Referendum spending Published.

The Electoral Commission  have published the expenditure of the participants in the referendum on the lawmaking powers of the National Assembly of Wales you get here

But here's the details anyway.You can down load it in XL or PDF ,but if you want it in Open Office contact me and I'll send you a copy.

At first Glance you would be forgiven for believing  that there was a "Democratic Deficit" in that the Yes Campaign by a ratio of 30:1, but don't forget True Wales refused funding as designated a lead campaign organisation either under Electoral Commission rules, that would meant that neither side were be entitled to a £70,000 public subsidy or to a free Royal Mail delivery of a leaflet across Wales.

They will probably use these figures as proof of their claim that they were victims of the Establishment.. But it is clear that the lack of support from the so called silent Majority who were opposed to the Yes vote meant that they could only spend ust under £4000. Indeed the real interest is that  that Wealthy Conservatives clearly did not back True Wales.

If we look at the figures ,Then Ie Dros Cymru, who would have been the lead Yes campaign  in event True Wales  had registered for the Money were by far the biggest spenders with £81,452,11, compared with the latter £3,785.20 so even if we excluded the other participants, the difference between the two major organisations was one of support not one of the Establishment.

Indeed what comes out of these figures of the Referendun Spending is that the NO campaign had very little support from those who were committed to campaigning in the referendum. being in a majority of the committed does not make you the Establishment however.

Even the Total of £145,003.16 spent on the entire referendum campaign by the participants   was in itself a small amount working out at about.£3625 per Welsh Constituency which is small fry compared with what Political Parties spent on Westminster and Assembly Elections.

Indeed this may well have been the cheapest in expenditure (by participants) of any referendum of its type and when you consider the clear lack of committed support for a NO vote and True Wales and then what it cost to run  for what was in fact only a minor change that could have been passed through normal Westminster Legislation then we must ask was a Referendum really necessary.

Of course we can't put a price on Democracy and perhaps it was better than the sniping that would have gone on from the types of True Wales who would have claimed the new powers would have no mandate without the endorsement of a referendum. Some still do so with regards the turnout. But the money spent may have been better use for the good of the Welsh people, It would be interesting to see if that body "The Tax Payers Alliance have any views  as they are usually red hot on unnecessary government expenditure and the vote last May was unnecessary,

Welsh Olympic Legacy (There isn't one)

Recently  a number of Blogs Syniadau and Welsh Ramblings for instance  have committed  on the British Olympic Association (BOA)  attempt to do a deal with the English FA and force a Under 23 football side on us. My own contribution on this including a ghastly error where I call Sepp Blater Serge. (I did not change it because It was pointed out and I deserved to be admonished for my lack of attention ) is here.

It is often suggested that this stitch up s a price we in Wales (And Scotland and Northern Ireland) should willingly pay for the dividend the London Olympics Legacy will give us.

But  a recent report in the Scotsman has shown that this is Hogwash.

A cording to the Scotsman..

....the Olympic Games' flagship "legacy" programme, which will pump £135 million into grassroots sports facilities and coaching initiatives over the next four years, will focus solely on England. 

Some £150m of Scottish National Lottery money will be ploughed into the Olympics, but no equivalent legacy project has been put forward for Scotland – or the other devolved nations, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The lottery funding handed out to Scotland as part of a separate legacy initiative for the Commonwealth Games in 2014 is 24 times less than the amount of cash England stands to receive as part of the Places People Play programme unveiled by Games chairman Lord Coe last year

A similar story can be told in Wales.

Last year the Daily Post revealed just 0.01% of the money from top-level Tier One contracts – the bigger contracts – were awarded to 10 companies in Wales.

One of them was won by Williamson Technical Services of Conwy, for “specialist site engineering services” at the Olympic Stadium.

This was compared to 759 contracts awarded in London, 233 in the South East and 60 in the West Midlands. Having missed out on the bigger contracts, Welsh companies were expecting to get some of the Tier Two and Three or sub-contracted work shared out by the larger companies.

But Plaid Cymru MP Hywel Williams says he’s found out there are no guarantees they will get anything.

