Stealing the goalposts

Among the non-wedding news casualties in yesterday’s press was a fascinating story in the Independent that senior Conservatives will attempt to ditch the AV referendum result if it goes the "wrong way."

Nigel Morris, deputy political editor, claims that a last-minute move will be made to block adoption of a new electoral system if there is deemed to be a substantially low turn-out of electors. No2AV campaigners think they can argue that the result would lack legitimacy given the important constitutional nature of the change.

A senior Conservative MP is quoted as saying, “Suppose there was a tiny majority in favour of AV, but only 20 per cent of the country took part in the referendum; people on our side would find it hard to accept. There would be contact with the business committee." He suggested a turn-out of 50 per cent should be required to give legitimacy to a Yes vote – a hurdle that could be impossibly high to clear.

The Government fought off attempts to impose a 40 per cent threshold to make the referendum outcome binding. But a fresh attempt to block a Yes vote in the event of a low turn-out would present David Cameron with a dilemma. He would almost certainly argue that the result should stand, but would face fury among Tory backbenchers.”

It is an intriguing notion that the Commons Business Committee would take it upon itself to intervene, as has been suggested, but stranger things have arguably happened in the past.

Besides staging major ceremonies, it has to be admitted that stealing the goalposts rather than simply moving them is something at which the UK establishment also excels.

Politics on the offensive

In these days of measured, passionless sound-bites, you can be sure that any politician sending out these sort of epithets via Twitter or Facebook would receive instant censure and probably face demands for an apology.

“Whenever you scratch a Tory you find a Fascist.”

“No attempt at ethical or social seduction can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party... So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.”

“Politics is a blood sport.”

“As one bastard to another, I accept your apology.”

It’s just as well then that Aneurin Bevan is no longer with us then.

Back of the envelope for the BNP

Cash-strapped neo-nazi Nick Griffin has complained to the Royal Mail for apparently refusing to re-deliver elections leaflets after a sackful were allegedly discovered dumped in the back garden of one of his candidates.

In an email sent out to supporters, the BNP leader claims that there are “heavy reports of non-delivery of our spectacular leaflets” for the Assembly elections. The upshot is that Griffin is asking his fellow fascist fuckwits to cough up £2,500 for replacement leaflets.

The appeal has received a small barrage of negative responses from a disillusioned membership. One angry individual, who employed numerous expletives for emphasis, pointed out that the requested sum represents a small fraction of what Griffin gets in salary & allowance as an MEP. Another disputed the mail problem entirely and described appeal the “another feckin’ lie” to cover up “wholesale incompetence” by party organisers.

The circumstances are said to be fairly typical of a poorly co-ordinated campaign ineptly run by tattooed slap-heads who spend more time attacking each other than coming up with a half-way coherent platform. Fundraising is a disaster and the number of volunteers has gone down significantly thanks to long-term factional infighting.

Unable to exercise the same degree of charismatic control over a resentful and increasingly unreliable party hierarchy, Griffin is reduced to making direct personal appeals to members. The problem is that his office is using an outdated mailing list. The result is that individuals previously expelled or hounded out of the party are responding to his exhortations with their own very specific proctological advice.

Sounds about right - let's hope they get the same kind of result on 5 May.

Minding your PMQs

David Cameron has refused to apologise for telling a shadow cabinet member to “calm down, dear” during question time. There is no indication if Conservative party spokespeople find his comments to be “outrageous and unacceptable” – or if that official description is only reserved for those who transgress on the social network.

Who can blame the Facebook generation of politicians on all sides for questioning their parties' ground rules on acceptable behaviour if the Prime Minister can seemingly get away with a patently chauvinist aside?

Risky business

Swansea’s somewhat embattled Lib Dems will not have appreciated the irony of the headline which appeared in the local paper yesterday. The question, “Are our leisure centres at risk” is actually speculation over whether leisure and cultural services in the city will stay in direct public ownership or get hived off to a non-accountable trust. Yet, if Lib Dem propaganda is to be believed, it was the poor stewardship of such facilities that became a crucial electoral factor in the past - so why should it be any different now?

