Gutless

The shiftiness of Vince Cable as to whether he will (or wont) be voting in favour of a hike in tuition fees seems to be catching. Now Lib Dem Cardiff Central MP, Jenny Willott is telling the Beeb she never, ever, at any time told a journalist that she would be voting against the ConDem measure.

Neither of them seemed to have any doubts before the election. Both put out election leaflets opposing any increase and both signed pledges to that effect. Thankfully, a cringingly patronising Lib Dem president Tim Farron was able to explain to BBC viewers this morning it was all the electorate’s fault. His logic was that the issue could have been academic, figuratively speaking, if only the country had been enlightened enough to give his party an overall majority when it had the chance.

In the middle of such gutless equivocation, it takes Peter Black to state that his view remains unchanged and that “the pledge given by individual Liberal Democrat MPs not to support an increase in fees means that they should oppose these measures.”

He added that he was pleased to hear how his Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader, Kirsty Williams, had made it clear that if she were an MP then she would vote against. We’ve since received a note from a contributor who contends that if Kirsty was a badger then she would probably also be against a proposed cull. Point taken.

Grey areas

Back in June, we reported on a planned shake-up of Safeguarding Children Boards in England and echoed those who wondered if Wales would ever get around to following suit.

Today, the Assembly’s Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee published its own report into Local Safeguarding Children Boards in Wales and among the 20 recommendations is that the Welsh Government issues guidance to “clarify the specific focus of LSCBs and their role in holding other partnerships to account”. It also says that ministers should address “differing safeguarding thresholds” held by agencies throughout 22 local authority areas.

As we highlighted some time ago, the current system allowed the Swansea LSCB to delay publication of a serious case review into the death of a youngster by nearly three years. The final document was a heavily watered down version of critical findings and blurred an earlier assignment of blame. Questions were also raised about an apparent conflict of interest when it transpired that the chairman of the Swansea LSCB was also director of Swansea social services.

The investigating Assembly Committee, under the chairmanship of Darren Millar, says it has "uncovered grey areas". It is to be hoped that such euphemisms do not get in the way of root & branch reforms clearly needed to ensure a switch in emphasis towards real improvements rather than the culture of collective evasion that is presently allowed to exist among the “professionals”.

A hint of desperation

Yesterday, the bad news for Nick Clegg was that more than 100 Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidates have called on him to oppose government plans to raise tuition fees in England. We did not find Swansea West Lib Dem ‘parliamentary spokesperson’ Peter May to be among them.

Today brings further headaches for the Lib Dem leader as Labour attempt to force a vote in the House of Commons that could bring about the first rebellion of the coalition. As students stage their third and largest national demonstration against the plans, MPs will debate the ConDem government’s proposals to raise tuition fees to £9,000 a year.

Clegg has said he "massively regrets" that he cannot deliver on his election promise but has argued the proposals are fairer than the current system. He has spent recent days talking to his MPs individually to try to persuade them to abstain rather than vote against the rise in fees.

Reports state that he has written a desperate sounding appeal to the NUS which called on them to stop “distorting” the plans. He stated it was wrong to imply that graduates would be required to start paying pay fees immediately after leaving university. Apparently he expects students to believe him.

Meanwhile Labour & Plaid face their own credibility problems as WAG ministers prepare to announce if they are to emulate the kind of rises seen in England.  

Unimpressive and unlikely to improve

A harsh reminder came about this week of how impotent Assembly government ministers can quickly become in times of crisis, along with Welsh politicians generally, as rail electrification plans began to seriously unravel. Unhappily, the same official incapacity was also very apparent over the tortuous goings-on at S4C. In many respects, the whole Assembly apparatus is starting to resemble the Hadron collider in that it is very impressive & very expensive but very few actually understand what it is supposed to achieve.

The spectacle of Carwyn, IWJ and Alun Ffred doing their habitual hand-wringing was only slightly less distasteful than watching ConDem insurgents Peter Black & Alun Cairns perform their usual blame game number interspersed with non-specific calls for action. The Vale of Glamorgan MP was particularly incensed at events surrounding the Welsh-medium broadcaster and told a Dragon’s Eye interviewer of his outrage at the “appalling situation of finding ourselves in this .. err .. situation”. Hmm. Quite.

