I was hardly surprised to see that Leanne Wood was unimpressed with the comments of Cardiff University Professor, Patrick Minford in today's Western Mail.
It's all very well saying that those who are claiming should be "more flexible", but sometimes, there just aren't jobs available.
To take the Rhondda as an example, in mid-September there were 270 live vacancies at the local Jobcentre Plus but 1,580 claimants - that's 1 job for every 5 claimants.
How about Clwyd South where there's 168 jobs for 990 claimants? That's the same ratio.
Ynys Mon's pretty much the same - 269 live unfilled vacancies for 1,172 claimants. Almost the same.
Wales needs to develop an entrenepeurial, improved work-based culture that treats people well, looks after them, nurtures their talents and gets them to contribute to the society in which we live.
This can only be achieved by valuing people, not writing them off and dismissing them.
As we suffer through a downturn not of our making, we must inspire Welsh based industries to grow in their communities, and then, through job creation and fair redistribution, we will get the fairer society that we are working towards.
Showing posts with label Leanne Wood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leanne Wood. Show all posts
Friday, October 24, 2008
Policy by Blog
Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the Bevan Foundation-sponsored 'To blog or not to blog?' event on Tuesday night at the Assembly (the downside of working in London!), but was very interested by some of the issues and debates that were discussed (as read on various blogs).
Matt Wardman is right when he says that the blogosphere and bloggers should not be treated as one entity, or even one community - it never was and characterising it as such was simply lazy journalism for those back in the 90s who thought the internet was some kind of fad that would quickly disappear.
For professional politicians, it's an opportunity to get their message across without the constraints of a reporter or a sub-editor getting in the way; for online journalists it's a way of drawing attention to issues that they consider important but might not be covered in the mainstream media, for whatever reason; others just want to get their two-penneth worth out there - whatever the reason, as long as it contributes to debate or gives me a new angle on the world, then, personally, I'm interested in reading it.
There have been a marked increase in Plaid/Welsh nationalist blogging in the last year or so, and with good reason - being the bottom up party that Plaid is, being a Plaid blogger means that there is a good chance that your ideas will be read, analysed and discussed at all levels of the party and, if people agree with you, acted upon.
On that basis, one of the fascinating developments for me has been watching the development of a Welsh economic policy on the internet by Plaid bloggers - a quick scan of blogs by Adam Price, Leanne Wood, Rhydian Fon James and others shows Plaid members, elected or otherwise, using the internet as a means to open up policy for debate and putting issues out for discussion, not hatching it behind closed doors, scribbling figures on the back of a fag packet.
It's the democracy of the internet that allows participation - and it's that democracy (even if economic policy is a little harder than 'learn three chords and start a band!) and interaction that makes blogging worthwhile.
After all, why write a paper and wait three months for a response when you could have people telling you what they think later on tonight?
Matt Wardman is right when he says that the blogosphere and bloggers should not be treated as one entity, or even one community - it never was and characterising it as such was simply lazy journalism for those back in the 90s who thought the internet was some kind of fad that would quickly disappear.
For professional politicians, it's an opportunity to get their message across without the constraints of a reporter or a sub-editor getting in the way; for online journalists it's a way of drawing attention to issues that they consider important but might not be covered in the mainstream media, for whatever reason; others just want to get their two-penneth worth out there - whatever the reason, as long as it contributes to debate or gives me a new angle on the world, then, personally, I'm interested in reading it.
There have been a marked increase in Plaid/Welsh nationalist blogging in the last year or so, and with good reason - being the bottom up party that Plaid is, being a Plaid blogger means that there is a good chance that your ideas will be read, analysed and discussed at all levels of the party and, if people agree with you, acted upon.
On that basis, one of the fascinating developments for me has been watching the development of a Welsh economic policy on the internet by Plaid bloggers - a quick scan of blogs by Adam Price, Leanne Wood, Rhydian Fon James and others shows Plaid members, elected or otherwise, using the internet as a means to open up policy for debate and putting issues out for discussion, not hatching it behind closed doors, scribbling figures on the back of a fag packet.
It's the democracy of the internet that allows participation - and it's that democracy (even if economic policy is a little harder than 'learn three chords and start a band!) and interaction that makes blogging worthwhile.
After all, why write a paper and wait three months for a response when you could have people telling you what they think later on tonight?
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
A Welsh Oath of Allegiance?
As part of the opening question in today's Welsh Assembly plenary session, Leanne Wood raised the question of the Oath of Allegiance to the monarchy.
She drew attention to a current EDM at Westminster calling on the government to allow MP's to swear loyalty to their constituents and the nation rather than the monarch.
It seems only fair to me that, in our modern democratic culture, those who believe that their loyalty lies with their constituents should be allowed to pledge their oath to those people rather than to a member of the royal family.
A different oath is already available in Northern Ireland.
During discussion on the Government of Wales Act 2006, Plaid MP Elfyn Llwyd called for a secular oath that would allow Assembly Members to swear allegiance to the people of Wales. Labour in Westminster, however, refused to allow AMs that option.
She drew attention to a current EDM at Westminster calling on the government to allow MP's to swear loyalty to their constituents and the nation rather than the monarch.
It seems only fair to me that, in our modern democratic culture, those who believe that their loyalty lies with their constituents should be allowed to pledge their oath to those people rather than to a member of the royal family.
A different oath is already available in Northern Ireland.
During discussion on the Government of Wales Act 2006, Plaid MP Elfyn Llwyd called for a secular oath that would allow Assembly Members to swear allegiance to the people of Wales. Labour in Westminster, however, refused to allow AMs that option.
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