Not Covered?

From the Conservative Party Manifesto's Welsh Language Policy:

(We will) Create a Bilingual Nation – Introduce a Charter-Mark for businesses which will recognise Welsh language services. The scheme will be voluntary but will offer incentives for bilingual signage and Welsh language training for front-line staff.

As kitchen staff aren't front line and Carreg Môn doesn't appear to be a willing volunteer, what suport do the Tories offer these Welsh speaking workers?

Latest poster from United and Welsh

Click image to enlarge

I have blocked out the phone numbers on the poster, apparently they were genuine.

Send a dog turd through the letter box – Vote Labour!

I must congratulate Plaid and Uncut for his incisive description of Labour's campaign to use the Assembly election as a midterm British protest vote

Labour's headline so far has been Vote Labour to send a Message to David Cameron and Nick Clegg. Essentially the political equivalent of putting a dog turd through their letterbox or ordering a pizza to be delivered to their house. Messaged delivered, now what?

A vote in the Assembly election based on Westminster issues is a wasted vote, no matter who you vote for. You might hate what the Conservatives are going to do with the Health Service in England, but that isn't a reason for ignoring what might be different policies that Conservative Assembly Candidates have for Wales – those differences need to be explored before deciding whether or not to vote Conservative in the Assembly Election.

How this election is decided must be decided on the message that each and every candidate from all parties have for the people of Wales over the next five years.

Plaid Cymru, The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are saying vote for us because this is what we are offering Wales!

Labour's message seems to be Sod Wales; the Assembly Vote has no Importance in its own right, it's just a way of protesting. Labour has form on this attitude.

However you decide to vote, please vote positively for what is best for Wales and vote for the party that can best support your aspirations in the Assembly - not in Westminster!

Don't waste your vote on a, Westminster annoying, game of shitty stick!

Is A Labour Vote in the Assembly Election a Vote for Middle England?

Will Paterson has an interesting post that highlights the fact that there are evident similarities between the Labour Party's Election Broadcast for the Scottish Parliament, The English Counties and the National Assembly.

The PEB's are not the only things that are similar between the campaigns in the three countries.

The main thrust of debate from Labour in the three elections is that a vote for Labour is a means to protect the Local Authority / Scotland / Wales from Westminster cuts; which is nonsense of course. County Council have little ability to protect their constituents from Central Government cuts, and it is scarcely possible for the Scottish and Welsh Governments to protect their residents from the cuts either, without the fiscal powers to do so.

The Welsh Assembly Government's record of protecting Wales from the Westminster cuts so far has been an abysmal list of failure: S4C, The Passport Office, St Athan etc. etc. Not that I'm blaming the Labour/PC coalition Government in the Bay for these failures - the Assembly, as it is, just doesn't have the power to resist the central ConDem attacks on Wales. But it is a dirty rotten lie to build peoples hopes up by claiming that a vote for Labour in the Assembly Elections is going to change the situation!

The third thing that is similar in the three campaigns is the decision to treat the three elections as a mid-term referendum on the failures of the Westminster Government.

Labour in all three countries attacks the Hairy Arsed Tory Monster and the Ogre of Thatcherism (whilst forgetting to mention that Labour continued to pursue Thatcherite policies and even praised Mrs Thatcher during its recent term of British Government). They also try to link all of their opponents to the Tories.

Linking Liberal Democrats to The Beast is an obvious tactic. The policy of linking the SNP also makes some sense; many of the successes of the SNP minority government have derived from the support of the Conservative Party in Parliament (although many of their failures to pass measures derive from the fact that Labour voted with the Conservatives to defeat them). But to follow the same narrative in Wales is ridiculous.

Okay Plaid doesn't say No! No! Never! to a coalition with the Conservatives, but the majority of its spokesmen have said that it is highly unlikely! And which party has Plaid actually been propping up in Welsh Government for the past four years?

It is perfectly obvious that Labour is not campaigning in this series of elections in order to benefit any English County, nor in order to benefit Scotland nor to be of benefit to Wales.

The whole thrust of The Labour Campaign seems to be in the interest of the British Labour Party. The only purpose of a Labour Government in Wales will be to rehabilitate the UK Labour party at a Westminster level, not for the best governance of Wales for the benefit of Wales - a situation that is rotten enough in itself!

The frightening reality is, that if the main purpose of a Labour Government in the Bay is to restore some credulity to British Labour, it won't govern Wales in the interest of Wales - it will govern Wales in a way that appeals to those voters that Labour lost in Middle England in 2010, and that will be bad for Wales.

The English Question

"English votes for English matters" is a non starter, it contains so many problems that it will cause more animosity and strife than it could possibly resolve.

What is an English matter? Under the current system few are, because if expenditure is involved (be it spending more or less) it has Barnet consequentials for the finances of the devolved bodies!

