Friday 13 February 2015

Labour Civil war continues in Cardiff.

Wales Online have reported the extraordinary news that a Labour AM and MP claim they have been “actively misled” by colleagues in Cardiff council’s ruling group following private discussions about proposed budget cuts in the city.
According to the report.
Vaughan Gething AM and Stephen Doughty MP have sent an e-mail, which they  have seen, saying they feel they have been misled by senior members of the council’s ruling group – including leader Phil Bale.
it goes on
Cardiff South and Penarth Assembly Member Mr Gething said the pair had laid out in a series of meetings what they believed to be the priorities for the council’s forthcoming budget and alternative ways to save money.
In a letter sent on January 12 they called on the council to take into account the needs of individual areas when determining funding cuts.
The current list of proposals presents “significant challenges” for Cardiff South, they say, because residents are not in a position to take over a number of council-run services and under current plans those activities would have to stop immediately.
 It seems that both  Stephen Doughty MP  Vaughan Gething AM  facing  re-election either in May this year or in 2016 are concerned that they may be tarred with the same brush as their colleagues on the council but to claim they were "actively misled"  which  frankly means lied  to.

It is however  unclear how much these accusation are about the nature of the cuts  or a reflection of the ongoing Civil war in Cardiff Labour which resulted in the coup that brought  the relatively  unknown Phil Bale to power.

As Daily Wales pointed out at thr time

His presence online is very minimal but it looks as though his political career really started in 2010, when he unsuccessfully stood as an independent candidate in a local election in Peckham, London.When explaining his decision to stand Cllr Bale declared “I decided to stand after one of Peckham’s Labour Councillors was de-selected for her poor attendance and voting record – only to be selected as a candidate by the Liberal Democrats! If residents want to make Peckham an even better place to live we need dedicated local councillors to do it.  It is time for a candidate who would stand up for Peckham and champion all the good work that goes on here!”We know that Cllr Bale was born in Cardiff but just four years ago he was a dedicated local resident of Peckham who was standing against Labour. Now he’s about to be the Leader of the capital of Wales as a Labour Councillor. Quite a turnaround.

Though Cllr Bale may have not fully conciliated his power base as Wales Online report.

At the meeting on Monday the cabinet’s revised budget proposals were narrowly approved by the group and they will now go forward to the budget meeting on February 26 for a full council vote.A Labour source said as many as 10 councillors were considering voting against the budget despite all being told to vote with their party.Should any councillor vote defy the whip they could face expulsion from the party.It could also result in the budget failing to pass.But because it is a legal requirement to have a budget in place by March 1 if it failed to pass a second meeting would have to be hastily arranged and a second budget proposed.The source said: “It’s very difficult to see this group operating as a cohesive unit. There’s hatred between the sides and a complete lack of compromise.
At the meeting on Monday the cabinet’s revised budget proposals were narrowly approved by the group and they will now go forward to the budget meeting on February 26 for a full council vote.A Labour source said as many as 10 councillors were considering voting against the budget despite all being told to vote with their party.Should any councillor vote defy the whip they could face expulsion from the party.It could also result in the budget failing to pass.But because it is a legal requirement to have a budget in place by March 1 if it failed to pass a second meeting would have to be hastily arranged and a second budget proposed.The source said: “It’s very difficult to see this group operating as a cohesive unit. There’s hatred between the sides and a complete lack of compromise.
You may well wonder if the opposition to the cuts  is more about internal differences   rather than elected representatives defending their patch.






1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Another Cardiff Labour empire builder in the making, Phil Bale is looking more and more like Russell Goodway and well all know how that worked out.

Bale's been involved in three Cardiff announcements in the last 2 weeks alone with the Cardiff City Region, the hook up with Bristol and Newport and joining the Co-Cities project with 9 other UK cities, is anyone looking closely at his motives?