La Pasionaria rightly blasts Labour, but what about the UK government?

 As you may have gathered from this Blog. I'm not a great fan pf the Welsh Liberal Democrat Kirsty Williams, leader finding her often claims of outage against the governing party to be rather over the top and theatrical .  to the extent I often refer to her as La Parisian.

But I must admit I have to reproduce this part of her speech to the her spring conference, because I concur with every word.

For years the Welsh Labour Government has enjoyed minimal UK media coverage, but Conference, things have changed. The chickens have come home to roost, and Welsh Labour doesn’t like it. Barely a day goes by when we don’t see another exposé on Wales’ public services.
For me, it feels really quite strange. I have an immediate reflex to jump to the defence of my country, no matter what.
It’s just so sad. We are such a great nation and we are so much better than those headlines. This isn’t what I want people to read about us.
Yet it’s not just sadness that I feel: it’s anger too. I know that some of these stories maybe motivated by a political agenda, but many are accurate and too often based on truth.
Our health service struggles like never before, our schools remain underfunded and underperforming, our economy lags behind the rest of the UK.
I am furious that we as nation are being portrayed in this manner.
Last week Carwyn Jones said these criticisms weren’t a war on Welsh Labour, or the Welsh Government, but a war on Wales as an entire nation.
How dare he take cover behind the people he is meant to lead. What kind of leader does that?
These headlines might hurt our sense of national pride, but we must not forget, it is Labour that is Wales’ weak link. Labour is holding us back, Labour – the weight around our nation’s neck.

What I  disagree with is that she is speaking from the position of a party that is in coalition that is starting to demolish the welfare state and privatising the NHS .

They have joined  in the cuts in benefits including the Bedroom tax and the demonising of those on benefits to the extent that they appear to be blaming  the poorest and weakest members of our society for the financial crisis.

If Labour are at fault in the running of the Welsh NHS whose responsible for the crisis in England?

La Pasionaria and the Welsh Liberal Democrats can't  have the luxury of opposition when criticising the Welsh Government in the Assembly and hop this diverts them from their collaboration with the Tories at Westminster .

It is time we looked for solutions from the opposition in the assembly and not just (though they should continue) attacks on the record of Labour there.

But with two parties offering by their record elsewhere  only a right wing agenda . It may fall to Plaid to offer a vision for a Welsh future so far we have only a glimpse and we can only hope they can raise to to the huge challenge ahead,



 

Margo's death shows anomaly in "Top Up Seat"s representation.

It appears that after the death of Margo Macdonald there will be no Byelection,

This is because, as  an Independent, she was not a list for the regional seat of Lothians  and there is no one to literally replace .

Who could follow Margo anyway?

But if she had been  in any of the other parties  then the  additional-member vacancy be filled by the next available candidate on the relevant party list, and they  would simply take up the vacant seat this would include Highland MSPs John Finnie and Jean Urquhart who  resigned from the SNP over the party's decision to end its long-standing opposition to Nato and now sit as Independents in a group with the Greens (which Margo was also a member).

If they were to leave the parliament their  seats presumably would revert to the SNP.

But it seems the Scottish Parlaiment will now have one fewer MSP until the 2016 election.

It does show the problem of the regional list system.

The case of Finnie and Urquhart also points to an another anomaly , People elected under the regional list system cannot normally claim to have a personnel vote (Margo of course being an exception) and when they defect they are taking the additional member from a Party which was to "Top Up" the democratic deficit that the First Pat the post system offers.

A similar problem occurred in wales when Mohammad Asghar who had been elected for Plaid Cymru  to the Welsh Assembly in 2007 defected to the Conservatives  two years later .

You could argue that anyone leaving the banner from which they were elected should face a by-election but the additional member ot top up system seems to be particularly fraught.  

One wonders if those framing the Acts  that set up the Welsh  Assembly  and Scottish Parliament took the potential anomalies into account .