What happens to things that are neither English only nor UK wide issues such as England and Wales measures? And what about those things that are non devolved Wales only issues – S4C, Welsh water, the governance of Assembly elections? Will English MPs be allowed to vote on those issues?

As far as English regionalism is concerned England already has historic regions – they are called shires or counties and parishes. All the countries of the UK should, without doubt, re devolve many of the powers that the counties and the parishes had pre 1974, which have increasingly been centralised; but I see little desire for creating "new" regions for England.

From a Welsh nationalist point of view I don't like the idea of English regional devolution. Wales has its Assembly, at the moment, because it is one of the nations of the UK; regionalise England and Wales reverts to being a region of the UK.

There is no way that the clock can be turned back on devolution in the foreseeable future, and there is no way that the English question can remain unresolved. Any threat to abolish the devolved institutions will lead to Scottish, and possibly Welsh independence. So there appear to be only two options available independence for the nations of Britain or Federalism, perhaps we should have a UK wide referendum on which we all would prefer!

This post is a response to discussions on:
http://oggybloggyogwr.blogspot.com/2011/04/england-question.html

http://ogarethhughes.blogspot.com/2011/02/question.html

http://toque.co.uk/node/1890

If any other bloggers have made reasonable and non racist comments on the issue and would like a link to their posts, please let me know.

Labour's (rather pathetic) Plaid Attack Site

There is little doubt that the site supposedly registered at Ieuan Wyn Jones' office address is a Labour attack site, a site designed specifically in order to enable Chris Bryant to repeat, under Parliamentary privilege, the slur that Plaid is a Tory stooge, which seems to be the Westminster Labour Party's main attack weapon against Plaid in the forthcoming Assembly Election.

Look at the evidence:

Which party gains from trying to claim that Plaid is conspiring with the ConDems in order to overthrow Labour?

Which party has a history of creating fake websites that backfire?

Who has been behind the other dodgy Labour websites and, as a member of Maes–E, loved to get up BlogMenai's nose in the political discussions on the site?

Who is the Labour staffer who would get great delight out of embroiling BlogMenai in a Labour set up?

The poster doesn't make any sense as a Plaid creation!

Plaid's number two target seat in this election is Clwyd West! Why on earth would any Plaid inspired campaign suggest voting against the party in its 2nd target seat?

This is clearly another stupid Labour Party dirty tricks set up, which like its other dirty tricks web campaigns is going to backfire. How stupid is the Labour party strategist who thought that the best way of attacking Plaid is by drawing attention to Labour's most vulnerable seats?

So if you are a Labour Supporter vote Plaid in Cardiff West, Carmarthen West, Caerphilly, Conwy and Neath – that is what your own Labour attack dog strategists seem to be asking you to do!

You might also like to vote Plaid in Cardiff North, Clwyd South, Clwyd West, The Vale of Glamorgan, Gower, Brec & Rad, Cardiff Central, Newport East and Swansea West. The Labour dirty tricks campaign clearly don't need or want you to vote Labour in these constituencies either – but why waste your vote on the ConDems?

Plaid's Labour attack site

There is no secret that I have a particular dislike for the Labour party, a party that has promised so much to Wales over the past hundred years but delivered so little and that I was bitterly disappointed that after a campaign in the last Assembly elections that promised to kick Labour into touch that Plaid decided to prop Labour up in government.



I suspect that propping up Labour is what Plaid will do again, however I was pleased to find that the party has a new web presence dedicated to attacking Labour:
http://www.wherewaslabour.plaidcymru.org/

Well worth a read, but two technical problems that Plaid might like to consider.

1]The RSS feed isn't detected by Blogger so I can't put links to new attacks in my My Blog List feature to the left of this page.

2] When a website has a prominent Copyright Notice on every page it suggests that the site owners will come down like a ton of bricks on anybody who dares to copy the site's pages. I would have thought that viral copying of things like how Labour crapped on the miners would better serve the party.


Hat tip: Grangetown Jack

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!

Ieuan says No to a 2011 Rainbow!

I notice a rather intriguing coincidence about Royal events affecting Assembly elections. This year the Royal Story that threatens to overshadow coverage of the election is the April Wedding of Wills and Kate. In April 2007 the Royal story that knocked the election off the front page of the Western Mail was Wills and Kate splitting up.

See what a difference that just one term of a Plaid lead one Wales Government can achieve! Love restored, harmony and reconciliation abound and a happy ending to a Fairy story.

This reconciliation was, of course, one of Plaid's main manifesto policies in 2007 (see page 244) and proves what a Plaid driven Welsh Government can achieve; which is why Plaid is fighting the next Assembly Election under the slogan We are the best lap dogs for Labour.

