...there was a problem

"Jonathan [Powell, Chief of Staff] came into my office and shut the door, which usually meant there was a problem". So began Alistair Campbell's diary entry for October 27th 1998.

The 'problem' was to result later that day in the first resignation from Tony Blair's Cabinet, and the beginning of a new chapter in Welsh politics.

Fans of the counter-factual school of history will debate the impact of the events for some time, no doubt. I'll sit that one out.

The one thing it is easy to agree on is how swiftly and profoundly Welsh politics has changed in ten years. Since the beginning of the secret ballot politics in Wales has been predictable, but not any more.

Who could have foreseen that a decade on John Osmond would be hailing Rhodri Morgan as "the father of devolution", Ron Davies would be a County Councillor representing the seat he held when he was 21 and Alun Michael would be a backbench MP struggling to come to terms with the consequences of devolution (well, perhaps that's less of a surprise).

You couldn't make it up.

Joined up Government?

The Assembly Government have announced, via the jobs pages of the Western Mail, a major re-organisation at the Senior level of the Civil Service.

A new layer of thematic departments are to be created: Sustainable Futures; Public Services and Local Government Delivery; People, Places and Corporate Services; and Finance.

Each gets a new Director General, seemingly in addition to existing heads of department, at a salary of 'circa' £130,000.

The new structure is the brainchild of the new Permanent Secretary, Dame Gill Morgan.

It is in principle a good idea to try and take advantage of the intimacy of Government in a small nation. But it still leaves challenges, not least in terms of culture.

I'm personally pleased to see sustainability as a theme. There is some sense in putting the environment, housing, sustainable development, rural affairs, heritage and tourism all brought under one Director General. But transport - which contributes a quarter of all our carbon emission - is still separate.

These changes will do nothing in themselves to alter the paradox of one Government department planning to implement overall cuts in Welsh carbon emissions by at least 3% every year from 2011, and another planning a programme of road building which will lock in increases to emissions.

Today's announcement is a welcome step towards better co-ordination, but it is no panacea.

One of 12,000

As I left a meeting this morning, a young man was asleep on the ground outside the building. He'd asked to be left alone as he was tired and had nowhere else to go. It had been cold enough for a frost over night.

Homeless

He was homeless. Last year 9,000 people were classed as homeless in Wales and a further 3,000 or so were in temporary accommodation of some sort. Although the numbers are down from their peak in 2004, this is a scandalously high number for a small nation like Wales, and one which could well rise as the credit crunch hits. As panic about fuel costs, savers' deposits and firms' payments rise, action to support people who are at absolute rock bottom must not be overlooked.

Good debate and some laughs on blogging

Last night's debate on political blogging in the Senedd proved to be as informative and entertaining as we had hoped. Speeches by Peter Black, Eleanor Burnham and Betsan Powys were very hard acts to follow, provoking laughs as well as making serious points, yet Matt Wardman and Annabelle Harle both managed to do so well, hitting the mark with some interesting persepctives. The questions from the floor were also entertaining and challenging.

Where to see more

You can read some quotable quotes on The Beating Heart of It, see some video clips on Bethan Jenkins' blog, and view comments - although she wasn't there - on Valleys Mam.

An outbreak of agreement

There actually wasn't any real disagreement amongst the panellists - I think everyone agreed that blogging was a useful means of communicating and provided a platform for people who were marginalised from the media (especially given the lack of diversity in Welsh media) to have a voice. Where they differed was in how important they thought blogging was as a tool, and on the question whether abusive comments and unattributed posts bring blogging as a whole into disrepute.

And so, we'll carry on and hope that this blog provides readers with a useful source of information about social justice in Wales as well as a platform for discussion.

And thanks to ...

all the panellists and to Positif Politics and to all who contributed to a good evening.

£543 a week gap between rich and poor

The gap between the rich and poor in the UK is narrowing, at least according to an OECD report, unlike in most other wealthy nations. But few of the media reports have revealed just how big the gap between rich and poor actually is. The Government's own data for GB (different to the OECD survey) show that the richest 10% of full time workers earned more than 3 and a half times as much as the poorest 10% of full timers - a massive £659.50 a week more. The gap between rich and poor in Wales is smaller, at £543 a week, but the richest 10% in Wales still earn more than 3 times as much as the poorest 10%. The gap would be bigger still if part timers were taken into account.

