All roads lead to Wales
Friday, March 23, 2007

Fridays in Welsh politics are usually as dull as... err, Thursdays in Welsh politics. If Dafydd Wigley sneezes, it'll make it into the Western Mail.

But today, all hell has broken loose.

Well, in fact Charles Kennedy has broken loose, but I presume Mick Bates et al will have him under control as he tours Wales this weekend.

Not to be outdone, the Tories have sent their entire Shadow Cabinet (minus anyone with anything better do to) to hold a meeting in Cardiff. Glyn Davies was so concerned about giving Carol Spelman a lift he drove all the way home to Welshpool to pick up his wife's Merc. I hope he remembered the hat and gloves.

Meanwhile, there's something going on in Caernarfon. Can't quite remember what. I think it involves Plaid Cymru... And despite Ieuan Wyn Jones' appearance on the BBC's Dragon's Eye last night, the coalition rumours haven't been killed off. As the Prez would sing: 'Mae nhw yma o hyd'.

I think we can presume the election campaign is now in full swing.

UPDATE: Labour's Martin Eaglestone will tomorrow present Ieuan Wyn Jones with a contract to sign, categorically ruling out a coalition with the Tories.

Plaid counter that Labour are in no position to judge them on cosying up to the Conservatives after key votes on Trident and Education were only passed in parliament with Tory support.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

posted by Blamerbell @ 8:46 am,


Welsh Lib Dems go by car
Friday, March 09, 2007

Liberal Democrats like to tell us that when they dream, they dream in green: no to nuclear, yes to renewables and recycling, give us your potato peelings and we'll compost it etc.

So, it's surprising that they should organise their Welsh conference at a venue that's only reachable by car. There's not a single bus stop or railway station on the handy map they've provided to conference goers. Instead, it's a tangle of road instructions that are sure to confuse anyone crazy enough to cycle there. That rules out an appearance from David Cameron then:)

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

posted by Blamerbell @ 8:32 am, ,


Tory TV: the Welsh dimension
Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Find out what David Cameron thinks about devolution.

See the Tories squirm on coalition talk.

Heck! Tune in just to get another glimpse of the effervescent Glyn Davies.

Yes, it's the story of the simmering debates the Tories kept miles from the conference floor on the weekend.

And you can see it on 18 Doughty Street (if they can read the video format).

Cheryl Gillan will be on to respond.

9pm (I think).

http://18doughtystreet.com

Labels: , , , , ,

posted by Blamerbell @ 1:52 pm, ,


Welsh Conservative Conference #2
Saturday, March 03, 2007

Having spent the daylight hours at the Tories' big day out, I can confirm that the biggest talking point is still the free light bulbs.

William Hague delivered a good speech. But it was about Mirek Topolanek so nobody cared.

Francis Maude revealed the Tories' latest Gordon Brown metaphor: 'the big clunking spider at the centre of the Labour web'. (I wonder how many overpaid speech writers it took to come up with that?)

And Shadow Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan took a swipe at Rhodri Morgan, the 'Worzel Gummidge of Welsh politics. She also came up with a new nickname for Peter Hain - 'Mr three jobs, one ballroom and an aga Hain'. Can't see that one sticking.

Tomorrow: Cameron. After a wet opening day - I arrived damper than a Brynle Williams armpit - let's hope he brings the sunshine with him.

Labels: , , , , , , ,

posted by Blamerbell @ 5:07 pm, ,


66 more days of handbags
Monday, February 26, 2007

The gloves are off, because as all good politicians know you can't sling mud if your hands are tied up.

So much for parties putting forward a positive future vision for Wales at this election. Labour spent their conference slagging off the Tories and inadvertently drawing attention to David Cameron's current popularity. Plaid kicked out at Labour, and the Tories, in turn, volleyed a few missiles back towards Rhodri Morgan.

Nobody really bothered to attack the Lib Dems, so Peter Black stepped up to attack Plaid for attacking Labour.

Meanwhile, the Lib Dems claim they are whiter than white (or goldener than gold), but Alun Cairns reminds us that they fought the 2003 campaign on a misfiring 'Kick the Tories out' platform.

Soon, the twisting of facts and figures will go into overdrive, leaving voters disillusioned and confused. I've already received promotional literature from the Lib Dems asserting that Plaid 'betrayed students' and 'caved in' to help Labour 'sell out our students' over the assembly budget. Of course, Plaid would put it somewhat differently.

So, what's the answer? I'm afraid there isn't one. Negative politics is a cornerstone of modern electioneering. But parties should face up to it and stop claiming to be virtuous on the one hand while swinging the handbag with the other.

UPDATE: Apologies if you've seen a strange piece appear here about Nick Bourne. It's now deleted. The perils of using Google Reader...

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

posted by Blamerbell @ 10:55 am, ,


David Cameron spotted in Tokyo
Wednesday, December 27, 2006

The Tory leader is apparently away from home this Christmas.

Labels: , ,

posted by Blamerbell @ 1:05 pm, ,


How parliament tried to cheat on Freedom of Information
Monday, November 20, 2006

First, a Freedom of Information request was made, asking for a breakdown of the travel expenses claimed by individual MPs for the past year. I presume the complainant wants to know if politicians are as environmentally friendly as they say they are. I wonder how many times David Cameron or Tony Blair took a bus last year?

Anyway, the House of Commons withheld the information, claiming it was exempt under section 40(2) of the act.

The commissioner wasn't convinced, and found that disclosing the information wouldn't contravene the Data Protection Act. Therefore, the Commissioner concluded that "the House has breached section 1(1) of the Act in that it incorrectly withheld the requested information".

