Posted on This is My Truth on 7 November
There will be people who think that this is the wrong time to be discussing a referendum, Rhodri Morgan told an audience in Aberystwyth last night. But there will be others who will have “a more optimistic vision”, the First Minister said in a lecture to the Welsh Political Archive.
What could that mean?
I understand he was given the option of the All Wales Convention report being delayed until his successor was in place, but insisted on it landing on his desk.
Those with long memoeries wil recall that Rhodri Morgan initally gerated the publication of the Richard Commission report in 2004 as a “red letter day” for Wales, only to recoil from its main recommendations days later in the face of a backlash from Welsh MPs.
Perhaps this time, as a last hurrah, Rhodri will want to leave ”a more optimistic” legacy?
Saturday, 7 November 2009
Sunday, 1 November 2009
The day the Welsh Secretary nearly died
Posted on This is My Truth on 1 November
Those with long memories will remember the Cabinet re-shuffle in the summer of 2003 as a complete mess. You may recall Peter Hain becoming Leader of the House of Commons(as well as Welsh Secretary), the post of Lord Chancellor abolished and the Wales Office subsumed - administratively at least - into a new Department of Constitutional Affairs.
As someone reporting on all this at the time I remember the confusion amongst Welsh MPs and within the Wales Office at what was going on.
Well, some light has now been shed on it all. Lord Derry Irvine, the Lord Chancellor who was sacked, has now published his personal memo to Tony Blair urging him to tread carefully.
Irvine revals that Blair has originally intended:
"the creation of a Department for Constitutional Affairs with a Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs with a Secretary of State in the Commons including the responsibilities of the Secretary of State for Wales, the staff of the Scotland Office and ODPM's responsibilities for devolution"
Peter Hain was to be the man who was to head up the new Department of Constitutional Affairs and take on most of the functions of the Lord Chancellor. It would in effect have been the end of the Wales Office and the beginnings of a UK department for devolution.
As it happens Blair pulled back slightly and gave the job of Lord Charlie Falconer and moved Hain to the Commons job, denying the new Constitutional Affairs Department the coherence that was intended.
It is no less a mess than we thought at the time, but fascinating that Blair came so close to creating a Department for the Isles even though he insisted at the next General Election that abolishing the position of Welsh Secretary was not an option.
Those with long memories will remember the Cabinet re-shuffle in the summer of 2003 as a complete mess. You may recall Peter Hain becoming Leader of the House of Commons(as well as Welsh Secretary), the post of Lord Chancellor abolished and the Wales Office subsumed - administratively at least - into a new Department of Constitutional Affairs.
As someone reporting on all this at the time I remember the confusion amongst Welsh MPs and within the Wales Office at what was going on.
Well, some light has now been shed on it all. Lord Derry Irvine, the Lord Chancellor who was sacked, has now published his personal memo to Tony Blair urging him to tread carefully.
Irvine revals that Blair has originally intended:
"the creation of a Department for Constitutional Affairs with a Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs with a Secretary of State in the Commons including the responsibilities of the Secretary of State for Wales, the staff of the Scotland Office and ODPM's responsibilities for devolution"
Peter Hain was to be the man who was to head up the new Department of Constitutional Affairs and take on most of the functions of the Lord Chancellor. It would in effect have been the end of the Wales Office and the beginnings of a UK department for devolution.
As it happens Blair pulled back slightly and gave the job of Lord Charlie Falconer and moved Hain to the Commons job, denying the new Constitutional Affairs Department the coherence that was intended.
It is no less a mess than we thought at the time, but fascinating that Blair came so close to creating a Department for the Isles even though he insisted at the next General Election that abolishing the position of Welsh Secretary was not an option.
Signs of life
Posted on This is My Truth on 1 November
For me the interesting feature of the leadership election is not the coded attacks, though there are plenty of them, but the early signs of policy innovation.
Labour has struggled to develop policy in Wales. Partly because the culture and structure of the Party has not been geared towards developing separate policy for Wales, and partly because the leading players have been engaged in Governing. New policy has been developed in a hurried, and often shockingly casual way, in the immediate build-up to an election.
