Congratulations ARTD!

Andrew RT Davies has a new job, he has my hearty congratulations, but I'm not sure that he has the support of the voters of Wales! Last time I looked, Carwyn Jones was, unfortunately, the Leader of the Welsh Assembly!

I'm sure that RT FaRTy, would make a brilliant Assembly Leader, if elected! But before being described as Leader of the Welsh Assembly – shouldn't he overcome the teeny, weeny, bitty hurdle of being elected to the post?

Hat Tip to Toque – and I agree with his sentiment that the Tories, of all parties, appear to have neglected to include a representative of one (rather big) part of the UK in their An United Kingdom debate!

Absent without leave

I liked this post from Andrew so much, I have decided to pinch it and repost it here:

Thursday, 9 June 2011
Attendance for Welsh Assembly as of Jan 2011

Ieuan Wyn Jones, Plaid Cymru – 78%.

Jane Davidson, Labour – 77%.

Sandy Mewies, Labour – 74%.

Christine Chapman, Labour – 73%.

Carl Sargeant, Labour – 69%.

Carwyn Jones, Labour – 67%

Irene James, Labour – 58%.

Lynne Neagle, Labour – 39% (long illness).

Even Lynne, with her long term illness probably has a better attendance record than most MPs.

This is what the House of Commons looks like most of the time during important debates.

And then the division bell rings and 650 votes are casts, despite the fact that 630 MP's couldn't be arsed to listen to the arguments for or against.

An interesting Conundrum for Labour in the North.

With the polls looking up for Labour, the chances of a Labour list seat in North Wales is zilch, nada, F*** all!

The only way that Labour can gain a list seat in the North is if the North West constituency vote collapses under a Tory landslide - that is not going to happen!.

Any Labour list vote is going to be a wasted vote, so how should Labour supporters in the north use their list vote?

I suspect that the vast majority will waste their second vote on Labour, without realising that they could actually make a difference if they think about their second vote.

Those who like the coalition between Plaid and Labour could make a difference by giving Plaid their second vote in order to ensure a bigger Plaid (and smaller Tory /Lib Dem) representation.

On the other hand Labour supporters who hate the Assembly might consider lending their second vote to anti Assembly UKIP!

Either way it makes more sense than wasting the list vote on Labour when the maths says that Labour can never, ever gain a list seat in the Northern region!

If I supported either UKIP or Plaid I would be making hay on the fact that a second vote for Labour is a wasted voet in all but the Mid Wales Region. Neither appears to be doing so - silly buggers!

Gracious in defeat

As the only person to apply for lead campaign status for the NO campaign, I am disgusted that Rachel Banner was invited to give a post result speech in the Senedd but that I wasn't even invited to the count.

Had I had the invite this is what I would have said in my "response to the result speech":

I give the Yes campaign hearty congratulations on a tremendous victory. I was, honestly shocked by the fact that the Yes victory was so decisive; I didn't expect the result to be so clear cut. The results in Flintshire, in Denbighshire, in Powys and even in Monmouthshire (where 321 voters who forgot to vote yes are kicking themselves today) bowled me over. It was beyond my wildest expectations.

I should also like to thank the quarter of a million people who voted in support of my No! It's not good enough! campaign. I knew that many thought that the referendum question was the wrong one; that it didn't offer equality with the Scottish Parliament or the Northern Ireland Assembly; but I hadn't expected as many as a quarter of a million people to agree with me in the ballot box.

I empathise with the 65% of the electorate who chose not to vote because what was being offered was so insignificant that it wasn't worth voting for. I give them my 100% assurance that the campaign starts now to ensure that the next referendum (in 2012, if not sooner) will offer them an option that is well worth going out to vote Yes for!

Wales says Yes

With four results still to declare Wales has said Yes, the result in the Rhondda having just taken the Yes vote over the 402,594 threshold needed to win.

Election day confusion

Whether or not the response to Nick Clegg's offer to change the dates of the Welsh Assembly Election is childish or sensible, I find the offer totally confusing.

