CAMBRIA POLITICO

Alun Ffred is no cardboard minister

Jan 212009

At long last, a Plaid minister in the coalition government is making a mark without referring his thoughts first of all to No 10.

When I wrote yesterday about the cabinet’s concerns over changes to the Welsh press caused by a merger in Trinity Mirror, I didn’t know who was behind it. As is usual, minister for Assembly business Carwyn Jones hadn’t given an individual credit, and no-one had sought out that particular detail at the press briefing.

But as the afternoon’s business wound to an end, a civil service press officer bustled into the press gallery handing out copies of the letter the government had sent to Sly Bailey, chief executive of Trinity Mirror in London.

The signature at the bottom of the letter was Alun Ffred Jones, wearing on this occasion his heritage hat.

Assembly-sceptic Ann invents a fishy problem with England

Welsh Politics No Responses »

Sep 292008

As a true daughter of Rhyl, we can presumably assume that Ann Jones, AM for Vale of Clywd, is a lover of fish and chips, and has the interests of that creature which now swims in batter but which used to swim in the sea truly at heart.

That presumably accounts for her plenary question ridiculing the planned introduction of different fishing regimes on either side of the Welsh-English border. Continue reading »

Jane Hutt needs a kick up the arse

Welsh Politics 2 Responses »

Sep 142008

Do I see a sign that Plaid is trying to stifle criticism of its failures in the current coalition government ?

The annual conference just finished in Aberystwyth got by with very little mention of the failure to deliver a Welsh-language daily paper – just a mention of “sorrow” for the position that currently exists.

The equally-substantial issue of the failure so far to publish the terms of the promised law on the rights of the Welsh language also seems to have passed through the three days without too much difficulty – although party organisers ensured that no debate was listed to give an easy outlet to the dissenters.

The third issue which has excited concern is that of a federal Welsh-medium university institution.

Making it the final listed debate – and then allowing only 15 minutes – perhaps carries a tinge of an urge to delete the issue. Continue reading »

Government secrecy shocks minister

Welsh Politics No Responses »

Aug 282008

Even the formidable health minister Edwina Hart admitted she was surprised by some of the secretive ways of working that her civil servants operate.

Mrs Hart had launched a massive consultation operation over the future of the NHS, suggesting that she would abolish the local health boards and make various other changes.

Over 800 submissions quickly submerged her desk on the fifth floor at Ty Hywel. She read them all, she told us. After her initial decision in mid-July to merge trusts and LHBs into eight regional bodies providing most NHS services, she said she would spend the summer holidays reading some responses again to help her decide what sort of national board to set up.

Lib Dem health spokesman Jenny Randerson asked why these responses hadn’t been published – no doubt, she fancied reading them…. so she could advise the minister. Mrs Hart replied that her intention had been to publish – “I had envisaged that, as the responses came in, they would automatically go on the website, but apparently that is not how it is done.”

She found out that permission had to be sought from each respondee.

I am glad that point was news to the minister. It was also news to me.

For it contradicts what had seemed to be official Welsh policy. The general consultation website states clearly, “We will publish a summary of the responses we receive, or the responses themselves. If you want your comments to be anonymous, you will need to tell us.”

Stand by for a badger-war with England

Countryside, Rural and Farming 4 Responses »

Jul 302008

Badger-lovers seem determined to turn into an international issue the cull of badgers proposed by Welsh minister Elin Jones in order to curb bovine TB.

If Plaid Cymru tried to play off Cardiff against London in order to gain a political or policy point, you can imagine the rumpus which would result from London unionists and their “rwy’n eisiau bod yn Sais” friends in Wales.

Yet the Badger Trust, the self-pronounced friend of badgers, is playing exactly that line in their current moves to force Wales to follow England and abandon all plans for a cull.

Of course, to the trust, with its bases in Britain’s richest suburbs near London and around the Midlands, it must seem almost an (unadmitted) nationalistic battle. When the English rural ministry (Defra) launched a consultation on the issue about two years ago, the responses came OVERWHELMINGLY from the South East and the South West – England’s areas of opulence, where live the upper middle classes who once ruled the world and now have only Wales to concern themselves with.

Of the total responses, an incredible 24pc came south east England, and 25pc from the south west. The government’s own figures show that a pressure group had been solidly at work – in some English regions, no less than 99pc of responses were opposed to a badger cull.

One must congratulate East Grinstead-based trust on its hard work in its own region.

But, as with all pressure groups, one must examine closely what they say. They always cry out that they base their views of “science”. But “science” is never that simple. Continue reading »

Assembly + democracy = a badger cull

Countryside, Rural and Farming, Welsh Politics 2 Responses »

Jul 072008

The fact that the English have decided not to cull their badgers will make no difference to minister Elin Jones.

Glib comments from the Badger Trust in England and from English newspapers will merely prove that they don’t know what they are talking about.

This is a devolved issue, has been for some time, and preparations are slowly grinding towards action. Continue reading »

Who’s planning the future for rural planning ?

Welsh Politics 2 Responses »

Jul 072008

Just who precisely is minister for rural housing ?

Last week, Elin Jones spoke in detail about the changes to rural planning through TAN (Technical Advisory Note) 6 which were on their way.

This week, deputy minister Jocelyn Davies waxed eloquent about her powers in housing, teasing predecessor Peter Black about why he made so little of the very similar powers he once possessed.

Yet today marks the appearance of a press release, “Rural communities’ new affordable housing boost”, which is specifically aimed at both the farming industry and rural communities.

Yet it appears not in the name of either the rural affairs minister or the housing deputy minister. The name at the top is that of Jane Davidson. Ms Davidson (Labour, Pontypridd) is already under fire for snatching the coastal footpath from Ms Jones (Plaid, Ceredigion), and one wonders what her relationships are like with Ms Davies (Plaid, South-East). Continue reading »

Elin shows a leg down the Bay

Welsh Politics No Responses »

Jun 172008

When rural affairs minister Elin Jones puts her leg up on a table after a briefing, things are obviously perking up down Cardiff Bay.

But she was just showing off her sensible walking shoes, in response to an earlier query from a female journalist.

Ms Jones is rapidly developing as one of the most confident members of the cabinet. Not because of the leg issue, but because of her ability, confidence, and general humour.

“Thank you for your very interesting series of questions on non-governmental issues,” she said at the close of the weekly press briefing given by a cabinet minister, which she had just hosted.

Usually, the relevant minister attempts to interest us in a very long boring list of his colleagues’ engagements. When Ms Jones mentions no more than a couple, and then beams at us, she is virtually demanding that we ask about Alun Cairns – to which she cheekily responds, “I do not wish to contribute to public discussion.”

She equally cheekily complains there is no picture of her in the Western Mail farming supplement – before welcoming her replacement by a close relative.

And in replying about the effect of the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty on the future of the European Union, she remarked she will be a government representative at the farming Council of Ministers in Luxembourg, where she expected to be in the middle of a host of demonstrations – not against herself, you understand.

She then quietly returned to cabinet business … and showed how she is rapidly tying the largely-English Badger Trust (the friends of bTB) in a knot by talking about her plans to cull badgers, and then of the help she will receive from the RSPCA.

From her comments, it seems Ms Jones is more on top of the problem than are the trust and the badger-lovers.