Neglect of valleys explained

The lack of effort to regenerate the south Wales valleys in much of the twentieth century has its roots in a deep fear of the region's working class, and the associated social unrest and conflict, according to an article published in the Journal of the Welsh People's History Society. Philip Jones looks at the 'South Wales Regional Survey', carried out in 1921, which argued for an end to house building in valleys communities. Instead, in a reversal of contemporary thinking, miners were to live in various dormitory towns mostly off the coalfield (such as Bridgend, Pontyclun and Abergavenny) and travel to work at their collieries by an extensive train network. In these new communities, it was claimed, miners would not only have better housing, clean air and good sanitation, but they would also be less likely to ferment unrest.

This is not just of historical interest, because the view that little should be done in the valleys was then incorporated into a succession of government plans for south Wales. Particularly striking is the fact that several of the people who sat on the 1921 regional curvey committee came to occupy key roles in the subsequent planning process (for example as Glamorgan County Councillors and staff of the Glamorgan Planning department). The development plans produced by Glamorgan County Council council held sway until the early 1980s. Many reports on the valleys published in the 1970s, e.g. the Valleys Call produced by Ty Toronto in Aberfan, were appalled at the lack of vision or action in the planning system and asked why nothing had been done.

Well, now we have at least a partial answer - there were powerful forces and powerful individuals who firmly believed that they could get rid of organised workers by letting their communities die. So next time you hear someone argue for demolishing villages in the valleys and encouraging people to move away, ask yourself whose interests they are promoting - it certainly won't be those of the people themselves.

There's lots more in this journal that's caught my attention so watch this space.

What do you have to do get sacked?

Rhodri Morgan's flagship reorganisation of the NHS is declared a failure - but nobody resigns.

The Assembly Government retreats on rolling out its key education policy - nobody resigns.

WAG's central economic initiative fails to achieve its aim of raising Welsh levels in the poorest parts of Wales - nobody resigns.

A Minister stumbles into a bar with a cigar and is forced out.

Duw help.

Talking up crime

In recent months not a day has gone past without media reports of violent crime, especially if it involves knives. These have been accompanied by reports of new powers for teachers to search school children for weapons, perpetrators of crime visiting victims in hospital etc. People are understandably afraid - two thirds of people now believe that the crime rate is going up.

A reality check shows a different picture. Surveys of people's experiences of crime and police statistics on reported crime (two different things) both show the crime is DECREASING. The number of violent crimes is also decreasing, with a particularly sharp decrease in serious violence. Only 6% of violent crimes involved use of a knife or similar (e.g. broken bottle). It is also clear that knife crime is concentrated into a small number of (mostly) inner city areas - in Wales, use of knives is mercifully rare. Altogther 897 serious offences in Wales invovled use of a knife.

Any violent crime is to be deplored but we hardly seem to have 'a broken society', a 'knife culture', or any other other labels the tabloids (and some broadsheets) are bandying around. More people were killed or seriously injured in accidents on Wales's roads (1,373 in 2006) than there were knife crimes. Where are the headlines about that?

We would do well to think about whose interests are served about whipping up a panic about crime, disorder and a 'broken society'.

Unemployment up in Wales

Didn't take long for Wales's so-called strong position on unemployment to collapse in the face of toughening economic times did it? Figures released earlier this week show that the overall unemployment rate in Wales is now marginally above GB's, having been marginally below it a year ago. Still, at 3.3% for males and 1.2 % for females it is a long way off the horrendous figures of the 1980s and early 1990s and the changes aren't huge. But spare a thought for the men of Merthyr and Blaenau Gwent, where male unemployment stands at 5.6% and 6.6% respectively (women's unemployment is also high here too). Unemployment has an appalling effect on people's health (mental and physical) and also almost guarantees that children in unemployed households will be brought up in poverty.

Unison and Unite stand up for low paid

Local government workers in UNISON and Unite are planning to strike on 16 and 17 July over a 2.45% pay offer, the latest in ten years of below-inflation pay awards. This will be followed on the 18 July by a day of protest for better pay in the NHS organised by Unite.

Everyone recognises that public services need to be modernised and reformed. People’s expectations always change and services need to be renewed accordingly. In part that means public service workers need to be challenged and motivated to respond to user needs.

But that can’t be accomplished by targets or markets. Instead workers need to be well rewarded, held in high esteem because of the socially valuable and difficult job they do and held to account through systems of greater democracy, voice and user participation.

As Compass’s Zoe Gannon recently wrote on Comment Is Free and the Compass website: In 1997, Labour came to power under the promise of protecting and renewing the public services, yet throughout this period they have failed to recognise that the quality and scope of public service provision depends on the commitment and motivation of public service workers. Hence for the last 10 years, the government have forced below-inflation pay awards, effectively pay cuts, on certain sections of public service workers.

