Identity Cards

I've just listened to Jacqui Smith's statement on identity cards for non-EU students and marriage visa holders.

To be honest, given the government's record on identity data loss in the past year or so, it seems difficult to believe that they are going ahead with this.

But not just that they're going ahead with the plan, but the step-by-step process through which they're introducing id cards.

As human rights organisation, Liberty, point out: "Picking on foreigners first is divisive politics; as costly to our race relations as our purses".

Like my party, I am, and always have been, against identity cards on principle. I don't believe that it is the role of government to snoop on their population - it is the role of government to ensure that support is available for those who cannot adequately support themselves. This falls well outside government's remit and its right to interfere in our daily lives.

How long before we get fined or jailed for refusing to identify ourselves to a policeman?

Welcome to Labour's Big Brother society.

And the award for the highest council tax in Wales...

...goes to Conservative controlled Monmouthshire, where, according to the Welsh Local Government Financial Statistics, the average council tax per dwelling is £1,184.

Congratulations!

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.

Yesterday it was childcare, today it's laptops...

Gordon Brown signed up to yet another part of the Plaid Cymru 2007 manifesto today with his announcement on providing children with free computer hardware and software to assist their learning and ensure there is no 'digital divide' between the haves and have-nots.

This follows on from London Labour's stealing of our clothes on housing (England) and childcare (Wales - see p.22, col.2).

I wonder what next? Perhaps it could be taking devolution to its logical conclusion...Well, if it's good enough for Northern Ireland....

Plaid Heritage Minister Rules Out Support for UK Football Team

Now firmly in place as Heritage Minister, Plaid AM for Arfon, Alun Ffred Jones, has declared that he will not be supporting calls for a UK football team and put at risk a history of more than a hundred years of Wales an independent football team.

A declaration that will go down well in Welsh football circles, I'm sure - especially ahead of tonight's Swansea v Cardiff match.

Fighting Objective One Job Closures in Porthmadog

Plaid MP for Caernarfon, Hywel Williams, today met with officials from HMRC to argue the case for keeping open the HMRC offices in North-West Wales.

Much of the discussion was regarding the future position of the Welsh language centre at Ty Moelwyn in Porthmadog, which now looks likely to be retained despite the 'efficiency savings' being made by HMRC that are closing tax offices through much of rural Wales.

Hywel argued the case for further development of the Welsh language services at the centre, noting the current trends for the ability to use Welsh amongst younger people - who will be paying their taxes for a long time yet, and for it to remain based in Gwynedd rather than see the jobs transferred to Cardiff or Wrexham.

Sadly, on the issue of Objective One (or convergence funding) jobs, Labour's left hand doesn't know what the right is doing - using European money to fund new jobs in less well-off areas but stripping them of the skilled and professional jobs that already exist.

Brown's Nursery Rhymes

Gordon Brown made the 'eye-catching promise' over the weekend that children would be given free nursery places from the age of two onwards.

But from the social policy side, it's hardly a radical proposal - the One Wales Government is already committed to free part-time nursery places for 2 year olds in greatest need as part of our commitment to reducing child poverty, so yet another example of Brown filching a policy from a more progressive government.

The difference is that while we consider this an important aim as part of the One Wales agreement, Brown is unwilling to commit to a time or a figure for supporting this plan in England - and with it the financial spin off that results from the Barnett Formula, money that would come in handy not just for us to introduce our plans for nursery places, but also to provide support for the Foundation Phase of education introduced this year.

There's a worry at the back of my mind, though.

As we've seen from Budget after Budget, what Brown gives in one hand, he takes with the other, and having been reading James Purnell's welfare to work plans, you can only wonder how much time would elapse between free nursery places for two year olds in England and a new, radical idea from the Department from Work and Pensions to 'convince' their parents to head back to work, now that they don't have to look after their children.

Makes you think, doesn't it? And with this government's record, you wouldn't rule it out either, would you?

Well...if we thought for a minute they'd still be there to put these plans into action.

It's all about the context

In a previous life, I taught language and communications undergraduates about critical reading, explaining to them that, in deciphering the author's intentions and purpose, you don't just read what they write, or even how they write it, but pay attention to the unwritten assumptions that underpin their text and underscore their ideology.

