Let them [John Prescott] eat cake

He may no longer hold high office, but that doesn't stop John Prescott shouting from the roof of the 'Go Fourth' battle bus that he's still proud to be Labour.

In the last 11 years, our borrowing has created more than 3 million jobs and allowed more people to get on the property ladder.

Today I'm delighted to have seen clear red water between Labour and the Tories. The choice is between a government that will do all it can to help the poor and the hard working through these difficult times and a Thatcherite Conservative Party that would do absolutely nothing.

I can't wait to tell that to each and every voter from now until when the General Election is called.

So tell our your friends and workmates how important today was. We're going to have to fight for that Fourth Term but by god, we've got something to fight for!

Take care,

JP

Carl Sargeant, Labour Chief Whip in the National Assembly also seems to be full of support for the Westminster package and a union man through and through by commenting

As Unison say - "This is a serious package for serious times. Brown and Darling have shown their strength, courage and determination to face the economic challenge head on. Their extensive experience has kept them in tune with what the country and business needs."

The rest of us are more than slightly concerned that this is the last action of a political party that is going for broke in an attempt to 'Go Fourth' and hold on to power.

In reality, if it has all the appearances of working, it will then work for Labour under the banner of tough-times ahead. Or as we read it - I'll lend you £20bn now but will expect it back with plenty of interest after the next election. If it doesn't work, the Conservatives will be left to pick up the pieces.

I guess Gordon's premiership has nothing to lose at this stage in his greatest gamble to date, or as the Conservatives have described it - the Prime Minister's promise to end boom and bust had proved "one of the greatest deceits ever told to the British public".

[Pippa Wagstaff is currently on a blogging break]

Return of the Blair casts a shadow over Brown

Tony Blair is to co-host a summit on the global financial crisis with President Nicolas Sarkozy in January, in a move likely to infuriate Gordon Brown.

Mr Blair's office has been in in touch with the Prime Minister to invite him to the Paris conference, but Mr Brown has so far refused to accept the invitation, with an official saying last night he was still considering his "diary commitments".

Sources said that Mr Brown was "relaxed" about the event taking place. However, any attempt by Mr Blair to overshadow Mr Brown's efforts on the world stage is likely to anger Downing Street aides. He has rebuilt his political reputation by claiming to lead the world in tackling the global financial crisis – most recently with a "road map" for financial reform he presented at a G20 summit last weekend.

But he may now have to contend with Mr Blair taking on a formal role in the global response to the economic crisis.

The summit will come days before Barack Obama is sworn in as US President on Jan 20, and threatens to upstage a follow-up G20 summit that Mr Brown is expected to host in London in April.

Double Standards

Industrial action has been the talk for some time and civil servant members of the PCS union voted by a majority to take industrial action to defend pay. Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the PCS union has this to say:

For years we have heard ministers and business leaders urging us to be restrained over pay claims. We were told that low pay rises are the key to low inflation and a stable economy. But now we have rising inflation, rising unemployment and a serious economic crisis.

Surprise, surprise, the Chancellor's answer is still pay restraint, or more accurately, pay cuts. Sir Gus O'Donnell, head of the civil service, and the permanent secretaries, tell us that there is no money for fair pay rises because of the current problems in the economy.

What angers me about this argument is how one-sided it is. In the first place, it clearly doesn't apply to the five figure bonuses* some senior civil servants have received.

* Senior civil servants can get as much as £40,000 in bonuses

[Pippa Wagstaff is currently on a blogging break]

A picture paints a thousand words

Welsh Economic Summit

Welsh Assembly Government met business and union leaders in a yesterday between 9 and 12, with 15 mins for coffee.

First Minister Rhodri Morgan said the summit was "remarkable" and showed Wales was "stepping up to the plate".

There was me thinking that they've had the responsibility for doing something for some time, after all, to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Switzerland is known for chocolate, cheese, taxation, and banking

In light of the Icelandic issue, Nick Bourne AM recalls a question from a recent meeting of the Assembly Finance Committee that was raised by Labour AM Huw Lewis.

"Astoundingly, though money tends to be drawn down from Whitehall, neither the minister nor his officials did not know in response to questions from Huw Lewis where WAG banked nor how much was held in the accounts - reassuring isn’t it?"

This has unexpectedly prompted Rhodri Morgan to take action, and could it be the reason why he's taken a trip to Switzerland days before an All-Wales economic summit meeting? After all, he doesn't seem to be there for the joyous singing of hymns.

What's that pin number again?

Whatever it takes is too little, too late

Gordon Brown has opened Labour's annual conference in Manchester with a pledge to do "whatever it takes" to sort out Britain's financial system.

One delegate stood up to urge party unity - a reference to the 13 Labour MPs who have publicly called for a leadership election [He'll be getting something worthwhile when Gordon leaves Downing street!] - and in a show of unity from the platform the prime minister was praised by several cabinet colleagues who said voters would not understand "navel gazing" at a time of economic turbulence.

Although there is a tendency to blame Wales' Labour problems on 'New Labour' rather than Welsh Labour, First Minister Rhodri Morgan, a long-standing ally of Mr Brown’s, has recently said:

I have been astonished by the outbursts of quite a small handful of people, MPs including one Minister of State. To think that you would want, in the middle of the worst financial storm I can remember, to change leader is absolutely insane.

I really do question their judgement, I think they are quite wrong. We need to batten down the hatches and deal with this crisis that’s affected the entire world. This is a global financial crisis, and this is just a diversion from the difficult issues we need to deal with.

Never a truer word has been spoken. Why change a leader during a crisis? If that principle was packaged, stamped with a daffodil/dragon motif and transported to Wales, Rhodri would've been replaced several times over by now.

True to form and still hiding his head in the sand - although the sand is further afield than usual - Mr Morgan said it was clear voters were blaming the Government for the economic downturn.

It’s always the government’s fault. It’s an iron law of politics, if times are tough, you can’t get a mortgage, banks are toppling in America, you get a feel-bad factor and people blame the government.

The general public think more deeply than than Mr Morgan. If you patronise us, we'll patronise you. Off to sleep with a cup of cocoa and chocolate digestive (without the chocolate of course) and dream of better times.

Thinking about it, make that a glass of water (tap, not bottle in Cathays Park), as you made so much of your 'life changing moment' last year. Bring on the new man with fresh and reconstituted ideas.

How to report the credit crunch...

Some light relief during the Assembly's recess about impending financial catastrophe:

A template for writing a TV news story about the credit crunch

1) “Huge falls in share indexes have left investors and traders in New York/London/Europe/Asia reeling...”

2) “...at one point in the day prices/shares in oil/gas/banks were as low/high as X pounds/dollars/euros...”

3) “...the Bank of England/Federal Reserve/European Central Bank has…”
i) “stepped in to inject X billion pounds/dollars/euros...”
ii) “assured everyone that this is normal” or
iii) “Cut interest rates by half/quarter/one percentage point”

4) “...but how much will this actually affect you?”

5) Enter analyst or business editor: “We don’t really know what the long term effect will be. You’ll definitely be paying more for food/heating/mortgages from now on though…”