Sunday 27 July 2014

Edwina Hart a symbol of a weak government.

You well know that I'm not a big fan of LibDem Blog Subordinate Central but I give a hat tip to them  for  carrying the BBC report the Welsh Government have taken the decision not to publish decision not to publish a document on the conclusions of a consultation on the planned M4 relief road".
Edwina Hart not strong but weak.
Ministers approved the paper last week before announcing they backed plans for the new road, south of Newport.
Cabinet agendas and papers normally appear on the Welsh government website six weeks after each cabinet meeting.
Liberal Democrats said the decision was "outrageous". Ministers have been asked to comment on the criticism.
The business case for the £1bn road - put forward by the engineering firm Arup who carried out the consultation - has been published.
Transport Minister Edwina Hart has already been heavily criticised for the way she took the decision to build the road.
She announced her decision in the Senedd last Wednesday, the day before the end of term, and a week before an assembly committee was due to publish a report on the subject.
The minister insisted she was "getting on with governing", and that her decision was correct.
Hart has form on this she   controversially ruled out a review of NHS spending in Wales on 12 November 2009, declining Liberal Democrat Kirsty Williams (La Pasionaria) request to review how £1 billion has been spent on NHS services, following evidence to the Welsh Assembly's Finance Committee that claimed £1 billion was 'wasted' in the Welsh NHS each year

She is often reluctant to justify her decisions to the media and in announcing the plans for the Relief Road just before the Assembly broke up for its long summer break also seems reluctant to address the Legislature that she is responsible to.


When she  was appointed Minister for Health and Social Services in 2007). I may not have been alone in thinking that we may have has a Minister who could make tough decisions.such was the impression Hart  gave.


But it is clear whilst she can make decisions she is not prepared to back them up or answer to her critics and that is sigh of weakness.


And its weakness not contempt  for her critics that Hart has .


She is a weak politician and because of it she makes the wrong decision and knows she can't justify it so refuses to do so with clarity.


In many ways she is the symbol of Welsh Labour  taking the easy option ,unable to listen to critics,and a almost  divine belief that they and they alone should run Wales.


It is the story of the Assembly so far. Second rate politicians from a party whose  hegemony over Wales has gone on to long .and whose letargy lack of ambition are a danger to the whole devolution process.

There are community councils inn Wales with more ambition.

We need to replace them sooner rather than later.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You almost seem to suggest that these decisions aren't hers since she is unable to justify them. Have you read the Jac o the north blog entry on her?

glynbeddau said...

Its hard to tell whether she bears the imprint of the last person who sat on her its Its all hers decision. But either way she has a duty to tell us why. Read Jac's assessment. a bit more acidic tan mine.