aberavon who claimed that school closures in Swansea are a result of money diverted from existing budgets to cater for an influx of immigrants. Cheered on by his fellow slap-heads, he quoted ‘official’ statistics from Newham and Bradford and elsewhere in England.

Then someone posted a thread pointing out that education funding in Wales is controlled by the Assembly Government and asking why the BNP didn’t seem to understand this pretty basic fact. No answer, so far.

The science behind the slogans

Press pick up on social services deaths

Continuing on from yesterday’s post, we see that today’s Western Mail carries further information on the long-overdue reports into the deaths of three youngsters whilst under the care of Swansea social services. These are scheduled to be published next Friday (19^th March).

As the paper points out, the local authority already holds the dubious accolade of being the first in Wales to have a children’s services department placed under special measures by the Assembly Government– known officially as “serious concerns protocol”.

The Evening Post mentions that deputy minister Gwenda Thomas is expected to announce the results of a recent CSSIW inspection of the department on Tuesday, March 23 which the authority has been hinting shows improvements. But the cynicism of the timing and the highly critical nature of the three case reviews is likely to overshadow any plus points the Lib Dem-controlled council were thinking of claiming.

Surprisingly, neither paper has a comment to make on the highly questionable decision to lump the three review reports together nor is there speculation on the reasons behind the delay. However, the EP does manage to highlight the fact that the Swansea Safeguarding Children Board, who have the responsibility for publishing the reports, happens to be chaired by the person responsible for managing the city’s social services department.

The biggest discordant note comes from council leader Chris Holley who only manages to comment that "We are anxious to see what learning points there are from these reviews". The inference being that he has no inking about the contents, including one which details how a youth was allowed to virtually drop out of the care system and was not picked up again by the department despite a series of urgent referrals from a range of agencies.

As mentioned when news first began to leak, the probability of him and senior colleagues not even being briefed by officials on the damaging nature of the reports is a remote one to say the least. But if it does turn out to be true that such key information was deliberately withheld from the political head of the authority then comments by readers of this blog calling for an full independent public enquiry are clearly warranted.

Fallout

We hear that the rats have been scuttling around Calamity Hall since our recent post on how Swansea Council plans to perform a bulk-briefing on three separate serious case reviews each involving a child death. The impression is one of hatches getting battened down and a distancing within senior ranks from anyone remotely likely to get fingered in the reports that the Swansea Safeguarding Children Board will issue next week.

As far as we can gather, no press conference and no apologies are planned – although this may change as media interest begins to stir.

Absenteeism

The likes of Ioan Richard who were loudly questioning not so long how London-based tory Rene Kinzett could possibly be an effective councillor for Mayals ward have kept it quiet that their Swansea Administration colleague Alan Jopling, who represents Gorseinon, now lives and work in Nantwich in Cheshire for three days a week.

Jopling, who has had some hard luck of late, chalked up a pretty poor attendance record at Swansea Council since getting elected in 2008 and has now been kicked off the local community council for failing to turn up to the last six meetings.

Wales on Sunday settles with BNP over copyright

The wacky world of political reporting in Wales has taken a jaw-dropping turn into the surreal with the news that Wales on Sunday has reached an out-of-court settlement with the BNP over a copyright infringement (of all things). Holdthefrontpage.com an on-line publication which covers events in the newspaper industry, provides the details - many thanks to the contributor who sent the link.

11th March 2010
Regional publisher pays BNP over copyright breach
A regional newspaper has paid the British National Party £259.99 in an out-of-court settlement after an infringement of copyright.


A story which appeared in Wales on Sunday last November included a photograph of the party's West Wales deputy organiser Roger Phillips.


The BNP said the picture, which was taken by a party official, was used without permission by the Trinity Mirror weekly from Mr Phillips' page on a social networking website.


The far-right group claims the money is now being used to help fund the campaign of its candidate in the Neath constituency against Welsh Secretary and veteran anti-racism campaigner Peter Hain in the upcoming general election.


The original story claimed that Mr Phillips' company Patriot Products had been forced to stop the sale 'Golly' badges with football scarves following threats from Premiership football clubs.


A media spokesman for the BNP told HTFP: "The article used a photograph taken by BNP official Clive Bennett from Swansea which was lifted without authorisation from Mr Phillips' personal Facebook account.


"After correspondence between the editor of the Wales on Sunday, Tim Gordon, and Mr Phillips, the paper decided to settle out of court and agreed to pay the amount of £259.99 as compensation.


"Mr Phillips has now used this money to partly fund a BNP candidate in the Neath seat against Peter Hain.


A Trinity Mirror spokesman said the company would not be making any comment on the story.

What the article doesn't unfortunately doesn't mention is that Phillips fled his Ammanford address after the original Golly badges story was first published and was alleged to be hiding out in a caravan somewhere in deepest Kidwelly. Photos and comment from the shy fascist were therefore hard to come by. But it just goes to show that its not just Max Mosely who can successfully screw the press after doing Nazi impressions.

