inside out - a jaxxland perspective

In the dark

2009-11-26T17:09:00.006Z

There is the very old story in journalism about the reporter sent to review a play who went home without filing a story because the theatre burned down. And you can’t help but discern a similar outlook in how Swansea’s local paper calmly reports that 50 of the city’s lamp-posts have been found to be in a dangerous condition and have been taken down - without replacement.

Somehow you would have thought that the revelation - which doesn’t apparently even merit a mention on the EP website - would have received a bit more prominence and been liberally peppered with outrage from residents, opposition councillors and editor all asking pertinent stuff such as:

■ How did this happen and who is responsible?
■ Have pedestrians and motorists been at risk during the recent gales?
■ How often is the condition checked?
■ How long will Swansea’s streets be left in darkness during winter?
■ What effect will this have on crime and burglary?
■ When will lamp-posts be replaced and how long will it take?

The paper has not been so dispassionate about instances of piss-poor council maintenance in the past, so folks can only speculate as to what lies behind this new laid-back approach.

Update (27 Nov): The story has since appeared on the paper's website.

Headlines

2009-11-25T12:50:00.006Z

Banks win overdraft court battle

25 November 2009

Selective thinking

2009-11-24T10:20:00.004Z

Having read the waspish comments of that notable lluvvy & quango-crat Geraint Talfan Davies – who has never forgiven AMs for engineering his departure from the Arts Council – we were about to post something appropriate.

However, Plaid’s John Dixon makes a far more erudite contribution than we could manage about whether a private sector background should be a pre-requisite for politics.

Ask us no questions - we're customers

2009-11-24T09:53:00.004Z

An almost non-story which briefly appeared in the press earlier in the week was the publication of recent study findings that few people in Wales feel that they can influence the decisions that affect their lives – but may not necessarily want the ability to do so anyway.

The Citizen’s Views on Public Services report is admittedly not the most riveting of reads, which probably explains why the press have accepted the official take that whilst people feel unable to get involved in decisions on the running of council and health services, most respondents said they did not want such involvement. The inference drawn is that this indicates a high level of customer satisfaction across a range of public services.

This last conclusion, which has been unsurprisingly embraced by public services minister Andrew Davies, is based upon the survey findings but there is a more than a suspicion that the outcome is actually a further indication of disengagement.

This is despite continued attempts to make the connections, as seen with one local ‘initiative’ that recently sneaked under the radar and which rejoices in the name of the Swansea Consultation Partnership. This is apparently a collection of eight public bodies operating in the locality who have decided to pool resources in meeting their aims of “greater overall citizen engagement, more citizen focussed service planning and demonstrable evidence based decision making”.

It is a commendable step forward and one that might even represent the kind of joined-up thinking that used to be so popular once upon a time - but is it also just another example of an overly structured approach which entirely suits the purposes of the bodies doing the consultation rather than those being consulted?

A collective methodology is fine as long as it also involves getting out into the community and actually asking questions. Relying on proactive responses to register on a website so as to inform social policy can be just as flawed as thinking that daytime TV audiences are a representative sample of the wider population. There are plenty of opinion-polling companies out there who will say the same.

Even then, the Partnership will need to do a lot more to convince the punters that the consultation is meaningful activity which can actually inform decisions – and is not just an exercise of going through the proverbial. This is especially true in the case of Swansea Council, whose own Consultation Strategy still refers to a policy development process involving cabinet advisory committees & performance review boards that have not existed for several years.

Elevated

2009-11-23T19:38:00.006Z

A headline in today’s Evening Post seemed to suggest that tory AM Alun Cairns had either been dramatically promoted (and changed parties) or else adopted religious office. Speculation was based on a knocking-copy health article about financial worries at Neath Port Talbot hospital which bore the banner Minister speaks out over hospital staff's concerns.

However, all the political comments in the story are attributed solely to the AM for South Wales West which sort of says more about the local paper than it does about the state of the local health service.

As it happens, the word is that Mrs Hart (who was health minister when we last checked) is not exactly a fan of the PFI system used to build the £66 million health complex. She was also instrumental is getting a range of external services brought back in-house – much to the annoyance of Mr Cairns at the time, we seem to recall.

Update: Evening Post have since amended their website.