As it happens, it is something of an irrelevancy that devolved government will fail to address these issues - regardless of any additional powers.

It is a safe bet that Whitehall will come up with a cunning plan early next year to redefine the Swansea to Paddington service as “Cardiff to Paddington” and the pragmatic political bourgeois who inhabit Cardiff Bay will go along with it. Similarly, the lluvy establishment and their political wing will run for cover as further revelations emerge from Iona Jones’ employment tribunal, making BBC anschluss feel like a welcome relief.

It’s good to be back.

The little local difficulty persists

Although we’re grateful for the snippets sent in by various sides sources about recent goings-on at Gorseinon Town Council, we rather feel that the story has moved on - even if several of the respective participants patently haven’t.

Briefly, things erupted when the majority of town councillors felt they were being denied a chance to question mayor Victor Bruno over his actions in staging a civic binge whilst telling community groups they had to go without. A number of Bruno's colleagues also understandably feel he should have resigned following a vote of no confidence. He strenuously disagrees, stating that he had all the necessary authority, and is staying put. Successive council meetings during which the disaffected have tried to depose the local businessman have become farcical and tedium is now starting to set in.

It would be easy to utilise these events to challenge the old bromides about local (community) government being better off without party politics. But matters have gone beyond stating the obvious of how being 'independent' doesn't just mean freedom from a party whip but also from collective accountability.

As the Beans on Toast commented the other day, the most likely outcome of the debacle is a general public disillusionment that can only be harmful to local democracy. As far as we can see, the damaging impasse has entailed a collective effort and that getting rid of one person would be treating a symptom rather than the underlying cause.

Lib Dems celebrate Technium closures

It’s either been a good or bad week for gaffes depending on whether you’re looking for them or if you have the job of explaining them away.

Among the crop is “clarification” from IDS that he had unintentionally misled parliament by saying official statistics showed private rents fell by 5% last year, but housing benefit rates rose. Now officials admit they did not come from the Office of National Statistics but from the FindaProperty.com website.

Lord Young, the prime minister's enterprise adviser has apologised after saying in the Daily Telegraph that most Britons had "never had it so good" despite the "so-called recession". He crassly maintained that bank borrowing base rates at 0.5% meant that many homeowners were better off.

Voters however will need to decide for themselves if Lib Dem Jenny Randerson and Freedom Central have shown good judgement by publicly celebrating the closure of six out of ten Technium centres and the loss of many full-time equivalent posts throughout Wales.

At least former minister Andrew Davies is showing a little more remorse over how Wales’ vaunted leap into the “knowledge economy” has taken a bad stumble. Perhaps the Lib Dems, who shared office with Labour when Technium concept was first launched, should be doing the same.

Blowing bubbles

Politicians and their staffers get very irritated when someone accuses them of operating in a bubble. But they do little to dispel this widely-held perception when they show the kind of exultation that greeted news of how 2015 will not see clash of election dates between Westminster and Wales after all.

Lib Dems seek credit by association for the highly reasonable ministerial move whilst Plaid’s Jonathon Edwards makes the point that he was personally involved in wrenching this concession out of the ConDem coalition. His local AM Rhodri Glyn Thomas is sufficiently moved to describe it as “yet another fantastic victory for Jonathan”.

Pardon us for being unimpressed, but if the motivated self-interest which was plainly behind the eagerness to work out a mutually acceptable date on a calendar is a “victory” then there is a lot more wrong with Welsh politics that even Adam Price suggests – if only because Welsh politicians think that electors will actually believe such arrant bullshit.

Assuming the position

There are two things which are apparent from this slightly desperate letter from council leader Chris Holley. The first, based on previous evidence of his penmanship skills, is that it was written by someone else. The second is that things must be pretty bad if Swansea’s Lib Dems are assuming the old default position of dissing the city’s pre-2004 Labour administration.