Subterfuge@Swansea

Swansea Council’s spin-corps have been drip-feeding the local media with assurances on how things are steadily improving in its childrens services. These claims may well be correct, but the dreadful extent to which the service was allowed to descend into almost total disarray will become clear next week – more or less.

Word in the corridors at Calamity Hall is that the local authority is finally going to publish a series of serious case reviews conducted by the Swansea Safeguarding Children Board over the last three years. Each deals with the deaths of three different youngsters who were in the care of childrens services at the time. The reviews give an account of events leading up to the deaths and identify a series of systemic departmental failings.

Among them will be a summary report of the circumstances under which Carly Townsend died at the hands of her family just hours after she was visited by a social worker. The report has been waiting publication since 2007 and it is alleged that the other reviews were available early last year.

According to social care professionals outside the city, the verdict in each review is that departmental failings contributed to the death of the youngsters. One document is understood to highlight a total lack of procedures and details serious shortcomings by staff & management who repeatedly ignored referrals by other agencies regarding vulnerable youngsters.

The same sources believe that senior council figures at Swansea have deliberately engineered the delays as part of a damage limitation exercise. The corporate philosophy appears to be that a ‘single hit’ is more manageable from a PR perspective than a prolonged succession of damaging findings & recommendations along with all those tiresome questions about why no-one in a senior position has been sacked or even disciplined.

But the key part of this breathtakingly cynical strategy is the timing which is intended to ensure that any recriminations arising from the serious case reviews will be short-lived and quickly overtaken by positive news from the government team who have been camping out in social services ever since the department found itself placed in special measures. They are expected to make their report just a week later.

Slick timing also reportedly plays a large part in the process of bullshitting briefing backbench councillors who will get the official version at 5pm on Thursday giving them the whole evening to digest three reports before the contents go public sometime on Friday - and leaving the weekend to lessen the media impact even further. 

The briefing will not come from the reports’ authors but will be given by a senior social services official who was not actually running things during the relevant period. (The person responsible at the time has since been allowed to take early retirement - nod, wink and so forth).

And if things follow the usual pattern, the press will be offered edited highlights by the council spinners instead of the full reports which will be posted on some obscure part of the council website. It remains to be seen if they get away with it but we hear whispers that other plans to shine the shit spotlight a bit wider had to be aborted when other agencies, most notably the police, refused to play ball over blame-sharing this time around.

Strangely, the political fallout from these further revelations of poor standards and mismanagement is difficult to predict. The ruling Lib Dem and Independent coalition has simply refused to accept responsibility for allowing Swansea’s childrens services to spiral from best-in-class to basket-case in just a few years and there is not much that anyone can do about it.

If anything, the fact that these serious case reviews into fatalities were actually in progress whilst cross-party scrutiny groups were busy stroking each other over how well they had embraced their corporate commitments is as much an indictment of their inability to uncover the real state of affairs as it of those who have sought to conceal delay the truth.

As regards the shabby attempts at media-management, anyone who has an inkling of how local government works will know that it is inconceivable that these arrangements could have been made without the knowledge - if not the outright connivance - of cabinet level members within the ruling Liberal Democrat-led coalition. This probably explains why council leader Chris Holley has asked to appear on a local Sunday phone-in show a week before the reports actually become public knowledge.

It will be interesting to see if he now gets the comparatively easy ride he had planned.

Who is watching?

The Western Mail has managed to put a potentially ravenous cat among some over-fed pigeons with its revelations of actual viewing figures at S4C. They make very worrying reading at a time when cutbacks and parsimony are becoming the popular political mantra.

Yet no-one is so far making the suggestion that a questionable value-for-money ratio and the dubious 'digital switchover' rationale offered up to explain a close to zero level of viewers should be the subject of slightly more rigorous scrutiny. Strange also that Shipton could not find anyone more relevant than Rod Richards to comment and that even the source of the leak apparently seems reluctant to add anything further.

Anyway, the paper helpfully points out that the Welsh language channel is funded through an index-linked grant of more than £100m a year from the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport and not the Welsh Assembly Government. However, as in other things, with transfer of powers will inevitably come a transfer of responsibilities.

Omission

Err ... no, you didn't.

Bad for business

Swansea Council likes to portray itself as a business-friendly sort of outfit where support is available to multi-million pound companies and single-traders alike. But that became something of a fallacy last night when an item on ITV Wales’s The Ferret exposed how a Swansea businessman had been screwed out of a ground lease and stood to lose everything, including his pension as a result.

