Taxing question

Self-confessed Tory wimp Glyn Davies wants tax cuts from Cameron, despite sharing his tree-hugging, green tendency.
He makes a good point though. The only politicians to say anything about lightening the tax burden during conference season are Dafydd Wigley and Ming Campbell.

Death by a thousand cuts

The Lib Dems reckon they have evidence that Swansea's Singleton hospital is heading for big cutbacks.
It's a theme many constituencies identify with.
Next May Rhodri Morgan will have a good story about the health of the nation. On April 2 smoking will be banned in pubs, prescription charges will be scrapped and waiting lists will - he hopes - have met their latest target.
He needs a good story - Labour will have to go some to drown out the threat of hospital closures affecting key marginals like Preseli, Carmarthen West and Aberconwy.
Labour AMs have been caught out by NHS shake-ups in their own constituencies that they had little to do with. Health chiefs are responding to the Assembly Government's demand for a modern NHS. People have been bombarded with visions of an NHS that they don't like or understand, even if, in the long run, they don't know what's best for them.
In Pembrokeshire, for example, Tory and Plaid candidates have become the mouthpiece of opposition to threats to Withybush. Plaid has taken a lesson in grass-roots campaigning from the Lib Dems and its troops were being schooled in the art of local war at last week's conference.
Meanwhile Labour footsoldiers fear becoming the object of scorn for botched attempts at "consultation".

Do lame ducks swim in a one-legged circle, or something

When Tony Blair announced he will be gone within a year, Rhodri Morgan said "giving a date now would have eroded his [the PM's] ability to make decisions".
So does the same apply to the First Minister who has given the date of his departure - 2009?

Yeah but no

I can't help notice how Ieuan Wyn Jones and Nick Bourne increasingly dispense with the once-customary caveats of "yes, but we won't discuss that until after the election" that used to precede answers to questions about post-May coalitions.

Hartrending

Cabinet press briefing given by Social Justice Minister Edwina Hart today. Frist time in living memory.
Perhaps she's trying to do more turns in the public eye to boost her standing if she goes for Rhodri Morgan's job. She wasn't having any of that and gave us a decent line about loyalty, or lack of it, in the Labour Party.
She doesn't like speaking to the press. Can't imagine why on this performance. Even had a funny adieu: "You've had your rare treat. I will see you all in a couple of years' time."

Stand and deliver

GB got a 2.40 minute standing ovation at the Labour conference, according to Sky's Adam Boulton - five seconds less than Ieuan Wyn Jones got from Plaid Cymru's conference in Swansea last week.

Brown (almost) announces tax raid on aristocracy

Watching GB address the Labour conference. He just said: "There are still noble purses worth fighting for."
I thought this was a warning to the upper classes. Sadly he quickly corrected himself to noble purposes.

Lib/Lab cabinet a step closer?

Labour and the Lib Dems have been busy denying stories that they have secretly sown up a post-election power-sharing deal.
In truth, Rhodri Morgan will probably need the Lib Dems' help to stay in office if Labour does badly, as many expect, next May. It's hard to see him doing a deal with Plaid if he takes a drubbing.
A possible sticking point would be PR in local elections - the Lib Dems will insist on something here before agreeing to a coalition. It might be difficult for Rhodri to sell this to his troops because PR could wipe out legions of Labour councillors.
But could Mr Morgan be getting orders from on high if the Chancellor takes over soon as he hopes? The Mirror reports that "Gordon Brown plans to scrap first-past-the-post voting if he takes over as Premier".

Crikey!

The not-so-old man and the sea

Journalists recently got a flotilla of pictures emailed to them of Environment Minister Carwyn Jones fishing for sharks (I think for scientific purposes) on board a boat off the Welsh coast.
How very Hemingway. But Carwyn's macho image was shattered by an offical today.
Earlier this week he scaled Snowdon to land the first blow on the summit-top cafe as it is demolished to make way for a new visitor centre.
Sledge-hammer wielding Carwyn had some difficulty though. His efforts "hardly scratched it", we were told.