The reason behind the offer is to ensure that devolved and Westminster elections don't clash, so far so good – elections to different establishments shouldn't clash. But the reason why they might clash is because the Lib Dems have decided that Westminster should have fixed term elections; because they believe that the ad hoc way that Westminster elections have been called in the past are undemocratic.

So in order to stop ad hoc elections to Westminster we get rid of fixed term elections to the Assembly by giving the Assembly a two year leeway in which to hold ad-hoc elections! This is totally illogical.

If fixed term is good and ad hoc bad the problem isn't solved by switching from ad hoc in Westminster to fixed and swapping from fixed to ad hoc in Cardiff Bay!

Of course the clash is only caused because Gordon Brown called an ad hoc election on the first Thursday in May, which just happened to be the fixed date of devolved elections. Wouldn't the sensible answer to the problem be for Westminster to call its first fixed term election in September/October 2014; rather than causing problems by insisting that Gordon Brown's arbitrary decision to hold an election on May 6th 2010 should define the date of Westminster elections in perpetuity?

Vote Yes because the Assembly listens !

There was an exceptionally important debate in the National Assembly Chamber yesterday; despite its importance it probably won't receive much media attention.

It was a debate about work based training for vulnerable children. This might not be a subject that raises the blood pressure of political activists in Wales; indeed it was so uncontroversial that it was given unanimous support by Assembly Members.

The result of the debate will mean that the Government will change some of its policies regarding work based training for the most vulnerable children in Wales, but the importance of the debate is much more than the beneficial effect that it will have on the lives of vulnerable children; its importance lies in how vulnerable children, themselves, have actually caused a changed of Assembly Government policy.

The change in government policy began with two vulnerable children voicing their frustration to the child protection charity Action for Children - Gweithredu dros Blant. Gweithredu dros Blant took up the children's issues and presented them in a petition to the Assembly. The Assembly's cross party Petitions Committee looked at the petition, took evidence from interested parties and presented that evidence to ministers; and the ministers have acted on that evidence.

This is fantastic, this is real democracy in action, and this is an example of real people changing policy in areas that affect their lives.

Historic is an overused word in politics but an occasion where vulnerable children's complaints can lead to a change in government policy is really historic!

Petitions being ignored have played a big part in the Westminster government's history. I have signed some of the Petitions to the Prime Minister on http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ and all of them have resulted in an e-mail that says in civil service speak "p*** off"!

Petitions to the Welsh Assembly, even from vulnerable children, can change government policy!

The Government in Wales reacts to the opinions of the people of Wales in a way that Westminster doesn't!

Is there a better reason for voting YES on March 3rd?

The truth about my Jim Trott type No Campaign

I have enjoyed my No campaign.

It has, I hope, highlighted some of the faults in the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act (2000). It has noted that the reasons for voting one way or the other and even not voting cannot be extrapolated in an over simplistic way. The reason why people vote Yes, No or choose not to vote in a referendum are many and variable.

But when devo naysayers complain in perpetuity that the March 3rd referendum result was won unfairly, they can be reminded that:

History records that the only official bid to form a No campaign came from a nationalist supporter of independence. The establishment refused that bid and a majority of the people of Wales abstained, in disgust, at the establishment's attempt to stifle their voice or voted NO! NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

It may not be true, but it is as good a narrative as the naysayers lie that those who didn't vote in 1997 effectively voted no!

My wife and I failed to vote in 1997, because my mother in law was taken into hospital on referendum day and we didn't leave the hospital until after the polling station closed. One of the reasons for my No campaign is that I have been continuously peeved at claims that that our failure to vote is assumed to be a tacit expression of our opposition to Welsh self determination - nothing could be further from the truth!

With voting day only a month away I will come clean and declare that my vote will be a Jim Trott type No – No – No – No - No - No - Yes!

Yes Men Looking for AV Support in Wales

I have received this e-mail from Iestyn Davies the Welsh Organiser of the AV referendum Yes Campaign:

Hello friend,

My name is Iestyn Davies - I'm your Yes campaign organiser in Wales.

