Don't vote Yes in Scotland because it Snows there!

The Wasting Mule does it bit for the No camp in the Scottish Independence Referendum,with the Banner Headline 

Chain stores threaten to increase food prices if Scotland goes it alone

According to the Mule The big chain supermarkets have warned that they will consider passing the increased costs of Scottish independence on to customers

Three of the big four supermarkets – Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s – told the Financial Times that they are currently absorbing the greater cost of doing business in Wales and Scotland into their UK operations.
They have hinted that this might stop in Scotland if its electorate votes for independence.
A Morrisons spokesman reportedly said: “Why should customers in Cardiff subsidise those in Aberdeen?”
Scotland and Wales’ low population density, worse weather and weaker infrastructure all add to the supermarkets overheads in the two home nations, say experts.

Note the "might", Another scenario "might be that all four will be clamouring to integrate themselves with the new Government of an Independent Scotland in order to obtain favourable terms. 

But lets look at the main claim that low population density, worse weather and weaker infrastructure all add to the supermarkets adds to increased overheads.

Who would be better placed to improve the infrastructure of Scotland Westminster or an Independent Scotland.

As for the other example there's nothing we can do about our weather but when was the case ever made out against a country achieving Independence because it rains or snow more. 

As Wings over Scotland point out 

The “big four” are under constant attack from smaller chains, including low-end outlets like Aldi and Lidl as well as the likes of Poundland and Home Bargains. (Scotland in particular also retains a strong presence from the Co-op and Scotmid.) They simply can’t afford to give competitors an advantage by unilaterally hiking prices, because all but the most remote rural communities have plenty of options.
So the notion of Scotland – the vast majority of whose population, remember, is conveniently concentrated in a narrow strip across the middle of the country with abundant transport links, the dream arrangement for large-volume unit-shifters – suddenly seeing the cost of a box of cornflakes rocketing compared to England is one of the most laughable/insulting attempts to scare Scots into voting No yet.

As the polls narrows

,the Yes camp seems to be entering into panic mode They've attempted to terrify Scots with uncertainty over the price of stamps, mobile-phone roaming charges and having to buy in Strictly Come Dancing, but none of it’s worked.

What next an Independent Scotland will have to between Saudi Arabia and Senegal rather than next to the USA in the United Nations?

More than a whiff of hypocrisy?

There have been more than a whiff of hypocrisy  in  David Cameron, George Osborne and Commons Speaker John Bercow hailing   Nelson Mandela as an inspiration.

But throughout the 1980s, when they were young Tory activists, Margaret Thatcher was refusing to lift sanctions on South Africa’s racist government.

And as late as October 1987 she was dismissing Mr Mandela’s African National Congress party as “a typical terrorist organisation”.

Harry Phibbs, a Hammersmith councillor who was then prominent in the Federation Of Conservative Students  FCS, said.: 

“A group of people at Warwick University made stickers that were a parody of the stickers people were wearing saying ‘Free Nelson Mandela and all ANC prisoners’, which said ‘Hang Nelson Mandela and all ANC terrorists’.
“The motive was to disrupt the conference of the National Union of Students [NUS]. It was never proposed by the FCS officially. I suspect that it wasn’t even a view really held by the people who produced that sticker. It was a rather immature way to stir things up.”

The FCS was disbanded by Norman Tebbit,  the party chairman. This was for publishing an article, penned by Harry Phibbs (above ), following Nikolai Tolstoy's accusation that former Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was complicit in war crimes for his involvement in the forced repatriation of Cossack prisoners of war to Soviet Russia in the aftermath of World War II.

Si it was disbanded not for backing apartheid but for attacking a former party leader. 

Defenders of  Cameron claim that in 1985 was just about to start university and never did become active in student politics – so was not a “top member” of FCS, nor involved in printing the slogan.

But my memories of the Conservative Students at one University during the period 1986-1989 was that they clearly had not changed  when "reformed".

Whilst s Student a a mature student at  Aberystwyth  I was generally shocked when Conservatives students 

• Dressed in Springbok rugby jerseys in order to show their support for the South African apartheid regimes .Some of whom greeted each other with Nazi salutes claiming they were being ironic.
• Racially abused a member of the Student Union Staff for which individual members were suspended from the Union.
• Went on a drinking Binge to celebrate the rise of Adolf Hitler to power. Which was too much for the Conservatives 
• themselves and they were disbanded.from the current association emerge.

I have no reason this was not replicated throughout the University system at the time.

Cameron et al may be innocent but some of those they associated with were guilty of supporting Apartheid  and if you can at least claim that Norman Tebbit  was not being hypocritical 

He said: 

“He (Mandela) was the leader of a political movement which had begun to resort to terrorism.”

But one wonders how many of those praising Mandela also condemned him in the past.

And how many preferred the Apartheid Regime that denied the majority of it Citizens the basic rights of democracy in being able to vote?

How many have really  changed?

Note Toby Young but ignore his solutions

The  argument over Wales PiSA standing goes on and it at times like these we need Syniadau to repeat that... "the extremely strong relationship that exists in Wales, compared to more successful countries, between living in relative poverty and disadvantage and not doing well in PISA".

