Why are the Labour party afraid to debate

Why are the Labour party in RCT so reluctant to engage with the public?  Having promised in their manifesto that they would broadcast council meetings on the web they have now back tracked on that, as indeed  on so many of their pre-election promises.

Presumably they do not want the general public to see the disgraceful way in which they behave; from that point of view they are quite happy to have the main HQ in Clydach Vale.  Now don’t get me wrong, Clydach is my home, I think it is wonderful, but the industrial estate which houses the Council Chamber is not on a bus route and hardly the most accessible of places.

In a world which is increasingly reliant on social media as a means of communication the Labour party don’t seem to engage with that either.  There is a County Council website of course, which is all too often overly party political, but that is run by one of the myriad of public relations staff.  There is a Council Twitter feed which kindly kept us all up to date with the Wimbledon news through much of June.

There is a RCT Labour website – the last update was in March, one of four entries this year.  There is a Pontypridd Labour constituency blog – the last entry is September 2012.

There is no sign of the local party on Twitter or Facebook – a few individual councillors have accounts, but they do not use them to engage with the general public.  They don’t enter into discussion in any groups or in any local forums. 

Of course it is not just online this attitude prevails.  They shy away from debate in person too.  Oh there is their ‘open government’ initiative where people can send in questions to be asked at full Council meetings. The questions need to be sent in a week in advance, and a response will then be written by a member of staff for the relevant Cabinet Member to read out.  Any supplementary questions almost invariably get met with the words “I’ll respond in writing.”

At the referendum meeting last year whilst Welsh Lib Dem Cllr Mike Powell joined the panel and took questions from the floor not one of the 60 Labour Councillors could do the same and instead sent an Officer.

What is it they are afraid of? 

 

Keeping Labour local? Anyone told the AM?

I attended a PACT (Partnerships & Communities Together) meeting in Treforest earlier this week as part of a plan to find out a little more about what is going on in wards across the area. According to the South wales Police website these meetings “are intended to give you an opportunity to highlight the community issues that are having an impact on your quality of life and to assist in deciding which issues are dealt with as priorities.”

They are usually attended by community Police officers or Community Support officers and the local ward Councillor(s). It was by and large unexciting, full of the usual complaints about youth annoyance / rubbish collections / grass or tree cutting.

The ward Councillor, a Labour representative was obviously a little taken aback to see me there, along with a local Welsh Lib Dem colleague. Aware that there is a town council election coming up in that ward soon couldn’t resist the temptation, from the Chair, to have a couple of cheap political digs.

He referred on several occasions to the fact that he lives in the ward - oddly enough he didn’t mention that he has recently obtained planning permission to build a house in Ynysybwl.

There was a veiled reference to the fact that the previous incumbent – a Welsh Liberal Democrat Councillor – didn’t.  Then came the classic line that ‘we’ need representatives to live in the area they represent.

What made this quite so hypocritical?   Well sat next to Cllr Powderhill, and looking a little like a rabbit caught in the headlights was one of the Treforest Town Councillors - Lewis Fackrell.

He was co-opted by the Labour members of Pontypridd Town Council when insufficient candidates came forward in May 2012.  He lives, and stood for election, in Trallwn.  Oops!
 
So is Cllr Powderhill saying that was wrong – why then did he back him?  Another example of the sickening Labour hypocrisy in RCT.

He may also want to have a word with the Assembly Member for Pontypridd.  Mick Antoniw lives in Newport, having rented a house for a couple of months just to have a Pontypridd constituency address to put on his ballot paper.

I trust Cllr Powderhill will bear this in mind in future.

 

Labour candidates on lookout for alternative funding

So the GMB union is to cut its funding to the Labour party, bizarrely it appears because they disagree with giving their members a right to choose whether or not they actually want to join the Labour party rather than being affiliated automatically. 

Credit should go to Ed Miliband for this rare demonstration of common sense and fairness. Presumably the GMB are afraid that a substantial number will chose not to join and this will impact on their ability to dictate which Labour candidates should be selected and hence diminish their influence.

The move if carried through will be costly for the party as a whole, and will also mean individual elected Labour members will have to look elsewhere for funding – heaven forbid they may even have to fund their own campaigns!

Pontypridd AM Mick Antoniw for example could find himself at a few more fundraisers.  His record of interest at the Assembly states that he received £5000 from the GB for election expenses.  It also states he has received a little over £15000 in gifts and hospitality form the GMB and Unite unions.

I have in the past ranted on numerous occasions about the incestuous relationship between the Labour party and the unions.  It is undemocratic.  Unions should be there to represent the interests of their workforce and not to play politics and interfere in the democratic process.

 

 

Putting your head above the parapet – and why people won’t bother

It is a simple but unfortunate fact of life that the minute anyone puts their head above the parapet and starts making their presence felt in the community there is someone there waiting to shoot them down.