Plaid’s sole lackey representative on the council gives the impression that he is going to be influential in the process of determining the next steps. We reckon he has as much chance in that respect as he does in getting fifth spot in the Gower Assembly contest where he is standing as a candidate – or didn’t the local paper mentions that salient fact?

Not getting the message

It would be interesting to learn what Welsh Lib Dems really think of claims by Kirsty William that very few electors are letting Westminster issues affect their judgement - “Westminster” being the euphemism for the non-devolved u-turns over tuition fees, VAT plus a swathe of benefit cuts.

Ms Williams told Matt Withers of the Western Mail: “Polls are polls, and some of them are perhaps more accurate than others, but what I can genuinely say is what you analyse the polls to be saying isn’t reflected in our experience in campaigning out on the doorstep”.

We refuse to speculate as to whether the electors of Brecon & Radnor are either duplicitous or simply very polite.

Desperate times

In the movie The American President, incumbent Andrew Shepherd delivers his dénouement from the podium with a candid piece of political advice by telling his audience that:

“.. whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson [his opponent] is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections.”

So it’s kind of reassuring that Daniel Davies, BBC Wales’ online political reporter, was able to highlight the self-same principles at work in his account of Assembly election campaigning. The Western Mail also picked up the theme in reporting that tories in Newport have been ‘persuaded’ to withdraw a leaflet which claimed the future of Newport’s Royal Gwent Hospital was under threat. (Ditto Neath Port Talbot).

In fairness to the various mainstream combatants, the time-honoured tactic of scaremongering is probably the only viable remaining option left given that each is so patently lacking in a distinctive message & coherent means of delivery of their own. All political roads, it seems, lead to the same destination of a squeezed public sector - albeit by slightly different roadmaps. Somehow voters are meant to be distracted by this stark outcome by being offered a chance to throw rocks at the Westminster coalition or else grasp at tenuous 'mitigation' packages based upon some fiscal sleight of hand a.k.a. 'pledges'.

And if all else fails, you can always get your opponent nicked for harassment.

Some days are a complete waste of a leaflet

Shroud-waving Lib Dems in South Wales West have been trying very hard to engender a panic over the future of cardiac surgery at Swansea. Having convinced themselves that the unsubstantiated threat of further NHS centralisation in Cardiff is a vote-winner – or more accurately, a Labour vote-loser – they have breathlessly set about trying to induce outrage among the punters.

Their big problem however is that no-one is listening. The anxiety expressed by candidates sounds to BBC and Western Mail ears to be very similar to Plaid’s dire warnings of hospital closures. Few of them see much wrong with centralising things in the capital anyway. On balance, the threat to free IVF treatment in the city is seen as far more newsworthy and it’s a real doctor making the claim.

Another unhelpful factor for the Lib Dem strategy is that most electors who saw last weekend’s lurid headlines of threatened services simply regarded the story as another is a series of negative accounts seen in recent weeks. Worse still, the local paper changed tack after a ministerial mouthpiece pretty much dismissed the allegations - albeit by proxy.

As things stand, and based on feedback gained from the doorsteps by various parties, the cardio business is actually far less of an issue for people than the amount of litter & fly-tipping linked to fortnightly rubbish collections which Lib Dem-controlled council introduced a few months back as a major saving environmental initiative. Ho hum.

Ou est René?

Ever since Rockin’ Rene withdrew his intention to see an elected mayor installed at Swansea, the erratically mercurial tory councillor has become far less prominent on the local political scene. Of course, his inability to get an Assembly candidature is probably one of the reasons but a recent change of day-job is also said to have kept him away from his adopted city.



Less charitable souls suggest the Mayals councillor is still sulking over his group’s refusal to back his call for a referendum and there is a talk of him lashing out at the local press over how the subject made the headlines – although he seemed happy enough with the coverage at the time.

Sources ‘close to the tory group’ claim to have been told that Kinzett is likely to be dumped stand down next month. It would be a shame if such a move transpires as his sparky style is one of the few bright spots in a very drab local political debating scene. However the demise of his blog – along with the ThinkPolitics website – has left those who follow his Twitter exploits wondering if the man is headed for the Smoke for good. We await developments.

They don’t make it any more

There is an intriguing reference in the Welsh Lib Dem manifesto which lists plans to introduce a ‘Community Right to Buy’. This initiative would “enable community organisations to register an interest in land or buildings that were designed for public use so that if the property comes up for sale they have first refusal, subject to a community ballot.”