This latest offer of 2.45% for the majority of the 1.5 million strong NJC workforce has triggered a vote by UNISON and Unite members to strike.Despite the popular myth that all public sector workers have done well under Labour, some have consistently fallen behind on prices and average earnings - including civil servants, prison officers and local government workers. Year on year, through below-inflation pay rises, market-based reforms and centrally driven targets, public sector workers have been demoralised, undermined and devalued. Yet last week I felt a glimmer of hope as the government released its latest report entitled "Excellence and fairness: achieving world-class public services". This paper argues strongly that: "Fostering a new professionalism in the public service workforce, which combines increased responsiveness to users, consistent quality in day-to-day practices, higher levels of autonomy from central government wherever those at the front line show the ambition and capacity to excel and greater investment in workforce skills."Here, the government clearly recognises the important role that public services workers play in service provision. In fact in many instances they are the service: there is nothing beyond them and the provision is dependent on their skills and commitment. This was preceded by a speech by Gordon Brown on social mobility, stating "the great test of our time - to build a fairer, more prosperous and upwardly mobile Britain". Ignoring the fact that this speech pretends again that social mobility only means people going up - this report and this speech show the admirable goals that we could achieve. But when juxtaposed with the below-inflation pay offer, we see a clear disconnection between the rhetoric and reality of this government. All that is highlighted in the speech and in the report are only really possible through fostering and developing public services, which cannot be achieved without the workforce. If you look at local government workers, it is clear that they have delivered beyond expectations - local services have been a success story - with a high proportion of councils rated excellent, good or improving by the audit commission, these have exceeded treasury targets for efficiency savings.

We need to recognise that decent increases in pay are affordable - the popular argument that pay needs to be held down to combat inflation is disputed by economists - and that it is the staff input that has improved local government performance, and service provision across the board. Public service workers don't want to have to strike, they want to carry on doing their jobs, but in an environment that recognises their contribution. It's not really much to ask, but it's clearly more than the government is willing to offer.

Most of the people who are striking over pay are in fact women and among the lowest-paid in society, and this effective pay cut will no doubt impact on Brown's flagship child poverty targets and on WAGs targets in the same area.

The situation is only made worse by the government's timidity in tackling the bonus culture in the City and excessive executive pay.It stay silent on these issues but is happy to hold down the pay of some of the least well-off.

Compasses' electoral analysis highlights that the 4 million voters that left Labour since 1997 were largely public service workers. If Brown wants to win them back in the two short years before a general election, he needs to reinvigorate these workers not alienate them.

Bordering on insanity

Interesting report from the House of Commons Welsh Affairs Select Committee on cross-border issues in the NHS, which has arisen not because the MPs are all anti-devolutionists (granted some are) but because of the very real problems that people living along the border with England seem to be experiencing - being told to get their treatment in Wrexham or Cardiff rather than Hereford, for example, or being told the budget to treat them has been 'used up'. Dismissing these issues as 'oh well, it is the inevitable result of devolution' is just not good enough. The issues are, of course, the result of devolution, but failing to deal with the anomalies that arise for patients - who quite rightly think they have a National Health Service - is typical bureaucratic nonsense. The patients are the ones who matter. It is the responsibility of governments on both sides of Offa's Dyke to make sure they get the services they need.

No Progress on Poverty

The latest Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation, published today, paints a stark picture of poverty and disadvantage. What has grabbed the headlines is the usual 'grot spots' of the Heads of the Valleys, inner cities and sink estates and, less well recognised, North Wales's seaside resorts.

But the report highlights two features that have had less attention. First, the lack of progress since the last index in 2005. Out of the 190 areas whcih were the most deprived three years ago, just 24 have improved enough to move out of the worst 10%. Of course tackling poverty and deprivation is a long term process and the very nature of the index means that somewhere has to be in the worst 10%. But this should cause the Assembly Government to reflect on whether Communities First / Next is enough alone (which it isn't - see below) and start to join up its Communities First policies with its other policies - most importantly on economic development and education.

Second, the report points out that only some disadvantaged people live in disadvantaged areas. For example, the 10% of areas which are the most income deprived only include 20% of Wales's poor people. 80% of income deprived people actually live elsewhere. Relying on Communities First / Next as the sole means of tackling poverty and disadvantage is not going to help the majority of disadvantaged people. This means that Wales needs a proper anti-poverty strategy, which covers all people and all parts of Wales. We have an apology for a child poverty strategy, but that is all.

Time for some action.

Great Green Ideas

At a discussion about sustainable communities yesterday it seemed that at long last there is some 'big thinking' beginning to happen, which could potentially change the way that people live and work to be less damaging to the environment. Ideas such as a large-scale shift to 'agile' working in the public sector, which could cut travel to / from meetings and to / from work; environmental upgrades to homes in the same way as block improvements to housing; and 'accessibility tests' for all new developments were amongst some of the ideas. The debate was centred around a Bevan Foundation report published 18 months ago, called Setting the Agenda, so it was good to see it still has some currency. Watch out for more (possibly) in the Assembly Government's sustainable development scheme to be published in the autumn, called One Wales One Planet - shame about the title though.

