Comment of the Week

In response to Labour's dossier lifting the lid on Conservative MPs, Welsh Conservative Assembly leader Nick Bourne hits back at the claims:

We’ll take no lessons from Labour on devolution when one of their own candidates describes AMs as part-timers, their First Minister dithers over calling for a referendum, and their Welsh Secretary is lukewarm on holding a referendum in the
first place...

For the last 11 years Conservatives have worked hard to make devolution deliver for the people of Wales. Our criticisms in that time have not been about devolution or the Assembly. They’ve been about the failures of the Assembly Government, led by Labour and now supported by Plaid Cymru.

We have always said it should be the people of Wales who decide on the Assembly’s future powers.

Meanwhile Labour’s First Minister Carwyn Jones couldn’t make his mind up over calling for a referendum, spent the best part of a fortnight before requesting it despite a unanimous Assembly resolution, and Peter Hain left the request on his desk to gather dust because he doesn’t really believe in it. If Labour spent as much time on reducing national debt, cutting unemployment, and fixing our broken economy as they’ve done on compiling this dossier, then perhaps the country wouldn’t be in such a mess.

Mr Bourne’s comment about a Labour candidate describing AMs as part-timers refers to a statement made by Swansea West Labour candidate Geraint Davies in a leaflet distributed in the constituency where he hopes to succeed Alan Williams as MP.

Plaid-led Assembly Commission?

I would've thought that one Assembly Member of sixty, defecting from one political party to another would be newsworthy from a collective, objective, and transparent National Assembly for Wales. Obviously not!

And Then There Were Thirteen: Plaid AM defects to Conservatives

Plaid Cymru AM Mohammad Asghar has crossed the floor to join the Conservatives in the Welsh assembly.

The defection was announced by Welsh Conservative leader Nick Bourne and Shadow Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan.

Mr Asghar, the assembly's only ethnic minority AM, said he felt "out of tune" with Plaid policies, in particular its desire for an independent Wales.

Plaid Cymru said his decision was a "shock" and called for him to be "honourable" and resign his seat.

It is the first time an AM has left one party to join another, although others have sat as independents after resigning or being expelled from their own parties.

Mr Asghar was elected as a regional AM for South Wales East in 2007.

Joined by the Conservative group at a news conference, he said he had "felt out of tune with the views and policies of Plaid Cymru" and "believed in the royal family and one United Kingdom".

"My politics are very much in line with wanting a stronger Wales within a successful United Kingdom," he said.

"I believe that the Welsh Conservative Party in the national assembly, led by Nick Bourne, reflects my beliefs.

"I am also attracted by the caring Conservatism and policies for change put forward by David Cameron and the Conservative Party at Westminster.

"I very much look forward to playing an important role in the shadow team in the national assembly and to helping to shape the policies for the Assembly elections in 2011," said Mr Asghar.

Asked why he had stood for Plaid Cymru when he was opposed to independence for Wales, he said his voice had been that of "a little parrot in a jungle", with little chance of changing Plaid's stance on the issue.

Mr Asghar was originally seen as a political tool by Plaid Cymru:

"We were very proud of the fact that in campaigning hard for Mohammad Asghar's election in 2007 that Plaid Cymru ensured the first ever assembly member from the black minority ethnic community."

... Now there appears to be sour grapes:

"It is has come as a shock that he has now decided that he shares the same values as those held by the Conservative and Unionist party." Plaid Cymru assembly group chair Dai Lloyd said it would be wrong for Mr Asghar to remain in the assembly as a Conservative. "We now call on Mohammad Asghar to take the honourable decision to resign his seat as a Plaid Cymru AM," Mr Lloyd said. "The people of the South Wales (East) region did not want a second Tory AM to represent the area - they elected a Plaid Cymru AM. "Mr Asghar does not have the political mandate to sit in the assembly as a Conservative member..."

Hat-tip to the Welsh Conservatives and Mr Asghar for pulling that one out of the hat, and on the day that Rhodri Morgan tenders his resignation as First Minister.