It would be interesting to see how this idea might work in action in parts of Swansea where the Lib Dem-run council plans to sell off land at 13 school sites across the city. These have been identified as “available for potential disposal" in order to raise up to £12 million in capital receipts for one of Wales’ most maxed-out local authorities.

It is really is remarkable to see how the Welsh Liberal Democrats have managed to emulate Conservatives - who are past masters at conning the public into buying assets which they already own.

Those were the days

Not too long ago – when the controlling political colours were a different hue at Calamity Hall – someone on the local paper would have loudly & pointedly asked the basic question as to why on earth is it necessary for Swansea Council to a convene a special cabinet meeting just to rubber-stamp details of the bridge changes we mentioned a few days ago, plus some city centre works – and why all the very short discussions have to happen behind closed doors.

Is AV dead and buried already?

If the media is to be believed, something approaching blind panic should be setting in among AV supporters following yesterday’s Guardian/ICM poll which gave the NO camp a 16-point lead.

According to the paper, the YES contingent is reeling as its support collapses with the result “sending shockwaves” through the ranks of those advocating reform of the voting system.

Meanwhile, Labour is reported to be spitting blood over former Labour minister John Read’s involvement in the NO campaign whilst Vince Cable is said to be even more out on a limb for sharing a platform with Ed Miliband.

The problem with this rag-tag scenario however is that privately commissioned polls on both sides actually show the gap between voting intentions to be a lot closer. In one instance, the figures are said to closely resemble a recent opinion poll on party leadership performances. Hmmm.

Cash for access undermines Clegg’s new politics

Today’s Independent reports that Liberal Democrats are offering lobbyists face-to-face meetings with ministers, including Nick Clegg, if they pay £25,000 a year.

The paper states: The cash-strapped party has launched a club offering privileged access to the Deputy Prime Minister and senior Liberal Democrats.

The Leaders' Forum will be restricted to an elite of 50 individuals who will be invited to "exclusive dinners" and debates with frontbenchers in return for an annual £25,000 donation, payable into the party's Royal Bank of Scotland account. They are promised "unrivalled networking opportunities".

Mr Clegg's Leaders' Forum was launched at a private meeting on 28 March, attended by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, and the veteran handshaker Peter Bingle, chairman of Bell Pottinger Public Affairs, which sponsored the event.

One lobbyist at the launch said that it was made clear that the forum was "the one where you get to meet Nick".

Tamasin Cave, a spokeswoman for the campaign group SpinWatch, said: "It looks like cash for access. It's privileged access, for cash." But Mr Bingle said the forum was simply an opportunity for businesspeople to get to know the party leaders.

Well he would, wouldn’t he?

No public enquiry over phone hacking

The idea of a public enquiry into phone hacking got the bum’s rush from David Cameron over the weekend. He said the police inquiry would settle any issues and urged detectives to "follow the evidence wherever it goes".

Of course a number of folks would like to know if he was thinking of former employee Andy Coulson when he added that further prosecutions were clearly "an option".

The PM told Sky News: "I'm not sure anyone fully knew how widespread it was," but quickly qualified his mystification by adding, “Let me be clear: phone hacking is wrong, phone hacking is illegal and the police and prosecuting authorities should follow the evidence wherever it goes without fear or favour."

But he stopped short of a public inquiry, saying: "There is always a difficulty of holding inquiries when you have active police investigations... The law is perfectly clear, the law doesn't need I think to be changed."

The Independent notes that News International is facing a second criminal inquiry by Scotland Yard. Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick said one was possible following NI's chief executive Rebekah Brooks' remarks to MPs in 2003 that: "We have paid the police for information in the past."

New schemes for old?

Readers of Swansea’s local paper might be a bit confused after reading how yet another traffic "improvement" conceived by the heinous trolls of Calamity Hall is supposed to operate - or not.

New scheme same as the present

Back in October last year we highlighted the political tensions surrounding a plan to transform the two adjacent road bridges crossing the Rive Tawe into a giant roundabout. However, it seems the inertia principle that dominates the strategic process in Swansea Council has finally succeeded in pushing residual commonsense aside. Consequently, work will soon start at a cost of just over a million pounds on making the city centre even less accessible.