Of course if they saw this they may have realised that the Top up method is an inferior form of proportional representation and gone for STV as in the case of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Both Plaid and the Welsh Liberal Democrats  support STV and should make it a prerequisite for any future coalition they may enter in Cardiff Bay.

Margo Macdonald (19 April 1943 – 4 April 2014 let an independent Scotland be her memorial.

With the Death of Margo Macdonald  Scotland has lost a unique and Independent voice.

It sad that as and vocal supporter of Scottish independence she will not see Scotland achieving Independence  or even have the opportunity to vote for 9t

, Margo MacDonald entered parliamentary politics by winning the Glasgow Govan by-election, 1973 as an SNP candidate at 30 years old. 

There were "scenes of near-hysteria by supporters" as she was declared the winner in what had, until then, been a Labour stronghold. Her election, during the last months of the Conservative Heath government, "overturned the theory that the SNP can thrive only when a Labour Government is in office

Glasgow Govan by-election, 1973
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Margo MacDonald	6,360	41.5	+31.2
	Labour	Harry Selby	5,789	38.2	-21.9
	Conservative	John Mair	1,780	11.7	-16.5
	Liberal	Peter McMillan	1,239	8.2
Majority			571	3.5
Turnout			15,168
	SNP gain from Labour		Swing	26.7

She only narrowly lost the Seat in the   February 1974  general election

General Election February 1974 : Glasgow Govan[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Harry Selby	10,326	43.17
	SNP	Margo MacDonald	9,783	40.90
	Conservative	J Mair	3,049	12.75
	Liberal	P McMillan	763	3.19
Majority			543	2.27
Turnout			23,920	74.92
	Labour gain from SNP		Swing

But she maybe had paved the way to the SNP making stunning gains  in the two elections that year.

By sheer irony one of those campaigning against Margo in the By-election  was the then Labour MP for South Ayrshire Jim Sillars who later was not to become her Husband but win the seat of Govan for the SNP in equally stunning fashion in in 1988

 A political left-winger, she was prominent in the socialist 79 Group and left the party in 1982 due to this group's proscription. but like Alex Salmond who was in a similar position returned



In 1999 she was elected to the Scottish Parliament, representing the Lothians. She earned a high media profile by her outspoken views on a number of issues, including sex workers' rights and MSPs' salaries.She quickly established herself as a rebel within the party, and was disciplined in 2000 for missing a parliamentary vote without permission and briefing a Sunday newspaper against party policy. 

^[Meanwhile, she  fell out with  the party leadership, firstly under Alex Salmond and then John Swinney, for being in the SNP Fundamentalist mould who opposed the idea og a gradualist move towards Independence through the Scottish Parliament  through the accumulation of more powers

 This culminated in her being placed fifth on the SNP list for Lothians for the 2003 Parliament election, effectively ending her chances of being re-elected as an SNP MSP. In response, there were a spate of resignations from the party,^[and Margo decided to stand as an independent. For this, she was officially expelled from the SNP on 28 January 2003.



She was re-elected as an independent MSP at the 2003 Scottish Parliament election, and again in 2007 and 2011.


He death leaves Scotlamd poorer but maybe her greatest memorial will be the establishment of a an Independent Scotland.

An aim for 50% female candidates is not "PC Gone Mad". its an aim for godsake.

According to the Wasting Mule 

Cconcerns have been raised about a plan that could see male Labour councillors de-selected to achieve gender balance.
At the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno last weekend, delegates accepted a proposal from the party’s Welsh executive to aim for 50% female candidates in winnable seats by the time of the next council elections in 2017.

The Mule seems to be sensationalising a story  and before we revert to the loony Left accusations look again and you will see  it as an aim

One Labour councillor from South Wales, who did not want to identified, said: 

“There is likely to be a big negative reaction to this when people realise what the implications are. It’s totally unfair to deselect councillors on gender grounds.
“In many cases seats have been made winnable by the hard work of sitting councillors, who have built up support over years. It doesn’t follow that the seat will be won by a candidate who is selected just because she is a woman.”