Arfon MP Mr Williams said Olympics Delivery Authority’s (ODA) claims that the allocation of contracts was “fair” across the UK was complete “nonsense”.Mr Williams found no information was held centrally by the ODA about the Tiers Two and Three contracts.Mr Williams said

....the Olympics contracts had overwhelmingly been given to companies in the south east of England.

Mr Williams said: “They said we should not worry and that Wales would benefit from the Tier Two and Three subcontracts. But now I have discovered that records for Tier Two and Three contract allocations are not available .

 Theis was in December and since then its got even worse according to James Corrigan in todays Independent on Sunday.

Announced with predictable pomp last year by Lord Coe (title: Locog chairman, salary: £360,000 pa, plus £500-£1,000 for every meeting he attends), the Places People Play initiative will pump £135m into grassroots sports over the next four years. Now, overlooking for the moment that the Comprehensive Spending Review cut £160m from school sport and that some of the funding will be used to protect sports fields which shouldn't be sold anyway, the £135m will be much welcomed. In England.

Not in Scotland, or Wales or Northern Ireland, which have all been forced to contribute heavily to staging the Games, but shan't receive a penny of the PPP funding. And their youngsters will not be able to enter the programme's free ballot for Olympic tickets either. So much for the "British" Olympics, so much for the legacy. In truth, £135m is peanuts anyway and it will not begin to address the shortfall in funding caused by the redirection of monies into the staging of this big fat myth.

Where is the Labour Welsh Government on this . Not only do they almost to a Man and Woman fail to back our FA in their stand against the BOA and the English FA  they seem to have accepted the fact that Welsh sport i being ripped off as money is diverted to London and all we have to show for it is a Football Match at the Millennium Stadium and (Whoope some Teams setting up Training camps.

It time Carwyn Jones in particular denounced what James Corrigan calls a Big fat Myth and speak up for the Welsh FA and the rest of Welsh Sport,

(Don't) Carry on Sargeant.

It's not often I find myself in agreement with Peter Black but when he criticises t he Welsh Local Government Minister  Carl Sargeant latest moves on forcing Local authorities  to make joint  senior appointments  he is at least this time making a fair point.

Sargeant  seems  to be in the same camp as Eric Pickles in that he feels that his remit is not to work with Local Government but to run it.

In the last Assembly Commissioners were sent in to run the troubled Anglesey council after years of political infighting, at the time  Carl Sargeant said councillors had "betrayed those who elected them" and indulged in "politics of the playground".

I'm sure some would agree with this at times it seems that Anglesey council  consisted of the legendary Kilkenny Cats

 There once were two cats of Kilkenny
Each thought there was one cat too many
So they fought and they fit
And they scratched and they bit
'Til (excepting their nails
And the tips of their tails)
Instead of two cats there weren't any!

But you can't help thinking that the nature of democracy meant that it should have been up to the people of Ynys Mon to change the situation through the ballot box.

Of course one of Carl's idea at the time was force the council to merge with Gwynedd and It has been suggested that Sargeant's  real preference would be to merge other councils throughout Wales but he has rejected this because of the cost..

Though he also recently  sacked three boundary commissioners  who had suggested  the cutting of number of  councilors . . As iIve only seen the Welsh Government's spin on this I can't really comment on whether this the right decision and it seems the sacked commissioners will not be able to defend themselves. but it is a worry that the Boundary Commission for Wales might feel that they must come up with the result the Welsh Government (i.e The Labour Part) wants rather than what the people of Wales need.

Some will look at the idea of making  joint appointments. But I can see some major problems.

• Can a Chief Executive or thier counterpart rly effectively work with two councils that have totally different make ups. Can He  or She flit between policies on School Numbers, welsh Language Education, or even Bin Collection?
• If one of the councils loses faith in a joint appointee can the sack him or her without the approval of the other council ?
• Taking into to account the size in area of Gwynedd Council for instance or the nature of communications in the valleys of Rhondda Cynon Taf  can these really share appointments with other councils Gwynedd-Anglesey R.C.T-Methyr say  even with the use of Information Technology effectively, If democracy is to be devolved downward should this not include civil servants?