Holley has been very effective in keeping a politically disparate bunch of deadbeats together by pandering to their self-interests. But this ‘success’ has patently been at the expense of the city’s progress. The result of assigning sinecures to cronies in order to keep things sweet is that the quality of political direction given to senior council management is at best mediocre. In some cases it has been an absolute disaster, e.g. social services.

When former cabinet member Wendy Fitzgerald claimed to have been kept in the dark over day-to-day departmental issues, few realised that she was actually telling the truth and that the person that Holley put into the role of running the council’s second largest department, within days of being first elected to public office, could not even read a budget statement.

The consequence of this asinine approach is that the city is verging on the brink of near-terminal decline in its services and has just as poor a record in delivering key investment projects. The Vetch field lays derelict five years after the Swans moved out. The only discernible political policy from a leadership that is clearly out of its depth is to sell off ‘costly’ services such as the Tennis Centre, the Dylan Thomas Centre and even adult social services.

As much as the Lib Dem leader is keen to downplay the legacy he received on taking office, he was able to preside over the opening of Liberty Stadium and the National Waterfront museum because the ground work had been done by his predecessors. By comparison, his own strategies for the city centre have yet to get off the drawing board. It is hardly an accolade for some someone who christened Swansea “the city artists’ of impressions” when he was opposition leader.

Here we go again

The Telegraph returns to the familiar ground of how recalcitrant MPs continue to screw the taxpayer. According to the paper, a number are letting out former second homes that have been renovated at public expense. New rules introduced in the wake of the expenses scandal were supposed to crack down on the ability of MPs gaining financially from property deals but things appear just as lucrative for those who know the system.

Ever since Commons watchdogs announced that they would block future claims for mortgage costs and claw back a proportion of the profits made on subsidised properties, honourable members have been making their move, so to speak. Some of the names involved should come as no surprise.

Doubtlessly all involved will say they have done nothing wrong and doubtlessly the rules will change again.

Market testing

The media have caught up with our disclosure last week of how Lib Dem-run Swansea Council is quietly planning to “outsource” adult social services contracts worth up to £100 million.

Confronted with questions by the local press and the Beeb, cabinet member Nick Tregoning claimed the authority is simply putting together a business case to operate social services as a “social enterprise”. He added that this was why the tendering notice was only in the public domain for a week. Cynics contend however that if this is true - as the the notice is still available on-line - then it was pulled only after an internal outcry from senior staff. They also point out that a section of the nine page report nodded through cabinet in October refers to “tender readiness and procurement” as part of the sell-off transfer process.

Interviewed live this morning, Tregoning told the BBC that he needed to make services more sustainable and introduce better decision-making within the department – an admission, some might say, that it has not been particularly good during his watch or his predecessor’s. That aside, his strident denials of privatisation-by-stealth sounded very hollow indeed.

Of course, Tregoning, whose day job is a researcher for AM Peter Black, could not even begin to introduce the idea of a sell-off without the backing of the Lib Dem council leadership and cannon-fodder colleagues. This in turn raises some questions about the consistency of “campaigners” who scream bloody blue murder over a lack of consultation on local NHS issues and yet nod like donkeys when it comes to parceling-off social services and the closure of respite homes.

Update: Sandwell rejects social enterprise says the headline. Hmmm.

Happiness

Ken Dodd for Chuckle Czar?

Given that we have a Westminster administration who think inclusiveness means government by website rather than plebiscite, it was probably to be expected that a “happiness index” to gauge Britain's national mood would be next on the agenda.

A national strategy to measure national well-being – at a time when £80 billion in public spending cuts are planned – is an inevitable consequence of having the Chuckle Brothers in charge.

Concessions - what concessions?

Two challenging contributions by Independent on Sunday columnists comment on the speed at which wrapping that binds the ConDem policy package has become undone in recent weeks.

Johann Harri examines the extent of Nick Clegg’s betrayal, accusing him of staging a bonfire of his principles whilst describing student anger in terms that evoke scenes from Les Miserables. Meanwhile, John Rentoul soberly observes how there, but for the grace of the electorate, go Labour - and that quite a few of their MPs are rather grateful for the fact. Somehow you can guess which article an embattled Peter Black is likely to favour.

