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.
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