Healthy lunch misses the mark

Just cleaning out the goo from my kids' lunch bags (a unique mixture of uneaten crusts, apple core, crushed crisps and a biscuit wrapper) when I came across a leaflet from the Welsh Assembly Govermnemnt telling me what to put in their lunches - and it's NOT sandwiches, apples and crisps.

Amongst the various suggestions was the bright idea to 'cook extra pasta for supper' so you can use it to make salad the next day. How weird I thought, pasta for supper! Supper in our household means a snack before bedtime. And then I remembered. Supper is what posh people call tea or dinner. And pasta is what my gran called spaghetti. Did the bright spark who wrote this leaflet not pause to think about its target audience who I can guarantee don't have 'home cooked pasta' for 'supper'.

Meanwhile, the school canteen offers chips, pizza and hot dogs every lunchtime, so any lovingly prepared pasta salad will surely end up in the bin anyway. The Western Mail reports another conference about the fat-laden diets and obesity facing children. Rather than waste money on welll meaning but utterly useless leaflets telling parents how to feed their kids, let's have good quality school meals provided FREE to all children. That would at least ensure they got one wholesome meal day, irrespective of whether they eat chips or pasta for 'supper'.

Oh, the leaflet was however quite useful in stopping the goo spreading.

The real brain drain

Great to read the report in today's Western Mail that the University of Wales is getting its head out the sand with what sounds like a really good idea to stop the 'brain drain' from Wales. The idea that academics can and indeed should give something back to the people who fund it is, unbelievably, still rejected by some in our Universities who regard their positions in Wales as no more than a temporary perch on the road to greater personal glory. So this is a really great idea and I wish it every success.

The next step is for academics inspire and encourage all those people with plenty of brains in Wales who just don't think about going to University or who are detered by the cost. The talent lost because too few people from working class backgrounds in Wales don't go on to higher education is the biggest brain drain of them all.

One Wales One Year On

So, it's just about a year since the One Wales agreement was, well, agreed. But is this coalition government any different to the Labour governments of the previous 8 years? Most obviously, various Plaid pet projects are now moving forward, such as the All Wales Convention and free entry to Cadw establishments. But has it made a difference to Labour? I think it has, not least because over the last year we've seen a lot more bold actions, from free hospital car parking and a shake-up of health bodies, to demanding the electricity suppliers account for their actions.

There are two big weaknesses. First, economic and labour market policy, which is surely one of the worst policy areas for years. Whatever you might have thought of A Winning Wales (which was not a lot) and the shake-up of WDA and WTB, at least there was SOMETHING. Now, there is an appalling vaccuum. At a time when Wales needs a clear direction and firm action we get nothing. Whilst there were understandable reasons for the allocation of Ministerial roles, IWJ is hardly cutting the mustard in his portfolio.

Second, where is the challenge and scrutiny from the opposition? The new committee system is fine in some ways but means that great chunks of policy go unquestioned, whilst the opposition just don't seem to be asking the right questions in plenary.

Let's see what the next year brings.

Welfare state withers before our eyes

60th Anniversary of the Welfare State? Pah! It is withering before our eyes. Take this example.

You might think that at a time when someone cannot work because they are terminally ill they would get financial support from the state. Not in the latest round of welfare reforms they won't. At a conference last week, a speaker from RNID explained that the new Employment Support Allowance, which is shortly to replace Incapacity Benefit, will be paid at a lower rate during the first 13 weeks of a claim. If at the end of this period someone is assessed as being eligible for the higher rate, their claim isn't going to be backdated no matter what their circumstances, even if they are terminally ill.

The few claimants who are deemed eligible for ESA, much trumpeted as providing more money for those who 'deserve it', then switch to the new rates. But the RNID speaker pointed out that couples who are required to undertake work-related activity will actually be worse off than at present by £12.85 a week less than if they were on IB, again even in cases of terminal illness.

Undoubtedly there is a need for more help for people to find and keep work, but penalising people at one of the most distressing and vulnerable times in life is, bluntly, harsh and stupid.

Where is the protest? Silence all around ....

Feel the heat!

Rising fuel prices have hit the headlines recently with predictions of further increases to come - 30 or even 40 per cent according to some commentators. While higher bills affect everyone, the people hardest hit are vulnerable households. Even in 2006, long before the latest round of price rises, about one in five households in Wales was 'fuel poor'. Fuel poverty is a result of high bills, because of high prices and energy inefficient homes, and low incomes, and it is proving very hard to tackle. So it was great to see some really good ideas at a National Energy Action awards scheme last week, where I was a judge. The deserved winner was the Robert Owen Credit Union http://www.romcul.co.uk/ in Newtown, who use their credit union services to allow people to pay fuel bills by direct debit (usually cheaper), to get dual fuel deals, and to switch suppliers as well as pointing them to advice on energy efficiency. This is one of those ideas that is so good you wonder why it is not being rolled out more widely.