Strangely though, the plan which appeared in the local press over the weekend, and is described as a “revised scheme” is actually a depiction of the current traffic flows. So the question is whether this is a cock-up on the part of the paper - or did deputy leader John Hague manage to stifle the scheme after all?

Poll shock: Clegg is unpopular

The Independent on Sunday reports that almost 40 percent of people who voted Liberal Democrat at last year’s general election now wish that hadn’t.

In quoting a survey they commissioned, the paper states “the finding underscores Nick Clegg's unpopularity and alarm among his party's grass roots at the political direction he has taken in the Tory-led coalition.

While 54 per cent of Lib Dems are happy with their choice at the ballot box, 37 per cent, a significant proportion, have deserted Mr Clegg.

Three-quarters of all voters are satisfied with how they voted last May”

Labour leader Ed Miliband was yesterday urging disaffected Lib Dem voters to switch to him after a year of "broken promises" on tuition fees, the NHS and VAT by Clegg and his cabinet colleagues.

However the IOS/Res survey suggests that only a quarter of voters feel he is a good leader of the Labour Party whilst 38 per cent think he is rubbish as well.

Any campaign will do

The news that a health quango is looking to do to do the same to cardiac services in Swansea as happened to neurosurgery is a surprise. The fact that the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee has been allowed to announce what is likely to be a vastly controversial review just weeks before an Assembly election is astonishing.

A WHSSC representative told the local community health group is that a review is necessary to overcome “a lot of perverse political incentives, which have nothing to do with patients." Whilst such apparent candour on the part of paid officials is no doubt welcome in some quarters, we nonetheless wait to see if the same individual does not find himself suspended come Monday morning - as has lately become the norm.

Needless to say, this unexpected turn of events is an absolute gift to candidates desperately seeking to sink their teeth into a meaningful campaign cause. We can expect a chorus of condemnation from constituency and regional hopefuls with all the attendant outrage & shroud-waving. Similarly, someone is bound to mention that the health minister is a local contestant.

But what will be really intriguing is to see how the local paper manages an about-face in demanding that cardio services are retained after it has spent weeks slagging off NHS staff and the quality of clinical care in the city.

Police "continuing to investigate" BNP candidate

As predicted, a statement released yesterday by South Wales Police claimed that officers are to pursue "further lines of inquiry" after getting CPS advice on what charges would be appropriate for BNP Assembly candidate Sion Owens.

Owens was arrested after his alleged burning of a Koran which was reportedly filmed by Joanne Shannon, another BNP candidate, and who also nicked. The case against Owens was dropped earlier this week after magistrates had been told that the wrong charges had been brought.

According to the Beeb, police stated they were "continuing to investigate the incident" and were "consulting with the CPS while this work is ongoing". They added that the work would "take some time to complete".

Community groups and local politicians are said to be unimpressed by the way that the police have mishandled the incident. A number of onlookers, including those within the force, feel that senior officers involved in the case were more concerned in being seen to react swiftly to information provided by the Observer newspaper rather than ensuring due process & procedures were followed.

The fear voiced by someone in the local judiciary is that unless brand new charges are brought, elements of the existing case are sufficiently screwed up to the extent up that Owens could get away with little more than a caution.

Collateral damages

The mainstream media, i.e. someone other than the Guardian, has picked up on today’s High Court hearing which could screw News International even further over its use of phone-hacking at the News of the World. Lawyers are talking about serious compensation claims if Mr Justice Vos agrees to force the release of information which could confirm up to 5000 victims of voice-mail interceptions. Shareholders are likely to be unimpressed.

The big prize for some however lays in establishing a different kind of money trail. Labour wants to highlight the relationship between the damaged Murdoch news empire and the Conservatives. We expect that revelations of a private dinner attended by PM David Cameron will resurface soon.

BNP man may escape prosecution

Having previously avoided making any reference to fascist tosspot Sion Owens – primarily because we did not want to give him the publicity he was so clearly seeking – we are very concerned to hear rumours that the aborted attempt to prosecute him for burning a copy of the Quran could be abandoned entirely.