Both however conclude that whatever form of consensual politics was supposed to have been on offer before May’s elections has turned out to be incredibly superficial within an amazingly short space of time. A further damning accusation is that there is precious little evidence of the moderation which the Lib Dems were supposed to imbue into coalition decision-making. Suddenly it's all about contracts.

Perhaps you can argue that student protest is an expected result under the circumstances since it provides a natural outlet against the existence of a right-of-centre government and a coping mechanism for Lib Dem duplicity. The marching sounds also have a nice sense of continuity as themes move from “Not in my name” to “Not on my doorstep” with an occasional “Clegg is a lying bastard” thrown in.

Lib Dems always sounded patently ridiculous when they claimed to have won meaningful concessions in the face of tory blood-lust. Now evidence is mounting that they hardly put up a fight.

Lib Dems were always going to ditch tuition fee pledges

Welsh Lib Dems hoping to kick over the traces must be in absolute despair at revelations in today’s Guardian that the party hierarchy planned to abandon tuition fees pledges before the election.

According to leaked documents, at the same time that Nick Clegg was telling students via YouTube how Lib Dems would “resist, vote against, campaign against” any lifting of a cap on tuition fees, party strategists working under negotiator Danny Alexander were actively seeking to dump any such commitment. The newspaper states that Alexander wrote on 16 March: "On tuition fees we should seek agreement on part-time students and leave the rest. We will have clear yellow water with the other [parties] on raising the tuition fee cap, so let us not cause ourselves more headaches."

Ironically, this timely exposure of Lib Dem duplicity comes from Conservative sources. Rob Wilson, MP for Reading East, has published a book, Five Days to Power, which includes interviews with 60 key figures involved in the coalition negotiations. The contents not only give the lie to Clegg’s accounts of how his party did a handstand over tuition fees but also flags up how Lib Dems made no attempt to uphold other election pledges such as seeking to introduce deficit reduction over a longer period.

The revelations are a further portrayal of a Lib Dem parliamentary group as two-faced opportunists with a crumbling moral mandate. The bad news is that it is Welsh Lib Dem candidates who will be first up in front of an electorate looking to get even.

Update: Rob Wilson twists the knife ever so helpfully in this Sky News interview.

For “social enterprise” read “sell-off”

Last month, the cabinet member for Social Services at Swansea Council presented a report seeking approval to develop a business case fro providing adult social care through the medium of a social enterprise.

Lib Dem Nick Tregoning described it as a “transformation agenda that will radically change the way we conduct our business”. Among his recommendations were proposals to set up a project board, continue stakeholder consultations and gather the necessary reports on HR, legal and financial implications. There was also a mention of ‘commissioning plans’ that needed to be finalised.

It all sounded very reasonable and quite an innovative approach that would ensure new models of care are planned and costed to take account of future demands. At least that's what the report said.

“No decisions have been made," Tregoning assured the local paper at the time. He added, “the proposal to cabinet is to develop a business case to explore whether a social enterprise is a sustainable way to deliver adult social care services in Swansea in the future.

So perhaps he and his Lib Dem buddies can explain this outsourcing notice for the “complete delivery of adult social care services within the City and County of Swansea”.

The notice, which gives a contract start date of April 2012, helpfully adds “this is a full outsource of all adult social care provision, estimated 20,000,000 GBP per annum.”

(We're grateful to the anonymous insider who provided this info).

Uncommitted

We have received one or two e-mails claiming that the Assembly tory candidate for Gower, Anthony Ridge-Newman, has indeed stepped down by mutual consent. No official statement is forthcoming so far however and there appears to be very little media interest over the possibility.

All we can tell you for certain is that his website no longer describes him as being “committed to representing Gower”.

Daring to be different

After events at Millbank and the declared threat of the National Union of Students to “decapitate” the Lib Dems, some of us are wondering how much next May’s Assembly elections are likely to be more entwined with wider UK issues than on previous occasions - regardless of referendum results. As much as additional powers will set the Senedd on a different course to Westminster, we can all assume that it will remain a roughly parallel one. That leaves the big issues and most of them are bad news for the ConDem coalition partners this side of Offa’s Dyke.