Perhaps if Carl Sargeant wants to remove senior Council Appointees he should look at the Irish system of government  although the  trend has been to remove decision-making from elected councillors to full-time professionals and officials. In particular, every city and county has a manager, who is the chief executive but is also a public servant appointed by the Public Appointments Service.This might just be the way to make senior Local Government  appointments

But I  although I don't t agree  the decision making should be taken from councilors . Making the Chief Executive a public servant seems to be a reasonable option.

Laptops culled Badgers saved (For now.)

T

The new Assembly Government has distanced themselves from policies from the last Assembly that were associated with their former Plaid Cymru partners that It began when confirmed it will not pursue a policy of providing schoolchildren with free laptop

The Welsh Government, and Education Minister Leighton Andrews said he was not proposing to continue the project, launched in March 2010.

  This had been main plankpf  Plaid's campaign for the 2007 assembly education. Mr Andrews said the "Welsh Government supported a pilot project to explore the educational benefits of providing access to laptops through schools. It ended on March 31 and was being evaluated".
 

The second announcement has been that plans for a Badger cull in West Wales have been put on hold while a review is carried out.

The Labour-run Welsh Government says an independent panel of experts will examine the science involved.

The cull had been part of an attempt by the previous Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition government to combat bovine TB.

But Environment Minister John Griffiths said there would be no cull while the panel carried out its work.

Both these can well been seen as snub to the coalition partners and indication that there will be no one Wales 2 or at least not one one where Plaid could portray themselves as equal partner.

As far as Laptops are concerned I thought this was Plaid's most innovative ideas it clear to me that our children must have easy access to information technology and those whose parents can provide it will have an early advantage particularly in Secondary Education.

If Labour have good reasons for not pursing a project that will lessen the education gap between the children of poorer families then I hope they can produce them but if the scrapping of the project is too show two fingers to Plaid then shame on them..

In a similar vein the new moratorium and yet another revue on the proposed Badger Cull could well be for good reasons. It interesting then both John Griffiths who announced the revue and Elin Jines the former Plaid Minster who ordered the cull under the last Assembly are two of our more decent politicians.

But the vast majority of those AM voted against such a move in the last Assembly and it can't help to be noticed that John Griffiths (who also voted against a delay) is the AM or Newport East s far away fro Newport Pembrokeshire where a cull may have taken place and one can't help feeling the decision was not entirely his.

I understand the conflicting evidence for and against the cull but I can't see how ah further revue will shift  the argument either way.

So Labours plans may be to distance themselves from what in many quarters was an unpopular policy that been proposed by a Plaid Minister but as with Laptops their action should be do what is right.

Over at Jaxxland they point out that a joking remark by a Tory AM that that the move was a quite obviously a pre-coalition concession to the Welsh LibDems should not be taken to seriously by political pundits.

But unless Plaid are prepared to humiliate themselves by entering a Coalition with a party that has just ditched one of their main achievements as coalition partners and have become very coy about a major measure by a Plaid Minister. Where are Labour to look for support?

BOA still ignores everyone but the FA.

News from the BBC The British Olympic Association (BOA) is close to an agreement to enter a British football team at London 2012.

BOA chief executive Andy Hunt said he is "incredibly positive that we will get a [British] men's and women's football team" at the Olympics.

But a Scottish Football Association spokesman said: "Our position hasn't changed and, as far as we're concerned, the status quo will remain."

When the idea that Serge Blatter assured Chancellor Gordon Brown that a British side could compete in the Olympics without FIFA forcing the home nations to give up their own independent sides in competitions. Brown off course in an effort to protray himdel as a Brit and not a Scot was all in favour.

He advised that written assurances would be given that England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland could continue to field separate teams in the World Cup and European Championship after the games.

I do not know to what extent these have been given but clearly he couldn't make this indefinite even though in his megalomania he probably thinks he will go on in charge of FIFA for ever.


The BBC claim that "The BOA has left management of the GB team with the English FA and it appears likely that the bulk of the squad will be formed by the current England Under-21s."

Because of course this a under 23's competition  its not a rerun of the World Cup and I understand that  since 1992 male competitors must be under 23 years old, with three over-23 players allowed per squad.and it is typical of the London media that they are trying to give the impression we would be seeing the leading players of the day in the competition..