This applies whether that is becoming involved with a voluntary project or standing for public office, and sometimes you can’t do right for doing wrong,

I have been involved in a substantial number of voluntary organisations over the years – still am, and whilst most people will probably say “good for you” then there are always those who will whisper behind the scenes “there must be something in it for her.”

They will only see what they want to see – school governors getting front row concert seats for instance.  They don’t see or don’t want to know about the not so nice side of the job – the disciplinary hearings, the staff interviews, the pages and pages of policy documents and statistics to pour over, the decisions that can affect future prospects of a generation.

So why do it?  Because it is rewarding in its own way, at the risk of sounding holier than though, doing something that actually benefits the community.

Those who dare to stand for public office of course leave themselves open to even more condemnation, and lord help those who get elected.

It maybe explains why the Labour party locally like to hide away from the electorate and don’t like to engage in any way with residents let lone opponents.  Mick Antoniw, AM for Ponty has blocked me from commenting on his Twitter feed – no doubt because he had no answers to the questions being posed. I wonder how many others have befallen the same fate.

The Councillor for Treforest has this week been bemoaning the fact that a local Facebook site is becoming too political, yet refused to join other sites where he could answer questions being posed about such things as his stance on the paddling pool.

Then those who do engage more openly have to suffer endless comments about how “all Councillors are the same” and how they are all in it for the money, all liars, etc., etc.

Is it any wonder then that most people seeing just what a thankless task it is would never entertain the thought of standing for Council?  And whilst that nonsense is being perpetuated then making any real change is going to be very hard.

Labour lies and misdirection – give it a rest Tony

Another month, another column in the local press from Council leader Anthony Christopher.  The subject this week?  Well what else but the decisions they are being ‘forced’ to make because of the UK Government.

Absolute complete and utter bull.  This time he (or probably one of the highly paid members of the strategy department - £1m a year for Labour propaganda) writes “the first casualty of the Tory/Liberal cuts were the paddling pools at Penygraig. Trealaw and Penrhys.

 

Now apart from this being completely incorrect, he (or they) really should keep more track of what they are saying.  I thought the fortnightly refuse collections and the charges for bulky waste collection were blamed on the cuts?  As well as every other thing the Labour Council have decided to do that they think the public may not like.

The Council decides on what to do with its money, the money that comes from the Welsh Labour Government.  They decide to spend £70,000 or so a year on a newspaper to publicise themselves.  They employ a huge publicity department at a cost of over a million a year, headed by the son of a Cabinet Member, a former Labour candidate.  Someone who, by the way, was promoted rapidly from within to a post that didn’t previously exist, which was not advertised and which no interviews were held for.

They decide to give massive extra payments to people so they leave under a ‘voluntary redundancy’ banner.  They fund union representatives so that they can then sell out their own workers, cutting their terms and conditions and threatening zero hours contracts for home care staff.

They make me sick. Grow a backbone and take some responsibility for once.

Proud to be part of Tonypandy Community College

'A' level results are out today and there is excellent news from Tonypandy Community College where I am proud to have been the Vice Chair of Governors for several years.

As reported on the College website, our 6^th form students achieved the best results in the College history.

Whilst the media reports an overall stagnation in results across Wales, we have bucked the trend. 

63% of all grades gained were A* and A grades.

83% of all grades were A* – C grades.

99% of all certificates were A* – E grades.

The top achieving student achieved 3 A*, an A and a B.

Not bad at all for a school that according to the Welsh Government ludicrous banding system is in a band 4!

Many congratulations are due to students and staff for this excellent result.  I am proud to be able to play a small part in the success.

Labour Councillors kept quiet over paddling pool plans

It has been confirmed that Labour Councillors knew about paddling pool closures in Mid Rhondda a month in advance and chose to keep quiet about it.

Labour Councillors in the Rhondda were informed by the Director on Friday 15^th June that paddling pools in Trealaw and Penygraig would not be opening this year.  In response to a question from Welsh Liberal Democrat Cllr Mike Powell the group Director responsible stated that

“Myself and Councillor Bevan met the local members involved (Cllr Dennis Weeks, Cllr Ken Privett, Cllr Joy Rosser and Cllr Sylvia Jones) on Friday 15th June 2013 to inform them of the situation and the closures.”

The third pool which has not been opened is in Penrhys which is in Cllr Bevan’s own ward. 

It begs the question – just who do these Councillors think they are there to represent?  The answer is obvious – the Labour party and their own self-serving needs. Why didn’t they inform their constituents of what was happening?  Were they too lazy, or too cowardly to face the backlash?

The reason given was that “it would have cost approximately £15-£16k on each site to undertake repair work in order to open them up. Unfortunately there was no budget available in Leisure Services to undertake this work.”

