Caerphilly Council scandal .I blame the Unions.

Hundreds of Caerphilly council workers ,walked out of their offices  yesterday  against the awarding of secret huge pay rises to their bosses.

Around 350  council employees assembled on the approach road to their headquarters at Ystrad Mynach, while several hundred more did the same at other offices across the county borough.

The collective expression of anger, organised by their union Unison, followed revelations last week that 20 senior managers were awarded pay rises of up to 30% at a time when most workers are on the third year of a pay freeze.

Much of the outrage about the rises is directed at Mr O’Sullivan, who wrote the unpublished report that recommended the increases for himself and his senior colleagues. In Mr O’Sullivan’s case, the rise was one of up to £35,000, bringing his annual salary to £158,000

The £35,000 would safely pay the yearly  wages of one of those protesting .

This outrage has come after Labour won control of Caerphilly council last year  and one wonders whether Unison contributed to that campaign for Labour ?


The row over these r huge pay rises for top managers at a time of wage freezes for the lowest paid workers  emerged the rises of up to 30% for 20 top managers at Caerphilly council were approved at a secret meeting in September following a report written by chief executive Anthony O’Sullivan.

Mr O’Sullivan himself received a pay rise of up to £35,000, taking his salary to around £158,000.


Colin Mann, leader of the authority’s opposition Plaid Cymru group, said that

" In addition to the outrage felt by the rest of the staff, around 30 managers felt they had been discriminated against by not being included in the rises.
Mr Mann said: “The managers who missed out on these increases are a crucial part of the workforce and included in the same ‘Hay’ pay scale banding structure as their better paid colleagues who got a rise".
“Some of them have spoken to me and said they cannot understand why they were excluded from the rises.
 “This whole episode has been absolutely disastrous for morale within the authority, which is now at rock bottom.”

The suspicion is that Labour have decided to make these extraordinary pay rises to keep selected senior management on side and make sure of their support over the next four years of running the Council.

Much of this reflects the problem with Labours dominance of Welsh Politics . They control the councils and both the Member of Parliament  and Assembly Member are Labour.who would have been screaming from the rooftops if it had been Plaid who did this.

It is incredible that Labour after a brief period where it lost control of a number of Welsh Councils have returned to their old arrogance . They never seem to learn any lessons. But why should they ?.

In a few years Unison. the union which led yesterday protest will be plastering their offices with Labour Posters and given financial backing to that party and in some ways their and other unions constant support for Labour means that they must share some responsibility for this scandal.

The Unions cannot go on backing Labour  moaning  about their abuses of their members when the part is in power and then backing them once again.

They are are like the victims of abuse who stay with their abuser and attack anyone else who tries to help them.

Labour will ride this out they can safely  ignore the protest of the ordinary worker and with the Senior Management bought of will expect no problems from them.

What we have seen in Caerphilly, is how Labour believe that it is the only party  that should run things in Wales and that it is above criticism.

Even when they are thrown out of power they return very quickly to their old ways ones they regain it and they do deserve or receive our support unless they really change their ways and frankly I see no prospect of this even in the long term. 

European Funding not being spent as it should?.

The Western Mule reports that The body responsible for how EU money is spent is in urgent need of “radical restructuring”, an influential Assembly committee has found.

They go on to say...

The National Assembly’s Finance Committee said a review into how EU money was allocated by the Welsh European Funding Office (Wefo) should be carried out.
It raised concerns over “lack of leadership” and concerns about the monitoring of what effect the funds – totalling £1.8bn between 2007 and 2013 – were having on Welsh communities.
The criticism comes ahead of a Welsh Government-commissioned Guilford review, expected to be published early next year, into arrangements for accessing European Structural Funds for the next funding period.

Western Mail  December 17th 2012

They go on to say that...

The Finance Committee report makes 16 recommendations on the future of Wefo, including an “independent, unfettered and imaginative” review of implementation of Structural Fund programmes after 2013.It also recommends that the Welsh Government defines its strategic priorities for spending “at the earliest available opportunity”, and what it thinks the legacy of the spend would be.It should also review its processes for applicants applying for Wefo funding, the committee said, to ensure they were robust, and eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy.

Jocelyn Davies, the Plaid chairwoman of the Finance Committee. said

“The committee has concerns over the lack of leadership, co-ordination and monitoring of what effect these funds are having on communities in Wales,” said Jocelyn Davies, the Plaid chairwoman of the Finance Committee.“Therefore we want to see a wholesale review of the Welsh European Funding Office’s purpose and role and a clear distinction of the Welsh Government’s strategic priorities in the future.

As with Westminster inspired Job Creation scheme I can't help feeling that the majority of real jobs that are created exist within the organisation running them.