The London media have portrayed  the other Home Nations as being selfish in their opposition to the Olympic Under 23 Plans uit even if you acceptedthis,  it it is nothing as to the arrogance of British Olympic Associationa(BOA) and the  English FA in going through with this.

A similar situation occurred  when the English FA  attempt to postpone the election of Serge Blatter . In this they were portrayed in the London Media as campaigners for a clean up of the FIFA  and the Welsh FA as almost  treacherous  in  not backing them

But as  Welsh FA  Pritchard outlined the sequence of events which led to Wales going it alone and declining to jump into bed with England.He said....

: “England had been touting for support for a few days, but funnily enough didn’t say anything to us until the night before the vote was to take place.

“We found that strange, but it had become apparent to us by then there was little support for their stance over the election.

“When they finally had discussions with us, as part of the home nations group, they outlined how they wanted the election postponed and transparency and independence in Fifa’s ethics committee.

“We fully agreed with them on point two and gave them our 100 per cent support over that issue.

“But we could never back them on point one because the Fifa statutes are quite clear. There is no jurisdiction for postponing the presidential election. Full stop. 

“I repeat, we were fully supportive of Fifa transparency. We emphasised that stance when Uefa convened a meeting of the European countries at 7.15am on the morning of congress.

“England put their points of view across at that meeting, I put Wales’ viewpoint forward.

“But when Bernstein got up on the rostrum a few hours afterwards, he just went on about Blatter and the need to postpone the election.

“To say we were unhappy is an understatement because we wanted him to focus upon transparency.

“Suddenly, the Blatter issue became the agenda, even though there was not a shred of evidence against him.

“The facts of the matter are that Bernstein’s proposal went against the constitution of Fifa because of the reasons I have already outlined.

“We had to distance ourselves from that. So too did Northern Ireland. Like ourselves, they were doing what was best for Irish football.

“There were 206 member countries with a vote. A total of 172, including ourselves, voted against Bernstein’s proposal. In anyone’s parlance, that is a pretty overwhelming decision.

“We did not vote for Blatter, as such, I should make clear. Our vote was for the agenda to proceed, as the rules state, with a presidential election.

“Yes, as the only candidate, I suppose that duly meant a vote for Blatter. But it was the Fifa statutes and rule book we were backing, not a particular individual.”

From this a different impression of the English FA stance comes and that is one of arrogance and might well have strengthened Blatter's position.

There is a feeling amongst many FIFA members commentator that the UK and England in particular have a right to special and even a dominant role in FIFA .

In both these cases the English FA could arguably have a point but that does not give them the right to assume that they can run football in the whole of the UK.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland should be treated as equals by the English FA and any one ,for any reason should have the power to Veto the establishment of a UK (not British)  Under 23    (even selfish ones) Olympic side it is not for them nor Gordon Brown, David Cameron or Seb Coe to say so,

Phil Davies The True face of Conservatiism (Unless they get rid of him)

Now and then my natural enmity towards the Tories  relaxes  and  I find my self warming towards some Like Glyn Davies and David Melding abut I never been taken in by David Cameron's pretense  of caring conservatism and as long as he has the Likes of Shipley MP Philip Davies in his Party,  my long term view  that they are an uncaring, spiteful bunch will remain. Recently  Philip Davies  has sparked anger by suggesting that disabled people should work for less than the minimum wage to increase their chances of being taken on by employers.

Philip Davies told the Commons:

"If an employer is looking at two candidates, one who has got disabilities and one who hasn't, and they have got to pay them both the same rate, I invite you to guess which one the employer is more likely to take on.

"Given that some of those people with a learning disability clearly, by definition, cannot be as productive in their work as somebody who has not got a disability of that nature, then it was inevitable that, given the employer was going to have to pay them both the same, they were going to take on the person who was going to be more productive, less of a risk.

"My view is that for some people the national minimum wage may be more of a hindrance than a helpIf those people who consider it is being a hindrance to them, and in my view that's some of the most vulnerable people in society, if they feel that for a short period of time, taking a lower rate of pay to help them get on their first rung of the jobs ladder, if they judge that that is a good thing, I don't see why we should be standing in their way."

