Not the major step-down that I was expecting before recess, however, the Assembly Member for Swansea East has announced she will not contest her seat in the 2011 Welsh Assembly election.
Friends of the Earth may be happy with the recent update to Welsh Assembly Government transport policy, and business leaders angry at the recent announcement - worried about the economic impact of a decision to scrap the proposed M4 relief road. Meanwhile Ieuan Wyn Jones will enjoy the break of recess as he tries to juggle the two balls of his brief.
In another part of town, an alliance of Welsh organisations had already called on the Assembly Government to perform a U-turn on transport policy.
We’re fed up of strategies promising greener transport when half the transport budget is tied up in road schemes. From past experience we know this will result in more people driving further and faster.
If we are serious about tackling climate change and creating a healthier Wales, we urgently need a bold shift in transport policy. Projects which cut car use should be given priority.
These measures to reduce car dependency should be funded by a shift away from road building.
Sustainable Transport Cymru is an alliance of Welsh organisations from the private, public and voluntary sectors. They support efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of travelling and to create an environment where people have access to essential local services without the need to use a car.
Today, the Welsh Government (that will sour some faces in certain parts of Wales) comes to Wales.
The Wales of the 21st Century has hi-tech industry, world class centres of innovation and a diverse talented workforce that is split almost 50-50 men and women.
Today will be a fantastic opportunity to showcase what Wales has to offer to the rest of the UK and the world.
This is the first time that the cabinet has met in Wales. I am sure that my colleagues will leave Wales today eager to spread the word about what a dynamic and innovative place Wales is.
The prime minister has barely visited Wales since he took office - and since Conservatives beat Labour in Wales at last month's European elections we're surprised he wants to come at all.
This is a shallow attempt to pretend that Wales matters to him. If Gordon Brown thinks (the) visit will persuade people to forget that Labour is to blame for the difficulties facing Wales today then he will be very disappointed.
...it would not replace real engagement with Welsh communities and meaningful reform of our damaged democracy.
From time to time I keep my eye on Rhodri's fans on Facebook. You may remember my report back in August 2008:
Back in September 2007 a Facebooker set-up the group 'Rhodri Morgan Appreciation Society'. The group had 20 members when the above snapshot was taken in January 2008.
"This group is for people who think that Rhodri Morgan has been a great leader of the Welsh Labour Party and a Brilliant First Minister of Wales. Rhodri Morgan has lead Wales a progressive direction over his years as First Minister. With good socialist policies like free prescriptions, or his support for the Welsh Language, Rhodri Morgan has done a lot to improve Wales, and help the worst off in Wales."Still at 20 members at today's date, it seems that not many Facebookers agree with the above statement. Glad to see that Alun Davies AM and Joyce Watson AM are members. Are the other Labour AMs trying to tell us something?
On the plus side for our great leader, only 4 Facebookers belong to Rhodri's other group, 'Is it just just me or does Rhodri Morgan need a new suit?'
"A group totally dedicated to the fact old Rhodri has looked shabby in his
suit for years. Surely its high time the old man of welsh politics bought a new
suit?"
Those of you that were watching BBC Wales' Dragon's Eye politics programme this evening experienced a rare treat - Edwina Hart, Assembly Member for Gower, and Minister for Health in Rhodri Morgan's Labour-led One Wales Government, giving an interview.
Email your ten favourite blogs (ranked from 1-10) to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com
Following on from three earlier posts on developments in the civil service expenses scandal - It gets worse - Wales' First Minister, who also happens to be Minister responsible for staffing and civil service matters - has apologised after it emerged civil servants had taken first class flights despite his denial that this had ever taken place.
...I stated on the clear and explicit advice from the relevant senior officials that no officials from IBW had flown first class. Today I have learned this is not the case.... I apologise for having misled you and the wider public. I need hardly say how disturbed I am by the latest information now to hand... I am instructing the permanent secretary to undertake an immediate and thorough investigation and audit of the IBW's expenditure and audit systems... This review will be led from outside the assembly government.
As if by strange coincidence the expenses system for Welsh civil servants is to be reviewed to ensure it provides value for money. What good timing after a recent freedom of information request that uncovered their credit card spending.
The assembly government's top civil servant will lead the examination.
A spokesperson for Permanent Secretary Dame Gillian Morgan said the expenses of politicians and civil servants were "clearly a matter of public interest".
It was earlier revealed officials promoting Welsh business abroad claimed £750,000 on 35 corporate credit cards over the last year.
Dame Gillian's spokesperson added: "Any claim incurred on behalf of the assembly government must comply with strict authorisation and audit requirements.
"The First Minister and Deputy First Minister have discussed this matter and have asked the permanent secretary to examine the expenses system for civil servants working for the Welsh assembly government to ensure its appropriateness and to ensure transparency and continued value for money."
The quarterly expenses of the permanent secretary and director generals [what about the other hundred odd senior civil servants?] will be published soon and then be published regularly.
An independent panel has already proposed drastic reductions in the expenses Welsh assembly members can claim.
