Metaphor soup

Imagine a Hindu in a steakhouse and at the instant the meat is brought out they abandon the principle of the sacred cow and begin tucking into rare steak. This is like the lib dems.

Labour following Plaid policy

Shame for Labour that the good ideas they do have originate in Plaid. At least in this way we can help define effective opposition.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13783724

Public to make a loss

As reported last week the UK Government intend to sell Northern Rock at a net loss for the taxpayer. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13783724

The kind of business decision that will please city investors who advise on these issues, but clearly a bad deal for those of us who stumped up the cash. I can only hope that the proceeds from the sale will be invested in the frontline services now bearing the brunt of the cuts. I shan't hold my breath on that one though.

Wales and Poverty

Brief note: Had the pleasure of attending a workshop run by Oxfam over the weekend while at Plaid's annual Spring conference. There were some severe revelations.

Headlines last autumn told us that 1 in 3 children in Wales lived below the poverty line. But what does poverty in Wales mean? A key statistic reflecting Welsh poverty levels arose during the workshop. The life expectancy on the Gurnos estate in Merthyr, the largest housing estate in Northern Europe, is lower than in Haiti.

I'll leave that fact floating a moment then repeat.

The life expectancy on the Gurnos estate in Merthyr is lower than in Haiti.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Thatcher started it. Blair can Brown carried it on. Cameron an Clegg are trying to finish the job.

If you believe government and politicians should challenge this you know where Plaid are.

Wales treated fairly?

The euphoria of Wales' resounding Yes Vote has still not faded, but it is time to get back to business. For a budding candidate this means leafleting, canvassing, and, as you can see, the odd spot of blogging.

Back in the 1980s anti-thatcher reggae pop phenomenon UB40 released the song 1 in 10. A musical exploration of unemployment. The 1 in 10 of the title condemned the unemployment statistics of 1980s Britain at the height of a recession.

To put a scale on the crisis facing Newport, as was mentioned in the recent version of Question Time, Newport unemployment is currently 20%. Or in UB40 terms- 1 in 5. But no-one yet has released a pop single about it.

In that context it is hard to see any degree of awareness in Cameron's recent statements in Cardiff.

"I simply don't accept that we have treated Wales unfairly. I have seen a big recovery in Wales, politically for me, and I want to make sure that we deliver for people in Wales and my government is absolutely committed to doing that."

The reality, as the public sector workers in Wales can sadly testify, is that the only thing to which 'this government are absolutely committed' is certainly not securing a better deal for Wales or for workers, but driving through senseless cuts that will serve only vested interests and the minority.

The best, and only, way for Wales to be treated fairly, if Cameron cares, is for new fair funding formula, designed to meet the needs of Wales and the Welsh people. Cameron may say Wales is treated fairly, but he ignores the actual facts of treasury reports- that there is £900 million shortfall a year, according to treasury figures, between what Wales deserves, and what we receive.

Repeat at will people 'fairer funding now'.

Passport Office- who is to blame?

The con-dems have announced so many damaging and fundamentally unjust policies during their short stay in government it is hard to know where to even start. Any of the few remaining value giving public institutions or assets seem at risk of being cut, privatised, or otherwise 'restructured'. The nation of Wales, together with more traditionally working class regions of England- are bearing the brunt of these abuses. Clearly the con-dems see no political mileage in working for the votes of the Welsh majority. It is in this context that the coalition has made what has to be one of the most illogical proposed cuts on record. This is some achievement given the state of the competition. In the Autumn last year it was announced that Newport passport office was to slash its workforce down by over several hundred, perhaps even entirely,further decimating an already troubled area, and sucking untold thousands out of the local economy in real terms. So preposterous a measure is the passport office closure that even Newport's coalition led council oppose the move and presented a unified front in opposition with Plaid, Labour, and various unions led by the PCS. Even coalition supporters struggle to fathom the rhyme or reason behind the passport office closure.

Official documentation that explores the motives for the proposed downscaling reveal a patchy methodology at the heart of coalition decision making, and financial mis-management that surely stretches back to the last Labour government. A few weeks ago, disheartened by this sorry state of affairs that effects so many in my patch of Newport East, I made a Freedom of Information Request through to the Home Office. I wanted to know exactly how the Identity and Passport Service had reached a decision with so little merit- not just for jobs in Newport, but for the reception of an essential public services across Wales and the South West of England. After a couple of weeks they reverted back with the official consultation document given the PCS union, as it battles for
the offices' employees.

The most revealing aspect of this report are the plans to "streamline", through an unspecified but surely huge amount of public money, invested in technology, many passport office processes. "Additionally, in our regional passport processing operation we have been able to demonstrate increasing productivity over a number of years and have further plans, through investment in our replacement system and online channel and though streamlining our processes, to
improve productivity further."

From the wording here it is clear this is a situation that has been brewing for a while. In other words Labour, who now make the most of decrying the passport office job losses, most likely sowed the seeds for this unnecessary retrenchment in the first place. This is before we even mention the potential security risks in taking more passport office functions online.

Even if the passport office is still a profit making concern the con-dems are more worried with adhering to the the half baked recommendations from Sir Philip Green who supposedly reviewed almost the entirety of government functions in just a few short weeks in his brief "Efficiency Review" available online. On his specific recommendation "Cabinet Office has established a moratorium for all lease breaks and entering into leases across government." One of the key drivers for closing the passport office therefore is down to nothing more than the fact that the Newport office lease is up for renewal. And Sir Phillip Green said that this was bad.

Oddly enough Sir Phillip Green's recommendations, for instance on the importance of central procurement process, are abandoned when applied to other areas of government, such as the running of the English NHS.

There is no such ideological expediency where Welsh jobs, and the passport office are concerned however.

This gets to the root of the matter. With various civil service efficiency drives led by Westminster, Labour inspired errant technology investments, and con-dem obsession to cut not just the fat but the even the profitable parts of government, a huge dis-service has been done to passport office workers, Newport, Wales, and all those who would claim a passport across the South of Wales and the South West of England.

Wales' needs are not even considered in the official Home Office (IPS) documentation, just passing reference to Welsh language provision within the passport service. In the entirety of the full disclosure regards proposed passport office closures the UKs civil service don't use the word Wales even once. That in itself testifies to the gross indifference from Westminster to the plight of our communities, and our families here.

Police violence and student protests.

It is a sad, tragic even, reflection of our society when school children asking for nothing more than access to education are charged at by policemen on horseback.

This article in the New statesmen puts it better than I.