The Swansea-based BNP regional Assembly candidate was nicked last week along with his partner, another candidate, who helpfully filmed a reflection of herself whilst videoing Owens’ provocative bonfire. Proceedings were dropped on Monday however when it was disclosed that the wrong legislation had been used to bring charges. South Wales Police insist they followed the advice of the Crown Prosecution Service in treating the incident as a racial & religious crime rather than a public order offence.

Whilst the arguments continue at Bridgend HQ over who said what, the rumour-mill at Swansea Central suggests that CPS officials have now “misplaced” either the file or a crucial piece of evidence (versions vary among sources). The upshot is that a prosecution may now not be perused at all despite a statement that investigations would continue and that "almost certainly other proceedings will ensue."

There is no need to mention to the uproar that will follow if this happens.

Update: Just so that we're clear, Owens is alleged to have arranged to be filmed burning a copy of the Quran and subsequently posting the video on the internet. This is not the "private garden barbecue" suggested by a few numpties to our comments section.


Translation - Fuck off, you sieg-heiling slap-heads.

Further Update: We hear that official denials will be issued today (15 April) in response to press queries. Confirmation is expected that "action"is to be taken against Owens and his partner.

Of men and machines

George Osborne seems to have recently joined the ranks of ministers who stand accused of poor personal judgement. Having willingly backed claims by the No2AV crowd that the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) faced a financial conflict of interest by giving the pro-AV campaign a £1.1m donation, the Chancellor subsequently found himself named in a messy legal wrangle after making some rather unwise allegations.

The ERS, which has secured more than £15m in contracts from the public purse over the past three years, reacted very badly to Osborne’s assertion that it "stands to benefit if AV comes in because it could be one of the people who provide these electronic voting machines. That is exactly the sort of dodgy, behind-the-scenes shenanigans that people don't like about politics and politicians."

The Independent reports that Sian Roberts, the chief executive of the ERS business arm, Electoral Reform Services Ltd, accused the Chancellor of getting his facts wrong as the company supplies voting papers and not counting machines. Solicitors acting for the company warned they were considering legal action as they issued a detailed rebuttal of No to AV's "wholly untrue" and "misleading" claims.

They said a change in the voting system would make no difference to the company's income and added that practically every British company earned some money from the state sector. The firm's solicitors added: "It is, for example, practically certain that every one of the Tory businessmen financially backing the No campaign has earned money from the public sector."

They said claims it had made £15m from taxpayers were misleading as it paid corporation tax on profits and handed a dividend from its income after its costs to the Electoral Reform Society.

Perhaps it’s asking too much, but you would normally expect a Chancellor of the Exchequer to know that sort of detail before sounding off.

It’s getting nasty out there

Campaigning is now warming up nicely. Forget all the bollocks about ‘new politics’; the name of the game, as it always has been, is to trash your opponents’ “radical ideas” and then throw in the requisite epithets & insults whilst deploring how electioneering has become so personalised.

Tactically speaking it’s all very straightforward. If you’re Labour, the election is about ‘sending a message’ to Cameron & Clegg. If you’re anyone else then it’s about kicking the shit out of Labour and mentioning Wales as often as you can.

Absorbing as this skirmishing must be for the protagonists – and the symbiotic souls within the political press – electors are almost certain to remain the same old stick-in-the-muds who just can’t get excited at the possibility of a significant percentage swing one way or another. One pollster is suggesting that turnout could actually be down on the last Assembly election. It’s a prospect which might add some spice to one or two marginal contests but this increasing popular disengagement should be a serious concern for anyone who wants to see greater democratic participation.

Ah well, we can always rely on the likes of BBC Radio Wales to liven up things up. This morning’s live patronising political broadcast from Mold which included the mandatory scientific survey using different coloured ‘sweetie jars’ will surely be remembered as a classic.

Somehow we don’t think the same will be said about this election.

Kettles and pots

Some people should exercise greater caution before crowing over Plaid’s mistaken attribution of their manifesto slogan to Dylan Thomas – especially when memories of Kirsty’s hilarious pose with a fake illustrative policeman in a previous Lib Dem leaflet are still so fresh.

Update: To err is to be Lib Dem it seems.