The short version is that after making repeated requests over 2 years for a ground lease renewal on his Enterprise Park premises, the poor chap was informed that the lease would not be renewed and that the local authority would be seizing the building he had repaired and extended at his expense. They did however offer to lease the building back to him at an extortionate price. He was apparently informed that the move – which is clearly aimed at raising more revenue - was all to do with a 'change of policy'. How and when the policy was changed and who made this backward and counter-productive decision is not at all clear (a situation all too familiar at Calamity Hall where transparency is as common as fairy-shit).

The actions of the council, as described in the programme, although incredibly short-sighted, are not in themselves illegal. But the fact that they were apparently sanctioned is a clear signal that the controlling Lib Dem administration is not content with just screwing the city centre but intends doing a slash and burn on outlying commercial areas as well.

Solidarity?

It’s difficult not to be just a wee bit cynical over the refusal by Plaid & Labour AMs to cross picket lines outside the Sennedd building, thus resulting in cancellation of today’s plenary session. The move is not entirely unexpected given some of the informal union links at work – plus a barnstorming performance by PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka at Plaid’s recent conference.

But such gestures are by their nature very cheap – and merely give AMs a day off. Surely a more striking symbol of solidarity would be for them to each donate a day’s salary to a hardship fund for poorly-paid striking public sector workers.

Deprived of the oxygen of publicity

From the number of posts appearing on Freedom Central as well as his own blog, you can't help but detect that the prolific Peter Black feels just a little sidelined - thanks to all the media attention lavished of late upon the more ..err.. electable parties.

Unable to espouse anything resembling a policy these days, which doesn't subsequently either get diluted by Cleggie or overshadowed by tired & emotional colleagues who allegedly go around thumping paramedics, the Lib Dem spokesman on health, housing and anything in between is reduced to attention seeking via a spot of nationalist-baiting.

We feel sure however that this state of deprivation is a temporary phenomenon and publicity assigned by the Welsh media for the smallest largest group in the Assembly will be restored to their disproportionate levels.

Another poster

Payback can be a bitch

For all the claims by conspiracy theorists that anti-bullying expert Christine Pratt is a nowt more than a failed tory smear-stalker, such assertions do appear to be odds with the enthusiasm to which the Daily Telegraph tends to question her professional abilities – with something of a similar vein planned for tomorrow, we hear.

Then again, has anyone checked a possible link between the newspaper proprietors and a certain aerospace company?

Who can you trust?

Peter Black talks a good fight on devolution and trust over at WalesHome and it would be all the more credible if he was:

(a) ever likely to be in a position of influence so as to actually deliver the changes he describes
and
(b) practised some of the accountability he espouses from time to time in his own back yard.

Since attaining power, the Lib Dem controlled regime at Swansea has evaded accountability to the extent that near enough 25% of the executive decisions are taken behind closed doors. When this endemic secrecy has recently challenged, the reaction by the council leadership was been to report 32 opposition members to the Ombudsman for their impertinence.

For someone who describes himself as an instinctive democrat and who usually has no problems in expressing an opinion, he is strangely silent on this heavy-handed approach which is so clearly at odds with Liberal thinking.

Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 was something of an unwelcome milestone for the hitherto unexposed institutions of government, as illustrated in the excellent and recently broadcast ‘On Expenses’ on BBC4.

Making an Freedom of Information request is a reasonably simple process and there are guidelines to assist the citizen in how to formulate questions regarding the activities & expenditure of an extensive list of ‘public authorities’ as defined by the legislation. Well used by journalists to uncover the missing bits in official responses to earlier enquiries it is regarded as an imperfect but immeasurably better approach to what existed before its introduction.  

But now here’s a thing; public body networks are apparently reporting a near-enough threefold increase in FoI requests over the last eighteen months aimed at local authorities, ASPBs and health bodies in Wales. Oddly, this spike is not attributable to press or public interest but a growth in statutory enquiries from ‘political sources’ – an euphemism believed to be linked to the number of political research staff employed at Cardiff Bay and where recent job adverts have been placed to employ more.

The inference is that political researchers, employed at public expense by politicians who themselves receive salaries & allowances from the public purse, are placing increasing numbers of FoI requests on a range of matters with public bodies who are legally obliged to respond using a formal and time-consuming process. Their answers are then turned into press releases by other political staff and which inevitably include some call by the AM for a reduction in public sector bureaucracy.

Politicians understandably will always wish to be seen as championing moves to end wasteful practices in the public sector. But when an institutionalised system of scrutiny using written and verbal questioning to bring ministers to account is regularly bypassed for what appears to be solely party-political reasons then this is arguably wasteful to the extent of bordering on being an abuse of public office.

Under the circumstances however, you will understand if we hesitate in making a suggestion that serious questions should be asked.

Widening the gap

Reported fears expressed by Islwyn Labour activists at the bar in a previous post over how the Don's replacement would be selected  seem to be coming true, according to Betsan Powys. Just goes to show that percentage points don't count for much when local factors also have to overcome - especially the self-inflicted ones.