 What a stupid ignorant offensive (I could fill this paragraph with adjectives) man. But a man who is a member of a governing coalition. Do those LibDems  siting alongside Davies really feel comfortable being in Government  which contains people with such views.

Amongst other contributions he has made to our political life has been as the parliamentary spokesman for the Campaign Against Political Correctness and he has been accused of wasting the Equality and Human Rights Commission's time by sending a stream of correspondence to its Chair, Trevor Phillips, between 2008 and 2009. In this correspondence, he asked questions relating to race and sex discrimination such as: "Is it offensive to black up or not, particularly if you are impersonating a black person?" and "Why it is so offensive to black up your face, as I have never understood this?"]

He also asked whether it was racist for a policeman to refer to a BMW as "black man's wheels"  ( I Think it is) and whether the Metropolitan Black Police Association breaches discrimination law by restricting its membership to black people. Peter Herbert, the chair of the Society of Black Lawyers, said: "This correspondence seems a complete and utter waste of time... he shouldn't be using the Human Rights Commission as basically a source of legal advice."

In March 2007 he voted against the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 which proposed to allow the Secretary of State to make regulations defining discrimination and harassment on grounds of sexual orientation, create criminal offences, and provide for exceptions.

In early 2010, Davies was criticised by the press] and religious organisations for using Parliamentary rules to "wreck" the Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill, an anti-poverty measure designed to stop "Vulture funds" from buying up the debt of third-word countries in order to aggressively pursue repayments through the international courts. How proud he and his fellow Tories must be of this?

Perhaps Davies would be more at home in the English Democrats  His father is Peter Davies, who in 2009 was elected Mayor of Doncaster for that Party but then again they might find him a bit to much of an embarrassing.

What is unless Davies views on the employment of some of the most vulnerable members of  our Society by the whole Conservative party they can't complain if I and others see their silence as tacit approval and judge them as a whole on the unpalatable views of their colleagues.

Mixed Night for Plaid : Bad one for all other Parties.

There was a mixed night for Plaid in the  Council two By-elections yesterday 16th June 2011.
This has been taken from the ALDC website .


On  Gwynedd Council  there was a gain from the LibDems
Gwynedd UA, Arllechwedd
PC 255 (56.0; +8.8)
LD  (20.4; -32.3)
Lab 72 (15.8; +15.8)
Con 35 (7.7; +7.7)
Majority 162
Turnout not known
PC gain from LD
Percentage change is since May 2008.


But in Conwy the Party failed to put up a candidate (Why?) and the seat went to an Independent  with only the Tories as a Party fighting the seat.
Conwy UA, Uwchaled
Ind 477 (94.1; +94.1)
Con 30 (5.9; +5.9)
[PC (0.0; -100.0)]
Majority 447
Turnout not known
Ind gain from PC
Percentage change is since May 2008.


Clearly, as always local condition apply and it would be foolish to extrapolate an all Wales l trend from such small numbers.but the the loss off what was a long term Libdem seet in the Arfon part of Gwynedd means their all ready small band there has grown smaller. It's a pity Llais Gwynedd didn't fight the seat because we can't judge the ammount of support for them, particularly as  the thorny topic of school closures have reappeared.


The poor result for the Tories in three  recent By-elections in Conwy despite the fact they hold both Parliamentary and Assembly seats probably means that AM Janet Finch-Saunders will probably not relinquish her council  seat in favour of the Assembly   and stand down when the full elections take place next next year.

 Next elections

• Carmarthenshire county council: Byelection on 23 June in Llanegwad division after the disqualification of Independent councillor Dilwyn Williams who has not attended any council meeting in six months. 

• Gwynedd county council: Vacancy in Glyder 21st July division after the death of Plaid Cymru councillor Dai Rees Jones
• Torfaen county borough council: Vacancy in Snatchwood division after the death of Independent councillor Tom Gould No date set

I shall try to keep those interested informed.


UpDate
Thanks to Plaid Wrecsam I have been alterted to a Btelection on  Wrexham Council Yesterday
The result was  


 Wrexham County Marchwiel


John Bell Conservative 172
John Pritchard Independent  302


In my defence this has not appeared on any other format or Blog so thanks again to Plaid Wrecsam for reporting it.