Typo of the week (so far)

Despite its endless pontifications on how other organisations should improve their act, it’s really encouraging to see that the South Wales Evening Post has turned out to be just as fallible.

In covering the exploits of a local peace activist who has just set off for Libya, the online edition of the paper states that he also “took part in a convoy to Gazza” - and even helpfully provides an appropriate link.

Priceless.

Hacking scandal won't stop BSkyB deal

At last Labour feel they can make some valid contribution to the phone-hacking scandal without relying on the histrionics of Bryant & Prescott. But it remains to be seen if they will take an official handle on the news that Sir Gus O'Donnell blocked attempts by former PM Gordon Brown to hold judicial inquiry.

According to the Guardian, GB tried just before the general election to hold a judicial inquiry into allegations that the News of the World had hacked into the phones of cabinet ministers and other high-profile figures. Peter Mandelson was said to have had his calls intercepted by the News of the World when new evidence of the illegal practices emerged. O'Donnell told Brown that it would be inappropriate to hold a judicial inquiry so soon before the election. The general, but unspoken, feeling elsewhere in the civil service at the time was that the PM wanted payback for Murdoch’s involvement in having the Sun switch political allegiances.

Murdoch’s army of critics want the government to refuse the controversial purchase of BSkyB by News International until allegations of “hundreds of hacked phones” have been fully investigated. However it the bizarre situation reported this morning is that culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has been advised that he cannot take the scandal into account.

Crowding reported in the departure lounge

Betting has opened on whether News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks can survive yesterday’s admissions by the News of the World over phone hacking. Besides her group responsibilities, Brooks was editor from 2000 to 2003 and whilst the NI statement only refers to the 2004-2006 period (Andy Coulson’s tenure) such contrived evasions by the fatally damaged outfit no longer carry any real conviction.

As far as the current story goes, and he would be first to admit it, Coulson is relatively old news. The confirmation of at least eight cases so far is expected to result in a disintegration of the facade which the newspaper’s management had erected. Recent arrests by the Met of Ian Edmondson and Neville Thurlbeck will also signal to current and former employees that there is no protection for past misdeeds. The CPS reportedly anticipate a rash of voluntary statements from staff eager to grass on each other in an attempt at mitigation or even immunity.

Among the targets might well be current editor Colin Myler, who told MPs after conducting his own investigation that he had studied 2,500 emails but not find evidence of phone hacking. Now lawyers acting for a series of celebrities and sporting names will have a go following a high court order which requires NI to hand over hundreds of internal emails sent by reporters & executives for examination.

Les Hinton, who was chief executive of News International during the ‘relevant period’, could also find himself in schtuck. He told MPs investigating allegations of widespread phone-hacking: "There was never firm evidence provided that implicated anybody else other than Clive [Goodman]. It just did not happen." Clive Goodman, the royal editor of the News of the World was jailed in January 2007.

Coulson isn’t entirely out of the picture though. He still has to explain why he said under oath: "I don't accept there was a culture of phone-hacking at the News of the World”. He may also find himself pressed to divulge the nature of certain payments received when he left the paper.

Promiscuous, pernicious and a rat’s backside

The verbal skirmishing between Plaid and Labour, as reported in the Western Mail, might lead the casual uninformed reader to mistakenly think that the two parties had not been in coalition for the last four years. You almost get the impression that the pair of them are picking fights for the sake of distinctiveness.

IWJ and others objected to Peter Hain claiming that voters should use the May 5 election as “a chance to show David Cameron and Nick Clegg that the people of Wales are unhappy with their policies”. The reality of course is that “sending a message” is a standard part of gesture politics and there is no more accomplished exponent of this practice than Hain.

But whilst the custard pies go back and forth across the room, the question which Labour need to answer – even though Plaid don’t seem to be asking it – is why the hell the MP for Neath is fronting up an Assembly election campaign launch at all. Is it any wonder that as much as this is billed as a Welsh general election, the process & outcome will still remain a sideshow in the minds of many at Westminster and among the media who reside nearby?

Clearing the tracks

The excellent Total Politics website contains a comprehensive and surprisingly optimistic piece attributed to Transport Secretary Phillips Hammond.

