National Left - Wales needs a progressive left future.
Tuesday 3 December 2019
Alun Davies seems to be writing his own political obituary.
Poor Alun Davies when he left Plaid Cymru and stood for Labour in the 2005 election it looked that he might just be starting a promising political career at last.
He was chosen as first on the Labour Party list for 'top-up' seats from the Mid and West Wales region for the 2007 Assembly election, and because of Labour losses in the region the party secured two seats.
Since being elected to the Assembly he was awarded the BBC Wales' AM:PM award for "Newcomer of the Year"[4] and has chaired the Broadcasting Committee[5] and the Rural Development Sub-Committee.
In July 2009 he was selected to fight his home seat of Blaenau Gwent at the next Assembly elections; he won the seat with a majority of 9,120 over the Independent candidate.
On 13 May 2011 Davies was appointed Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and European Programmes in the Welsh Government.[6]
On 14 March 2013 he was appointed Minister for Natural Resources and Food in the Welsh Government. Davies was however removed in July 2014 by First Minister Carwyn Jones from the Cabinet for "unacceptable behaviour" involving requests for information about farm subsidies paid to opposition AMs including Plaid Cymru AM Llyr Gruffydd and Conservative Antoinette Sandbach.[
On 10 June 2014, the First Minister announced an investigation into a letter Davies wrote to Natural Resources Wales (NRW) regarding environmental concerns with the proposed development of the Circuit of Wales race track in his own constituency. As well as making up part of his ministerial portfolio, NRW had expressed concerns about the race tracks development.[15] In an investigation undertaken by Permanent Secretary Sir Derek Jones CMG, his report published on 1 July 2014 concluded that Davies had breached the Ministerial Code.[16] The report noted that in March 2013, Davies had been advised by his own department not to lobby even as the AM in the case of the race track, but had ignored this advice and had then written to NRW as the affected AM.[16] The report also revealed that the First Minister had contacted Davies in August 2013, after Davies had expressed support for the circuit openly in quote to the Western Mail newspaper.[16] Davies faced no punishment by the First Minister, but endured sustained calls for him to resign due to his behaviour.[17]
On 8 July 2014 he was sacked by First Minister Carwyn Jones following his repeated written requests to his civil servants for the private details of Common Agricultural Policy payments made to opposition members, including: Andrew RT Davies (Leader, Welsh Conservatives); Antoinette Sandbach (Conservative); Kirsty Williams (Leader, Welsh Liberal Democrats); William Powell (Welsh Liberal Democrats); and Llyr Gruffydd (Plaid Cymru).[18]
In October 2018 he was criticised for comparing councils who asked for extra funding to Oliver Twist.[
At the last Senedd Electioin he saw his majority slashed and perhaps with his old Aber friend Carwyn Jones standing down as First Minster his return to the top echelon s of the Welsh Government seem to be remote
So he has seemingly decided to become even more of a maverick criticised the party's election campaign, and attacked a shadow cabinet member as "utterly useless".
The BBC report that
Former Welsh Government minister Alun Davies said Labour needed to learn how to run a UK-wide political campaign.The Blaenau Gwent assembly member also claimed Labour's justice spokesman Richard Burgon was an "embarrassment" on last night's ITV election debate.The Labour Party has been asked to respond to the criticism.Mr Davies shared his view on Twitter of the latest seven-party debate, saying: "Burgon is utterly useless. Totally out of his depth. Got shown up again tonight. These people are allowing and enabling the election of this dreadful Tory Govt."He also tweeted: "OMG. @RichardBurgon is an embarrassment. And it's time that @WelshLabour and @UKLabour learnt how to run a UK-wide political campaign."ITV political editor Robert Peston said the look on Mr Burgon's face provided the "moment of the debate" when Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price asked why Welsh Labour had not introduced free social care in Wales.Skip Twitter post by @JohnRentoulJohn Rentoul
Report End of Twitter post by @JohnRentoul In response, Mr Davies tweeted: "For those of us in @WelshLabour it is a moment of utter embarrassment." The former Welsh local government minister also said he found it "surprising" that First Minister Mark Drakeford as Welsh Labour leader had not put himself forward as the party's spokesman in Welsh debates. However, a senior Welsh Labour source said Mr Drakeford was taking part in Welsh party leaders' debates and interviews for the BBC and Sky. The source added that there were other cases where the broadcasters had sought parliamentary candidates to take part. Mr Drakeford is not standing in the general election. Mr Davies declined to comment further on his tweets when contacted by BBC Wales.
Some might think that Mr Davies might Re-Rat and defect back to Plaid, but i doubt Plaid are that desperate and have shut the dor long ago.
Meanwhile, Labour's shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey has withdrawn a call she made on Friday's BBC election debate in Cardiff for a public inquiry into what she called "horrific" maternity failures at Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board. Following the programme, Wales' Health Minister Vaughan Gething said he had already intervened and claimed there was "no basis to support an extra process". In a statement issued by Welsh Labour on Sunday evening, Ms Long-Bailey said: "As I said in answering the question, I was not aware of the circumstances or actions taken by the health minister to establish comprehensive and fully independent review and oversight arrangements."
Since the debate wa scoming from Cardiff Ms Long-Bailey should sourly have been brought up to date on what the only UK legislature under Labour's watch, where doing and the potential of the crisis in the Welsh NHS raised. But it just goes to show that unfortunately Labour have still come to terms with devolution and remain London-Centric. much as I respect Jeremy Corbyn on many issues his understanding g of the dynamics of devolution is woeful and going to Scotland and criticising the SNP 's handling of the NHS there , which despite many failings is still the best run in the UK. Whilst here in Wales we have one of the worst hence preforming NHS and what we see from the London HQ of Labour is either blissful ignorance, or proof they don't care.
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