The Other Side

2009-11-23T15:40:00.003Z

In this new age of sackcloth and political parsimony, it is only to be expected that something like The Other Taxpayer’s Alliance would be set up to counterbalance the media-savvy operation of the earlier self-appointed public spending watchdog – and to raise similar questions as our own about its crypto-tory undertones.

As pointed out in the Guardian last month, the Taxpayers Alliance director Alexander Heath lives in a farmhouse in the Loire and has not paid British tax for years. The outfit’s chief executive Matthew Elliott has stated that the group’s annual income from donors is about £1m. When the TPA last published its accounts - in 2006 - it declared an income of just £130,000.

The paper also revealed that 60% of TPA donations come from individuals or groups giving more than £5,000 and that the near-clandestine Midlands Industrial Council says it has given around £80,000 on behalf of 32 owners of private companies.

But whatever your views on ‘independent’ groups setting themselves up as guardians of the public purse, the OTPA is worth a visit – if only for the very useful media guide.

The Mercutio effect

2009-11-22T10:57:00.006Z

As the man said, there are polls, focus groups and wishful thinking but the prospect of a hung parliament, as suggested by the Ipsos Mori poll published in the Observer, is one that still cannot be written off it seems.

According to one senior pollster, "... Whether or not there has been a blip among the electorate caused by short-term events such as Labour's surprise win in Glasgow North East, it will not be easy for the Tories to gain the 117 seats they need for an overall majority, never mind the 140 they require for a working majority”.

The article speculates that Labour may be benefiting from a return of a 'feelgood' factor as the country heads out of recession. However what it does not mention is the admission at Central Office that for every percentage point gained by an imaginative and well-packaged tory policy initiative there is an equal & opposite reaction in the form of a deselection row or resignation.

Cameron still has a good lead but his strategists probably expect a further overall narrowing within the next six months. They see that Brown looks like he is going to take things to the wire thus forcing the tories to fight an election on the economy at a time when things might be perceptibly getting better - to sort of coin a phrase. After all, what has he got to lose that isn’t already predicted anyway?

Another question niggling the campaign coordinators must be how much longer voters will remain receptive to continued warnings by party leaders about austerity and political finger-pointing. It’s a tough call, especially as the polls results are based on pretty much this sort of fare and the obligatory step-change may not help.

If the Ipsos poll figures are repeated elsewhere then Brown, Cameron and Clegg are less likely to face media questions on how they would operate under a minority administration as to whether they are willing to embrace a national unity scenario – otherwise known as the ‘c-word’. The substance of their answers could have quite an influence on an electorate that is increasing blind to party colours and less than impressed with politicians generally.

Could the renaissance of Parliament lie with coalition politics? Who knows. But it might be an idea for the good and great at Westminster to start seeking practical tips from their counterparts in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland nonetheless.

Update (23 Nov): Missed this earlier. Nick Clegg says he would rather put David Cameron in Downing Street if the Tories are the largest party after the next election than join a coalition.

Asked about his views on a hung Parliament, Cameron said "anything is better" than another five years of Labour.

Omission

2009-11-21T12:18:00.011Z

A situation strangely (still) left unmentioned in the Cadiff-based media today.

Updated: 17.05

Perspective

2009-11-21T07:56:00.003Z

Swansea Labour councillors, interviewed for an article on a local kid’s road safety scheme, could not figure out how a lifesized cardboard cut-out of Lib Dem opportunist Peter May had somehow managed to appear in the accompanying photo.

It later transpired that the parliamentary wanabee had actually turned up in person and slipped into the pic uninvited - but ended up getting distorted by the camera lens.

According to those present, no-one really noticed the difference.

Update: We are assured that May was invited.

Fascist website discontinued

2009-11-20T13:05:00.004Z

Following our two earlier posts on the BNP and specifically the activities of Kevin Edwards and Roger Phillips, we have to report that the West Wales Patriot blogsite we mentioned no longer seems to be operating. This happened about the same time as we started getting anonymous comments asking for specific evidence about our articles.

However, Phillips can still be seen on a recently uploaded YouTube clip haranguing that nice Peter Hain MP - who was coincidently protesting against fascism at the time – and also on a party website in which the BNP man is misleadingly described as Councillor Phillips. An added touch of unintentional irony in the same article is the labelling of a Plaid Cymru representative as “bogus”.