And far to often there's a link with members of Poltical Parties holding senior positions within these organisations . In reality this is to be expected after all they have an Interest in these  to get involved in such schemes and it may often be for altruistic  reasons.

But we need to know the make up of organisations within receipt of such funds and we also need regular and accurare assessment of whether they are achieving their objectives

The Mule never has an article like this without a comment from Peter Black (his always by the telephone or do they have a direct link). But in this case He's almost worth quoting ..

“More than £6bn has been invested in West Wales and the Valleys from European money and match funds by the UK, Welsh and local governments since European funding started – and yet Wales is still the poorest part of the UK, while Welsh Government targets for improving GDP and GVA have been missed.
“The Finance Committee’s report has identified a key issue behind this failure – a lack of leadership, coordination and monitoring of the effectiveness of this expenditure by the responsible agency and by implication government ministers.

We need such funding but once we receive it it is our responsibility to ensure that it is spent as efficiently as possible. . Throwing money at schemes that have lofty ideas bur fail to come up with the results they promise.and plays into the hands of those who seek to cut such funding

.

Once again I find myself calling for the Assembly to look at diverting a large pprtion of this funding to setting up cooperatives  and creating real jobs.

What we have now is nit working . Our AM's must insure that in future we get the best results from any extra funding we receive.

Cameron Gets Cold Feet.

In the last General Election one of the highlights of the campaign was the Leadership debates  which saw Cleggmania  and a temporary surge in LibDem vote but it didn't last and arguably the only effect was to lesson support for smaller party it certainly had a averse  affect on the Plaid vote.

Now it looks like David Cameron may not want to repeat the experience

In the Observer Andrew Rawsley rights that

Now, however, there is growing doubt about whether there will be TV debates at the next election, and the main reason is that the prime minister is getting cold feet. In a speech last week, he dwelt on what he didn't like about the experience. While saying that he was still in favour of the principle of debates – he could hardly say otherwise without looking frit – he raised questions about their format and impact. One of this cricket-loving prime minister's favoured phrases is "rolling the pitch". He would not be expressing his reservations now – so far out from the next campaign – if he were not trying to prepare the ground for wriggling out of TV debates if he decides that they aren't in his interests.
As they did last time, when the campaign was spearheaded by Sky News, the broadcasters will clamour for the politicians to agree to televised debates. Indeed, they have already started making approaches to the political parties

Andrew Rawnsley

he Observer, Sunday 16 December 20

Of course Cameron may be looking at Polls like Saturdays Guardian show Labour taken a 10 point lead

The big surprise is the 14% for UKIP ,which must really worry him.but he will find it hard to put the Genie back in the bottle, especially if he needs to keep Murdoch's News International and his SKY news favourable or at least not completely hostile..

Of course UKIPs position in the polls will make it harder to exclude them but they might prefer that . The idea pf Nigel Farage being exposed in such way in his pompous arrogance and the fact that he leads a one tr trick party may not help them at all. i expect his appearance will hemorrhage votes for them.

One thing that Plaid, the SNP and the Greens could do is agree to campaign that they eachshould take part in one of the three  debate each.

I still don't like the idea of these debates . We are not electing a President and there no constitutional rule that any of these could be Prime Minister.

Indeed the Prime Minister does not even have to come from the three largest Parties . He or She  could be a compromise in a coalition of three or more Parties and only have to persuade the Monarch they can form a government.

Alas no matter how e vote we do not select the Prime Minister constitutionally the Monarch does.

Clegg may well have no choice but to take part in the debate format as proposed Media the relative small loss in actual votes election day rather than immediately after the debates may be preferable too the idea that he is afraid of defending his record.

Sandy Hook Elementary School.

As I sat down to work out what I would make the subject of  daily Blog   I am lisening to the news of  the killing of 20 children in Connecticut

US President Barack Obama has called for "meaningful action" in the wake of a shooting at a Connecticut school that left 27 dead, including 20 children.

An emotional Mr Obama spoke of his "overwhelming grief" over the deaths at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School.and we all join in with him.

The suspected gunman was widely identified as Adam Lanza, 20, who is among the dead. He is also thought to have killed his mother earlier.

It is second-worst US school shooting after the 2007 attack at Virginia Tech.

The children at Sandy Hook Elementary were aged between five and 10.

I hope to return to my usual ranting tomorrow: Bur when you here this everything else seems to petty and all I feel like doing is weeping.

Pat Finucane murder was little more than a war crime.

The Sir Desmond de Silva report into the murder of Pat Finucane was published yesterday, 23 years after the Belfast civil rights lawyer was shot 14 times in front of his wife and children by a loyalist death squad.

