Time to rein in our council chiefs.

The public should be told how many public sector staff are paid more than £100,000 a year, assembly members have said.

The Public Accounts Committee found that different bodies followed different rules in deciding which salaries to make public.

It wants organisations to reveal the number of staff earning over £100,000 grouped in salary bands of £5,000.

The AMs said it would result in better scrutiny and more consistency.

High pay in the Welsh public sector has long prompted political controversy

Last week the Wales Audit Office (WAO) insisted a proposed £330,000 pay-off for Pembrokeshire council's chief executive Bryn Parry-Jones was cut by £52,760.

The Public Accounts Committee said Mr Parry-Jones's salary was £194,661 in 2012-13, significantly higher than the prime minister's pay.

But the chief executive of Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board was paid even more, at £200,000AMs said the disclosure rules should also apply to social housing providers that receive Welsh government cash and staff working in higher and further education, alongside those employed in local government and the NHS.

Darren Millar, the Conservative AM who chairs the committee, said: 

"It was sometimes difficult to make comparisons between pay arrangements between similar organisations and there were inconsistencies across the public sector as a whole.
"We were concerned about these findings, as we believe that it is vital that the information on levels of senior manager pay levels in the public sector should be clear and accessible to the public.
"This will allow for effective scrutiny together with an educated and informed debate about senior management pay to take place.
"To address our concerns we are proposing a suite of recommendations aimed at eradicating the inconsistencies in reporting and ensuring accountability to taxpayers."

Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs regularly has reports of council senior staff who are guilty of incompetence, being to close to the council leaders. or darn right dishonest who leave their post only to pop up again in a similar role in another council.

You if you wewr a conspiracy theorist would be forgiven to think that there was an equivalence of a Freemasons Lodge amongst the hierarchy of our council including staff and elected representatives.

Y Cneifrw analysis in depth  in depth the WLGA review panel's report and recommendations on governance in Carmarthenshire County Council.and points out that two months later than advertised, and written in the knowledge that the chief executive, Mark James, would like to head off to pastures new with a hefty redundancy package .

His counter part in Pembrokeshire has already managed this council chief Bryn Parry Jones at the centre of 'unlawful payments' row  has  received a very lucrative deal even if was reduced.

What's the betting  that both Mr James and Parry Jones  will pop up again a similar role in another council next years.

Taken into account how these two councils have handled things,maybe they simply employ the others disgraced  chief executive orr is that carrying my cynicism to far?

A Progressive Alliance in 2015?

The  idea that Plaid, Snp and Greens could form some sort of alliance and that they could win 44 seats  in the next General Election is growing 

The Wasting Mule  online reports that the latest calculation from the influential UK-Elect website based on polling figures shows Labour short of an overall majority by 34 seats – less than the 44 seats the website predicts will be won by the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party

 Plaid Treasury spokesman Jonathan Edwards said:#

“Together with the latest Lord Ashcroft poll, which shows the top two parties – Tory and Labour – getting less than 60% of the vote between them for the first time, this projection shows what a tremendous opportunity there is to make Westminster work for Wales in a way it never has before.“The message Plaid will be putting across during the general election campaign is that the people of Wales seize a once in a lifetime opportunity to change Westminster for the better.
Together with the SNP and the Greens, we would be proposing the end of the privatisation of public services and the end of self-defeating austerity.
“But we also need to see a rebalancing of wealth, both individually and geographically. The disparities in wealth between inner London, the wealthiest region in the EU, and areas like West Wales and the Valleys, which are amongst the poorest, need to be seriously addressed.

“At present there is an investment free-for-all, which means that a hugely disproportionate amount of money is ploughed into London and the south east of England, to the detriment of the rest of the UK.”Mr Edwards said lessons could be learned from Germany, which after reunification in 1990 took steps to ensure that extra investment was provided to the former Communist east of the country, to help its economy catch up.He said: “There are various fiscal measures that could be used to make sure the rebalancing works. If the UK Government isn’t prepared to devolve Corporation Tax, it could set lower rates of the tax itself in poorer regions to encourage investment.”Mr Edwards said Treasury rules should also be changed to stop England-only infrastructure projects being classified as UK-wide ones.He said: “It is totally wrong that Welsh taxpayers should be expected to part-pay for rail projects like HS2 when they are going to be to the detriment of the Welsh economy. Whenever projects like that are approved, Wales should automatically be awarded a proportion of the funding to improve its own infrastrucure.”The Plaid MP said that to underpin the new approach there should be a change in the law – first floated by his party leader Leanne Wood at last month’s Plaid conference – placing an obligation on the UK Government to pursue policies aimed at levelling up wealth.

Whether this should be a formal alliance before the General Election is a moot point  . The Green Dragon has looked into the difficulties from their  side 

Possibly Plaid could give the greens a free ride in 3 or 5 seats Cardiff Central with a large student population who are unlikely to be supporting the LibDem s could be one and similarly in one Swansea and Newport seats.