This blog has been concerned about the spending of civil servants for some time:
The civil service spending scandal contd.
As this news resulted from a Liberal Democrat freedom of information request, Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats had lot to say on the matter (slowing down a little, Western Mail - move your ar*e):
I am extremely concerned by the information I have seen. Every taxpayer in Wales deserves an explanation from the Labour-Plaid Government. While we’re in the middle of a recession, it’s disgusting to know that public officials are flying first class, staying in the most expensive hotels, eating in the best restaurants – all at the swipe of the Welsh credit card.Ms Williams added:
Of course we should sell Wales overseas, of course that costs money, but these figures suggest a runaway culture of credit card spending.
One credit card holder spent nearly £70,000 in a year on air travel alone. Welsh taxpayers have paid the very luxurious Oberoi Hotel group in India £6,590 this year alone. Staff at the New York office spent £3,537.79 at Macy’s department store and £6,036 at Ikea. The Sydney office spent £5,722 on taxis.
At the same time we can see somebody claiming for 89p spent at McDonald’s in Swansea, and claims for coffees at Starbucks cafes all over the world. Every Welsh taxpayer deserves to see this document, just as they should see politicians’ expenses. It’s a lack of transparency that leads to the sorts of activity these worldwide credit card bills reveal.
The Minister for Economy and Transport has some serious questions to answer: What, if any, procedures are in place to monitor and police spending? What kind of guidance allows civil servants to take first class flights and live this superstar lifestyle? How can we be sure that all of this activity directly generates investment into Wales? Quite frankly, what on earth is going on and what will be done about this?
Given the global nature of their role, International Business Wales (IBW) staff based overseas need to travel to pursue every viable business opportunity. Over the past few years, the number of offices in America and South East Asia has been reduced, and officials now cover a number of countries from their base. While this has led to a significant reduction in the cost of offices, it has inevitably led to an increase in travel associated costs.
However, we are clearly aware of the need to restrict any expenditure to ensure absolute value for money, and overall travel and subsistence costs for IBW are over 30% below the level incurred by the former WDA.
IBW exists to attract job-creating investment from around the world to Wales. It also supports Welsh companies in winning overseas business. Just this year alone, IBW has organised 37 trade missions for Welsh companies, including the recent successful trade mission to Washington DC which was attended by 80 companies from Wales.”
As we have proved with the recent first Ashes Test in Wales, it is essential that we seize every opportunity to raise our profile and generate business opportunities for Wales – particularly during the current global recession
Civil servants promoting Welsh business abroad charged nearly £750,000 to 35 assembly government credit cards in the past year, it has emerged.
The BBC report that TV chefs have a rival in the shape of the Welsh Assembly Government.
A new recipe booklet promising "mouth-watering dishes" has been produced by ministers to promote Welsh seafood. It also offers advice on choosing fish and sustainable local sources.
Rural Minister Elin Jones, launching it at the Cardigan Bay Seafood Festival in Aberaeron, said she believed Welsh produce is among the best in the world. We have, however, been here before. Strict vegans will have to wait until next year for the third installment of the complete cook book.
The assembly government said the promotion of Welsh fish and seafood was a key part of its strategy to support the "development of viable and sustainable fisheries".
Ms Jones said the assembly government "is committed to working closely with major retailers to offer consumers a range of choices in sustainably produced and harvested fish and shellfish".
She may not have held the world in her arms. or even Wales for that matter, but she was a fiercely loyal Labour backbencher. The BBC reports that yet another member of the Welsh Assembly has announced that she will not be standing at the 2011 election.
Here we go again! The Welsh MP for Welsh Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, in Welsh Carmarthenshire, in Welsh Wales - Adam Price -demonstrates that this alone will not be his only poor lack of judgement during his time as an MP.
Welsh National Opera needs to do much more to prove its Welsh credentials, according to an MP.
Plaid Cymru’s Adam Price says despite the company’s strong reputation for artistic excellence, it doesn’t do nearly enough to encourage Welsh composers.
Mr Price, a music enthusiast who represents Carmarthen East & Dinefwr, said: “To what extent is WNO representative of Wales and Welsh culture? In the whole of its existence, it has not had a musical director who was Welsh.
“I am not so parochial as to suggest that its musical director should always be Welsh – like the coach of the Welsh rugby team you expect to see people from outside Wales doing the job – but as a nation we are not exactly renowned for our lack of musical ability.
“You would think that at some stage in the last half century a Welsh musical director would have had a look in now and then.”
Pointing out that WNO was the only body that received funding from both the Arts Council of Wales and Arts Council England, Mr Price said: “That explains why it spends so much of its time touring England, which is fair enough. But perhaps it would be more accurately called the English and Welsh National Opera, which happens to have its home in Cardiff. One of the problems is that it has been many years since it commissioned an original opera from a Welsh composer. In the Seventies, it commissioned an opera from Alun Hoddinott, arguably the greatest Welsh composer of the 20th century. But although it has since commissioned the occasional choral piece, it is a long time since there was a major commission of a new opera from a Welsh composer.”