The NUS spleen directed at Clegg and his party for abandoning their pledges over tuition fees must be unsettling for Welsh Lib Dems. Ceredigion MP Mark Williams says he will be voting against an increase but it is not him who has to face the voters in six months time.

Labour clearly believes it can indulge in the luxury of having no actual policy over tuition fees and still do the finger-wagging at ministers over their excessive zeal in cutting public spending. This is clearly not sustainable in the medium term but for the moment they feel they can counter accusations over mishandling of NHS or economic myopia with equally pointed comments about the effects of ConDem cuts in public services on Wales. So where does all this leave Plaid?

At first sight, the suggestion of an independent, not-for-profit train service hardly seems the stuff of radical separatism but that it probably because it was not intended as such. Plaid's strategists have been doing their homework and it seems they feel next May could be as much as battle of ideas as much as ideologies. They could well be right.

Then again, it was probably high time that the Party of Wales came to terms with how the general election highlighted their limited appeal and left them with limited options. The Lib Dems may be going into freefall, according to YouGov polls, but it ain’t Plaid that is picking up their lost support.

The structural, mixed economy solution for a lamentable train service in Wales, as outlined by IWJ ticks a lot of boxes. It has a pragmatic feel as a policy concept and enough potential appeal to cause other parties to at least pause before dismissing it (or mentioning IueanAir). More to the point it is something different and thereby a welcome change from some Plaid bloggers who confuse establishing distinctiveness with slagging off Labour.

Keeping up appearances?

The government, and especially the tories, are going to have to do a lot better in the practice what you preach department.

Yesterday’s Daily Mail reported how David Cameron has handed out 26 civil service jobs without publicly advertising them. The paper stated his appointments include a web guru, filmmaker, policy adviser and a personal photographer. They have all been given key government posts on short-term contracts, allowing the coalition to bypass strict rules that recruitment should be opened up to external candidates.

 

Informed opinion is that the leak about appointing party cronies is Whitehall payback for the “we-are-watching you” reforms regarding civil service performance monitoring announced by the PM on Monday.

Meanwhile the spectre of the trouser press still haunts Welsh tory counterparts with a slightly unbalanced account in the Western Mail of a tory birthday binge in Aberystwyth held at public expense.

Last year the Conservative group came in for criticism after nine AMs spent more than £6,500 of taxpayers’ money on a “fact-finding” trip to Brussels, staying in the dead posh Hotel Amigo, which bills itself as the city’s best luxury venue.

Moving on

Lib Dem angst over housing benefit changes seemed to evaporate last night in the face of an opposition motion urging ministers to review plans for a 10% cut in benefit for those unable to find work within a year. The motion failed by 61 votes.

Among those expressing concern at the changes – but falling short of actually opposing them - was Jenny Willott, MP for Cardiff Central. During her sincere sounding speech, she was invited from across the chamber to place on the record her earlier website statements that proposed housing benefit cuts would “hit the poorest hardest”

Willott declined, claiming that she was not actually “au fait” with what appeared on her website having only recently returned from maternity leave. Another intervention however prevented anyone pointing out that her comments were made almost a year ago to the day.

Funny how things change, 'innit?

Tory vacancy for Gower?

We’re getting persistent reports of “irreconcilable differences” between Gower constituency Conservatives and their Assembly candidate Anthony Ridge-Newman. One source goes as far to suggest that they may actually have parted company.

It has to be said that we found nothing untoward on the tory candidate’s Facebook page when we checked today. The latest entry states “Excited about traversing the majestic Welsh Mountains today, on my voyage to the special Isle of Anglesey. Looking forward to seeing friends.”  But the impression gained from gossip is that he has managed to make very few during his short time in Gower.

We mentioned last month how some tory activists had been unimpressed at a certain lack of personal commitment by Ridge-Newman to the locality. We think it best however to await official confirmation of his departure before adding anything further.

Transparency

There was a sense of inevitability this morning as Cameron & Clegg went about announcing yet further reforms that would “revolutionise” how central government operates. Targets are out and business plans are in. Strategies will remain but will now have milestones added as an extra active ingredient.