Two words of warning, though. His wide-ranging vision for Britain’s transport network is distinctly on-message to the extent that you will you first have to get past the guff about “empowering local communities, supporting social mobility and providing a cleaner, greener gateway to a better quality of life”. Secondly, you won’t find any mention of Wales – or rail electrification.

Update: Also worth a read on the same site is Labour, don't strangle the Andrex puppy by Jerry Hayes, who writes: "The trouble with the Lib Dems is that they have always outwardly appeared to be the wide eyed, adorable fluffy kittens of British politics, while on the ground they can be the dirtiest street fighters in the business with the moral compass of an Algerian rent boy on crack."

Government connives at social immobility

An investigation by the Guardian has forced the government to admit that Jobcentre staff have been deliberately kicking people off the unemployment register in order to meet welfare targets.

The paper states that Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) officials had initially dismissed accusations that Jobcentre Plus employees were tricking vulnerable claimants into losing welfare entitlements. The allegation came from whistleblower who said staff were given targets of three people a week to refer for sanctions, where benefits are removed for up to six months.

Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, appeared on Sky News on Sunday claiming it was "claptrap" that anyone would "hand out edicts to staff to sanction three people", and said the story was a "conspiracy".

When confronted by further evidence in the form of e-mails which confirmed the existence of individual or group targets to stop people's benefits at offices across the country, the DWP put it down to a problem of “misinterpretation” of Departmental requirements by “a small number of offices”.

Union officials however describe the practice as widespread and cited instances where staff have complained that they have been threatened with sanctions themselves if they do not reach the targets.

The Public and Commercial Services Union is demanding a full apology from IDS for his comments. The reason that Labour has yet to jump on this bandwagon however, is the revelation that the practice of ‘incentivising’ sanctions exists as far back as 2009.

Excruciating

Questioning the judgement of people in government is fairly common practice but the decision by Nick Clegg to be interviewed for the New Statesman by Jemima Khan breaks enitrely new ground in terms of political self-harm.

The cringingly written report of their encounter, which bears the headline “I’m not a punchbag – I have feelings”, begins with Khan observing that the Lib Dem leader looks as if he has been “taxidermied”.

Based on press reaction so far, getting stuffed is likely to be the least of his problems.

Catching up

There's an oddball sort of post to be found on Freedom Central which begins by describing a Boots store in a major Swansea retail park as “a community pharmacy” and ends by stating that Welsh Lib Dems are “committed to free prescriptions in Wales”.

Free prescriptions actually came into being in Wales April 2007 and the move received rather less than enthusiastic support from Lib Dems at the time. Indeed, just a few months later, the [then] Welsh Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson, Jenny Randerson was quoted as saying:

“The 20% of people who were paying for prescription should, in my view, continue paying for them. At the same time we should also be sorting out a much longer list of chronic conditions, which would be eligible for free prescriptions. We have a financially over-stretched health service and this [free prescriptions] is an expensive option.”

It’s good to see that they’ve moved on.

Lib Dem intern still waiting for expenses

Today’s Western Mail helpfully points out that Nick Clegg’s former intern Keiran Mathers is still waiting for his expenses.

Mather’s shabby treatment as an unpaid worker in the Lib Dem leader’s Sheffield office served to damage the credibility of the government’s flagship social mobility initiative - along with the ConDem leadership behind it.

  

The paper reports, “On Tuesday Mr Clegg called for measures to ensure interns were not left out of pocket.

“I thought it was ironic,” Mr Mathers said.

He explained: “They said, ‘We’ll pay your expenses.’ They didn’t put it in writing but it was a definite promise.”

He reckons he lost out on around £140. He submitted details of his expenses but never received any cash.

Today, Mathers lives in Cardiff and works for an international examinations body. Unsurprisingly, he is no longer a Lib Dem supporter.

Even wheel clampers hate the Lib Dems, apparently

The worthy members of the Parking Enforcement Trade Association (PETA) have kicked off a campaign to defend their profession and targeted Nick Clegg and his party in the process.

Their UK-wide ad reads, “The Liberal Democrats who have won just 43 out of the 531 seats (8.1%) in the last general election are taking away your rights of the use on your very own property. They are ignoring the civil laws that protect you and your land which date back to the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215, by banning wheel-clamping and towing away on private land. For years in the High Court of Justice our elders have passed judgement on laws such as tort, trespass, the laws of 'Volenti non Fit injuria' and the doctrine known as 'Distress Damage Feasant' casting them aside or simply ignoring them.”