If the Councillors responsible thought this was a good enough reason then why not explain that residents? It is unlikely that these pools will reopen in subsequent seasons.  The costs of repair will be even more once they are left for another year. 

There seems to have been little action lately from protestors.  The Facebook site set up for the purpose of initiating a campaign has been very quiet of late. I was removed from there, no reason was given but apparently someone thought I was being a bit too political.  (This after I had brought the issue to the attention of the local press and ITV news and managed to get considerable publicity.)  There is apparently a petition doing the rounds, but the season is half over. 

It is I think a fair assumption that this will only be the start, and it is true that cut backs need to be made, but as has been asked why all in the same Mid Rhondda area?  Those in the Cynon Valley all remain open. Of course there are none to close in Pontypridd.  The only paddling pool there is in Ynysangharad Park, and that will be going when the Labour Council plough ahead with their hugely unpopular plans for the new Lido. 

The main question is why can’t Labour Councillors and Cabinet Members be honest with the people and tell them exactly what their plans are?  Or is that a little too much to expect?

A reason to vote Labour?

Rather odd story on Wales Online regarding a call from a Welsh Labour MP for Ed Milliband to give voters a stronger reason to vote Labour.
 

Geraint Davies said the party looked like a “shamefaced schoolboy” by not rebutting Tory accusations that Labour was responsible for the economic mess.

Maybe that is because they have no answer, they know that they were indeed responsible and maybe some admission of that would help their cause.  Instead they appear more and more hapless by the day.

Perhaps they should look towards Labour’s outstanding record in Wales, pointing out their successes there, using that as a shining example to follow.

Take education for instance.  Wales is setting a perfect example – on how not to do things.  Lingering way down the international league tables with little hope of making great strides forward any time soon.  The former Education Minister was more interested in his nonsensical banding scheme than in doing anything to actually drive up standards.

Our pupils are greatly under-funded in comparison with those in England.  In England the Liberal Democrats introduced a pupil premium which gave £430 to schools for every pupil on free school meals.  That has now gone up to £1,300 for 2014 – 2015.  In Wales thanks to the Welsh Liberal Democrats budget negotiations last year we introduced a grant of £450 per free school meals pupil.  The Labour Government here has no plans to increase it.

Ok so what about Labour’s health record in Wales – surely that must be something to crow about.  Or maybe not.  More is sent on the helath service per person in Wales than in England but that is the only positive.  We certainly don’t get value for money.  Abysmal ambulance response times, longer waitingtimes for treatment,  A&E departments on the point of ‘meltdown.’

Housing, surely some good news there?  But then again……  Whilst in England the coalition Government has introduced a variety of measures to help first time buyers onto the housing ladder in Wales the Labour Government have yet again failed us. 

 It is not only Ed Milliband who should be looking like a shamefaced schoolboy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RCT Council subsidising private companies with our money?

As some people may have noticed I have had a bit of a bee in my bonnet about the 'Big Weekend' which has been taking place in Ynysangharad Park this weekend.

Now I have nothing against people enjoying themselves, in fact there should be more of it, and yes it does in theory give opportunity for the Ponty name to be mentioned, but for several years now people have been asking what benefit it actually brings. Not just RCT Lib Dems, although of course we will be accused by some of being negative and just trying to score political points! (although I have never managed to figure out what political points we are supposed to be gaining unless people agree with us!?)

Now we have complained about the fact that the Park is completely shut off to anyone not attending the concert even though not all of it is used and they could surely cordon off the paddling pool and playground so that could remain in use?  Then there is the inconvenience of the road closures and the fact that traffic is diverted through residential streets which are themselves thronged with pedestrians returning from the concert.

But these could be classed as minor inconveniences, well worth it for the benefits it brings, except that apart from providing a good day out for those who attend it is hard to see what they are.

Traders in Pontypridd have suffered enough, not just from the general economic pressures, but during months of ‘regeneration’ works.  They are at rock bottom, and have not been helped by the Council dragging their heels over even looking at rate relief. They cannot afford to lose any more trade.  These are people who are the life blood of the town and who are there week in week out, not just for one weekend a year.

I went into town on Saturday hoping that what we have been saying would be proved wrong, and that the place would be filled with people.  Instead I found the town centre car park that on most Saturdays is very busy was at best two thirds full. Rather than being brought into town by the event shoppers, and indeed it seems other visitors, were staying away.   Well, the Park was shut so that wasn’t going to bring people in.

Still there must be some greater good coming from this right?  Local traders must benefit from sales of food and drink when the thousands of people arrive at 3.30 for the start of the concert?  

Or not.  Because of course concert goers weren’t allowed to take any food or drink into the concert area, not so much as a bottle of pop or a bag of crisps. If they wanted to eat between 3.30 and 9.30 then they had to pay the inflated prices to buy from the vendors inside the secure area.