The Leadership election is forcing the Labour Party to think about new Welsh policies in the middle of the electoral cycle. And there are encouraging signs.
Dave Hagendyk is right to say that the ideas of Huw Lewis will feature in the next manifesto. So too will the ideas of the other candidates.
Here are three suggestions that caught my eye which I believe deserve a place in Labour’s programme in 2011 – I’ve chosen one from each of the candidates and I’ll let you guess which candidate came up with them:
•Set up a Leadership Academy for public service leaders and managers to promote innovation and spread best practice
•“immersion placements” for students from every school in Wales in Welsh-speaking communities to develop a positive interest in Welsh as a living language.
•A co-ordinated government plan to support looked-after children, putting energies into engaging directly with children affected, reducing educational disruption, enhancing independent advocacy and providing a personal support plan for children leaving care;
Ok, these aren’t exactly radical. But in fairness to all the candidates it is not easy to come up with proposals when the winner will be tied into an already agreed coalition programme for the next two years, and against the backdrop of painful budgets cuts.
Whoever is named Labour leader on December 1st needs to ensure that the process of gathering ideas is not restricted to the periods around elections. It is an essential part of rebuilding the party.
For me the interesting feature of the leadership election is not the coded attacks, though there are plenty of them, but the early signs of policy innovation.
Labour has struggled to develop policy in Wales. Partly because the culture and structure of the Party has not been geared towards developing separate policy for Wales, and partly because the leading players have been engaged in Governing. New policy has been developed in a hurried, and often shockingly casual way, in the immediate build-up to an election.
The Leadership election is forcing the Labour Party to think about new Welsh policies in the middle of the electoral cycle. And there are encouraging signs.
Dave Hagendyk is right to say that the ideas of Huw Lewis will feature in the next manifesto. So too will the ideas of the other candidates.
Here are three suggestions that caught my eye which I believe deserve a place in Labour’s programme in 2011 – I’ve chosen one from each of the candidates and I’ll let you guess which candidate came up with them:
•Set up a Leadership Academy for public service leaders and managers to promote innovation and spread best practice
•“immersion placements” for students from every school in Wales in Welsh-speaking communities to develop a positive interest in Welsh as a living language.
•A co-ordinated government plan to support looked-after children, putting energies into engaging directly with children affected, reducing educational disruption, enhancing independent advocacy and providing a personal support plan for children leaving care;
Ok, these aren’t exactly radical. But in fairness to all the candidates it is not easy to come up with proposals when the winner will be tied into an already agreed coalition programme for the next two years, and against the backdrop of painful budgets cuts.
Whoever is named Labour leader on December 1st needs to ensure that the process of gathering ideas is not restricted to the periods around elections. It is an essential part of rebuilding the party.
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
It's not just houses that people can't afford to fuel
Posted on This is My Truth on October 20th
The Charter aimed at ridding Wales of fuel poverty by 2018 launched today outlined how one in four Welsh households suffered from fuel poverty, meaning they have to spend 10% or more of their income on heating.
Though the concept of fuel poverty is familiar to us the figures are stark and shocking. Perhaps less well known is the fact that Wales is also riddled with transport poverty.
One in four households don’t have access to a car – in communities like Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil as many as 35% of families are car-less. But because jobs and services are often difficult to access by public transport many on low-incomes feel forced to ‘invest’ in a car.
Research shows that buying and running a car is a major cause of people getting into trouble with debts. Those on low-wages who do have cars spend nearly a quarter of their income on the cost of motoring. And the cost is set to rise. The price of oil has already more than doubled since early this year and is predicted to keep on going up.
Transport poverty in Wales will increase further if our society continues to be shaped by the idea that running a car is the same kind of ‘basic need’ as heating our homes. Wales needs to rethink its transport priorities so that sustainable transport options are seen as realistic and convenient for people and owning a car is no longer seen as a necessity but a lifestyle choice.
The Charter aimed at ridding Wales of fuel poverty by 2018 launched today outlined how one in four Welsh households suffered from fuel poverty, meaning they have to spend 10% or more of their income on heating.
Though the concept of fuel poverty is familiar to us the figures are stark and shocking. Perhaps less well known is the fact that Wales is also riddled with transport poverty.