That came back to mind this weekend as I read three different pamphlets/reports, set in three different contexts: Wales, Britain and Wales in Europe.

Huw Lewis is considered the face of Labour's Brit-Nat wing in the Assembly, but his newly co-authored 'Changing the way Wales works' (along with Vaughan Gething of Wales TUC) belies that reputation. Across its 30 pages, there are just 3 references to the UK government, of which just one relates to policy innovations at Westminster. Comparisons are drawn with Ireland, Germany and Austria - other countries, not just devolved administrations. Whether a deliberate play for Plaid support for his supposed Labour leadership bid, Huw frames his debate in almost unconditional and exclusively nationalist terms.

That is as opposed to the recently published pamphlet 'A More United Kingdom' from Immigration Minister, Liam Byrne. In contrast to to the Huw Lewis pamphlet, Byrne's work is almost inedible from a Welsh perspective.

The aim is to discuss means in which immigrants can be better integrated into British society, but Byrne gives the impression that, under the surface, exists a homogenous society with which migrants can integrate. His perspective is exclusively anglocentric, insultingly quoting Vron Ware that 'British is easier [than English] – it’s clearly a bit more plural as it includes the Celtic fringe: Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. It seems to accommodate the regional difference'.

Thank you for describing my culture as a 'regional difference'.

From there, Byrne goes on to suggest a British day of celebration, drawing upon his heavily anglicised focus/discussion groups to suggest events and occasions that resonate through English history but which would only sharpen the distinctions with Wales and Scotland.

He then makes a political clarion call 'in favour of the Union' - that our great imperial history would never have been achieved as individual units, that 'we' would not have such a place on the world stage if we were separate and that given the integration of our different ethnic groups, independence could not possibly work.

Aside from the weakness of all of these arguments (I have yet to hear, for example, Byrne claiming that Estonia should re-merge with Russia because of the Russian population there!), it's clear that his defence of the Union is aimed solely at Scotland, Wales barely deserving a mention.

One of Byrne's most regularly repeated arguments is the need to 'learn the language' in order to integrate. That's English, for those of you not following, or who steadfastly refuse to recognise that there is more than one language on these isles of ours. I'm not demeaning the argument that learning English is a huge advantage, if not near necessity, for migrants looking to work in many sectors, but a token recognition that this situation differs in different parts of his United Kingdom would go a long way.

All this, of course, about migration, integration and citizenship whilst ignoring the reality that many migrants are transitory economic migrants from the EU (I've worked in other parts of the EU myself!) for whom these are not issues at all.

In short, Byrne's context is one in which a quarter of the world is still pink and they hum 'Rule Britannia' as they drop anchor, grateful to reach our hallowed shores.

Again, this is in contrast to the Bevan Foundation's research on 'Flexicurity' (again more on the contents elsewhere), which looks at the former Objective One areas in Wales against the background of the European Union, contextualising the Welsh economic position into the wider European sphere that seems largely ignored, or at least sidelined, by both Lewis and Gething and by Byrne. By clearly delineating a 'Wales in Europe' context, the report has greater 'body' - the purpose and aims are clearly set out, as are the circumstances into which the report is borne. In plain terms, it just makes more sense to show how wider influences impact on Wales.

The unwritten assumptions and context of a report give a huge clue as to the aims of an author - left-wing or right-wing, unionist or nationalist, libertarian or authoritarian. In the case of these three reports/pieces of research, their focus and references are key to understanding the messages being conveyed, whether you agree with them or not.

New sub-editor needed for Metro

...preferably one who understands statistics.

This morning I was greeted with the bizarre heading (p.2, col.5) telling me that there is 'Little Support for Welsh Devolution', followed by the headline findings of a survey by Aberystwyth's Institute of Welsh Politics that 39% of people surveyed wanted a 'parliament', 31% liked the Assembly the way it is, 15% wanted to go back to colonial rule and 10% favoured independence.

Aside from the maths (the WM reveals that 5% are don't know/refused to respond), I see that as 4/5ths of the Welsh population being in favour of devolution of power on some scale (on a 2,500 survey which is quite large for these things - a little under 1 in 1000 people in Wales).