It’s a bit like the Sherriff of Nottingham putting in a harassment claim against Hood & Co but it has to be said, feudal nostalgia aside, that the Protection of Freedoms Bill, which among its many provision aims to make immobilisation of vehicles an offence, is basically a confused hotchpotch of policies thrown up by both coalition partners  and even includes some hangover Labour items bolted on for good measure. Few observers expect more than a third of the clauses to remain intact by its final stages.

Nevertheless, the bunch of licensed robbers Parking Enforcement Community are of the view that it’s the Lib Dems wot are behind this diabolical liberty. More importantly, to their minds anyway, the whole sinister leftie whatsit idea could possibly be “an infringement of landowners’ rights under Article One, Protocol One of the European Human Rights Act, viz. the right to enjoy one's property. The vehicle is deemed chattel and in the land owners’ possession, say PETA, who seem most impressed by this particular insight.

“So basically”, conclude the clampers, “this coalition government and the Protection of Freedom bill is sticking up the proverbial two fingers and forcing on you and me what they want and the Conservatives have to agree as part of the coalition agreement.”

Oh, say it ain’t so.

Rainbow?

It’s difficult (and probably pointless) to form an opinion on either the motive or methodology behind the mildly eccentric United & Welsh website. Their downloadable leaflet equally defies categorisation.

The headline message is that 'Hain’s' Labour Party cannot be trusted - which is a technically valid point since there is no such political entity. In fact you might even argue that the Labour Party shares a similar viewpoint regarding the Neath MP's qualities in light of his performance in various leadership contests.

But the intriguing U&W strap-line is the one which says “The Labour Party must settle their quarrels and stop fighting each other. Till then, they’re not fit to govern alone.” Readers are then given advice on how to vote for Plaid, Conservative and Lib Dems in 15 different constituencies. At this point the strong inference is that the authors actually don’t think that Labour should be allowed to govern at all.

Labour’s Chris Bryant is convinced that Plaid Cymru are behind U&W. However others point out that when it comes to personality clashes, infighting and resignations, the Party of Wales has plenty of its own problems.

Keeping up appearances

Back in the day when Holley & Co could trot out any old baloney and still get favourable coverage in the local paper (has anything changed?), Swansea’s Lib Dems very publicly announced a decision to pull the plug on a done deal to lease a city centre building intended to house a new council-run gym.

The highly dubious claim at the time was that an upper floor had suddenly become “inadequate” for gym equipment – a surprising assessment on the part of council surveyors who had signed off on the premises just a few months earlier. Of course, the shabby truth was that the move all been about causing political embarrassment to the former Labour regime who had leased the Pool Sanctuary building following the closure of the Leisure Centre.

Yet like many of their little costly stunts, it was a gimmick that backfired badly when opposition groups forced an internal inquiry into official skulduggery. It was also to prove very costly for Swansea’s council taxpayers inasmuch as the Council remained firmly stuck with an expensive lease and no takers.

Since then Mr Bumble and his administration have attempted a series of ill-considered alternatives – including a desperate bid to sign up a nightclub operator even though credit checks confirmed that the firm involved was based at an Ipswich council house address. Now the hapless souls who sit on Swansea Council’s cabinet are to be told that mounting rent arrears accrued by Company X are upwards of £40,000 with no realistic hope of repayment.

In a financial report to be presented to this week’s meeting – but which will be discussed behind closed doors – officers reportedly admit that the firm involved was always considered a poor risk. The report’s authors claim it has been submitted in order to “mitigate the Council’s position and note the situation regarding the letting” but the heavy implication is that it is an arse-covering exercise designed to emphasise that letting choices were very limited at the time of negotiation. There is also a strong hint that the flawed decision process had been subject to considerable political influence. It’s an irony that Labour will no doubt appreciate greatly.

But despite the bureaucratic justifications for being so far adrift in rental income, the advice stops short of recommending an actual write-off, at least for the moment anyway. Swansea council taxpayers however will be bemused to hear that the only reason given is because of concerns over “the way in which it would be perceived”.