I am here to help Yes campaigners like you to build your own campaigns so that Wales says "Yes" to AV on 5 May 2011.

Your leadership will be critical to this effort. Right now, I am looking for local organisers to help build the campaign where you are. Will you take up the challenge and join me?

The Yes campaign got off to a fantastic start on Bonfire Night, with people coming together at events across the country. Now we need organisers in your area to keep up that momentum.

We have just under six months to make sure that the country is ready to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

This is your chance to make a difference to the Yes campaign and change the future of British politics. Click here to find out more about becoming a local organiser and how you can help make Wales say "Yes"

I am really looking forward to campaigning with you for a new way of doing politics!

Best wishes,

Iestyn Davies
Organiser, Wales

My answer to Iestyn is NO, I'm not interested in the Lib Dem abuse of the electoral cycle in order to try and gain support for their half baked electoral reform compromise.

I will be campaigning in a much more important electoral contest on May 5th.

But I publish his appeal for support in the hope that Liberal and Labour AV supporters take their eye of the ball and put their efforts into AV rather than the Assembly campaign!

Why not delay the referendum for now and have a substantial referendum in 2012?

Last week I was invited to be part of a focus group commissioned by the Electoral Commission to garner opinions about the wording of the prospective Assembly Powers Referendum.

There were about 20 people in the group from different backgrounds. Some of us were keen supporters of the Assembly others wanted the institution abolished, but all, apart from myself, were under the illusion that the referendum was about giving the Assembly the same powers that the Scottish Parliament has now. When it was explained that they were mistaken, that the referendum was just about the way that the Assembly gained powers and that the full powers could be gained, over time, even if the referendum produced a 100% No vote, all thought that the referendum was a complete waste of time and money.

The members of the group were all annoyed that they had come to the meeting with strong views on opposing or supporting enhanced devolution only to find that the discussion was about administrative tinkering rather than anything of substance.

Because of the current government's desire to equalize the size of Westminster constituencies the Government of Wales Act 2006, will have to be amended, because the said act insists that Westminster and Bay constituencies must be the same size. In amending the bill why not add an amendment to give the Assembly Schedule 7 powers without the need for a referendum, and have a referendum in a year or two's time on substantive Full Scottish Type Powers for the Assembly, which most people, from both sides of the argument, think that the part 4 referendum is about anyway?

The National Assembly for Westminster?

Since the advent of the ConDem Westminster government six weeks, or so, ago, I have been disappointed with the attitude of Assembly Members.

I can accept that Labour and Plaid AM's are peeved that the Conservatives and Lib Dems are in Government in London and that the Welsh opposition AMs are as pleased as punch, so one expects a bit of our government V your government banter, but does the Assembly have to be so London Centric in all its proceedings? Questions to the FM and business questions for the past three weeks as well as many other debates all seem to be about what is going on in London.

The One Wales Government is NOT the unofficial opposition to the ConDem Government, the opposition parties are not in coalition in Wales and they are not the spokes persons for the Westminster government in Wales!

We pay AMs of all parties to discuss matters concerning Wales in those areas devolved to Wales, not to be a Westminster sounding board. Apart from letting Wales down with the nonstop London centric point scoring, Assembly questions and debates are becoming very, very boring.

Come on boys and girls get over the last election result; love it or loath it the result stands, please get back to doing the job in hand of managing the devolved issues to the best of your ability despite / irrespective of what is happening down the M4!

Why Didn't Santa Visit Wales?

This is a short brake in my blogging hibernation in order to raise a question of the utmost importance. Why didn't Santa visit Wales this year?

NORAD is a military agency of the US and Canadian governments that monitors the skies in order to look out for missile attacks aimed at northen America. Because of their speciality NORAD is able to track Father Christmas's journey across the world. Every year NORAD shares this intelligence with the world's children so that they might know where Santa is on each stage of his journey.



Above is a map of where the great bearded one had been shortly after he had left the British Isles. The map shows that he had visited Scotland, England the north and the south of Ireland, but he appears to have flown over Wales without stopping.