Jeff Jones, the former Labour leader of Bridgend council who is now a local government , and always available for a quote said: 

“This is gesture politics of the kind that plays right into the hands of Ukip.
“It’s an idea that is being promoted largely by middle-class feminists from Cardiff where it’s normal for candidates from one part of the city to stand in another part.
“In the rest of Wales. local government really is local, and if the party tries to import candidates from elsewhere to make sure of gender balance, they’ll end up losing the seat.
“Assuming that people will vote for you in a council election whoever you are, just because you represent a particular party, is insulting.
“People are not stupid. They will vote for people who they think will best represent their interests, whether they’re male or female, gay or straight, over 60 or under 60.

And this is very much a 1970s issue. The mass of people aren’t interested – they want to know what candidates have to say about education, the economy and whether they can get a decent home to live in.”

Except this as I wrote above appears to be an aim..and maybe as a a local government consultant he can explain the low number of female councillors in wales and propose how to increase it.


I am not one of those who subscribe to the notion more women in politics would  make it less conventional or they would be more caring.

Women politicians are as bad as their male counterparts when it comes  Yah boo politics.

But an increase in numbers might improve the talent pool of our councillors some of who should have been put out to grass years ago.

Why do we carry on wasting talent by not encouraging more female candidates.

Clearly to actually force 50% women  candidates by Labour would be political suicide  and I doubt very much they will even get close to that number.

But  all Parties should pay attention to this aim.

The Labour proposal is aim we all should support.

The problem is how to achieve this aim without resorting to coercion or the Male Dinosaurs jumping up and down crying "Its Political Correctness Gone Mad" , which appears to be endorsed by the Mule and Jeff Jones.

Phurnacite Abercwmboi pollution legacy continues.

Back in October 2012 I posted that

Workers at the  now closed smokeless fuel plant which closed in 1991who  were made ill by their place of work, the High Court has ruled.
The men said making the fuel at the  at Abercwmboi, Rhondda Cynon Taf, left them with lung cancer and respiratory disease.
Four of 183 ex-workers with claims won compensation between £120,000 and £4,500 after claiming British Coal failed to provide necessary protection.
Lawyers say the judgement could affect hundreds of workers throughout the UK.
The workers had put forward claims for lung, skin and bladder cancers and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

The area around Abwecwmboi used to be one of the most polluted parts of Wales

Today I've saw a comment from a member of the acyoon groub

Hi Glyn,

Please check out our Face Book page and if you would care to leave comments or to share photo's we would be grateful for your support. I'm trying to find the one of Duffryn wood that shows just blackened stubs.

The Phurnacite Justice Action Group are still battling on trying to get justice for those that were denied it as a result of the court case. It wasn't the huge success it was hailed to be, that has hidden a much larger injustice and whilst it's good for those who saw justice done for the harm caused to them, many were and are still being denied compensation and justice. the group are trying to change that. https://www.facebook.com/PhurnaciteJusticeActionGroup?ref=hl hope to hear from you, Kindest regards, Shirley

Unfortunately n a  attempt to clean up my Google account I deleted the Photos stored on the Blog not realising that this would also delete them this would delet them gtrom my pages.

But here's a few example





Clearly this  is  possibly on of the greatest ecological disasters not only in the UK.

And people are still suffering from this 

The group Facebook page is here

Is this not a issue that our Assembly should be looking at and Investigate the price we are now paying for out Industrial past?

Starting with the legacy of pollution and linked ilness at Abercwmboi would be a start.