Just to make sure that there was a little chance as possible of people walking through town signs directed concert goers to the Goods yard car park which meant many did not have to walk past any shops other than the few in Bridge Street.

In response to an FOI request which asked “What was the estimated amount of income generated for local businesses / traders from the Big Weekend event last year” the Council said that “Whilst not all suppliers are RCT based, a significant number are based in South Wales.” 

They claimed that “In recent years the direct economic impact can be calculated in excess of £600,000.” 

This is rather odd as last year in a statement to the press they claimed ““The event already brings £1m worth of additional spend into the town”  - this in response to complaints from the cricket club that the pitch would be unplayable afterwards for most of the season.

So it would seem that they simply have no idea and are merely picking random figures out of the air.

To top all of this off there is the unbelievable statement from the Council that costs are shared between the council and Orchard Entertainment at a ratio of 35 : 65 but that   “This is not a profit making event for the Council.”

WHY NOT?  If I were investing 35% of the cost of an event such a s this then I am damned sure I would want 35% share of the profits.  Instead the Council seem happy to do all this and not make a penny.  How ridiculous is that?  They are in effect subsidising Orchard Entertainment and other private companies with taxpayers money.

This at a time when cutbacks are being made across every other area of public spending. As Victor Meldrew would say “I don’t believe it.”

Methinks more questions need to be asked.

Spineless, gutless cowards eh? Who can that be?

Now it may be hard for some of my friends out there to believe, but some people don’t like me!  In fact there are some who wouldn’t p*** on me if I were to burst into flames.  To be fair I can understand why.  I can be a little too forthright for some people’s taste, I tell it how it is, and some people can get a little upset.  I make a great friend, but believe me you don’t want me as an enemy.

Also, whilst I can be as sneaky, conniving and conspiratorial as the next person, I usually take a more head on, fix bayonet and charge approach to the everyday hassles of political life. This is not an approach taken by everyone – some local Labour party members in particular prefer the bully boy, cowardly, hide behind the curtains sort of approach.

Let me give you one example.

I wrote recently of the (in my opinion) somewhat underhand tactics of the Labour party in relation to the hospital reorganisation proposals.  In particular I was incensed by the fact that the letter which the campaign group had agreed upon, and which we were all trying to get signatures on had been reprinted with the address of a Labour Councillor as the return address.

I pointed this out on a couple of campaign Facebook groups, just so that people involved were aware of the potential for political shenanigans.   It met with a rather vehement response from the Councillor’s wife, a nurse, who pointed out it was also her address as well.

Then tonight I was in the public gallery at an RCT Council meeting.  They were discussing their response to the South Wales Programme consultation, and for once there was cross party agreement and no political game playing, until this particular Councillor spoke.

He named no names, but went on a rant about “spineless” people trying to score political points by attacking their efforts.  In the words of his wife, who yet again leapt to his defence on Facebook,

“The councillor named no names but simply addressed the fact that spineless, gutless cowards had put items on facebook and twitter for their own political ends, whilst risking undermining our NON POLITICAL campaign.”

Now I have no intention of getting involved in a tit for tat battle on a campaign page, but Councillor Adams made his comments in public, in the Council Chamber where I had no right to reply, and that doesn't seem quite fair!  Now if we are talking of spineless, gutless cowards I suggest he try looking in the mirror.

I am not perfect, not by a long chalk, but I am honest, and I am certainly not spineless. I also believe in fighting my own battles and doing it openly.  If you have anything to say to me Cllr Adams, for a public audience or not, then you know where I am.   Don’t hide behind the expensive plate glass panes of the Council Chamber, or your wife’s skirts.

As I have said before, there is of course a political element to this campaign and we will make full use of it, but there will be no doubt about it when we are. 

 

No tears to shed over Leighton

So Leighton Andrews has resigned his position as Education Minister, and not before time.  His arrogance it seems has finally got the better of him – his refusal to listen to anyone on education matters has ensured Wales has remained way down the education league tables, he has a reputation of being smug and arrogant, and his determination to have it all ways has been his downfall.

 
TheBBC report that he “resigned following a row over his defence of a school which faced closure under his own surplus places policy.”  A line which allows Mr Andrews to play on the “I did it all for my constituents” sob story.  In his resignation letter he said

"I regret that my commitment to my constituents may have led me to an apparent conflict which led to difficulty for the government."

Nonsense.  It was his commitment to try himself, his own career, and to trying to play the game according to a set of rules he made up himself.

He was a Government Minister.  He knew full well that meant he had to be very careful with what he said about the Royal Glamorgan.  He made a big mistake – the ‘Labour for Royal Glamorgan’ signs and website were never going to go down well elsewhere.  A schoolboy error one may say.

But even worse was thinking he could get away with openly backing a campaign to keep a school open in his constituency whist telling Authorities they had to deal with surplus places and being the man with the final say over whether closures go ahead.