Have the children of Wales been particularly naughty this year? If so the Assembly must do its utmost to ensure that the children of Wales are better behaved next year so that Santa doesn't ignore our country again! If our children have been as good as they usually are then the Assembly should contact NORAD to ask them to include Santa's visit to Wales next year.

Season's greetings to you all.

Democracy Live and the Welsh Language

The new BBC Service Democracy Live is great and one that I am sure to use often. It offers live and recorded debates from eight UK parliamentary chambers, including the Assembly's Senedd.

It is also possible to embed proceedings from the chamber into blog posts. As the service is available it must be used!

Here is the discussion on the Welsh language eLCO held yesterday:



(NB the embedded video audio comes from translators for most of the debate)


Apparently it is posssible to take individual contributions out of full debates for the sake of partisan or personal embedding, but I haven't worked out how to do that yet. However, this is a debate worth following from beginning to end.

What I find heartening about this debate is the fact that its liveliness, the fire in the belly, the party political point scoring and the passion is based on an argument about which party is the greatest supporter and promoter of the language.

Listening to Tory and Liberal Democrat and Labour members criticising a Plaid Cymru minister for compromising on the language and not doing enough to defend it bought a tear to the eye; not because the criticisms might, or might not, be justified - but just because they were made.

A quarter of a century, or less, ago this sort of debate would have involved a powerless member of Plaid stuck in a corner supporting the language whilst the other three parties ravaged him or her for the stupidity of advancing the cause of a half dead language. The fact that today, a nationalist minister had to fight off attacks from members of the other parties who were falling over themselves to prove that they are the most ardent supporters and truest defenders of the language is evidence of how far the Welsh language cause has moved in so short a time.

Plaid's next big challenge is to get to a situation where all the other parties are criticising it for not doing enough to advance the cause of national self determination :-)

The Rhodri Conundrum

A number of commentators on the Radio and TV today have been making the point that Rhodri Morgan as an individual has a high popularity rating in Wales, but that the party that he leads has become noticeably less popular during his time at the helm. A number of reasons have been given for this – his man of the people persona; Rhodri not sorting out institutional problems in the Welsh Labour party etc.

I would suspect that the real reason is in the way that Assembly issues are always reported. The Assembly is almost invariably seen as a corporate institution rather than a political institution. Here is an example from the today's Daily Post:

"THE Labour government was accused of hypocrisy last night after announcing it was scrapping hospital car parking charges despite criticising the Welsh Assembly when it axed fees."

Throughout the article there is no mention that the decision to scrap parking fees was proposed by the Labour/Plaid government in Cardiff, it is always described as a decision made by the Assembly or by Wales.

The same has been true of almost any decision, good or bad, made since devolution. They have all been Assembly decisions never Welsh Labour Government decisions in the way that Westminster measures have been Labour Government measures. The problem that this has caused Labour is that Rhodri's popularity has been matched by the Assembly becoming more popular, rather than by Labour becoming more popular. Labour in Wales has been blamed for Westminster Labour's failings but has failed to gain from Rhodri's "clear red water" Welsh Labour policies.

This isn't just a problem for Labour however; it is a problem for all the parties.

When the Tories suggested scrapping free prescriptions recently they were seen as opposing the Assembly rather than opposing a Labour policy. When the Labour/Plaid government failed to help secure the future of Dolgarog Aluminium works in the Conwy valley last year attacks on the parties of government by the parties of opposition fell on deaf ears – the locals blamed the Assembly, and they wanted the Assembly scrapped not a change of Assembly Government!

Until we see an end to reporting of the Assembly as a corporate body, rather than as an institution that is as party political as the House of Commons, proper political debate in Wales will be stifled to the detriment of all of the parties involved in the Assembly.

Rubbish of the day?

In a response to a quote by Helen Mary Jones that ".....aboloshing prescription charges has helped people in Wales gain access to the vital medicine they need" Dave at the Cynical Dragon says:

Less than 10% paid for prescriptions when they were abolished.