With its PA news and lack of editorial comment or investigative journalism, Metro can often be simplistic, but 80% in favour seems a pretty hefty majority to me. Whether that means support for a further devolution of powers is a different thing altogether.

Turning to the survey itself, one problem that I often have with the methodology is with the discrete element of the questioning - would you say that you are in favour of independence or a parliament? Are these mutually incompatible? Can you not be in favour of both, especially if you perceive this as a process, not an event (c Ron Davies).

Either way, that's 49% in favour of more powers, 31% in favour of the status quo (but will that transmit itself as a yes or no vote in a referendum?) and 15% against the whole thing (I'll take that as a 'no' then!)

Plaid take control of Aberystwyth Town Council

Two by-elections in Aberystwyth last night saw Plaid take control of the town council, after a gain in Penparcau.

With a low turnout, Plaid's Owain Jones won the Penparcau seat after the sad death of an independent elected in May, defeating both Labour and the Liberal Democrats (who picked up a measly 46 votes). This gives Plaid 3 of the 5 town council seats in the ward.

The victory takes Plaid to ten seats in the 19-seat council, even though the Liberal Democrats held onto the seat they were defending in the town's Rheidol ward.

The make up of the council is now Plaid 10, Lib Dems 6, Labour 1, Green 1, Independent 1.

Elsewhere, the SNP's David Turner won the by-election for the Glasgow Baillieston ward that was left vacant when John Mason became the SNP's 7th MP at the Glasgow East by-election in July.

How 'radical' is radical?

Think-tank Demos have today released a survey of 'radicalism' in British politics, according to a ranking by 100 PoliticsHome contributors based around their willingness to 'challenge the goals of society', to challenge 'incremental approaches' and to challenge 'entrenched interests and power bases'.

The survey, which only includes politicians from Labour, Conservatives and Lib Dems, concludes that Conservative Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Michael Gove, one of the founders of right wing think-tank Policy Exchange, is the most radical politician, followed by Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, and Labour's Welfare-to-work minister, Jame Purnell.

Of course, if Demos wanted to be genuinely radical, then they could remove their Westminster-based blinkers, look around the rest of the UK and see for themselves the radical and original thinking that's a mainstay of Welsh and Scottish politics. Adam Price, anyone?

Concerns over St Athan Plans

An article on the Public Service website highlights concerns over the future of the Defence Training Review at St Athan.

As a local resident, I am always trying to keep up to date with the latest on the development, one that 18 months ago seemed destined to take place, with champagne flowing all around Rhodri Morgan and Jane Hutt at the Assembly.

I'm not a pacifist, nor am I against the St Athan base or, in principle, it's development. However, I remain concerned about the privatisation of defence training, the effect of PFI and the effect that the development would have on quality of life in the Vale. In fact, the Vale of Glamorgan as we know it may not exist with such a giant project taking place right in the middle.

With such obvious difficulties arising for the project, whether the failure of the land sales or the slippages leading to increasing costs, it's surely time that the local MP, John Smith, stopped being so bullish about the project and started answering the questions that local Plaid members have already put into the public domain.

'Meltdown Monday'

The way to work this morning was just that little bit slower, fewer smiles than usual, less eye contact.

Suddenly being in one of the world's big financial capitals wasn't quite as lucrative as it had been.

Don't get me wrong, I have little or no sympathy for the well-paid suits who have cashed their bonuses (at our long-term expense) during the good times of the economy, but feel immensely for the human cost of those lower down the corporate chain - the secretaries, the cleaners, those on or not far from minimum wage levels who will feel the pain of losing their jobs this week and not being paid for the hard work they have already put in.

I believe strongly in entrepreneurship, in working hard, in striking out on your own and developing business and creating real wealth, but I'm not an all-out buccaneering free market capitalist because people are more important and it's the human cost - the job losses, the home repossessions, the associated stress and health problems - that hits me most.

The market will eventually correct itself, but the fall out from the failures of an unregulated banking system understood not even by those in the industry will affect every man, woman and child in the country. We simply can't let this happen again.