This says less about the wealth of the richest 10% - whose annual income at just over £41,000 a year is less than the typical salary of many senior managers in local government, head teachers, middle grade doctors etc. - and more about the abysmally low income of most of the population in which a quarter of full time earners are paid less than £15,698 a year.

Jobs and training to tackle recession

Well at last the Assembly Government has woken up to the fact that there is a little bit of a problem with the economy out there, and held a summit. Better late than never I suppose, and also good that Wales TUC and CBI have come together, and even better that they have 7 proposals for action. But hang on a minute, aren't these very similar to the kind of thing that was around 20 years ago? Yes. And will things like road building give the biggest 'bang for the bucks? No. And will they help Wales to do better post-recession? Unlikely.

So here's Victoria's 7 action points, in no particular order, that might actually get some change on the ground.

1. dramatically expand further education provision and apprenticeships so that people who are out of work can improve their skills while on the dole (without affecting their benefits).
2. invest in a pan-Wales home energy efficiency programme - everyone who needs it gets their home insulated free (or for a nominal sum), irrespective of age, benefits etc;
3. invest in a major repairs programme in all schools; etc.
4. invest in better public transport services - recruits people to drive more buses and brings immediate benefits in terms of more frequent services, helping job search etc.
5. introduce a wage subsidy scheme to help small firms and third sector organisations to recruit and train staff for, say, 1 year - I could take on 2 people right away if I had the funding!
6. suspend the draconian changes to welfare programmes due to be introduced in the next few weeks.
7. ensure workers are aware of their rights if they are faced with redundancy or cuts in hours / pay / other changes to their conditions.
8. increase funding to Citizen's Advice Bureaux to help more people in difficulty.
9. improve the processing speed and accuracy of benefit claims - including housing and council tax claims as well as DWP claims.

Oh - that's nine - well shows it's not that hard. So, let's see some action on these rather than more of the same.

Bother with the LCO

Will the tensions between the Assembly and Westminster over the draft LCO on housing, reported by BBC News, surface at our conference on the Government of Wales Act one year on, being held on 6th November? In organising the event, our thinking was that the provisions of the Act were working rather better than many had thought, but it may be that was a little premature. Time will tell whether the reports of tensions are being exaggerated by those who want to see the process fail, or whether the honeymoon period is over. Anyway, it should be an interesting debate and watch this space. (Places are from £99 - book via the bevan foundation's website).

Food aid for Ebbw Vale

According to a report in Sunday's Independent, a charity is to start distributing food parcels to families in Ebbw Vale. 'Needy people' will be given food vouchers by doctors, health visitors etc., and can then pick up 3 days worth of food which is packed in supermarket carrier bags. Ebbw Vale is not alone in this return to the 1930's - Plymouth, Exeter, Lincoln, Salisbury, Okehampton and Haverhill - places not normally associated with poverty and need it must be said - are also getting food parcels.

There are undoubtedly huge problems for people on low incomes affording (and accessing) good quality food, and these bags will help the lucky ones who get them. But dishing out free tins of beans does nothing to tackle the underlying problems of low income, remoteness from shops and escalating food prices. We need a proper food policy that ensures that all people have a decent diet. The Welsh Assembly Government could begin with ensuring healthy food in schools, hospitals and care homes, and extend to preventing expansion of edge of town and out of town supermarkets.

Meanwhile Ebbw Vale's image as poverty capital of Britain continues.

Bevan Blog Wins a Gold !!

I am gobsmacked to read on Miss Wagstaff that a post on the Bevan Foundation blog has won a Welsh Politico Award Gold award. And there's me wondering about it all....

Anyway, thanks to the judges for their (of course) immense good sense and thanks to Armanwy for his post, 'Go on, say something'.

Also nice to see Penderyn (former blogger on this site) and Dylan Jones Evans (sorely missed) win a gong too.

Well well well ....

Matt Joins the Bloggers

Thanks for all the comments on the blogging debate - some have been very constructive and we're very pleased that Matt Wardman is going to join the panel of bloggers and non-bloggers at the debate on Tuesday at 6 p.m. It will now be chaired by Daran Hill of Positif Politics - I'll be on the panel instead. Each panel member will speak for 5 mins MAX leaving plenty of time for contributions from the audience. So, if you want to come along, you can find out more at our website http://www.bevanfoundation.org/ - you can also read a short background note by me too.

See you there!