That was sheer stupidity.  If he felt so strongly then he should have resigned his Ministerial post in order to fight for the school.  Or if he really had concerns over the process RCT were following then why, as Minister, did he not openly question them about it? This is the Authority, after all, that he wanted to hand control of Merthyr schools over to.  It raises serious questions about competency on both sides

Still at least the news has livened up Twitter today, even if some of the comments were a little strange.

Adrian Masters points us in the direction of the Director of the ATL Union who says

“It is vital that Mr Andrews' successor is both credible, and more importantly, competent. With PISA looming, and GCSES and A level results pending, we need someone who commands the confidence of the profession and parents.”

Credible and competent – a big ask from amongst the current Labour contingent, and has Leighton ever fulfilled those requirements? 

Labour AM Jenny Rathbone raised a few eyebrows with her assertion that “.Resignation of our Education Minister poses lots of questions re direction education policy.”

Really?  He had only just gone, surely if there were questions as to the direction of Labour education policy someone in the party would have picked up on them before now?  Is she suggesting that there will be a change in policy – or that there should be?

Tory MP and Welsh office Minister Stephen Crabbe obviously hasn’t taken the views of his colleagues in the Assembly on board and tweets  “Sorry to see @LeightonAndrews leave Welsh Gov. One of the few with genuine ambition for ending the slide in Welsh educational standards".

Really?  He may have had ambition but he wasn’t achieving a great deal as the man responsible for PISA assessments pointed out recently.

Oddly enough @fmwales  has been silent since lunchtime.

Plaid AM confused over health service plans – aren’t they paying attention?

Bethan Jenkins AM tweeted this afternoon, presumably from the Assembly Chamber, that:

 “I am not against centralising specialised services. A and E is NOT a specialised service, is it??”

Has she any idea the range of specialities which are covered in an A&E department?  More to the point maybe has she paid any attention at all to what has been said about the South wales Programme hospital reorganisation?

Now whether or not you agree with the concept what is being recommended is that critical care services are condenses into fewer hospitals.  There is no suggestion that A&E as a whole will be removed from any hospital.  What is being talked about is the top level ‘emergency’ medicine – heart attacks, strokes, brain injuries, severe trauma.

Is Ms Jenkins seriously suggesting that none of these are ‘specialist’ services?  Because if, heaven forbid, I ever needed emergency brain surgery I certainly wouldn’t want an obstetrician carrying it out.

How can reasoned arguments be made and put forward to the Health Boards. and indeed the Health Minister, that will hold water if such misinformation is being spread?

Will Labour MPs stick up for constituents on health issues?

Anne Clwyd,  the Labour MP  for the Cynon Valley seems to have become the caped crusader with regard to the health service and in particular patient care. This after the alleged abysmal treatment of her late husband at the University of Wales.

At that time she chose to make her complaint via the media and in Westminster, even though health is of course devolved and run in Wales by her own Labour colleagues in the Welsh Government.

Inexplicably she was asked earlier this year to head up a review into the way that the English NHS deals with complaints which no doubt will be of huge benefit to her constituents. During this exercise she says she received hundeds of complaints from Wales and met the Welsh Health Minister to talk about them.

This  week she is addressing Westminster's Welsh Grand Committee of MPs on the subject of the problems she has been told of in Wales.  What I wonder will the Labour Members of that committee do with the information?

Given their recent overwhelming interest in the health service locally and their now aborted campaign to save services at the Royal Glamorgan, which has caused more than a bit of bother within the Labour party, will they now demand better patient care?  Will Owen Smith and ChrisbBryant actually stand up for their constituents and demand answers from their Welsh Labour colleagues?

I think we all know the answer to that.

Labour party should hang their heads in shame

The supposedly grass roots, all political parties and none, all fighting for the same cause campaign to retain services at the Royal Glamorgan is well under way. It seems, however, that some are taking the idea of there being no overt political involvement less seriously than others. 

The Labour party in RCT,  not content with leaping aboard a bandwagon that had been rolling long before they even knew it was in existence, are determined to take over the reins and are addressing their with an almost evangelical zeal, much to the dismay of head honcho, First Minister and Welsh Labour leader Carwyn Jones.

Carwyn got into a spot of bother at First Minister’s Questions last Tuesday over the matter. He appears either not to know what his colleagues are up to, or is in denial. Of course it doesn’t make things any easier that the Princess of Wales hospital in Bridgend is in his constituency and residents there will be just as keen to make sure that is one of the five chosen critical care centres.

Labour set up a campaign website called Labour4RoylGlamorgan which they soon changed – no doubt after a few words from above pointing out that in fact only RCT Labour were in favour of keeping the Royal Glam as is.

They then decided the way forward was to take over the genuine grass roots campaign that had been set up by numerous people.  Some of those people had been involved in the fight against the downgrading of the neo natal unit at the hospital in 2008, a campaign we were pleased to have helped out with.