Jobcentre Plus Office Roll-out

Westminster's Public Accounts Committee released it's report into the DWP's Jobcentre Plus Roll-out last week.

The report is glowing in it's appreciation of the savings made by the office rationalisation plan that replaced 1,500 jobcentres and social security offices across Great Britain with 800 modernised Jobcentre Plus offices.

The rationalisation has been such a success that we can very probably expect more of this nature from others, such as the DVLA, Driving Standards Agency and Courts Service who have all been in touch to get the low-down on what made it so successful.

This is, of course, the rationalisation that saw more than 50 DWP offices close in Wales between 2004 and 2008, leaving 32 towns without a local office, and whose continuation sees another four offices undergoing consultation and with a total of 600 jobs on the line according to PCS Wales.

One of the trumpeted successes was the saving on 16,500 full-time posts as part of the 2004 Spending Review.

Sadly, finance appears to be the only success to which the report could point: 'a more cost effective network...not able to demonstrate clearly whether the project has achieved the business case objective of increasing the number of clients finding work' (2), while 'the improved office environment has not increased customer satisfaction levels significantly' (3), which makes the phrase 'improved' look strangely out-of-place.

In plain English, we've saved some cash, but we've not bothered to work out if we're doing our raison d'etre any better and the 'customer' doesn't think it's made much difference.

I'm all for cutting the waste, but too often these things cut into the bone, and if people in rural and urban Wales are being held back because of their inability to get to a Jobcentre Plus and have the service they need/require, then the changes have failed. Unless you're a government accountant.

The Cameron Effect

...or, 'Crikey, we're in trouble!'

Liberal Vision have released an analysis of Liberal Democrat MPs in England and the likelihood of their surviving a growing Tory tide in the south of England.

For sounds methodological reasons, i.e. the difference between a three-party and four-party electoral system where swings are of different proportions and move in different directions, both Scotland and Wales were left out of the analysis.

Using a uniform national swing, no fewer than 35 of the 53 Lib Dems in England would lose their seat, while boundary changes would account for a 36th losing their seat to Labour. Ouch!

But it's all ok, because their famed hard work as incumbents will keep them in their seats. So that's okay then.

Not only that, but the Lib Dems will be targetting the 50 most winnable Labour seats.

Which is great, except that, under the uniform national swing methodology adopted in the report, just five seats would be taken by the 2.3% swing from Labour to the Lib Dems. Worse still, two of these are in Scotland where the Lib Dems have actually ceded support to Labour.

As a tax-cutting, small state group, Liberal Vision are calling for a shift to the right to appeal to the Tory voters they desperately need to keep their MPs - the message that Nick Clegg was trying to sell at their mostly ignored conference.

Oh, the irony that a party that was trying to place itself to the left of Labour now finds itself trying to go to the right of the Conservatives. A party that says all things to all people - and doesn't find this lack of consistency a difficulty.

For better or for worse, Lib Dems truly think of politics differently to everyone else.

Happy Glyndwr Day!

A happy 16th September to you all today, as we celebrate Owain Glyndwr Day.

Of course, Glyndwr Day will largely go by un-noticed by most people in Wales and further afield, but it's one of the many events that could be celebrated after a Plaid motion at Conference re-affirmed the intention of an additional Bank Holiday for Wales.

Along with the Netherlands, the UK has the fewest national bank holidays (eight), while Slovakia apparently has eighteen days of holiday.

Although the cultural argument in favour of a Welsh Bank Holiday (usually identified upfront as March 1st, St. David's Day) has been won at the political level with all parties at the Assembly in agreement, one of the arguments against is economic - that it would interfere with trade with the rest of the UK if we were to be off work for a whole day.

It seems strange that these people don't take such exception to the fact that Scotland already has a different holiday system to us, not just the SNP government's decision to allow St Andrew's Day as an optional holiday (replacing a currently existing bank holiday) but also that 2nd January is taken off in place of 26th December.

Nor do they complain that Northern Ireland has days off for 17th March (St Patrick's Day) and a celebration of the Battle of the Boyne (12th July).