To blog, or not to blog

That is the question that Victoria Winckler has been openly wrestling with

Blogging reminds me a bit of CB radios in the 80s. They started off with a techno-savvy elite, moved into the cool mainstream and for a time everyone was at it; but soon retreated to a small sad group talking to each other. And there some signs of that happening in the Welsh blogosphere.

There was an explosion of interest around the time of the Assembly elections last year. And it had a significant impact - becoming an extension of the coalition talks. Adam Price’s overtures to Labour on his blog played a key role in seeing the One Wales coalition come to pass. But since then the Welsh blogging community has shrunk.

Maybe interest will be cyclical. Outside the hard core, they might mushroom at the time of elections.

But a bit like the mainstream Welsh media in the post-devolution age, an explosion of interest has been followed by a sharp contraction.

For some the novelty has worn off, for others the burden has worn them down. Some undone by their words, several frightened off by the prospect of getting into trouble with their bosses.

Just as Local Government suffers from an increasing aversion by employers to political engagement, so too does the national debate. More and more jobs require political neutrality.

One of the consequences of devolution is that Wales has shrunk, the influence of the Assembly Government ever stronger – with more and more organizations dependant on it for funding and favors – the risk of speaking out is seen as too great.

Just when Wales needs a vibrant debate, many the most challenging minds are being restricted.

For those who can contribute blogs are a valuable outlet, and they have certainly extended the range of political commentary available – a modern version of the polemical pamphlet. Blogs offer a greater range of voices than is available in the traditional media.

But they do nothing to address the bigger problems facing the vibrancy of Welsh democracy: a shrinking media and an immature political class.

Discuss (in less than a 1,000 words)!

Wales loses more women

I don't normally blog about personalities but I am sorry indeed to read that both Jane Davidson and Eluned Morgan are standing down, hot on the heels of Ruth Kelly. I have had the privilege of working with Jane and Eluned over the years, and they both are exceptionally hard working and talented - so hard working and talented that they can both see that there is more to life than political slog, and that the much derided 'spending time with one's family' is a genuine reason to change career path. It is clear that political life is still a long way from being 'family friendly' and that women, no matter who they are, still bear the brunt of family life. While I can't see either of them cheerfully vaccuuming their living rooms, I hope they find new and different ways of contributing to public life in Wales. We need you!

The Worst of Blogging

As I hope the world and her aunt know, the Bevan Foundation are organising a debate on blogging to be held at the Assembly next Tuesday 21st October - free to come and all are welcome but you MUST register first. It is meant as a bit of entertainment, with a serious edge, not least as so many Welsh blogs have thrown in the towel recently. Its done, as ever, on a shoestring.

So are bloggers happy? No. Less than a week to go, there are gripes over on Miss Wagstaff about who is or is not on the panel, who was or wasn't asked, etc etc etc.

This is exactly the kind of "debate" that made we wonder in the first place whether blogging was worth the effort. If that is the reaction that any kind of effort gets then I suspect I have my answer. Oh, and the fact that I had to spend over an hour on Monday trying to remove a load of porno rubbish from the site as well..... Hey ho and see you on Tuesday.

Health and wealth

Just read a really interesting piece by Prof Gareth Williams on health inequalities in Wales. He argues pretty convincingly that the Welsh Assembly doesn't have any effective policies on public health anymore. What there is, namely Health Challenge Wales, is a branding exercise which also relies heavily on the idea that people have unhealthy lifestyles through choice, not because of the multiple barriers and disadvantages they face. Unless public health is promoted more rigorously and more effectively, there isn't a hope of tackling the huge gaps in life expectancy and well being between rich and poor. It'll be out in the next issue of our magazine, Bevan Foundation Review, in a couple of weeks.

Dates and Anniversaries

We're putting together a calendar of significant dates and anniversaries in 2009. If there are any that you would like to suggest then please email info@bevanfoundation.org by 24th October. We need specific dates e.g. 15th May, and if they are anniversaries they should be in decades, so 1969, 1929, 1839 etc. We're also trying to avoid births and deaths.

Time to move on from ITV

It is sad to witness the slow death of ITV Wales.

Naturally I feel very sorry for the people who are likely to lose their jobs over the next year.

But as a refugee from ITV I don’t entirely swallow the explanations given for pulling out of Welsh news and current affairs.

It has been a badly run company for many years: poor investments and skewed priorities have matched an unimaginative and pedestrian creative culture in the company.

Having made a fortune from its privileged position, ITV now want to be excused from their commitment to provide Welsh programming. And it seems the Government’s ‘light touch’ regulator is happy to go along with it.