At the first rally in Pontypridd two Labour MPs, an AM and a variety of Labour Councillors were present.  The MPs and AM disappeared as soon as the photo opportunity was over. A standard letter had been prepared – totally non-political – for residents to sign opposing the taking of services from the Royal Glam.  Labour members were going around getting people to sign their own Labour campaign forms.  I took a bundle of letters at the end of the day to put around in various places.  When I took them out of my car boot a few days later I found only the top one was actually the letter we had all agreed on.  The rest of the bundle was made up of Labour leaflets.

Yesterday was the Treorchy protest – this time two Labour AMs and one MP turned up, and again several Labour Councilors. Instead of the black T Shirts with yellow writing that members of the campaign group had designed and had made to sell to supporters, the Labour contingent turned up with their own version.  Red T-shirts bearing the logo and message from their Royal Glam website. So much for pulling together and being part of a genuine grass roots campaign.

The Parliamentarians were all keen to make their voices heard to the crowd.  Our only RCT Councillor could not make it, so we had no elected representative there even if we had wanted to vie for the crowd’s attention.

Chris Bryant made a sickening speech which as usual made no mention of the fact that his own colleagues in the Bay are responsible for this reorganisation.  During his political broadcast he announced a donation of £150 to the campaign from the Labour party.  Playing to the crowd?  Of course not!!   It must have been disappointing to find that the subsequent TV report left out anything from Mr Bryant and pals.

The most disgusting part of this display, however, at least to my mind, came when a heckler from the crowd started to have a bit of a dig at the Rhondda MP.  His exact words were not audible form where I stood, but he began with something along the lines of how he was an ex miner and how he didn’t regard Chris as his MP.

Instead of dealing with the interruption in a manner becoming someone in his position, the Labour MP told the man to “shut up” and then encouraged the crowd to chant “shut up, shut up…”   Disgraceful behavior – free speech not a concept the Labour party understand obviously.

The whole nauseating scenario is of course made so much worse by the sheer hypocrisy of it all.  Health is devolved, it is the responsibility of the Welsh Labour Government, the appalling state of the NHS in Wales is down to them. The Labour party in RCT should be hanging their heads in shame.

Paddling pool removal little short of vandalism

Had an hour or so to spare in Ponty this afternoon so did what many people do when the weather is this good and headed for B&M to pick up some bargains! Well it is a Sunday and everyone is free to park on the newly installed £10m pavements in the semi sort of sometimes pedestrianised town centre.

Having availed myself of some bits and bobs in the aforementioned store I then took a wander across to the park. As to be expected it was fairly busy lots of families having come along, as they have for generations, for an inexpensive afternoon in the sun

At a rough estimate there were around 80 kids happily splashing about in the paddling pool - the very one the Labour council wants to take away. It was a very rough estimate as more kept running in and out, whilst several enjoyed the slide. Many more on the grass wore bathers, obviously taking a brief respite before jumping back in.

I would have taken a photo but a large sign says it is strictly forbidden, along with diving and jumping and running and excessive splashing and anything else that could make playing a little too much like fun

One of the things that struck me was something we have mentioned previously during our campaign to save the paddling pool. That is the number of groups with one or two children and four or five adults.  What happens when the new Lido is open, with its 'free to use' pool for children, and one adult accompanying each child. Every only of those 'extra' adults would have to pay to enter.

Even if by some miracle they chose to do that there is no way they would fit in the number of people here enjoying this facility today.

 The Labour plan is beyond bonkers, it is outright vandalism.

Maybe First Minister should check facts on hospital claims

A bit of  row broke out last Tuesday at first Minister's questions over the hospital reorganisation plans, and more specifically the campaign to keep services at the Royal Glamorgan.

As reported by the BBC there was an exchange between Carwyn and the leader of Plaid Cymru in which he accused her of misleading the Assembly by stating that A&E would close.

Conservative Health spokesperson Darren Millar referred to this a few minutes later and asked

"Do you agree that your Labour colleagues, including a member of your own cabinet are also misleading the assembly, if you use the same yardstick?"

The First Minister got on his usual high horse and replied

"That has never been suggested by anyone in this chamber, by any Labour Minister, only by members of Plaid Cymru."

He cannot have seen the leaflets being put out from the office of Leighton Andrews. Education Minister and AM for the Rhondda then.   It asks people to sign a letter stating that they

"believe that there must continue to be Accident & Emergency Services at the Royal Glamorgan."

It also explains that the reorganisation is necessary to maintain standards but that

"It is inevitable that certain services includign accident and emergency will be based in fewer hospitals."

So Mr Jones, no Labour Minister has been misleading the public?

Can someone explain to Labour’s elected members what is going on?