I'm not convinced of the veracity of the comment that only 10% of people had to pay prescription charges, before the abolition of prescription charges in Wales. I understand that the truth is that only 10% of the population had to pay ALL prescription charges. The remaining 90% included people who had pre-pay certificates, those who had their first prescription issued in a hospital rather than a pharmacy and those who were exempt from condition limited charges (such as ex-service personnel who were allowed free prescriptions relating to their war pension ailments, but not other conditions).

As Lyndon notes in a comment, the trouble with the old payment system was that it was arbitrary, illogical and of a completely unfair nature.

I am prescribed anticonvulsants. So, if I had won an Euro Lottery roll-over of £90 million and had invested it in a dodgy hedge fund that gave me a 1000% return, I STILL wouldn't have to pay the charges under the current English system.

If the NHS in Wales needs to re-introduce charges, then the charging system must be fair and equitable. Unfortunately the Assembly doesn't have the competence to introduce fair prescription charges at the moment.

If there are good economic arguments for reintroducing prescription charges (and I am not convinced that there are) then they cannot be reintroduced until the Assembly has the full competence to create fair and equitable charges. With the eLCO system of gaining competence for the Assembly being so long winded there are many more pressing issues that need to be dealt with ahead of this one!

The Tax Payers Alliance

Whenever there is a news story about public expenditure one can almost guarantee that the report will contain a comment by a spokesperson from the Tax Payers Alliance, as has been seen today in reports about AMs using expenses to rent office space from their own parties.

The impression given is that the Tax Payers Alliance is a grass roots organization who's objective is to speak up for the ordinary men and women who pay the taxes that government spends. This is a very false impression.

The TPA is, in fact, an ultra right wing organization founded by loyal Thatcherites for the purpose of promoting the most discredited and unacceptable aspects of Thatcherite economic policy.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of the way that Assembly Members rent offices one has to remember that in commenting on the story the TPA is doing so from a political position of being ideologically opposed to the existence of the Assembly. Their comments should be seen in that context and the journalists using their comments should make that context clear.

The Christmas Commission

Here is a sobering thought for those of us who save our pennies in order to give our kids a good Christmas, even more sobering for those who buy Christmas on credit:

As of last Thursday we are nearer to next Christmas than we are to last Christmas.

I set up this blog to comment on the last Assembly election, in fits and starts it has kept on going. Incredibly we are now nearer the next Assembly election than we are to the last one. How time flies when one is enjoying oneself! Time to start looking forward to 2011, perhaps, rather than harping back to 2007!

One thing that has become clear since the inception of the Assembly is that the chances of having a single party majority government, under the current system of election, is highly unlikely. We are either going to have a coalition government or a minority government (which is a coalition of opposition, in all but name).

The way that the parties have dealt with the inevitability of coalition over the past 10 years is by creating commissions, conventions and committees to deal with contentious issues and by doing so, passing the buck to others.

By voting for Assembly Members we employ THEM to make difficult decisions, we don't employ them to employ others to take the difficult decisions away!

I have nothing against consultation or seeking expert opinion when it is used for the best of reasons. But using consultation and seeking expert opinion to procrastinate on contentious coalition issues is an abuse of process for the worst of reasons. It stifles good governance and it makes a mockery of democracy!

As they look forward to the next Assembly elections and start to prepare for the possibility of being in a coalition, all parties must consider what their red line issue are, what they won't compromise on. And to make it clear to the electorate that those issues will be dealt with, by the Assembly, rather than by some Santa Clause Commission.

Why Just a Welsh Language LCO?

A number of posts last week across the Welsh blogosphere relating to the Welsh Language LCO attracted comments from Brian Barker from the UK Esperanto Lobby.

I have never quite understood the idea of Esperanto, and have never favoured the idea of "one universal language". However Mr Barker's comments in favour of a legal status for Esperanto do raise an interesting point regarding Language issues and the Assembly. Specifically, why should the Assembly request competence for just the Welsh Language?

Wales is a multi cultural, multi linguistic community. The idea that the National Assembly should have authority to legislate and make policies in regard to just ONE of those many languages doesn't seem right to me.

Many of those who object to any protection for the Welsh language worry that such protection is, in some way, going to force them to learn Welsh or disadvantage them because they don't speak Welsh.