PM and dutiful deputy seemed torn between talking up the concept of service “horizon shift" – a Letwinism which greatly entertained the Commons later in the day – and keeping it all in a downbeat businesslike perspective. The same conflicting thoughts were clearly going through the minds of bemused cabinet members who sat behind trying not to look appalled whilst the pair of old PR pros swapped sound-bites.

Yet for all the blather about 'empowerment', the biggest problem facing ConDem transparency is that you can see right through it. The same goes for facile suggestions that a new government website somehow increases accountability. The sad truth is that the already top-heavy reporting system carries too many overtones of Blairite bean-counting whilst failing to provide anything more than could be learned through a reasonably well crafted FoI enquiry. As one observer remarked afterwards, "It's a repackaging of what Whitehall does best .... blame-shifting and bullshit".

What this initiative is supposed to add to the sum of good government is questionable. What it is likely to achieve is negligible. Overall, you are left with the impression that any citizen with sufficient time or inclination to digest the mountain of ministerial trivia on offer would automatically qualify for ‘workfare’. Hey, have we hit on something?

Pointing the finger

Nothing like a bit of union-bashing when you’re stuck for something original. At least this seems to be the view of part-time tory Rene Kinzett who has told the Beans on Toast how Swansea Council is “paying out £140,000 a year on the wages of 16 trade union officials”.

Conservative group leader Kinzett says he supports the role of trade unions but wants a review of ‘facility agreements’ whereby part of the unions’ employment costs fall on the public purse. His call upon the Lib Dem-run local authority to question the practice “at a time of severe budget restraint” rings all the right bells and has clearly peeved the responsible cabinet member, Mary Jones.

What seems to have escaped the local press however is that the figures quoted in the article work out to £8,750 per employee – which is hardly a ransom. In fact, it’s an absolute bargain compared to the average £19,490 salary paid to each of Swansea’s 72 councillors every year for turning up for about 10 hours a week.

The frequency of attendances is far less in Kinzett’s case, of course.

Update: Apropos of comments received querying Rene's local activity, we hear talk of a change in personnel among Gower Conservatives. More later, no doubt.

Be sure that your policies will find you out

It took slightly longer than expected but the twin pre-election issues considered most likely by pundits to bedevil the Tories’ legislative programme – and thereby increase tensions within the ConDem coalition – both managed to surface this weekend.

According to broadsheets such as the Sunday Telegraph, Cameron & Clegg face double trouble over their feeble efforts in delivering on the staple items in any Conservative candidate’s selection speech; namely Europe & deregulation.

The paper says the Prime Minister will attempt to reassert his eurosceptic credentials by launching a bill which promises MPs and the public a say on any proposed transfer of sovereignty to the European Union. However, this is unlikely to stem growing discontent among Tory MPs that Cameron is refusing to even explain why he reneged on a pledge to hold a referendum on the controversial Lisbon Treaty.

Several are said to be furious over what they call a “betrayal” that has already seen key powers transferred to EU control and there are reports that “more than two dozen” have signed a protest motion. Up to 50 could vote against the Government during a key debate on Wednesday which is supposed to approve treaty amendments giving EU officials the ability to oversee the budgets of member states.

Deputy PM Clegg faces a similar wave of anger about his much vaunted Freedom Bill which has now had many deregulation actions stripped out of the main legislative clauses. Tory MPs are outraged that a key measures aimed at freeing up business have been dumped to make the bill “simpler”.

Although the move comes as a personal embarrassment for Clegg, who has also agreed to give up responsibility for steering legislation through the Commons (it has now been given to Teresa May) the latter step comes as something of a relief to Lib Dems who felt sections the bill were as much about freedom as “democracy” was an intrinsic element of the former east-German Democratic Republic.

This subdued jubilation is not lost on right-wing tories and even their less rabid colleagues who feel distinctly let down by Lib Dem dubiety over tuition fees, Europe and anti-terror measures. All of which is grist to the mills of John Redwood who Downing Street scouts say is lurking in the undergrowth ready to launch a “stiffening” initiative.

