QUITE A little battle is opening up between new Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams and certain parts of the Assembly Government, writes Clive Betts from the National Assembly press gallery.
The Lib Dems released a press statement at their weekly press briefing on the number of laptops and other electronic equipment which the Assembly government and its officials have lost or had stolen.
The worst department, apparently, is economy and transport, headed by deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones.
Ms Williams went close to blaming Mr Jones himself for the 13 laptops and two Blackberries (a superior form of mobile phone) which have vanished. Was this because of the sort of leadership his department was providing ?
One almost expected Ms Williams to say that, clearly, nationalist leadership could not be trusted; perhaps they were secretly exporting them to independent Dublin.
Ms Williams certainly used one very good point … in that it is proving extremely difficult to obtain information about missing property from the government. Or of most other sorts of information. The open government we were promised from our National Assembly is certainly far from what we are in fact being provided at the moment – except perhaps in openness to theft and loss.
But beyond that openness problem – which deserves greater dissection, at a later date - lies a personality clash which seems to be developing. The previous week, Ms Williams had claimed Mr Jones’s economic department had been making a bad job of dealing with one of her constituent’s business problems during the present economic downturn.
This had led to Mr Jones leaping to his feet during an Assembly session, waving a sheet of papers at the Lib Dem leader, and alleging that all the information she had claimed was not available was in fact easily to hand, if only she had asked him.
Yet, a week later, Ms Williams demanded to know why she had still not had sight of the information that Mr Jones waved around. Her constituent made the same complaint. He still had not received the information that Mr Jones said was available to him.
A strange issue.
It almost seems to link with the complaint made by an Assembly committee that Mr Jones was refusing to supply them with information on transport priorities which they thought they had a right to. Some (Labour) members of the committee even threatened to take Mr Jones to court.
The Cardiff Assembly was supposed to be an excellent example of openness of information. Or, it was when Ron Davies, Caerffili AM, father of devolution, and former Welsh Secretary, still roamed the corridors.
It’s been a sadder and weaker institution since he left.
[...] Wyn Jones has been getting increasing criticism this week. Clive Betts points out that much of this is coming from our party, including the attack this week from Kirsty [...]