The outcome? The House of Commons had a further 30 days to come up with the information. Funnily enough the juicy bit isn't published on the FOI website. And I wanted to know how much that famous bicycle helmet cost...

Labels: , , ,

posted by Blamerbell @ 3:58 pm, ,


Silencing the Tory dissenters
Wednesday, November 08, 2006

This blog is fast turning into a sort of 'Tory watch'. It's certainly not intended to be, it's just that the Tories keep coming up with great stories.

The latest is that they've sacked (or 'resigned') the man in charge of making them more colourful and representative.

This from the Times:

The deputy chairman of the Conservative Party responsible for recruiting more ethnic minority MPs has resigned as the party was rocked by the second race row in as many days.

Bernard Jenkin quit his position in a wide-ranging Conservative reshuffle as a leading ethnic minority candidate denounced his own party, claiming that Mr Jenkin had told him that he would not be selected for a seat because he was not white.


This comes as no surprise to anyone who has met any grass-root Tories. They are miles away from the party leadership on a wide range of issues.

At the Welsh Conservatives policy forum in Cardiff, some members called for the abolition of the NHS and for tighter controls on immigrants who continually 'sponge off the state'.

Cameron's gift is not necessarily in changing the Conservative party but, as a former PR executive, in spinning the dissenters out of the equation.

Labels: , , ,

posted by Blamerbell @ 11:25 am, ,


Tory candidate farce
Tuesday, November 07, 2006

The Welsh Conservative party is trying desperately to have Peter Davies removed from their list of approved candidates for the May 2007 Assembly elections.

Why?

Because he wants it abolished.

There was a time, of course, when every Tory candidate stood on an anti-Assembly platform. One of the reasons the Tories weren't so successful in 1999 was that they were trying to get elected to an institution for which they had no appetite. As recent as the 2005 general election their policy was to offer Welsh people the chance to scrap it.

But when David Cameron took control the Tories didn't just go green, they went red too. The new Tories embrace devolution. They even claim to be the party of the Welsh language.

So it wouldn't look good to field a candidate who fundamentally opposes devolution, even if he's the father of an existing assembly member.

These days a Tory candidate should preferably be young, blonde and blogging. Speaking of which, the word from the tory blogs on this is... nothing. All blogs, no balls.

Labels: , , , , ,

posted by Blamerbell @ 8:12 pm, ,


David Cameron backs top-up fees
Friday, November 03, 2006

Another interesting tidbit from David Cameron's visit to Cardiff yesterday:

Top-up fees are certainly there to stay in England, he said. But the Welsh Conservatives can do whatever they like.

The Tories had always opposed university fees. In fact, the only mention of top-up fess on their website seems to be in the 2005 general election manifesto, in which they promised to scrap them.

As Shadow Education Secretary, Cameron led the charge against fees in parliament. But he's now done a complete u-turn and is even not ruling out lifting the £3,000 cap when it comes up for review in 2009/10.

Cameron said the Tories can act as they wish in the Welsh Assembly, as long as it's "within a conservative framework".

Quite how a Conservative framework can simultanesouly be for and against top-up fees in principle is a mystery.

Just last year Nick Bourne, the Tory leader in the Assembly, said English Labour's support for fees meant Welsh labour was left in a fog of uncertainty.

It's suddenly looking a bit murky for Conservative education policy.

With top-up fees planned for England, it looks very likely Welsh Labour will go down the same route.

In the Assembly, the Welsh Conservatives have fought tooth and nail against university fees, but the impact of Blair's plans will undoubtedly have huge and dreadful repercussions.

If you want to guard against top-up fees, the message is clear: vote for a Conservative government in Westminster.


Not anymore.

Labels: , ,

posted by Blamerbell @ 11:04 am, ,


Cameron: Elfyn who?
Thursday, November 02, 2006

David Cameron's in Cardiff today talking tough love on anti-social behaviour.

Over 7,000 ASBOs have been issued since their introduction, and 40% of these have been breached.

Cameron's solution is to be tougher on those who cross the line. He wants more young people imprisoned for breaching ASBOs - somewhat controversial given that most of the individual offences in ASBOs wouldn't normally result in a custodial sentence.

So it's tough love for the delinquents and tough luck for the prison service who'll have to house them.

***

Speaking at a press call today, Cameron couldn't remember the name of Plaid's leader in the commons.

Elfyn Llwyd should probably stop missing key votes sponsored by his party if he wants to make more of an impression on the big political hitters.

Cameron was under the impression that Adam Price was Plaid's main man in Westminster because he's the most 'voluminous'.

Labels: , , , ,

posted by Blamerbell @ 6:26 pm, ,


What future for Maggie's children?
Monday, October 16, 2006

2056 - What future for Maggie's children?

That's what the policy exchange asked in their new study about the eighties generation.

The conclusion? We're a bit 'unlucky'.

Impossible house prices, student debt, increases in the retirement age...

and to cap it off 'the erosion of family ties increases [our] risk of isolation as [we] grow older'.

Great, I'll look forward to that.

For me, the most exciting thing about mother Maggie is that she was part of the team that invented whippy ice cream in her days as a food scientist. The Tory authors of this report have certainly taken the soft approach as Maggie emerges blameless. That's a bit like a coroner overlooking the cause of death.

Good news, though. If David Cameron gets elected he'll implement an 'incentive-based planning system' to sort it all out.

Do you want a flake in that?

Labels: , ,

posted by Blamerbell @ 11:07 am, ,