Taking the peace

A press release from the NASUWT advises us that schools will observe Peave Day next Thursday. An event in Cardiff to mark the occassion will be attended by "Christian Malcolm (Welsh 200m runner), Rhodri Morgan (Education Minister), John Mayes (NASUWT senior vice president)".
Education Minister Jane Davidson is said to have a good relationship with the teaching unions. But it seems this one does not even know who she is.
Either that or Rhodders has had a sudden demotion.

September 18

I feel I should point out that the below-mentioned meeting of Welsh Labour MPs has been called off, so my colleagues at the TUC in Brighton are told.

Shalalala putsch putsch

The pesky Welsh Labour Party has been at the forefront of the attempted Blair putsch.
Formerly uber-loyal Chris Bryant organised the letter telling the PM to go.
Government aides Wayne David, Ian Lucas and Mark Tami – all Welsh MPs - heaped pressure on Mr Blair with their resignations.
On September 18 Welsh Labour MPs will meet in Wales. Although convened initially to talk foreign affairs, the leadership is bound to come up.
In fact the two issues are the same for some. In August Merthyr MP Dai Havard called Tony Blair "deluded" if he thought he had any influence over George Bush. He wrote to the Prime Minister about Lebanon and accused him of a "misdirected obsession" with being a mouthpiece for Washington. Mr David said the Prime Minister showed himself to be "detached" from the Party over the summer in his dealings with Lebanon.
Labour AMs also meet the week after next, the first week of the Assembly term, at a pre-arranged away-day.
More and more in Labour think – as First Minister Rhodri Morgan suggested earlier this year – that the party will do better at next year's Assembly elections if Gordon Brown leads them into the May 3 poll.
Newport West MP Paul Flynn told me: "It goes right across the Labour MPs in Wales, this unhappiness.
"A group of Welsh MPs saw Tony Blair in June and he said to us, 'what
seems to be the trouble guys', and the first three of us who spoke said,
'You are the trouble'."
The received wisdom is that Mr Brown is more in tune with the agenda pursued by Rhodri and co.
They won a slim governing majority in 2003 under Mr Morgan's “clear red water” banner. As Tomos Livingstone says in today's Western Mail, that essentially meant: “Look, we're not Tony Blair”.
With Brown at the helm, Welsh Labour probably see electoral profit in ploughing a similar furrow next year.
I'm not sure this will keep the Tories at bay in the vulnerable Labour seats of Cardiff North, Preseli Pembrokeshire, Clwyd West and Aberconwy. But the imperative now is to end the squabbling as soon as possible - no more "noises off" Rhodri Morgan says. Keeping these seats, and allowing Mr Morgan to stay in office until 2009 as planned, will be difficult enough without an ongoing leadership crisis of his parliamentary colleagues' making.

ALSO Is the Christmas card story below something to do with Dr Who?

Internet sabotage

A funny story was pointed out to me on the Western Mail's website today (see below). I suspect internet sabotage.
The substance of the events within the story are not unusual though - getting spotted on telly while signing your Christmas cards in the Assembly chamber - as Lib Dem AM Jenny Randerson knows.

ALSO: This website is utterly bonkers.