Cameron will not be the first Conservative leader ever to have been ambushed by his party over Europe. He will however be the first to have seen an assault coming and been unable to deflect it because of coalition politics. Let’s hope his personal photographer is on hand to record the event.

The dark side

Facial similarities and shifty body-language aside, there’s a growing number of hacks hoping that Phil Woolas and Andy Coulson get to share another common trait at the hands of the law. Among the usual suspects are the Guardian, Telegraph and Mirror but even normally supportive sources are taking a critical slant after it emerged how today’s news that the tory spin doctor had been interviewed by the Old Bill is a couple of days old. Hell hath no fury like journos kept in the dark.
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Likely Lads: Woolas & Coulson

Woolas is no loss to politics, his dreadful handling of the Ghurka issue and a series of other ministerial expediencies whilst in office showed his underlying shallowness. His eventual undoing for shabby election practices carries fitting echoes of how Capone was done for lesser crimes but done nonetheless. Few think that the member for Oldham East will be making a comeback now that Labour has effectively pulled up the ladder.

Whether a similar outcome will become Coulson’s just desserts is by no means apparent. One esteemed columnist reminds us that the former editor has never once been required to state on oath that he knew nothing about the widespread practice of phone hacking at the NoW newsroom. Otherwise someone would surely have raised the contradiction between this non-involvement in day-to-day staff matters with his close monitoring of an individual journalist’s activities to order to engineer his dismissal – as claimed in an employment tribunal into bullying last year.

The strange thing is that whilst heaps of journalists (plus a few bloggers) want to see Coulson’s head on a bloody spike, politicians seem less keen to get him kicked out of his Downing Street office. One Labour strategist insists that the longer Andy stays part of Cameron’s personal entourage, the better the chances of a few drips of poison splashing on the PM. When Coulson finally goes, and few think he can survive, the questions will be all about Cameron’s judgement for employing him.

Of course, the outcome all depends on who’s asking the questions – just as most of us can already predict the likelihood of a meaningful Labour post-mortem into how Woolas and his local party were allowed to so blatantly play the race card back in May.

Bad apples could spoil it for everyone

The charge of “bringing local government into disrepute” is one often bandied about by protagonists who are engaged in the time-honoured tradition of attacking the messenger when the message don’t suit. (See previous post)

But few could argue that such an accusation would be inappropriate in the case of Gorseinon mayor Victor Bruno - who is arguably culpable of having reduced himself and his once respected town council to a status somewhere between laughing stock and lunatic fringe.

It was a depressing experience to read the account in the local paper of how the latest meeting descended into anarchy as he ignored further calls for his resignation. We even find ourselves in agreement with the editorial viewpoint that it is democracy which suffers most from such arrogant disregard of political accountability.

There are influential figures within Welsh Assembly Government circles who are seriously suggesting that local “capacity building” is a viable way to sustain minimum service standards at community level. Whatever the merits involved, they will have to convince others that events at Gorseinon are untypical of the norm and that bodies such as One Voice Wales are capable of intervening if necessary. They appear have a challenge on their hands.

Re-setting the standard

Rockin’ Rene Kinzett’s cat could be forgiven for sporting a smug look today given that his owner has been cleared of misconduct by his peers.

A couple of cabinet non-achievers on Swansea Council objected a while back when he described the majority of councillors serving in Calamity Hall as “past it”. They were even less impressed to hear him say that his cat Derek probably knew as much about running the council as some members of the ruling administration.

Wendy Fitzgerald & Mary Jones reported Kinzett, who heads up the tory group, to the Ombudsman for his comments. Bizarrely, the local government watchdog concluded that the Mayals councillor had breached the code of conduct. He told Swansea’s Standards Committee to deal with it. They did; and more or less told the Ombudsman to get a life.

Regular readers of this blog will remember that Fitzgerald is the hapless loser who saw social services slide from beacon to basket case under her watch. Jones on the other hand was responsible for what is recognised as one of the most expensive e-government screw-ups on record. Both of them can now add “expensive time-wasting” to their local government CVs.

Congratulations to the Standards Committee for a commonsense approach otherwise lacking in local authority dealings at Swansea.

