One day of the year when you can be seen as special

It just happens to be a long solitary walk to retirement and a handsome pension waiting for little achievement, and an even lower public and political respectability from your peers and critics, for one person.

It also happens to be the the First Minister's 69th birthday tomorrow. This blog wishes him a happy birthday. Put your feet up on the office sofa with your glass of orange juice to read your papers. Delegate more to others for just one day. Sit back and enjoy the one day of the year that you can be seen as special.

Are you sitting comfortably? Good.

I have some bad news!

Not only has someone summed up your ministerial career in a way that makes you Wales' very own Gordon Brown:

Damn right: Rhodri Morgan is the biggest disappointment to happen to Welsh Labour devolutionary hopes since Ron Davies had his moment of madness. At least
Ron hasn't given up on politics, which Rhodri clearly has. They sat on him over the Richard Commission, they undermined his ministership at every turn. He was so demoralised and knackered he had to sit back and watch while London Labour
launched its viciously anti-Welsh hacks, and now he's waiting to retire so he can watch some golf. What a waste of undoubted talent. The man has become invisible and irrelevant.

The party had high hopes of him, those of us at least who thought the future was devolution. He's like Gordon Brown: spent all his time wanting the job, then when he gets it is a big soggy squib.

Don't be downhearted, it gets better. In August I reported that Rhodri's Facebook group "Rhodri Morgan Appreciation Society" had remained static in membership. September 2007, 20 members; August 2008, 20 members. There's good news in that the membership has risen to 22 in time for his birthday.

I hear you say there must be a BUT.

The bad news is that Welsh Labour's Communications Officer Martyn Williams, and Luke Ellis 'number two' of Minister Carwyn Jones have both left the society.

Life can sometimes be difficult. Congratulations must be given to Assembly Members, Alun Davies and Joyce Watson for remaining members.

Happy Birthday for tomorrow, First Minister.

Priorities of the Welsh Assembly Government

Priority Projects Team

They are in place to help deliver on what is seen as a priority for the 'new' government.

...to ensure efficient delivery of the top priorities that have been decided on by the fairly new government in Cardiff Bay. It's high-profile work, but mainly carried out by people who have - on one side - plenty of experience in project management and on the other - people which have dabbled in project management during their day job. It has been described by one insider as a team of 22 staff managing a variety of 14 projects over a period of two years; by another, as a team of staff put together as a project itself.

Priorities include:

Internal Communication, Laptop roll-out to kids, work on new legislation competence orders (LCOs).

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Sounds like a tall-order for staff of a small number when priorities shift so quickly. What happens when things go wrong as they generally do with project work? Is there any back up for a small team or are consultants brought in, adding to the cost?

It's my guess that we'll find out in the media or by leaks from the usual places.

Gareth Jones AM: Lost in Translation

I've always loved a little humour during the day and couldn't help smiling when I turned on to AM.PM Tuesday afternoon and watched the plenary session. Gareth Jones AM was raising a question on flu jabs.

Gareth has always been concerned about the use of the Welsh language in debates and since returning to the Assembly has recently complained about the quality of translation provided during plenary and committee meetings.

During Tuesday's debate in the chamber, Mr Jones was talking (in Welsh) about flu jabs for our senior citizens (including himself), however, a translator for the Assembly's Translation & Interpretation Service gave the English translation as "flea jabs".

The pressure was obviously too much for him not to say it.

Merthyr Tydfil Office: First Anniversary Propaganda

The Welsh Assembly Government’s plan to disperse civil service jobs across Wales has been hailed a success as the first anniversary of the opening of the Merthyr office was celebrated last week.

The building contains staff from Social Justice & Local Government; Corporate Procurement Services; Economy & Transport; HR Strategy & Change; and Records Service of the Welsh Assembly Government. It will eventually cost £22 million when ownership is returned to the Welsh Government in another 14 years.

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First Minister Rhodri Morgan said he was delighted with the way the move had gone:

The office provides an excellent working environment and staff are using
Merthyr’s urban facilities, thereby helping to contribute to the local economy.

After discussion with a member of staff the bulletin should read something like this:

The office provides an excellent working environment, except when managers are regularly having to travel to Cardiff in order to attend meetings. Staff are using Merthyr's urban facilities such as purchasing sandwiches for lunch and food shopping for the family, and petrol for vehicles when we travel home.

The Merthyr office at Rhydycar accommodates 450 staff. More than 390 posts were moved out of Cardiff and other offices last year, and a further 60 were created to support the office many of which were filled by people from the immediate community (READ: cleaners and low paid workers).

The new office has also created an opening for school leavers who had taken up places on the Foundation Modern Apprenticeship Scheme (READ: six apprentices - source).

Apart from the economic benefit to the town, many staff have carried out voluntary activities in Merthyr and the surrounding area. These include:

• Supporting the Pant and Dowlais Girls and Boys Club and the Engine House, Dowlais by planting 17,000 daffodil bulbs to help brighten the local area;
• Helping to refurbish the reception area of a local community centre;
• Painting a mural in a car park at a mental health resource centre;
• Working on a ball court at a family centre run by the Aberfan Youth and Community project;
• Participating in the Keep Wales Tidy Heads of the Valleys clean-up programme;
• Providing much needed support to women's refuge centres;
• Supporting the work of the Prince’s Trust;
• Participating in a leaflet drop for the Merthyr Tydfil Communities First team.

The office has also achieved an ‘Excellent’ score for sustainable development under the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method.

This seems like a costly experiment to bring the Welsh Government closer to the people of Wales. Apart from the earlier negative aspect to this experiment, congratulations on the encouragement of volunteer work which is much needed in any community.

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Since writing this post I remembered what Valleys Mam said to me the other day, "The move to Merthyr was the same [as Llandudno]... created bloody traffic jams and not a lot else."

Andrew Davies' first ‘One Wales’ budget, ‘A bigger bang for the Welsh buck’

They really should sack the Communications Officer that came up with that headline.

Summary

The total Departmental Expenditure Limit for 2008-09 is £14 billion. This is split between Main Expenditure Groups (MEGs) as follows:

• Health and Social Services - £5.7 billion;
• Social Justice and Local Government - £4.2 billion;
• Environment, Sustainability and Housing - £734 million;
• Rural Affairs - £148 million;
• Economy and Transport - £1.2 billion;
• Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills - £1.8 billion;
• Heritage - £155 million;
• Central Administration - £329 million;
• Other Ministerial Services - £10 million;
• Central Match Funding - £30 million; and
• Public Services and Performance - £59 million.

Full details can now be read here.