F###ing Welsh Inspires Scotland

From here it may be surprising to see the Scottish Yes camp take events leading up to the first Welsh Assembly  to heart but on the Bellacaladonia blog David Black, points out that the what he calls the "No Troxia"  with its" Project Fear"  was some what in now somewhat in disarray – and as he put it was the claims of Project Fear  that if Scots are foolish enough to vote Yes on September 18,

 then they can say goodbye to the pound sterling, leaving them wholly dependent thereafter, let us presume, on an economic system based on a mix of dark-ages barter, indentured child slavery, and cattle reiving.

Indeed it reached such a level that as Wings over Scotland point out a Guardian April Fools spoof  looks like it came straight from "Better Together".




Indeed The Scottish Sun had this six weeks ago



David Black takes all this to point out that people don't like being manipulated or at least where is so bloody obvious and  points to events here prior to the first  Welsh Assembly Election

Pointing out that the American War of Independence   came about because of Lord North's 1774 Coercive Acts transformed Loyalist into Rebels  he then writes.

Then it hit me – this was rerun of the 1999 slaughter in the valleys, when a cocksure New Labour establishment in London had foolishly assumed the Welsh were a simple, biddable people who would cravenly obey the diktat of the fettucine high command in London. It turned out to be a miscalculation of epic proportions. The drama began with Ron Davies’s ‘moment of madness’ on Clapham Common, and ended with a Labour melt-down in which the party achieved a hitherto unimaginable feat – the loss of the deepest red Rhondda constituency to the Nationalists on a 30% swing.
The journey from Clapham to Caerphilly (another safe seat which was lost) had been a rough road, and none of the pollsters had got anywhere close to predicting the outcome. London had considered Labour’s local man, Rhodri Morgan, to be ‘too Welsh’ for the fettucine tendency, and had parachuted in its own chosen metropolitan candidate, Alun Michael, in anticipation of a coronation, rather than a contest.

Which led According to ex-Downing Street press officer Lance Price's diaries,  Tony Blair responded with the words "Fucking Welsh".

OK so David was wrong about Caerphilly Ron Davies held it for Labour  but it is a point.

Better Together are beginning to look like a desperate and disorganised rabble who thought they were in with a walkover but who may at least in some quarters realise that their campaign of Negativity and Bullying is not working but can't stop.

Wil future Historians on the birth of an Independent Scotland claim that it was Project fear that drove  wavering voters into the Yes camp and victory.

Bollards to the Welsh Asembly.

Its always difficult to Blog on  this day because you could always fall for an April fools joke.


Last week I attempted to commento n Peter Black , claiming  Liberal Democrat credit  for Osborne's budget by telling him he was a week too early but alas he did not post it.
 ,
Mind you if Peter tried an April Fools spoof today who could tell. ?

So I suppose  the Wasting Mule may be trying to spoof us with the news that

A series of anti-terrorist 'tank traps' outside the National Assembly in Cardiff that were built at a cost of nearly £280,000 less than nine years ago have been torn up and will be replaced
To replace them, the Assembly is spending an as yet undisclosed sum on rising bollards.
The high security, anti-suicide bomber roadblocks were built alongside the Assembly’s Crickhowell House in 2005, months after the 7/7 tube and bus attacks in London that killed 52 people and injured more than 700. The block, which houses AMs’ offices, has since been renamed Ty Hywel.
The heavy-duty metal barriers could be automatically raised to block the roadway in an emergency. At the time they were installed, questions were asked about the cost of the “tank traps”, whose installation was recommended by government security advisers.

But its a bit too serious  for that 

£250,000, looks like a lot of money for what looks like reinforced concrete slabs



There's no mention of the cost of the new "Rising Bollards" but there's one outside Sainsbury's in Pontypridd, which allows local buses to pick up passengers outside and on Taff street. So if I was ordering them for the Assembly I'd find out what the cost was there.

Of course I may have fallen for a spoof   but after Martin Shiptons report on Welsh Labour's weekend conference it's hard to work out what the Mule is seriously objectively.reporting on

Like the fore mentioned peter Black it seems April Fools day is everyday that illustrious publication