But maybe be the important thing would be for these parties and the Scottish Greens and Mebyon Kernow to work together in the build up to the General Election offering a joint platform on policies .

With four Unionist Tight wing parties given time to offer us nothing in the Leaders debate those of us who seek a progressive future what ever Nation in the UK we belong to desperately need a an alternative vision ,

Jonathen Edwards has made a very good start,

LibDem Rats desert sinking ship.

When a mature student at Aber in the late 80's it was a rule in elections to the NUS that if you previously been a member political party hen you could not stand as an Independent unless you put your previous affiliation on your campaign literature..

This led to one candidate being excluded on the might of the count because he had done just that thing.

Apparently treason for this rule was in the past Federation of Conservative students members would resign from that society and stand as Independents in the hope that they will not be associated by the Toxic image Thatcherisn had amongst most students.

The departure of Norman Baker from the Cabinet  prompted Clegg to carry out a mini-reshuffle  after Cardiff Central MP  Jenny  Willott, who had been tipped for promotion, informed him that she wanted to resign as a whip so she could raise her profile ahead of a tough fight in her marginal Cardiff Central constituency. By convention, whips do not speak in the Commons.

The departure of Willott, following the decision of her fellow whip Mark Hunter to stand down to concentrate on the fight in his marginal constituency of Cheadle, highlights the nerves among Liberal Democrat MPs over the looming general election.

Willot may consider it an inconvenience being a whip but it may be that the ruminations helped but six months before the elections.

Expect much more opposition from t Willot and her colleagues to the Conservatives as they try to use "The Big Boys Made Me Do It. excuse in the vain hope in the six months leading up to the election in the vain hope we forget about their part in the cuts agenda.

• Leaving the Government for sake of your constituents is honourable
• Leaving the Government for the  sake of your Nation has also honour
• Leaving the Government  for the sake of  Party may in some circumstances also have some honour.
• Leaving the Government  for the sake of your seat however is not.

It doesn't take genius to see which category Jenny Willot and he fellow rats fall into.

If you thought Ed Miliband was bad check out Labour in Ireland.

If you think that Ed Miliband has been pretty atrocious in leading UK Labour it nothing to his Iish counterpart.

Even before becoming leader Joan Labour TD Joan Burton on Vincent Browne Show, 24 January 2011 was a disaster(Thanks to Blog Menai)


But Labour still made her leader and she is currently Tanaiste (deputy leader) in the 
 Fine Gael/ Labour Party government.

She recently y criticised the actions of some demonstrators against increased Water Charges  who she accused of intimidating householders in estates across the country.

During extremely heated exchanges in the Dail, Ms Burton defended the role of gardai in controlling the protests in part of Dublin.

She was responding to concern raised by Dublin's Lord Mayor Christy Burke who said he fears gardai are using "excessive force" to deal with demonstrations.

"I think they have actually responded with complete professionalism," Ms Burton said of the role of the gardai.

The Labour Party leader was responding to claims by People Before Profit TD Joan Collins that groups are being inhibited in their attempts to demonstrate.

And she sparked criticism during 'Leaders' Questions' after she claimed that demonstrators are using "extremely expensive phones, tablets, video cameras"  torecord their activities.

"A core part of the campaign is to video every single second...there has been the most extensive filming," 

Ms Burton told TDs.

",Hollywood would be in the ha'penny place compared to whats going on here"

 she added.

Meanwhile, Ms Burton also clashed with Sinn Fein's Mary Lou McDonald on the issue of water charges.

Ms McDonald said the government had "threatened" householders with turning off their taps if they do not pay.

But Ms Burton said such a claim was a "Big Sinn Fein lie".

She added: 

"Nobody's water supply is going to be cut off because the law does not allow Irish Water (to do so). "The law in Ireland does no allow this.

One homeowner, Paul McGill, said:

“The use of phones and cameras to record this is not the issue. The use of our police force to protect private contractors is.”Ann Marie Cogan added: “They have forgotten their roots the Labour Party – the ordinary people, working class, ordinary people.“Now there’s us and the Labour ‘Tory’ party totally out of touch with who they supposedly represent.”

How very different from our own dear Labour party who are champions of Social Justice here .

It would be dreadful if people would share the view that like Ireland Tory’ party totally out of touch with who they supposedly represent.”

We can't afford to be "West Britons",

The Wasting Mule reports that "More than a quarter of a million workers in Wales are paid less than the living wage, according to a major new report..

Research published by KPMG shows that 261,000 people – nearly one in four (24%) workers – receives less than the amount considered necessary to meet basic living costs.The highest share of people earning less than the living wage were found in Conwy and Powys (both 32%) and Monmouthshire (30%).Across the UK, 5.28 million people – 22% of the workforce – are paid below this rate.The findings come as the Living Wage Foundation has set a new rate of £7.85 per hour

Most I suppose would consider  Monmouthshire to be one of the moat affuent in Wales and this is reflected by the support for the Conservatives in that county.Could it be that low paid workers are less likely to vote?