Most Welsh speakers despair when we hear such arguments. We know what linguistic disadvantage is and we know that giving our language a legal status is not going to endanger the future of English in Wales! However, we have to accept that the worries of the non Welsh speaking community, despite being unfounded, are genuine worries.

Competence for Language, rather than just the Welsh Language could enable the Assembly to give the English speaking majority assurances that would enable them to support the protection of Welsh without fear.

Wales doesn't have just two indigenous languages - it has three. Since its inception the Assembly has accepted that BSL (sign language) is the third most commonly used indigenous language in Wales. The Assembly is the only government body that accepts BSL as an official native language. A language LCO that gave the Assembly authority over BSL as well as Welsh might make ITV Wales think again about ditching BSL on it's news programmes.

In some wards in Wales both English and Welsh are minority languages, the Assembly should have the language competency to cope with these communities, and to react to their linguistic needs sensitively. An exclusive Welsh language LCO doesn't give our government the tools needed for that job!

I don't think that the current Welsh Language LCO can be adapted into a general Language LCO, given its passage. But whilst the current competence order is going through its paces, it would be good if the Assembly started to think about other broader linguistic responsibilities it could aquire as the next step!

The School Assembly and the Welsh Assembly

It is very rarely that I find myself siding with the High Priest of the Fundamentalist Atheist Religion and disagreeing with my former fellow-student at Theological Collage The Rev Geraint Tudur. But on the subject of school Assemblies I am with Prof Dawkins.

When I was in school many moons ago, as a young committed Christian, I thought that the Morning Assembly ridiculed the very meaning of an Act of Christian Worship.

The Headmaster could go from praising the Lord to praising the achievements of the First Rugby XV without batting an eyelid; and he could go from a hymn about Christian forgiveness into a threat of six of the best for those who's hair was too long without any sense of hypocrisy!

My headmaster was a deacon and a lay preacher in a local chapel. If he, a person used to leading Christian worship outside school, could make such a mockery of Christian worship in the School Assembly, how much more harm can the majority of headteachers today, who don't have a personal faith in Christ, do to the institution of Christian Worship?

If anything Jane Davidson hasn't gone far enough. Personally I believe that the School Assembly should be abolished as an act of Christian Worship.

I have nothing against getting the whole school together (with no right of opting out) in order to praise the achievements of school heroes or in order to give a communal bollocking to those who spit gum in the yard - but confusing such a meeting with worship verges on the heretical!

Marcus will, no doubt, tell me that it is not a good enough reason; but one of the reasons why I want a Welsh Parliament rather than a Welsh Assembly, is because the title Welsh Assembly always reminds me of Tuesdays and Thursdays in school when the hymns, the readings, the prayers, the football praise and the castigation's were delivered in Cymraeg!

David Jones' Democratic Deficit

David Jones MP is a gentleman for whom I have the "utmost respect".

His attitude towards local democracy stinks. His suggestion that Dafydd Elis Thomas' role is just that of the chairman of a county council, is insulting to Welsh County Councils, the chairs of those august bodies and our National Assembly.

It may come as a surprise to Mr Jones that the Chair of a Council, be it a Parish Council or a County Council DOES have the role of defending and upholding the constitution of the council. So even if he wishes to insult the Assembly by calling it nothing more than a council, and insult the Presiding Officer by saying his role is the same as that of a council chair; Lord Elis Thomas, as elected Presiding officer, still has the right, the moral duty and the legal obligation to defend the Assembly's constitution!

The Government of Wales Act 2006 did not create a bicameral Assembly. The Welsh Affairs Select Committee, is not a second chamber of the Assembly. The WASC's response to the housing LCO suggests that it is, illegally, attempting to make itself the Assembly's upper house.

The Government of Wales Act (2006) states, quite clearly, that the Assembly can ask Westminster please can we have legislative powers over xxxx issue?.

Westminster has a choice of two Answers Yes or No. By answering maybe - as long as you use the powers to do what we want the WASC is, quite simply, breaking the law.