The Welsh media is already weak. And there seems little that we can do to prevent it getting weaker.

More than two-thirds of the people living in Wales don't consume Welsh daily news. And it's getting worse.

Just as Wales is becoming a more interesting place to report, fewer people are tuning in to find out what’s going on.

We can create the institutions of a new Welsh democracy but how can we get the people to engage without a vibrant media?

ITV have demonstrated beyond doubt that they don't care about covering Wales. It's time to move on and let them get on with creating a tabloid digital station.

The challenge now is to create a diverse and vibrant Welsh media.

A levy on broadcasters should support regional public service broadcasting across the UK.

Added to that I’d like to see a Welsh equivalent of the Scott Trust – the not for profit foundation that owns the Guardian Media Group. A public interest company that could safeguard local newspapers across Wales to ensure that our culture and politics is reported fairly - because a vibrant media is disproportionately important to us.

It is something I've believed for some time but tonight I noticed that ITV Chairman, Michael Grade, has suggested a not dissimilar scheme for the whole of ITV regional news. The Guradian's Maggie Brown takes a justifiably cynical view. His motives are not difficult to uncover.

Time now for a Welsh solution.

Lest we Forget

WOMEN UPRISING - Next Monday, the 13 of October, is the 100th anniversary of the Suffragette Movement's rush of the UK Parliament, to inspire social change.
We sometimes forget what was sacrificed for us to gain democracy and how short a time it is since we as women have had the right to vote.
Women stood up and fought for social change - there has never been a time more ripe to change some of the social norms that have crept in.
Its also just over a year since Anita Roddick died I am sure she would have been a supporter of, or may even one those women Her birthday is October 23rd. I take this chance to remember Anita and her restless, profound and mischievous life. A quote I loved from her “The job of a citizen is to keep his/her mouth open.”

Billy Bragg on Bevan

As well as updating the Bevan Foundation website with details of events, it was also great to upload links to footage of Billy Bragg's performance at our NHS @ 60 celebrations in July. Well worth a listen to all four tracks - they're on YouTube too.

Not often this techie stuff is fun but this was. Go listen.

Blogs, Dyke and Devolution

Lots going on at the moment, including a debate on blogging - which Peter Black has admirably covered on his blog - on Tuesday 21st October, a lecture by Greg Dyke which follows his TV programme on Aneurin Bevan which is entitled 'Is it time for more inspirational leadership?' on 24th October, and a conference on a year of the Assembly's new powers on 6th November. All are open to anyone who wants to come (although I regret we have to charge for the conference).

Find out more on the Bevan Foundation's website.

Young People and Mental Health

Hundreds of mentally ill children and teenagers are being treated on adult psychiatric wards in defiance of a government promise to halt the practice.
A report on the desperate state of mental health services for young people in England says that only 15 per cent of health trusts have complied with the Government’s commitment that all young people would be treated in special units, not with adults, by this November.
The findings come from the charity Young Minds and the English Children’s Commissioner, Sir Al Aynsley-Green. He has, for the first time, used his powers to force primary care trusts (PCTs) to disclose what is going on in clinics and psychiatric hospitals.
The report, entitled Out of the Shadows?, says that mental health services for children and teenagers are so stretched that 72 per cent of inpatient referrals are turned away, forcing young people to travel hundreds of miles from their home or, more commonly, to be sent to adult wards.
No national figures on admissions are collected by the NHS but research by the Royal College of Psychiatrists suggests that about a third of the 3,000 or so children and teenagers admitted for inpatient psychiatric treatment each year end up on adult wards.
PCTs were told more than 18 months ago that this must stop. It will become illegal in 2010 for all but the most dire emergencies under the new Mental Health Act.
The report says that about half of all PCTs make no special provisions when children are admitted to adult wards. Fewer than one in four trusts allocates young people a key worker with any training in children’s mental health. The report says that is a serious concern.
Less than half comply with guidance that young people must be given information on what medication they receive, for how long they will have it and possible side-effects.
Only a third have facilities for education and only a quarter offer any daily activities for young people. This has been identified as a particular problem as it is very harmful to leave children and young people “watching the wall” for hours on end.
This report shocked me , I wonder if we have any information on Wales in this respect. Mental Health is very much seen as a Cinderella service and if this is indicative of how young people are treated then we need to start lobbying and making noises to get it prioritised and sorted out