WAG is bad for business

Forty thousand businesses in Wales will be hit by higher rates next year, Welsh Conservatives have learned.

The Assembly Government's own figures suggest firms across the country will be hit with bigger bills from April, despite ministers claiming to help businesses during the recession.

Welsh Conservatives have also warned that a rise due to revaluation will come on top of a planned 1.5% rise in rates due to the Assembly Government's decision to phase in a 5% rise over three years.

Shadow Minister for the Economy David Melding AM described the Assembly Government's decision to lower the level at which business rates bills are calculated as "a smokescreen".

He repeated the party's call for the rates revaluation to be postponed until at least April 2011, and said ministers should consider Conservative plans to scrap or reduce the level of business rates for as many as 90,000 firms.

And he warned that the overall uncertainty about the impact of business rates next year was having a destabilising effect on the SME sector.

David Melding AM said:

By the Assembly Government's own admission 40,000 businesses will pay more in rates next year. Instead of helping small businesses during the recession Labour and Plaid Cymru ministers are making life more difficult for them.

The announcement to lower the level at which rates are calculated, while welcome, is nothing more than a smokescreen. If ministers really were on the side of Welsh businesses they would do everything in their power to postpone the rates revaluation planned for April and deliver a meaningful relief scheme to lift thousands out of rates altogether. They also need to end the uncertainty about the impact of revaluation and possible rates rise so businesses can plan for the future.

Businesses want real support from the Assembly Government at a time of economic difficult. I acknowledge and welcome the fact as many as 64,000 businesses could see a rates reduction next year. But for tens of thousands more their rates will rise.

For those businesses the increase will make life even harder as they struggle to cope with the impact of the recession. And for some it could determine whether or not they remain trading, lay off staff, or shut up shop altogether.

Second chance saloon for taking the Mick out of Opik

Gossip follows the recent news that Liberal Democrat Mick Bates has announced that he will not stand at the next Welsh Assembly elections in 2011, making some think that Lembit Opik may have a second chance at retaining his 'Montgomeryshire home' if beaten into second, or even third place in the much awaited UK general election.

That aside, Mr Bates, the AM for Montgomeryshire, had a majority of just under 2,000 votes at the last assembly election, and is chiefly known for two moments of madness in the Assembly:

1. Appearing in a Santa suit in the former chamber to raise cash for charity; and


2. Raising a middle finger to the laughter of other AMs.

Dead tree press can't see the wood for the trees

At this time of the year we're in need of a good story that not only demonstrates the inconsistency of those running the WAG machine, but also an example of the civil service not getting their own way and promoting one of their own numbers from within.

This story also makes a refreshing change from the media ignoring what other AMs have claimed in expenses. Instead, they choose to turn the rack on the Conservative leader Nick Bourne over a piddling iPod in a desperate attempt to make the story run and run until his resignation as group leader. Hoping then to happily turn the story into a column stocking filler by running another series of leadership election stories that saves them from having to examine and attack the policies and politics of the Welsh Assembly Government.

More effort should be placed on looking into the National Assembly rules and regulations on expenses that allows what may seem by the general public to be inappropriate claims being made by elected politicians. We need to remember that no politician has broken the rules of the Assembly as laid down by Assembly Commission staff.

Have the Western Mail also gone soft on the Assembly Government since coalition? Fear appears to have set in when it comes to taking on the Labour establishment and particularly since forming a coalition with Plaid Cymru. This needs to change.

The Western Mail's latest column filler - iPodGate - should go a long way to guarantee Nick Bourne's short term survival as leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the National Assembly. Welsh politics and political parties are not led by small Welsh media outlets, and no one is going to have the stomach to oust a leader just because a campaign is being run by a Welsh newspaper.

The Welsh Conservative party and group in the Assembly shouldn't follow the Western Mail's lead. It wouldn't be good for party politics in Wales whatever party you support.

Anyway. Enough of my rant before Christmas and back to the other Welsh politics story in the Western Mail that isn't classed as 'iPodGate' or 'a soapbox for Adam Price MP'.

This story of Christmas cheer can be read in the next blog.