Diary Date

2009-11-20T07:13:00.006Z

It’s a fortnight since we reported on the independent hearing convened to deal with misdemeanours committed by a senior Swansea Council cabinet member who was found by the Ombudsman to have breached the personal code of conduct - and still nothing has appeared in the Evening Post. Most strange, n’est-ce pas?

Anyway, all is not lost for our intrepid and allegedly ‘independent’ newspaper. They may yet have a chance to relate all (so to speak) as we hear that last month’s proceedings were adjourned half-way through. Apparently, the specialist London-based solicitor representing Councillor MJ – employed, it is said, at council taxpayers’ expense – could not manage to find two clear consecutive days in his diary.

As a result, the hearing will resume at 10am on Monday 21st December in the Port Eynon Suite of the Marriott Hotel, Swansea. The proceedings are open to press and public – unlike the Council’s own standards committee – but seating is likely to be limited.

Headlines

2009-11-19T10:21:00.004Z

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Bank ponders rate rise after inflation hike

19 November 2009

Planning tantrums add to council costs

2009-11-19T07:26:00.010Z

It seems that Lib Dem Rob Speht has decided to emulate Tricky Dick by insisting that every application in his ward gets put before the committee for decision; thus adding to already overstretched budgets.

The Landore councillor who holds down half a position within the ruling Administration and harbours occasional Assembly ambitions, told the local rag that he would continue to disregard the system that delegates uncontested schemes for decision to officers following an “earlier argument with planners”. (That’ll learn the bastards).

Despite personally backing recent improvements designed to boost the efficiency of planning services and reduce costs, the green-ish Lib Dem - who rarely tires of polishing his environmental credentials - is unrepentant that his tantrum will produce unnecessary delays for his constituents and generate reams of additional paper in the process. The last committee agenda alone ran to 98 pages with up to 80 copies produced at a time.

But the real kicker is that Speht has himself only managed to attend just 2 out of the 18 area committee meetings held this year – which is probably just as well given his other somewhat slapdash record of declaring interests.

Speht's own website states "Environmental issues need highlighting and sustainability needs promoting. More local recycling is needed to help cut the £1 million per year waste bill that we have in Swansea". Yeah, right.

Note: We have decided against publishing the detailed comment submitted by Gus about a planning issue in High Street, Swansea. In light of the serious allegations made we suggest that the matter is reported to the Public Services Ombudsman (http://www.ombudsman-wales.org.uk/)

Headlines

2009-11-18T10:53:00.004Z

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Traders taught to spot terrorists

Evening Post - 18 November 2009

Just another Wednesday

2009-11-18T09:48:00.001Z

Lots of commentary on the referendum-in-waiting today. Simon Dyda's Welsh Blogfeed probably provides the best cross-section of views - if you can generate the enthusiasm.

Lib Dem loses a decade

2009-11-17T17:45:00.006Z

It seems that the lucky electors of Swansea West are to be asked their views on the state of the Welsh NHS by none other than fact-finding Lib Dem ~~ambulance-chaser~~ stalwart Peter May.

The three page survey, which helpfully begins by explaining that May is his party’s parliamentary candidate, contains 42 objectively set questions along the lines of “Do you agree with ~~senior clinical advice~~ Labour and Plaid Cymru that emergency brain surgery should be moved from Morriston to Cardiff despite their promises to keep the services here?”

It’s a fairly safe guess what the Phantom printer of Finsbury Terrace plans to do with his "findings" in coming months and that the dumbo local press might even fall for it. However, we did manage to find one vital missing question that puts the exercise in perspective:

Do you really want to be represented in Westminster by someone who either doesn't know or doesn't care that responsibilities for health, environment and education were devolved to the Welsh Assembly nearly 10 years ago?

Second class post

2009-11-17T09:39:00.002Z

Non-story of the Week (so far) is penned by Shipton of the Mail who reports the ‘revelation’ that Whitehall civil servants don’t get along with their Cardiff Bay counterparts who they regard as second rate. The shocking news is imparted by head girl Gill Morgan who told John Osmond who told....zzzzz...that “In many respects, Wales is off the radar in London.”