Getting it from all sides

The approaching weekend in unlikely to provide any real relief for Lib Dems who continue to wriggle on the hook over tuition fees. Although a handful of MPs have made noises that they will not be supporting proposals to introduce charges of up to £9000 a year, the prospects of a parliamentary rebellion are already diminishing.

A party whip (Lib Dem) has briefed lobby press that he did not think there were sufficient numbers to inflict a defeat on the government. He seemed less sure about the effect of large scale abstentions which can be expected when details are voted on in December.

This will not be enough however for student groups who are expecting MPs to actually honour their pledges. NUS Wales is putting Lib Dem Cardiff MP Jenny Willott under pressure to let her actions speak for themselves. They suggest that she should step down as Parliamentary Secretary to Energy Secretary Chris Huhne. No sign of this happening so far though.

An added misery that the recent YouGov poll for the Sun which showed Lib Dems scoring 9% support among voters. This is first time that the party as dropped into single figures.

This dismal showing probably explains why talk abounds of a possible first & second choice election pact between Conservatives and Lib Dems next time around - should AV make it through. Such a move would have been considered suicidal just a few weeks ago. Now it looks decidedly pragmatic to Lib Dem MPs who feel they might as well get hung for a sheep as a lamb.

Will the same symbiotic arrangements apply next May in Wales, we wonder? After reneging so publicly on their pre-election pledges, the Lib Dems appear capable of anything.

Taking a liberty with entitlement

It is likely that there are some people who do not consider football, especially a Cardiff v Swansea derby, as a life or death matter – probably because they are too preoccupied with falling off the edge of the earth if they travel too far.

Among these must be the miserable deadbeats known as the Swansea Live Screen Steering Group, who have decided that the giant screen sited at Castle Square will be blacked out during Saturday’s top of championship game. According to the Beans on Toast, the arbitrary step was taken by unelected & un-named jobsworths from Swansea Council, South Wales Police, BBC, the City Centre Partnership and Swansea BID.

Their reason for pulling the plug on Swansea fans is “the amount of police resources being diverted to the match in Cardiff." Translation: screw anything we might have said in the past about public participation or engaging with communities, our priorities lay elsewhere.

In light of the above, and from our entirely partisan perspective, we feel the government’s intention to achieve public -spending cuts by dismantling over-staffed & absolutely non-productive partnerships has suddenly become a process of self-selection.

The need to know

Last week, one of the UK’s most senior spooks broke with convention to make a live public appearance. For many, the speech by head of MI6 Sir John Sawers seemed mostly in praise of the secret state. Its fortuitous timing, coming so close to the “interception” of explosive printer cartridges, has inevitably provoked a number of journos at the grubby end of the business to look a little deeper into matters.

The consequence is that Sawers now faces the awkward job of explaining why his daughter Corrine has a photo on her Facebook page holding a gold-plated Kalashnikov that was once part of Saddam Hussein’s personal collection. The gaffe follows a previous indiscretion by Mrs Sawers last year.

Sir John told his invited audience,“In today's open society, no government institution is given the benefit of the doubt all the time”. Too right.

You have to wonder how many agents out in the field consider one of the biggest active threats their operational well-being to be the Sawer family.

Win some, lose less

Whilst the press are reporting a downward shift in popularity for the tories, their coalition partners are left to gloomily consider other figures which indicate only 32% support for adopting AV at next year’s planned referendum – compared to 43% who would prefer FPTP as the method of electing parliament.

Stats website UK Polling Report states that it is the first time that the NO campaign has been ahead by this kind of margin since YouGov started their tracker poll back in June. The trend then was AV ahead by 10 points.

There are no suggestion as to why opinion should have steadily drifted away from reform although one school of thought is that persistent disillusionment with the Lib Dems has reflected on their flagship reform. This theory is not borne out however by overall party standings which has the Lib Dems stuck at the same 12-14% mark they have held for the last six months.

Footnote: We’re not at all sure if the  YouGov poll (31^st Oct - 1st Nov) is the same one as the Western Mail has used to claim that Wales is being picked on regarding spending cuts.