----------------------------------------------------------

Working hard Minister?
Aug 18 2006
Staff Reporter, Western Mail

LABOUR AM and Development Minister Matt Nichols was today hiding his embarrassment after cameras caught him writing Christmas Cards during an Economic debate. Minutes after the First Minister began outlining economic targets for Mr Nichols North Wales Constituency, he pulled a set of Charity Cards from his briefcase and began to add his signature and several jaunty messages.
Pictures from a member of the public clearly show him adding a beer glass to a Snowman Christmas Card and a "Nadolig Llawen" speech bubble to a Fat Santa Claus.
Mr Nichols didn't deny the incident and stated through his office that he had more than 600 cards to send this year and that as he had already read the First Minister's speech he was using his time efficiently.
Tory AM Mark Meldrum condemned this breach of protocol as "making a mockery of the debating chamber".
Mr Nichols constituents were far from happy.
Mrs Jones of Bala commented that he should be ashamed of himself and wondered haw he hoped to halt the economic decline of North Wales if he was busy writing Christmas cards.
Labour Press Officers made light of Mr Nichols Christmas Feelings, hinting that criticism was rather scrooge-like.
Yet as the costs of running this fully transparent Debating Chamber come under scrutiny, this comes as yet another hit of unemployment rates hit an all time high in the city of Cardiff.

Caravandal

Not blogged for a while. Holiday time. When Rhodri Morgan goes on holiday he stays at his caravan in Mwnt on the west Wales coast.
Another happy camper says it's easy to find Mr Morgan's caravan because "it's the scruffiest one on the campsite".

Pull yourself together Morgan for God's sake

I met Rhodri Morgan's big brother Prys at the National Eisteddfod yesterday. Lovely chap. Told us about his family history.
He said the MP Tom Ellis once described an old relative of theirs as the finest political speaker outside the House of Commons.
Morgan senior said he gave Rhodri these gentle words of advice when he was a very nervous newly-elected MP: "'For God's sake,' I said. 'Pull yourself together. Remember what Tom Ellis said'. That gave him a lot of confidence when he went into the House for the first time."

Clamp down on Morgan

Rhodri Morgan got clamped last night while supping at the Pen and Wig, Cardiff. He managed to talk the clampers into releasing him, pleading with them that he thought he was parked in the patrons' car park.

The clamping did not involve his chauffeured first ministerial car, but his personal people carrier which, another Pen and Wig patron told me, "looks like a minibus".

Such a vehicle will be needed to transport the growing Morgan tribe. Mr Morgan probably popped in for a pint to celebrate the birth of his newest grandchild - his sixth in six year.

Are we nearly there yet, Sam?

The Government of Wales Act stopped being a Bill and became an Act this week. Peter Hain and Rhodri Morgan were very pleased and threw a party in the Assembly to celebrate.
Far more interesting than the speeches by Mr Hain, Mr Morgan and Lord Elis-Thomas (about Mr Hain, Mr Morgan and Lord Elis-Thomas) was the guest list.
The usual political hangers-on attended. But so too did Cardiff City's charismatic chairman Sam Hammam. I didn't have time to ask him if he thought Mr Hain was right in his assertion that the Act settles the constitutional wrangle over devolution for ever and ever and ever Amen.
For the record, I don't. Although it means Wales will pick up a long-overdue Scottish-style parliament after a referendum, it doesn't say when that referendum will be. It will need the agreement of the Welsh Secretary, Parliament and two-thirds of AMs before it can be put to the people - but as far as I can tell Assembly Ministers can call for one whenever they want.
Labour say there is no demand for one in the country yet. Cue ceaseless squabbling about when the time is right.

Look what you've done

The mood at Labour AMs' end-of-term summer party - to which I was not invited - was “reflective”, I'm told.

Please release me

I get hundreds of press releases every week - most of which make me weep with boredom. But this one, from the Assembly Government, brightened my afternoon.

"Breakfast Clubs are The Best, amazing, bendigedig, fantastic and good for children ".....................says Connor Summerwill ( age 8) from Ysgol Gynradd, Trallwen, Swansea.

Connor was so chuffed with his free breakfast, he wrote to FM Rhodri Morgan and Education Minister Jane Davidson to say "cheers", and invited them round for some Frosties. The heart-warming and not-in-any-way contrived dispatch continues ...

Connor has also written a story of a boy who couldn't get out of bed for school. The tale has a happy ending as "young Rhodri " starts attending a breakfast club ... and his life is transformed.