Commenting on the report, Wales TUC National Officer Julie Cook said: 

“People deserve a fair day’s pay for an honest day’s work."But low pay is blighting the lives of hundreds of thousands of families in Wales. And it’s adding to the deficit because it means more spent on tax credits and less collected in tax.“We have the wrong kind of recovery with the wrong kind of jobs – we need to create far more living wage jobs, with decent hours and permanent contracts."The fact is there are employers out there in Wales who can afford to pay living wages, but aren’t.“It is now time for all responsible employers to commit to adopting this standard, which enables workers to earn just enough to be able to live a decent life.”

Certainly there something wrong with a system which sees large numbers of people in work on some form of benefit.

In reality it means that we are subsidising firms that pay low wages and yet they complain about government interference .

As US Senator Elizabeth Warren puts it

There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. ... You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

No body likes politician plagiarising anothers speeches.But has any leading Labour politician even approached this?

We have an opposition party that is supposed to be a socialist party which is so in the grips of big business who can't even approach the rhetoric of an American Senator.

Wales in particular is becoming the poorest region in Europe and as long as we accept the position of West Britons under Westminster parties nearly all in the pockets of big business we not only remain so but the gap will be larger,

How serious are Labour over devolution?

Labour this week showed that devolution and Constitutional reform will at seem to figure highly in the next General Election..

The first was on Transport 

“Giving city and county regions more power over their public transport networks so they are able to set the right bus routes and have fairer fares, as well as integrate their transport services to help working people and businesses succeed in their areas. This will give regions similar powers to regulate their bus services as those in London.

An excellent idea but cynical bastards like me may well think it may well have more to do with attacking Stagecoach Boss Brian Souter for bankrolling the YES campaign in the Scottish referendum.

But its worth considering its a pity that it may be have been thought out of spite rather than bringing power closer to the people.

Labour also said that it would summon a constitutional convention early in the next parliament to consider how an elected senate would be established - including whether it could have specific regional representation functions.

Each region of England, as well as the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, would hold meetings before the convention where people would be asked for views on the functions of the new body, as well as the most appropriate form of election.

In a speech to activists in Blackpool, Mr Miliband will said : "It cannot be right that the North West has almost the same population as London but only a small fraction of London's number of peers.

"London is our capital and one of the world's great cities but it cannot be right London has more members of the House of Lords than the East Midlands, West Midlands, Wales, Northern Ireland, the North East and Yorkshire and Humber added together.
"And it cannot be right that those peers who do live outside London are less likely to be from great cities like Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol than they are to be living in less-populated rural areas.
"We will make the second chamber of Parliament truly a senate of the regions and nations of our whole country."

Again at first seems like an elected idea . But are Wales,Scotland and Northern Ireland  to be considered to be "Regions"  and I bet there will be no attempt to recognise Cornwall unique identity.

But just a quick look at the wording shows that Labour will not push this to far

Labour would summon a constitutional convention early in the next parliament to consider how an elected senate would be established - including whether it could have specific regional representation functions

Only a vague proposal  that Labour can even if it was in a majority in the next Parliament pass of "consultation" and in the Five years of the next Parliament just as in the 13 years of the last Labour Parliament Labour can safely put on the back burner .

Labour simplify things by having a look on how Australia does things

The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I, Part II of the Australian Constitution. There is a total of 76 senators; 12 senators are elected from each state, regardless of population. Each of the two autonomous internal territories has two senators. Senators are popularly elected under a single transferable vote system of proportional representation. There is no constitutional requirement for the election of senators to take place at the same time as those for members of the House of Representatives, though the government usually tries to synchronise election dates.

If they did this they could have the new Senate up and running in a year.

I very much doubt in the next five years we will be trotting off to the polling booths to elect a new Senate.

Sandfields East Byelection on NPT

The result of the  Sandfields East Electoral Division Byelectioin October on 30th 2014 saw Labour carrying seemingly unchallenged in Welsh Byelections. 

Matthew Crowley Labour 641 [61.1%; +24.3%]

Keith Suter UKIP 361 [34.4%; +34.4%]
Richard James Minshul Conservatives 47 [4.5%; +4.5%]
[Independent [0.0%; -39.1%]]
[Neath Port Talbot Independence Party [0.0%; -23.7%]]

Majority: 280

Labou Hold

Result of ward at last election (2012): Emboldened denotes elected

Labour 1,041, 879, 750 (53%)
Independents 1,116, 622 (34%)
Ratepayers 669 (13%

No Plaid Candidate again and no independent, despite them holding one of the three seats. So Ukip were almost given free range to gain any dissatisfied  voters and must be disappointed to have made little headway.

But at least they stood . Plaid are the largest opposition group on NPT Labour 52, Plaid Cymru 8, Independents 3, Social Democrats 1 (Labour majority of 40) . So they maybe should have tested the water and used the opportunity to gain some insight into how to challenge Labour in more marginal seats.