50,000 New Welsh Jobs. What a Stupid Idea!

In a speech in Cardiff yesterday Ieuan Wyn Jones outlined plans to raise money that could be used to fund 50,000 new jobs in Wales over the next 4 years. Given the high levels of unemployment in Wales and the need to reinvigorate the Welsh economy, one would have thought that such a scheme would be welcomed by all. The only grounds that I can think of for opposing plans for such a massive and much needed jobs boost would be if opponents could come up with a better scheme for creating even more jobs.

Unfortunately all the other three parties' responses to the plans were of the typically childish, name calling, negative type which we have come to expect from those quarters.

Liberal Democrat AM Jenny Randerson said: This is a typical Plaid Cymru pie in the sky policy.

Nick Bourn, the Leader of the Conservatives thinks that the plan is irrelevant.

And Labour's Owen Smith MP dismisses the plan with the rather odd comment if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

All of which sound to me like dismissing a policy just because another party thought of it first; dismissing the possibility of job creation and economic revival for petty party reasons.

If 50,000 new jobs and economic revival are seen as pie in the sky; irrelevant or too good to be true by the other parties – why on earth should anybody vote for them?

I would have hoped that Welsh Labour, the Welsh Conservatives and the Welsh Liberal Democrats had greater aspirations for Wales than to dismiss plans to increase employment and kick start our economy in negative sound bites!


Wales deserves better.

Deus Samolidi ex Machina?

This is the first PPB offered by the SNP for the May 5th elections:




I am not impresed, it reminds me of the Deus ex Machina of ancient Greek and Latin drama, a good story with a bad ending, where a god in the machine comes down to say it all ended happily ever after! Ych a fi. I hope that the SNP has better to offer than Salmond as the god in the Machine of Scots politics!

Having said that, where are the Welsh PPB's from all parties?

Time is short. There are votes to be won. But with only a few weeks to go the election campaign seems to be a non starter at the moment.

Time to pull the finger out?

Dusting off the Cobwebs

See: http://walesfirst.blogspot.com/2011/03/dusting-off-cobwebs.html

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.

A Poll and a Pinch of Salt

The results of the recent ITV YouGov poll were published on S4C's Y Byd ar Bedwar tonight. The opinion poll suggests that 67% of us will vote yes and 33% will vote no; this seems over optimistic to me; I would have expected the vote to be much, much closer.

Even odder is the poll's suggestion that turn out will be a whopping 56%!

I tend to agree with Jac of the North's assessment of the campaign so far:

"Rugby players say Yes', Business says Yes', 'Man at bus stop says "what referendum?"'

I haven't seen any enthusiasm for either side's argument, the vast majority of my friends and acquaintances either don't know or don't care about the issue.

OK YouGov have done a scientific poll, I have just heard what the people in the shop and the pub have said, but my expectation is that turnout will be about 30% and that the split will be about 51% 49%, but I wouldn't want to commit to which side will win which percentage.

I hope that YouGov is right and that I'm wrong but if I was in charge of either side I would neither rest on my laurels or throw in the towel based on what appears to me to be a rather iffy poll finding.

Vote For Wales or be Anti Welsh by default

Those of us who are married, middle aged and set in our ways are the most likely to vote in political elections. At a rough guess I reckon that between parish, area, county, Assembly, British, European and referenda, I have voted about 45 out of 46 times since I was 18.

The one I missed out on was on 18 September 1997 the date on which my Mother in Law had a heart attack. My wife and I accompanied her to the hospital, and by the time we left the hospital the polling stations had closed and three definite YES FOR WALES votes were never cast.

Ever since the opponents of devolution have claimed that those who failed to vote in favour of devolution are tacitly opposed to devolution, people who couldn't be bothered!

I wanted to vote Yes, my wife wanted to vote Yes, My mother in law wanted to vote Yes, other members of the family would have voted yes, but were deprived of voting because of family circumstances!

My failure, to vote yes in 1997 could not have been further from the truth of the antis claims about those of us who failed to vote!

If you support Welsh Self Determination – vote YES if you can; because if you don't, those monsters who hate Wales will claim your vote as their own in the same way that they claimed my patriotic mother in law's heart attack as a vote in favour of their hatred of Wales!

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?

Yes! For Rugby

Despite the best efforts of Yes for Wales and Untrue Lies there doesn't seem much enthusiasm about debating the pros and cons of moving to part four of the Government of Wales Act (2006).

There is however one question that can always guarantee to raise Welsh passions and to divide our nation into two separate camps: What is the National Game of Wales – Rugby or Football?

By being led by the Chief Executive of the WRU and by its excessive use of rugby images is Yes for Wales in danger of scoring an own goal by alienating those who would vote Football in a vote that really mattered?

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!