Amazing!

Stop the presses

2009-11-16T16:04:00.007Z

Swansea Council spinners have come in for a well deserved kicking from businesses and residents for their statement that street begging has been significantly reduced in the city centre. Even one of their usually more reliable mouthpieces has dismissed official claims that a year-long campaign to drive beggars off the streets and clean up shopping areas has been a success.

It is further evidence of a local authority that is now totally dislocated from reality on the ground and which then adds insult to injury by pushing its bi-monthly issue of bullshit through letterboxes to claim that the administration is “delivering on its city centre promises”.

For many local council taxpayers, the complicit blurring between political and corporate propaganda at public expense is becoming unacceptable - especially when a full page feature on social services performance in the Swansea Leader does not even allude to children’s services which are under special measures following ministerial intervention.

Whatever the original idea behind the council's own so-called newspaper, it is high time that the plug was pulled on this expensive vanity. As it happens, the annual amounts spent on ~~advertising~~ developing a special relationship with the local paper and radio station are clearly ~~buying friends~~ getting better results.

More of the same

2009-11-15T22:21:00.006Z

Continuing the BNP outing theme, Wales on Sunday carries an interesting account of the activities of another West Wales ‘organiser’ who has run foul of football clubs around the UK.

Roger Phillips, who runs Patriotic Products Ltd has had been red carded for selling "an extensive range of nationalistic tat and clothing, including golliwog badges with the names of clubs such as Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea".

The WoS report that Chelsea had confirmed they had started legal action against Phillips last month but found the offensive items had been removed before action was required.

Believed to be a leading figure in the Welsh Defence League - aka football supporting fascists - Phillips appeared in an S4C documentary broadcast in June in which he stated he would flout employment laws to avoid employing Muslims.

Besides having his own Facebook site, he also regularly contributes to the West Wales Patriot blogsite which is edited by former police officer and fellow BNP organiser Mike Green. For an outfit that is apparently top-heavy in organisers, the site is a bit of a mess although it carries the intriguing poll question “Would you vote for tratorious Plaid (their spelling) now you know the truth?” The poll is now closed, by the way.

A similarly muddled thread runs through a video of Phillips spouting entirely fabricated claims about eastern European domination of the local jobs market. But there is also a moment of esoteric humour where he brandishes a Polish language newspaper on sale in a Gwendraeth Valley store as further evidence of infiltration - clearly not realising that the main headline is about a call by the right-wing nationalist organisation Mlodziez Wszechpolska for the EU to be dismantled.

Phillips does however touch on a chilling element of truth in his vid by pointing out that the hate-list he manages to plausibly engender is not rooted in the disillusionment associated with English inner cities but an emerging entropy in rural West Wales which could allow the BNP to be seen as an alternative rather than an abberation. It is a trend that is in danger of increasing whilst other political parties continue to see LCOs and expenses as the only issues worth debating.

Fascist demands his fifteen minutes

2009-11-13T16:31:00.007Z

We're told that a local BNP non-entity by the name of Kevin ("Call me councillor") Edwards is demanding air time on Swansea Sound. Describing himself as Policy and Development Manager for the neo-nazi crowd in West Wales, he is also the party's PPC for Aberavon with a prose style very reminiscent of an earlier over-promoted corporal.

This ability to be hugely impressed with himself and the fact that he once apparently stood alongside the Sunday Line presenter at a Swans game is supposedly enough for him to think he and his band of tattooed slap-heads are entitled to spout their grotesque brand of racist bollocks on independent radio.

As it happens, Edwards is a community (parish) councillor from Ammanford who managed to slip into elected office uncontested last year having been nominated under dubious circumstances. He has lots of critical things to say on his blog about 'corrupt' mainstream parties with multi-cultural memberships yet he appears to be pretty adept at the practice of second home flipping according to some reports.

Clearly excited at the prospect of emulating Scheisse-fuehrer Griffen with his own free 15 minutes, the fascist nurk aims to overcome a near 14,000 majority held by Labour's Hywel Francis by publishing rambling diatribes such as "Why the BNP is excellent news for disabled people". Then he will presumably go on to invade Poland.