One in four households don’t have access to a car – in communities like Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil as many as 35% of families are car-less. But because jobs and services are often difficult to access by public transport many on low-incomes feel forced to ‘invest’ in a car.
Research shows that buying and running a car is a major cause of people getting into trouble with debts. Those on low-wages who do have cars spend nearly a quarter of their income on the cost of motoring. And the cost is set to rise. The price of oil has already more than doubled since early this year and is predicted to keep on going up.
Transport poverty in Wales will increase further if our society continues to be shaped by the idea that running a car is the same kind of ‘basic need’ as heating our homes. Wales needs to rethink its transport priorities so that sustainable transport options are seen as realistic and convenient for people and owning a car is no longer seen as a necessity but a lifestyle choice.
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Objective what?
Posted on This is My Truth on October 11th
The BBC today reports what we already know - the current round of EU Structural funds is likely to be Wales' last.
It was only our lamentable economic performance that saw us narrowly qualify for the current round of Convergence funding. The enlargement of the EU to include even poorer areas than our own is likely to mean that in 2013 we'll have to learn to live without the top level of European structural funding.
What the BBC failed to ask was, is that a bad thing?
Clearly £1.2 Billion over seven years is not to be spurned, £171 Million pounds a year clearly matters. But in the context of the annual WAG budget of over £16 Billion a year, it is relatively small.
More important to my mind is the opportunity cost incurred trying to spend the EU grant available to Wales. Over the last decade Welsh public servants have learned a whole new language - Eurospeak. It is a secret code. They talk of the intervention rates which they can draw down EDRF to match funds - and that's the intelligible bit.
Civil servants, Quango staff, Local Government officers and voluntary sector workers have become very creative in piecing bits of funding together to access European money. But it has a distorting effect on the way public services are designed and delivered in Wales.
The amount of time, effort and imagination that is being absorbed by tapping into a relatively small funding stream must have a considerable opportunity cost. Time spent on finding ways round opaque EU funding rules is time not spent on thinking new thoughts.
Looking back the debates of ten years ago about 'match funding' seem rather quaint. Anyone with a rough working knowledge of way the Structural Funding is working in practice knows that genuine 'match funding' is a myth. But the amount of energy exerted keeping the myth alive is considerable.
In a contracting public spending environment losing access to any top-up cash is regrettable, but it is a far more nuanced picture than the reports suggest.
The BBC today reports what we already know - the current round of EU Structural funds is likely to be Wales' last.
It was only our lamentable economic performance that saw us narrowly qualify for the current round of Convergence funding. The enlargement of the EU to include even poorer areas than our own is likely to mean that in 2013 we'll have to learn to live without the top level of European structural funding.
What the BBC failed to ask was, is that a bad thing?
Clearly £1.2 Billion over seven years is not to be spurned, £171 Million pounds a year clearly matters. But in the context of the annual WAG budget of over £16 Billion a year, it is relatively small.
More important to my mind is the opportunity cost incurred trying to spend the EU grant available to Wales. Over the last decade Welsh public servants have learned a whole new language - Eurospeak. It is a secret code. They talk of the intervention rates which they can draw down EDRF to match funds - and that's the intelligible bit.
Civil servants, Quango staff, Local Government officers and voluntary sector workers have become very creative in piecing bits of funding together to access European money. But it has a distorting effect on the way public services are designed and delivered in Wales.
The amount of time, effort and imagination that is being absorbed by tapping into a relatively small funding stream must have a considerable opportunity cost. Time spent on finding ways round opaque EU funding rules is time not spent on thinking new thoughts.
Looking back the debates of ten years ago about 'match funding' seem rather quaint. Anyone with a rough working knowledge of way the Structural Funding is working in practice knows that genuine 'match funding' is a myth. But the amount of energy exerted keeping the myth alive is considerable.
In a contracting public spending environment losing access to any top-up cash is regrettable, but it is a far more nuanced picture than the reports suggest.
Friday, 9 October 2009
Lame legged duck?