What we don't need is  the like of "Toby Young, co-founder of free school, claiming Welsh education system is 'a basket case' while health service is a 'death trap' and economy is 'in the toilet' so he can premote his own education agenda.

He writes ...

The poor showing of Wales in the Pisa international league tables published earlier this week is a reminder of just what a mess Labour has made of the Welsh education system. In 2006, Welsh schoolchildren were ranked 30th in maths, 29th in reading and 22nd in science. In the latest tests, they fell to 43rd in maths, 41st in reading and 36th in science. Wales isn't simply the worst performer in the UK, it's well below the OECD average.
The blame for this pitiful state of affairs can be laid squarely at the feet of the Labour Party, which has been in charge of education in Wales since 1999. The education reforms that successive governments have introduced in other parts of the UK in that time have left Wales largely untouched. League tables were abolished in 2001 and not a single academy or free school has been set up. As the Economist points out inthis damning analysis, parental choice in Wales is limited to deciding whether to send a child to a school where lessons are taught in English or Welsh. The country has indulged in what David Reynolds, an educationalist at the University of Southampton, describes as “producerism's last hurrah”. Hardly surprising, then, that 26 per cent of the Welsh population over 16 have no recognised qualifications, according to the 2011 census.
But education isn't the only devolved area that the Welsh National Assembly, which has been Labour-controlled since 2000, has messed up. The Welsh health system is, incredibly, even worse than the Welsh education system. As the Prime Minister pointed out in the House of Commons earlier this year, the Welsh NHS hasn't met a cancer target since 2008 or an A&E target since 2009. (FactCheck confirmed the first of these claims here.) The picture is no better when it comes to waiting lists. Between March and September of this year, the number of patients waiting more than nine months for treatment in Wales more than doubled, increasing from 5,414 to 11,672. The Welsh Ambulance Service has failed to hit its target of responding to 65 per cent of the most urgent calls within eight minutes for the past 16 months

It is embarrassing that a right wing journalist like Toby Young who has his own  agenda in education, should be  given this ammunition

 Young is the lead proposer and co-founder of the West London Free School, the first free school in Britain to sign a Funding Agreement with the Secretary of State for Education, and now serves as the chair of the charitable trust that established the school The trust opened a primary school in Hammersmith in September and has been approved by the Department for Education to open a second primary in Earls Court in 2014

We must ask is whether Young agenda is also Anti-Welsh or Anti-Labour. but clearly he ca mix both . Interestingly he doesn't point to the Scottish Government better PISA scores because that would mean praising both Labour and the SNP there to some extent.

But one thing we can't do is either listen to Young's solution of Free Schools  or believe defending Welsh Education from attacks by right wing English journalist means we have to defend Labours record.

We need a radical rethink over Education here the problem is that it would probably take a decade for any changes to show results and in the mean time the Toby Young's of this world will be gleefully claiming we are still failing.

But no change will come when Labour still hold the reins in this country we need a change of government but I bet it isn't what Toby Young would approve of.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) World Statesman

This is the first time I've created to Blogs one after the other (Cardiff Election Results below).

But like many  I have to add my piece on the death of Nelson Mandela.




My first experience of him was as a 16 year old taking part in the  1969-70 Stop the tour demonstrations against the Sprinbbox Rugby team.

How could I even dream then when watching th1995 Nelson Mandela, in his first term as the South African President would be seen wearing a Springboax Rugby jersey uniting the whole nation.

Few people desevre the title of Statesman but Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was truly one of the greats .

He showed us all dreams can come true and that it is more imprtant to bulid a future than reflect on the past even when you have sufferd great injustice.

R.I.P Mr Mandela you inspired not only your people but the world at large.

Riverside and Splott By - Elections Result

Riverside and Splott By - Elections Result

Riverside Electoral Division By-Election, 5th December - results

Candidate	Description	Votes Cast
BEER, Joel	Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition	70
CROW, Aled	Welsh Conservative Party Candidate	107
DONNE, Sian	Liberal Democrats/Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol	58
GOULD, Elizabeth	Plaid Cymru - The Party of Wales	773
WILLIAMS, Darren	Welsh Labour/Llafur Cymru	1120 ELECTED
ZEIGLER, Simon	UKIP Wales/UKIP Cymru	97

Splott Electoral Division By-Election, 5th December - results

Candidate	Description	Votes Cast
JOHN, Elys	Independent	94
MASON, Daniel Robert	Welsh Conservative Party	86
MATTHEWS, Jamie	Liberal Democrats/Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol	604
MORRIS, Brian	UKIP Wales	209
STUBBS, Edward Joseph	Welsh Labour/Llafur Cymru	706 ELECTED
WILLIAMS, Katrine	Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition	80

The Libdems can take some comfort from this but for Plaid it's a bitter disappointment . For labour who have led a controversial regime on  Cardif Council  since the last election it shows that Labour Hegenomy seems to be unchallenged.

That said it does show that Plaid have despite this showing disappointment have still a presence in our Capital something which was quite unthinkable in recent memory.

A Slice of Welsh PISA

On Tuesday, triennial Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) results showed Wales was at the bottom of the UK pile in key skills.