In his reply to Connor's letter the First Minister wrote "I love stories and I really enjoyed reading The Kid Who Would Never Get Up For School."

And today I winced with excitement when one popped into my inbox that read: "DAVID DAVIES REVEALS DISAPPOINTMENT AT EURO EXIT". What's this? The Tory MP for Monmouth berating his leader's new EU alliance? Sadly not ...

Commonwealth gold medal winning swimmer David Davies has today revealed his disappointment at the prospect of missing out on the opportunity to clinch a podium position at the European Championships later this month (26-30 July 2006).

Talking 'bout my generation

Lots of talk about energy generation today.
Pedants will know the Government is getting ideas above its station if it thinks it can generate energy.
The amount of energy in the universe is constant. It can merely be used to create electricity.

It's getting hot in here or My thermometer is bigger than yours

In the bleak mid winter AMs complained they were too cold in the Assembly's new chamber. One threatened to take her football scarf in as a sign of protest.
Now they are too hot. Something of a competition seems to have broken out about how hot it actually was in the Senedd during the recent heatwave.
Lib Dem AM Peter Black blogged that it was 28C.
But the highest yet comes from Tory AM William Graham. "Twenty-nine my thermometer said. Perfectly horrendous."

Kev's Karaoke Kings

Public standards champion Sir Alistair Graham has advised the Prime Minister on dealing with his deputy.
But Sir Alistair got some light relief from these weighty matters of state when the body he chairs, the Committee on Standards in Public Life, took evidence from First Minister Rhodri Morgan on the Electoral Commission in a Cardiff hotel today.
Mr Morgan kicked off proceedings with this little ice-breaker: “The last time I was in here was for a knees-up.”
Said 'do' was for the wedding of the brother of the FM's successor as Cardiff West MP, Kevin Brennan.
Not for the first time I struggled to follow the FM's thread, but the party involved a karaoke-related altercation whereby the talented Brennan clan outsang its guests.
Eventually, Mr Morgan said, someone cried: “Isn't there anybody in the Brennan family who can't sing?” The public must know.
Recounting the bizarre story must have been a nice diversion for Mr Morgan from stories such as this which abound in the press today.

Bye bye Blaenau Gwent

Farewell to the Blaenau Gwent by-election campaign.
Independents Dai Davies and Trish Law thumped Labour in a surprising double victory.
They took up their seats in Westminster and the Assembly yesterday – and their welcomes could not have been more different.
Mr Davies's entry to the Commons was reportedly greeted with Labour cries of “There's a traditional socialist” and “Enjoy it while you can”.
Meanwhile new AM Mrs Law, who took up her seat exactly 10 weeks after it was vacated by the death of her husband Peter, was applauded when she strolled into the Senedd chamber.
AMs appeared to be climbing over each other to welcome her. Deputy Presiding Officer John Marek sent out a notice advising hacks that he would be “on the front steps. (Not Senedd)” at 11am to meet Mrs Law.
Not wanting to be outdone, his boss Lord Elis-Thomas fired off an email 30 minutes later announcing he would be “on the steps of the Senedd at 1.45” to escort the new AM into plenary.
How ironic that her arrival now gives the Assembly more female than male members. It was a row about an all-women shortlist that prompted the late Mr Law to leave the Labour Party in the first place.

What England wanna do right, is replace their entire strike force with Colwyn Bay girls under-12s

Bad luck to England.
Welsh Sports Minister Alun Pugh promises he was not supporting Portugal during the nail-biting penalty shoot out. Not that you would want his advice on footballing matters - on Saturday Colwyn Bay girls under-12s put five spot-kicks passed him.
These children were of course the offspring of potential voters in his ultra-marginal Clwyd West seat. Did Mr Pugh perhaps let the girls score lest their Mums and Dads withhold their votes if he leapt like a be-gloved salmon and saved their efforts?
No, says he, because they were "all in the bottom corner. I couldn't get near them."