As one commentator on his site remarked: “It’s an interesting perspective. The party that denies the holocaust - a genocidal act that included the deaths of thousands of disabled and mentally ill - now claims to be the champion of the vulnerable. Nothing like a really Big Lie; as Josef used to say”.

Couldn't have put it better ourselves.

Bunce at the Beeb

2009-11-13T08:41:00.005Z

One of the glaring aspects of the media's forensic reporting of MPs expenses and associated abuses was how information had to be virtually prised out of the parliamentary expenses systems or else ‘un-redacted’ before a full picture of the excesses involved actually became available. It seems that a similarly limited approach towards openness on how just how much in the way of public funds goes into private pockets operates at the Beeb.

The Times reports that 37 corporation staff earn more than the Prime Minister (£197,689) and that nearly 300 senior managers earning more than £100,000, were kept off an earlier published list.

What the betting that even more come to light in the next 48 hours?

The real thing

2009-11-13T08:30:00.003Z

Knowing how much he dislikes the snapshot opinion polls, it will be interesting to see how Peter Black addresses the dismal Lib Dem showing at last night's Glasgow North East result - or if he mentions it at all.

Surveillance state goes local

2009-11-10T08:57:00.003Z

Scary stuff in the Telegraph this morning which reports that the government is to pay phone and internet companies to keep a record of every phone call, text message, email and website visit made by private citizens.

According to the article, “653 public bodies will be given access to the information, including police, local councils, the Financial Services Authority, the ambulance service, fire authorities and even prison governors”.

“They will not require the permission of a judge or a magistrate to obtain the information, but simply the authorisation of a senior police officer or the equivalent of a deputy head of department at a local authority”.

The government is pressing ahead despite getting little support for the proposals during the consultation stage.

David Hanson, the Home Office minister, said: “The consultation showed widespread recognition of the importance of communications data in protecting the public .. we will now work with communications service providers and others to develop these proposals, and aim to introduce necessary legislation as soon as possible.”

Hanson has signally failed in his other stated aim of providing a prison site for North Wales, wasting an estimated £18 million in the flawed selection process. Now he intends forking out £2bn for Orange, BT and Vodafone to maintain their records for a year.

Standards@Swansea

2009-11-08T11:42:00.007Z

Listeners to a local radio phone-in will have been intrigued to hear that an unnamed Swansea council cabinet member recently appeared before a specially convened disciplinary hearing. An added eyebrow-raising factor is that despite pleading guilty to the allegation of personal misconduct, this senior member was apparently afforded London-based legal representation at public expense.

Our sources tell us that the councillor, who also serves on the Standards Committee, failed to mention that she was related to one of the successful school governor candidates that she had a hand in appointing. Matters were compounded by further allegations which led to two separate complaints to the Ombudsman. These were upheld leading to an appearance before an independent adjudication panel.

Strangely, the matter has managed to stay under the local paper’s extensive radar network and has gone unreported as a result. This also probably explains why no-one from the local press attended the public hearing. Of course, the situation is not helped by the insistence of the local Standards Committee to deal with all allegations in strict privacy, despite being urged by the Ombudsman to make its dealings more open and transparent.

Meanwhile, we are assured that the decision to provide the cabinet member with an external solicitor at a cost thought to be up to £5000 is entirely unrelated to the fact that the politician in question happens to have legal services under her portfolio.

Anti social approach to services

2009-11-08T09:26:00.002Z

The reluctance of the Beans on Toast to put a reasonable amount of news on their website prevents us linking to two rather crucial stories about the state of social services in Swansea.

The first is the impending closure of the Earlsmoor elderly respite centre which has undergone the same slow-drip treatment that saw complex neurosurgery services shunted up the M4 to Cardiff. Unions and services users are convinced that the plan is to boost income by selling off the valuable Brynmill site which is situated close to the city’s foreshore.

The second are plans to dispose of two children’s homes deemed ‘not fit for purpose’ by managers despite claims by social workers that the action would be catastrophic for a referral service already on the brink of meltdown. Again, the overriding aim appears to be one of reducing costs rather than bolstering services.

Of course, appearances can be deceptive and there may well be an overall strategy at work. What is worrying however is that neither the political administration nor the opposition seem able to expound on what it entails and if it has their backing.

Update: This story has since been posted to the Evening Post website.