A St David's Day holiday would be widely welcomed across Wales. In the meantime, happy Glwyndr Day!

Effects of the 2006 National Minimum Wage Increase

I was interested to read an article in the new September 2008 edition of the Economic & Labour Market Review suggesting that the 2006 increase of the national minimum wage had no negative effect on job retention amongst the workers affected.

Common consensus from those against the NMW is that an increase in the wages of the lowest paid would lead to redundancies, but this report suggests that, of the data collected using the UK Labour Force Survey, there was no statistical difference in terms of employment exit before and after the introduction of the NMW in October 2006.

In fact, the report actually suggests that men were less likely to lose or change jobs as a result of the NMW – the higher wages across the board meaning a less pressing need to move from company to company in search of a better pay.

As a party of social justice Plaid is a strong believer in the rights of workers to be paid a fair living wage and this report clearly shows that the nay-sayers were wrong in their assumptions about the effects of a National Minimum Wage and its most recent increase.

Now, though, we need strong government action to make sure that this group of people are not the first, or should that be next, to feel the brunt of the economic crisis to which their flawed economic policies left us vulnerable.

Conference

Conferences have the potential both to complicate and confuse or to inspire and enthuse.

Judging from the reactions on various Plaid blogs when I got back into the office today (see Borthlas, Guerrilla Welsh-Fare, Bethan Jenkins and Pendroni), I'm clearly not alone in being happy with the events of the weekend in Aberystwyth.

The mood throughout the weekend was upbeat, helped by the confidence inspired by our party leadership and our Assembly ministers that the party is in good hands and that Wales is a better place for us being in government.

The Westminster group more than played their part, with motions on an array of subjects from supporting carers to helping local business, and from Welsh language juries to reducing the voting age, and keynote speeches from Elfyn Llwyd and Adam Price (more of which here). I'll be discussing the aims and effects of these motions in the coming days.

One of my high points, though, was getting to have a proper chat with new SNP MP, John Mason, whom I'm sure will do an excellent job when he gets to work full-time in Westminster in a few weeks time.

Dafydd Iwan wins Plaid Presidency vote

Dafydd Iwan has been re-elected as Plaid Cymru President after a Summer campaign fought against Elfyn Llwyd, in a "close contest".

As many people will know, I voted for Elfyn, but, like almost everyone in Plaid to whom I spoke during the Summer, I would be happy with either man in that role.

Certainly, with Elfyn still at the leadership table through his position as Leader of the Parliamentary Group, his experience and skills will not be lost at the top of the party.

I do feel that a competition for the post was very important, providing legitimacy and a mandate from the party membership for the winner, as well as allowing a debate about the future direction of Plaid.

I attended the hustings in Cardiff which was a lively discussion of how Plaid has developed over the past few years, the role of the President inside the party and what sustainable changes could be made during the next electoral cycle.

Having won the election, I look forward to Dafydd Iwan pushing forward some of the points that were raised by the membership. Again, something else for our minds to focus on at Conference this week!

Canada Votes 2008

Canada will be going to the polls on October 14th after Conservative leader, Stephen Harper, decided to go for an early election, less than three years after the Winter election in January 2006 that saw him elected as leader of a minority government.

I was living in Canada during much of that election campaign (it's hard to believe that it's nearly an election cycle ago!) , so will be keeping a close eye on what happens there over the next few weeks, mostly through the CPAC tv channel.

With a first past the post electoral system, it's very difficult for any one party to gain a working majority in Canada (155 of the 308 seats), mainly due to the solid vote for Quebec sovereignist party, the Bloc Quebecois.

Currently, the Conservatives have 127 seats, the Liberals have 98, Bloc have 48, the New Democratic Party (NDP) have 30 while there are a number of independents, one of whom (Blair Wilson) was elected as a Liberal but has defected to the Greens, whose recent polling has apparently been as high as the mid-teens.

With four parties standing across the entire country and the Bloc making it a five-party contest in Quebec, election night could be very messy in determining any widespread trends across Canada.

One more point, though: Harper is going to the polls supposedly for a mandate to lead a government through economic troubled times. How very different to Gordon Brown and his dithering last year when he could have had such a mandate himself.