Posted on This is My Truth on 9 October
So on Tuesday December 1st the new Leader of the Assembly Group will be announced. A full week later the Assembly will vote on next year's budget and, so we are given to understand, once it has been 'put to bed' Rhodri Morgan will relinquish his seat at the centre of the Cabinet bench in the Senedd chamber.
He's staying on because the budget negotiations are expected to be tricky, and the coalition could be destabilised if he went before they were complete.
But for a whole week Rhodri Morgan will be First Minister in name only and we'll enter into a period of 'cohabitation'. Authority is bound to flow away from the incumbent, and no deal can be reached without the consent of the First Minister in waiting. This is hardly a recipe for stability.
If I were Ieuan Wyn Jones I'd be looking to make the most of this potenital window of opportunity. And as my old friend Gareth Hughes has noted, there are already trouble makers looking to exploit the handover.
So on Tuesday December 1st the new Leader of the Assembly Group will be announced. A full week later the Assembly will vote on next year's budget and, so we are given to understand, once it has been 'put to bed' Rhodri Morgan will relinquish his seat at the centre of the Cabinet bench in the Senedd chamber.
He's staying on because the budget negotiations are expected to be tricky, and the coalition could be destabilised if he went before they were complete.
But for a whole week Rhodri Morgan will be First Minister in name only and we'll enter into a period of 'cohabitation'. Authority is bound to flow away from the incumbent, and no deal can be reached without the consent of the First Minister in waiting. This is hardly a recipe for stability.
If I were Ieuan Wyn Jones I'd be looking to make the most of this potenital window of opportunity. And as my old friend Gareth Hughes has noted, there are already trouble makers looking to exploit the handover.
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
The Tories on...poverty
Posted on This is My Truth on 7th October
As part of his own medium-term strategy for positioning himself for the leadership Conservative AM Jonathan Morgan has set out his party's claim on the Social Justice agenda.
He is right that tackling poverty cannot be the property of any one party. But he gets carried away with the symbolism of the Conservatives setting out to capture this agenda, without tackling the difficult detail of this intractable problem.
He wants to see a greater emphasis on business and enterprise in the Communities First programme. He echoes the criticism of the community lead initative and suggests the answer lies in a clearer focus and a greater "understanding toward the economic issues which are the most pressing".
He wants a greater role for central Government and a strong set of targets and benchmarks. That will be help acheieve "a positive synergy to bring about affirmative empowerment", apparently.
I believe that we should restructure the programme to ensure the delivery of specific economic outcomes. Communities First was designed to tackle poverty, therefore the focus should be on those economic factors and shouldn’t be a panacea to cure every problem.
Much of his critique is widely accepted. But his solutions are vague. Yes, Communities First is very broad, but so are the causes of poverty. Also it allows each community to decide the priority for their area. The Conservatices rhetoric of localism is in danger of giving way at the first sign of difficulty to the target culture they have done so much to criticise.
His engagement with the issue is to be sincerely welcomed, but I can't help feel that when it comes to solutions it is easier said than done.
As part of his own medium-term strategy for positioning himself for the leadership Conservative AM Jonathan Morgan has set out his party's claim on the Social Justice agenda.
He is right that tackling poverty cannot be the property of any one party. But he gets carried away with the symbolism of the Conservatives setting out to capture this agenda, without tackling the difficult detail of this intractable problem.
He wants to see a greater emphasis on business and enterprise in the Communities First programme. He echoes the criticism of the community lead initative and suggests the answer lies in a clearer focus and a greater "understanding toward the economic issues which are the most pressing".
He wants a greater role for central Government and a strong set of targets and benchmarks. That will be help acheieve "a positive synergy to bring about affirmative empowerment", apparently.
I believe that we should restructure the programme to ensure the delivery of specific economic outcomes. Communities First was designed to tackle poverty, therefore the focus should be on those economic factors and shouldn’t be a panacea to cure every problem.
Much of his critique is widely accepted. But his solutions are vague. Yes, Communities First is very broad, but so are the causes of poverty. Also it allows each community to decide the priority for their area. The Conservatices rhetoric of localism is in danger of giving way at the first sign of difficulty to the target culture they have done so much to criticise.
His engagement with the issue is to be sincerely welcomed, but I can't help feel that when it comes to solutions it is easier said than done.
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