I know the whole political scene, devolution and everything is sometimes a bit difficult for the average man / woman in the street to grasp, often made none the easier by the media.  However, you’d think that elected members would have some sort of grasp of what is happening.  In the case of the Labour party locally at least it certainly doesn’t seem that way.

In recent days with the furore surrounding the health service reorganisation several have left me wondering whether they have any idea at all what is really going on or what the reasons around it are.  It seems that not only do they not communicate within the Labour party, but some are too disinterested to even read up on subjects which are of vital importance to many of those they represent.

As a result not only are they unable to make any credible case for not cutting services, but they  end up spreading misinformation amongst the public which does nothing to help the cause.

Take the report in the Wales on Sunday today about the rally in Pontypridd yesterday.  There is a quote from a Labour Councillor, Tina Leyshon, who is certainly no newcomer to the world of local politics. She says

“Everyone knows someone who’s been to this hospital. Really, it’s nothing to do with politics. It’s so important that we get out and show our support for our local hospital.  I think national health needs to make cuts but they need to look at it wisely and make cuts that are safe. Taking money away from services like A&E is not the way to do it.”

Now first off it is of course everything to do with politics – who does she think governs the Health Service – the tooth fairy? The decision to reorganise services is a political one, and it is the Labour Health Minister who will have the final say.  Political decisions affect how money is spent and on what. 

More importantly this is not about cuts – although cuts could certainly be made on the management side.  It has been very clearly stated that the reorganisation is about staff shortages and clinical safety, not money.  The reorganisation in fact with cost money.  Her colleagues in the Welsh Government are not taking money away from these services.  That is not their failure; their failure has been in not addressing staff shortages which have been apparent for years, and in not addressing the very real concerns about the Health Service in Wales.

Of course in some ways she could be forgiven for being confused – after all the Labour MP for Pontypridd has been peddling the sameline, although of course he has been adding in the well-worn phrase about it being all the fault of the UK Government  (y…a…w…n)

Leighton Andrews added to the misinformation, being quoted on Wales Online as saying that

“It could take hours and several bus changes” for people in Rhondda to reach Bridgend’s Princess of Wales Hospital or Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr. In practice, people would go to Cardiff and that would lead to congestion at the University Hospital of Wales,”

This is of course complete nonsense, because the people who would be accessing the severe trauma services they are talking Labour centralising would be travelling there by ambulance and not have a choice about where they were taken.  Yes transferring services would make it more difficult for patients’ visitors, but there would still be no choice involved.

Then we have Chris Bryant.MP for the Rhondda adding his thoughts.  Well, they are in his name anyway, although they don’t quite gel with what he has said elsewhere.

According to a piece on Slick’s blog,

Rhondda Labour MP Chris Bryant said: “The A&E at the Royal Glamorgan is an essential service to the people of the Rhondda. When you are severely ill and requiring urgent medical attention, you want to receive the best care as quickly as possible – I hope that the health board will see sense and realise that closing an accident and emergency unit at a hospital that is only 13 years old and accessible to both the communities in the Rhondda and Pontypridd is not the best use of NHS resources.”

Now when Chris came along to a campaign meeting last Thursday he said that care should be taken to ensure that the correct facts were put out to the public.  That the consultation only spoke of certain critical care services – something that RCT Welsh Lib Dems have been keen to point out all along.  Why then is he quoted talking about “closing an accident and emergency department?”

They really should take more care about what is being put out in their names.  Maybe the same staff are writing their press releases as put together their campaign website referring to them as “your Labour representitives”  - a Freudian slip some may say.

 

 

And in the red corner fighitng for,,,, err,,,,,

People across South Wales are at last beginning to wake up to the fact that there are substantial changes proposed in health provision across the region.   The grandly named ‘SouthWales Programme’ will see a centralisation across five centres of specialist services.  Consultant led maternity, neonatal, in patient paediatric and severe trauma services will be lost from some hospitals.

The ‘best fit’ option as described in the consultation document means the Royal Glamorgan in Llantrisant would lose these services.  The health board have become very touchy when people have described this as their preferred option, they say it is not, it is just the ‘best fit.’  Go figure!

Over the coming weeks there will be a territorial battle between supporters of the Royal Glamorgan and  the Princess of Wales hospital in Bridgend.  Not only residents will be taking to the streets, but politicians of all hues will be locking horns, not just party against party, but internal clashes too. 

In the red corner, fighting for the Princess of Wales, we have the Labour party, and in the err red corner fighting for the Royal Glamorgan we have, err, the Labour party.

Strange really as the party responsible for setting all this in motion and indeed for failing to do anything about staff shortages for years is, um, the Labour party.

The idea of devolution still has not hit home with many people in Wales.  Aided by a UK dominated media and a Labour leaning local press there is much confusion as to who is responsible.  The Labour party like to add to this confusion blaming the UK Government for absolutely everything.  Pontypridd MP Owen Smith is leading the pack in this, to the extent that it is getting really boring. 