The Campaign to get at the Truth like Bloody Sunday and Hillsborough have been long and torturous 

In 1999, the third inquiry of John Stevens into allegations of collusion between the security forces and Loyalist paramilitaries concluded that there was such collusion in the murders of Finucane and Brian Adam Lambert. As a result of the inquiry, RUC Special Branch agent and loyalist quartermaster William Stobie, a member of the Ulster Defence Association was later charged with supplying one of the pistols used to kill Finucane, but his trial collapsed because he claimed that he had given information about his actions to his Special Branch handlers. The pistol belonged to the UDA, which at the time was a legal organisation under British law. A further suspect, Brian Nelson, was a member of the Army's Force Research Unit. He had provided information about Finucane's whereabouts, and also claimed that he had alerted his handlers about the planned killing

Wikipedia

The key conclusions of the latest report,include the following acknowledgements:

• There was a continuous supply of information from the British state to the British terrorist groups
• in the North of Ireland over a period of many years. In fact, concludes the report, by the mid-1980s up to 85% of all intelligence information gathered by the UFF / UDA alone was supplied to them by the RUC, British Army and the British Security Service (MI5).
• The British authorities took no action in relation to numerous intelligence reports which outlined a number of future terrorist attacks by the Unionist gangs, with the paramilitary police and Intelligence services ignoring or concealing such information.
• British agents employed or working on behalf of the RUC, British Army and MI5 played “key roles” and actively “furthered and facilitated” the murder of Pat Finucane and others.
• Following the murder there were no attempts by the RUC or British authorities for a long period of time to investigate or arrest known suspects belonging to the UFF / UDA for their participation in the assassination.
• Serving or former members of the RUC, British Army and MI5 Army persistently lied or attempted to deceive investigators. Several senior British Army officers provided  highly misleading and inaccurate information.

RTE

And yet The Finucane ,family’s demand for a full public inquiry into his death, however, was refused by David Cameron

The Idea that such a murder could take place in which the state concluded only 23 years ago ,is shocking and we cannot draw a veil over it until the Finucane family get full justice 

The  Bloody Sunday inquiry showed that, we are entitled to know exactly what happened, how it is that state forces could commit such atrocities in our name,The truth, the whole truth must out, and it will only emerge with a full judicial inquiry. and it must come sooner than later if not from this Government then the next.

The Agents of Law concluded in the murder of a man who was doing his job seeing that all are entitled to a proper defence.

This was not James Bond or Spooks.There's no justification for the State to break its own Laws and murder people even if they thought they were Terrorist

Bur  Pat Finucane wasn't even a Terrorist the UFF may have considered him one; But he was a Lawyer and the British Government and its arm of ts the law knew this and still concluded in his murder and we still do not know the full extent of that murder or the extent of the knowledge of government minister at the time of this conclusion before Finucane's murder and after.

Just like Bloody Sunday we will eventualy have a full inquirey but probably after many of those responsible are dead.

But time will not dampen the truth and the truth is in 1989 the forced of Law abd Order in the UK behaved in the same way as those in former Yugoslavia during the recent conflict.

What we have here is little more that a form of War Crime and those who are responsible must face justice.

Nearly 100 yeats later Westminster still don't get devolution.

We are used to Westminster MPs ad even Government |Ministers not realising that Devolution in Wales has really happened  but it seems it that what was the second piece of devolution to Wales . The Disestablishment of the Church in Wales (passed 1914 enacted 1920) Has never happened

The first was the Sunday closing Act 1881

Now the government have now announced that  the Church in Wales and Church of England will be banned in law from offering gay marriages.


Other religious organisations will be able to "opt in" to holding ceremonies.

Culture Secretary Maria Miller said both organisations had "explicitly" stated strong opposition and would not be included.in the bill


However The Archbishop of Wales says making it illegal for the Church in Wales to offer same-sex marriages will be a "step too far".

Dr Barry Morgan says the freedoms of the church would be curtailed by a ban.

Other religious organisations will be able to "opt in" to holding ceremonies.

The Act both disestablished and disendowed the "Church in Wales", the term used to define the part of the Church of England which was to be separated. Disestablishment meant the end of the Church's special legal status, and Welsh bishops were no longer entitled to sit in the House of Lords as Lords Spiritual.

So where they may be a case of the Government has the representative of the Monarch who is head of the Established Church (as well as the Church of Scotland) to separate the Church of England from any legislation  But  can it really interfere in the Church in Wales in this way?

Clearly this move was to appease the the likes of the Taliban Tendency of the Cornerstone Group which is currently dominating the Welsh Office.

One thing is clear nearly 100 years after the second law specifically tailored for Wales . Westminster is still reluctant to loosen its grip.

We need a new Welsh language strategy.