In 2004 Hoddinott, who died last year at the age of 78, told the Western Mail: “Their [WNO] performance standards are first class and technically they are excellent. But I wish they would pay more attention to Welsh music.
“Their record in the production of Welsh opera is abysmal. Scottish Opera puts on a couple of works by Scottish composers every year.
“WNO has put on perhaps four or five Welsh operas over 20 years. And the record of the WNO’s orchestra as far as Welsh music is concerned is also bad. I have not seen one work by a Welsh composer in any of its concert programmes. Full stop.
“They just seem to have an anti-Welsh music bias. I am sad that they do not do something for Welsh composers, especially young ones.”
Mr Price said: “It seems clear that for commercial reasons the company chooses to concentrate on performing productions of well-known operas. Is that what we want from our national opera company? Some would say yes, but others, myself included, would like to see more original work commissioned from Welsh composers. Otherwise, doubts will continue about whether we are getting our bang for the buck put into WNO from public funds in Wales.”
WNO chief executive and artistic director John Fisher said: “Welsh National Opera prides itself on being not only a world-class flagship for Wales and Welsh culture, but also one of the world’s major international opera companies. We work with outstanding Welsh creative talent every day of the week, in Wales, England and overseas – and we’re proud to do it.”
WNO was founded in Cardiff in 1946. Annually, it gives more than 120 performances of eight main scale operas. In Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Llandudno, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Plymouth, Southampton and Swansea, it regularly performs to more than 150,000 people in total.
In 2004, WNO acquired its first permanent home with the opening of the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay.
WNO boasts it is Europe’s busiest touring opera company and the largest provider of touring opera in the UK.
The company’s most recent published accounts, covering the 17 months to September 2007, show it had an income of £20.1m, of which £8.7m came from Arts Council England, £6.3m from Arts Council of Wales and the remainder from box office receipts and other sources.
Following on from Monday, the Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas has said the Assembly Commission had agreed to all the report's proposals.
The commission, which includes representatives from all four parties, took the decision on behalf of AMs.
Sir Roger Jones's report, Getting it Right for Wales, followed a 10-month investigation of the pay and expenses of AMs.
The report's implementation will mean
That these changes have been endorsed during the year in which we mark the tenth anniversary of devolution is a testament to the assembly's maturity and is a signal that the assembly is committed to operating in ways that are right for Wales.
[The report] addresses the contentious issues of remuneration and financial support - issues which have been such a stumbling block to people truly engaging in the democratic process.
But of equal importance, it places a strong emphasis on ensuring the capacity of the assembly and Members to undertake our work - to represent the interests of Wales and its people, make laws for Wales and hold the Welsh government to account.
A commission considering the way the assembly government is funded says Wales is losing out by £300m a year.
The commission chair, economist Gerald Holtham, warned the underfunding could reach £8.5bn over the next decade, or £2,900 for everyone living in Wales.
The report, for Welsh ministers, concludes that a new funding formula is needed to reflect the actual cost of providing services for Wales.
A further report on taxation and borrowing powers will follow next year.
The commission was established as part of the coalition deal between Labour and Plaid Cymru after the assembly election two years ago.
Mr Holtham said the Barnett formula, drawn up by the Labour government in the late 1970s, was "arbitrary" and in "urgent need of reform".
When the UK government increases funding for departments such as health and education in England, the formula is used to decide how much money the devolved governments in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast receive.
The needs-based system the commission favours would take into account factors such as the age of the population and levels of poverty.
Mr Holtham admitted the commission did not suggest any "magic bullet" to replace the Barnett system.
He indicated the commission's second report, due around the middle of 2010, would include research on what should be included in a new needs based formula.
*... and what the rest of us already expected.
The Commission will be:
Looking at the pros and cons of the present formula-based approach to the distribution of public expenditure resources to the Welsh Assembly Government; and identifying possible alternative funding mechanisms including the scope for the Welsh Assembly Government to have tax varying powers as well as greater powers to borrow.
Timetable
The Commission began work in autumn 2008 and reported to the Welsh Assembly Government Ministers on the first part of its remit in July 2009.
The Commission is due to report to the Assembly Government on the second part of its work in summer 2010.
An independent panel investigating pay and expenses among members of the Welsh assembly is about to report back.
The One and Other project will see a different person standing on the 'fourth plinth' every hour for 24 hours a day over the next 100 days.
While some dead wood, for which the Assembly has found little use, will be cast adrift at the next Assembly in 2011, Labour has wasted little time in fighting wood rot.
The BBC has reported that there are NINE more cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Wales, taking the total to 26.
Among the latest cases is a 25-year-old local man who works at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.
Health officials said this case is not connected to that of another hospital employee confirmed at the weekend, but was travel related.
The man is no longer at work and there is no further risk to patients or staff at the hospital, they said.
Everyone who has been confirmed with swine flu in this latest batch - involving people in their early twenties from Cardiff, Swansea and Caerphilly - have been offered antiviral medicine and are recovering well.
So far 201 people have been investigated for swine flu in Wales and only one person has been taken to hospital. Sixteen cases are still under investigation.
New cases:
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