Teenagers were revealed to have scored lower in reading, maths and science than their contemporaries in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Now it may be that before we find ourselves getting into a spiral of despair  or blame game

The figures are pretty stark with the UK itself  doing poorly  Overall, the UK ranked 26th out of 65 countries. Despite spending more per head on education than most, our results are flatlining. In maths, a British 15-year-old is a full three years behind a similar teenager in Shanghai.

Wales However comes out even worse

Overall:

• Scotland scored 498 points
• England scored 495 points
• Northern Ireland scored 498 points
• Wales scored 480 points

Reading:

• Scotland scored 506 points
• England scored 500 points
• Northern Ireland scored 498 points
• Wales scored 480 points

Science:

• England scored 516 points
• Scotland scored 513 points
• Northern Ireland scored 507 points
• Wales scored 491points

So it appears that this is not as some would claim a failure of devolution . Because Scotland at least is doing better.

The  problem for the Labour politicians running the Welsh Government. Firstly it is they who made PISA results such an important measure of progress in education and it's they who have been in charge of education here since the Assembly began sometimes with LibDem or Plaid help but they always held the Education remit  even when it was run with them in coalition governments.

Just a few weeks ago Carwyn was trying to persuade Scottish voters that they won't see a better education system by giving an example of his own governments...

....that is grown up politics. And that is the point about the nationalist case for independence – is it grown up politics?  I’m not sure that it is.What is the case for independence – a strong economy? No, the IFS has sunk that boat. Better health or education? No, both Scotland and Wales can already develop their own policies in these areas.In Wales, we have taken best practise from Scandinavia and introduced our Foundation Phase – a ‘learn through doing’ curriculum for our 3-7 year olds; we have the Youth Guarantee, which will ensure every young person in Wales has access to a place in post-16 education and training;

Carwyn Jones was forced to acknowledged that the PISA results for Wales are 'not good enough.' Responding to criticism from opponents during First Minister's Questions, he listed reforms that the Welsh Government had introduced since the last set of PISA figures.

But he agreed the figures were 'disappointing' and accepted the need to improve but said it will 'take some time for these measures to bear fruit.'

There are arguments that PISA is flawed but  if the world looks at us they will not be impressed.

It is perhaps ironic that Labour controlled Rhondda Cynon Taf are seeking to close my local Library as well us others in our County . Just as we fall further behind in reading.

It may be that what we need is for a fresh approach to Education here but that will need a change in the ruling party and that does not seem likely.

But we will continue to fall further behind and our government will continue to be disappointed but do nothing if we ourselves  do nothing and seek change in those who have ruined the opportunity Devolution has given them.

Fuel Poverty-Political Poverty.

It probably says more about the Labour Party leadership when the only policy they seem to have come up with that has rattled the Con/LibDem Coalition is ED Miliband's plan for a two year freeze in fuel bills.

The Coalition has been on the back foot over energy costs since Mr Miliband's announcement at his party conference in September that he intended to freeze prices for 20 months if Labour wins the next general election in 2015.

So from early next year the cost of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), an insulation scheme, will be reduced in a move that should shave £30 to £35 from bills.

There will also be a taxpayer-funded £600 million rebate on the Warm Homes Discount, which helps those in fuel poverty, saving customer another £12 on average.

Yippee. But of course it not money taken of the Energy Suppliers its a form of direct taxation transferred   to indirect taxation. 

However the Coalition government will son be able to say that they have reduced the number of people in fuel poverty at a stroke.

By  simply change the definition of what being poor is.

The coalition government has been accused of "shifting the goalposts" to bring down the number of households classed as living in fuel poverty.

Amendments to the Energy Bill would change definitions so that 2.4 million are classed as fuel poor rather than 3.2 million.

Bloody clever 

But to me one thing is clear. When this is the only issue that the government is forced to take action on, (even if it is by "shifting the goalposts") by attacks of the main opposition we are not only living in fuel poverty but political poverty.

One idea from the Labour Leadership that has resonated in the media that has worried the coalition just one and only 18 months to go to the next election.

And it wasn't that brilliant a two year freeze and then what A massive hike by the companies?

When it is the poorer in our society who have suffered worst from the Coalition Cuts . Ed Miliband has chosen a safe battleground, But is it not time he started defending those who are being maligned by the Coalition and Media or is he scared of the taunts from Cameron that he leads the "Welfare Party".

But then there no easy votes to be gained by doing this is there. So we have an opposition that offers nothing the poor and dispossessed preferring to appease Tory voters in marginal seats in the South of England  rather than those who have always voted for them. 

In the Guardian on Saturday Kevin Mckenna attacked the The poverty of the Better Together campaign. His final words can be used throughout the UK but if I was Leanne Wood I would use them as a basis fo the  in the next election.

"There are many reasons why Better Together would never dare to produce its own white paper entitled "Britain's Future". For how could any Scottish Labour supporter subscribe to a document that would talk of penalising the poor; cutting the taxes of the rich; allowing our defence and intelligence policies to resemble those of Texas and re-introducing a light touch for bankers? Not to mention leaving Europe and telling immigrants to go home".