The Census Figures for the use of the Welsh Language look gloomy
Figures

	All usual residents aged 3 and over	No skills in Welsh	Can underst-and spoken Welsh only	Can speak Welsh	Can speak but cannot read or write Welsh	Can speak  and read but cannot write Welsh	Can speak, read and write Welsh	Other combin-ation of skills in Welsh
	Persons	Persons	Persons	Persons	Persons	Persons	Persons	Persons
Wales Total	2,955,841	73.3	5.3	19.0	2.7	1.5	14.6	2.5
Isle of Anglesey	67,403	30.4	10.7	57.2	7.0	4.3	45.6	1.9
Gwynedd	117,789	26.5	6.9	65.4	5.8	3.4	56.0	1.5
Conwy	111,724	60.6	9.5	27.4	4.1	2.4	20.6	2.7
Denbighshire	90,527	64.6	8.5	24.6	3.6	2.2	18.6	2.6
Flintshire	146,940	79.4	5.1	13.2	2.4	1.2	9.3	2.5
Wrexham	129,425	78.7	5.9	12.9	2.3	1.2	9.2	2.7
Powys	129,083	72.0	6.7	18.6	3.0	1.6	13.7	3.0
Ceredigion	73,847	42.4	8.1	47.3	4.9	3.4	38.8	2.4
Pembrokeshire	118,392	72.5	6.1	19.2	3.2	1.9	13.9	2.3
Carmarthenshire	177,642	41.9	11.7	43.9	6.7	4.2	32.8	2.8
Swansea	231,155	80.7	5.5	11.4	2.0	1.2	8.1	2.6
Neath Port Talbot	135,278	75.2	6.4	15.3	2.7	1.6	10.8	3.3
Bridgend	134,545	82.7	4.1	9.7	1.5	0.9	7.3	3.6
The Vale of Glamorgan	122,018	83.7	3.3	10.8	1.6	0.9	8.2	2.2
Cardiff	332,273	83.8	3.1	11.1	1.4	0.8	8.7	2.1
Rhondda Cynon Taf	225,555	80.4	4.2	12.3	1.6	0.9	9.7	3.3
Merthyr Tydfil	56,623	84.9	3.5	8.9	1.5	0.7	6.5	2.8
Caerphilly	171,972	83.9	3.0	11.2	1.7	0.9	8.4	2.1
Blaenau Gwent	67,348	88.5	2.2	7.8	1.5	0.6	5.5	1.7
Torfaen	87,844	86.5	2.3	9.8	1.8	0.7	7.1	1.7
Monmouthshire	88,609	86.0	2.5	9.9	1.8	0.7	7.2	1.9
Newport	139,849	86.9	2.2	9.3	1.7	0.7	6.5	1.8

I am not convinced that the UK census is the best and most efficient way of measuring peoples ability to speak Welsh or to measure competence and we need much more breakdown particularly regarding to age differences and origins

And " No skills in Welsh which has a Welsh average of 73.3 "  seems to be high as most of the people I know in this area have some knowledge of Welsh and certainly more than they would have than any other second Language. 

And it would be Interesting to see the questions asked in 2001 compared with 2011 (Were they exactly the same).

But it does appear that there has been a fairly large drop in areas like Gwynedd  (-3.6) Carmarthen (-6.4) and  Ceredigion(-4.7) which have not been made up  (see the Table provide by Syniadau here

Nor has there been a increase in Welsh Speakers out side Y Fro Gymraeg areas as expected

Clearly In-migration has had a major effect in Y Fro but emigration has to be a major problem.we need to address the dispersion of our people

Its all very well having a Welsh Speaking Scientist working in Silicon Valley in California but it would be much better if they were able to work in Aberystwyth.or Bangor 

And work must be found for those who are not so well qualified.

We need to look at a Mondragon stule cooprative movement for  Y Fro Gymraeg  based on Gwynedd Carmarthen and Cerdigion with cooperatives linked to the Universities of Bangor, Aberystwyth and Trinity St Davidas as well as other  educational institutions to create new an innovative jobs which will be linked to the use of the Welsh Language.

The answer to the fall in Welsh Language speakers will always be work for those who speak it where they live and quality work at that.

But it also means that we must also aim to provide a working environment where the Welsh Language is used regularly..To the extent that Non-welsh speakers are encouraged to learn Welsh as part of their employment 

Our Political Parties must work through our Assembly to ensure that this becomes a reality.

Even if the Census figures had shown a slight growth we would still need a new initiative from the Welsh Assembly Government the response from Leighton Andrews seems complacent Leighton Andrews said: 

The Welsh language and Welsh language communities face challenges and the issue now is not to blame people but decide how to work together to ensure a sustainable future for the language."

He said he would be open to new ideas and had a strategy, launched in March, which included encouraging the use of Welsh in social media.

A Welsh government spokesman added that the strategy recognised the "fragile state of the language" and looked to promote its use across all walks of life.

We need something more than people having  a Facebook page in Welsh.