Meanwhile Leighton Andrews and Slick Mick Antoniw have leapt forward like Batman and Robin, underpants outside their trousers, to fight for their local services.  Bit late really, especially in Slick’s case.  He couldn’t even be bothered to put in a submission to the original public engagement exercise, although is trying to claim he did.  Problem is the letter he says he wrote is on the RCT Labour campaign website and is dated a month after the consultation ended.

Along with Chris Bryant MP for the Rhondda (who knows a thing or two about underpants in public) they came dashing across our tv screens like the four horsemen of the apocalypse launching their campaign  - Labour for the Royal Glamorgan. 

Except of course ‘Labour’ weren’t, just RCT Labour.  Someone apart from me obviously cottoned on to this problem pretty quickly, because the Labour4royalglam Facebook and Twitter accounts they had set up disappeared as quickly as they had arrived.

Having set up the so called campaign in a flurry of tv activity what have they done since?  Precious little it seems. Away from the glare of the tv cameras Chris Bryant is already saying he thinks it is all a done deal anyway.  So much for fighting our corner.

Slick is a little upright about the while issue, so much so that he threatened to block me from his twitter account if I didn’t stop posting in his opinion ‘inane’ comments - apparently direct political questioning is ‘trolling’ according to him.  Not something I’ll be losing any sleep about.

The State of Independents

Finally in the list of candidates for the Rhondda ward by election we have the ‘Independent’ candidate Bob Fox, a former Town and County Councillor in The Graig. Well, sort of independent, because this is where lines get a little burred.

Mr Fox is part of a local group known as RAG -  the Ratepayers Action Group.  Their Facebook group refers to ‘our candidate’ without naming him, yet there is little else relating to him or to the election.

As I have raved a little about on previous occasions, RCT RAG seem to be a little confused as to their purpose.

They don’t seem to have achieved a great deal at all, nor really become involved in anything locally.  Their Facebook site consists of posts from their Chairman on his own personal anti Tory crusade attacking the UK Government on anything and everything.  The Labour Council’s hike in Council Tax has gone unremarked, as has the Labour Police Commissioner’s 7% rise in the Police precept. 

The cutback in services in RCT has not brought forward a murmur of dissent from this group whose intention is allegedly to stick up for the Ratepayers of RCT. 

They have apparently not noticed the appalling statistics regarding the ambulance service in RCT, nor the unacceptable waiting lists for hospital treatment which are the responsibility of the Welsh Labour Government. Oh yes, they are Independent all right!!

I haven’t seen the latest election leaflet from their candidate but am told that in it he is jumping on the bandwagon of the paddling pool campaign, claiming to have been fighting to save it.  Well if that is the case he has been pretty quiet about it until now.

RAG appears to be a collection of misfits who are not at all sure about which direction they wish to proceed in.  Two of their members were elected to the County Council last year, in Tylorstown and Tonyrefail, but there seems to be little interaction between them and the group these days.  One of their Councillors sits in a group with Welsh Lib Dem Councillor Mike Powell and Tory Joel James. The other sits alone, not aligned to any group.

There really needs to be some clarification.  Is Mr Fox an Independent or is he standing on behalf of a group? And if that group is standing candidates at election then no matter how much they try to deny it then they are political. 

The Pluralist party – coming soon to an election near you – or not!

The ‘Pluralist Party’ appears on the ballot paper for the forthcoming Rhondda ward Town Council  by election.   Their website states:

 “We are different from other parties in that out members don’t support us – we support our members. Our members consist only of those who are elected or standing for election. This makes it easier to avoid conflicts of interest between the party members and the public.

“Each of our candidates stand on their own manifesto and then the party’s agenda for government comes out of win-win bargaining that takes the best bits from the manifestos of those who were elected – in other words it is the people who decide our policies through voting for the candidates we field. Unlike most other parties, we don’t mind supporting more candidates than there are positions as it should be for the people to have the final say who they vote for and not a political party.”

“Different” they say – oh yes they are definitely that. Officially registered with the Electoral Commission The ‘Party’ membership seems to consist of one person at present, as members ‘consist only of those who are elected or standing for election.’ 

They were registered in 2012 as a minority party with Jonathan Bishop as the Party Leader, Mark Beech as the Nominating Officer and no other officers at all. 

Mr Beech is a former candidate for the Raving Monster Loony Party (I kid thee not) who, according to the ‘Crocels News’ site (yet another one of Jon Bishop’s many guises)

 “ [Mark Beech] has put himself down on a ballot paper as ‘BEECH, MARK WILLIAM (commonly known as ‘The Good Knight, Sir Nos Da’)”

 Now I am all for democracy and getting as many people involved in the electoral system as possible, but really, does this further the democratic cause?   I can't see this one catching on.