tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154427382008-10-01T10:43:16.813+01:00No More Mouth<i>"he never impressed me"</i> - AnonymousNormal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comBlogger440125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-55423787778509633422008-07-13T07:48:00.008+01:002008-07-13T11:33:35.459+01:00FinisI have decided to bring this blog to an end. There are three reasons for this, which I now share with you.
I blog about Welsh politics to write about issues I find interesting and important. I also started with a notion that regular output might stimulate an original idea for a more substantial piece of work, possibly academic in nature. I have alighted on such an idea. It may never bear fruit Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-19090215692331998492008-07-12T00:01:00.001+01:002008-07-13T23:23:12.948+01:00They get the pressure they don't deserveThis appears in this week's Golwg:
One would have to have a cold heart to be unmoved by the plight of Tom Bullough, declared winner of the Wales book prize, only to be told en route to the platform that he was in fact just runner-up.
My fellow-feeling, however, goes to Culture Minister Rhodri Glyn Thomas, whose embarrassment at wrongly naming Bullough stemmed not from his discomfit at being Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-23878882827663575562008-07-10T21:40:00.004+01:002008-07-13T00:17:44.754+01:00Insanity, pomposity and a good kebabbingNot much links these three (here, here and here) except that two feature Alex Salmond, and all made me laugh.
Enjoy.
Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-91707546530069848322008-07-10T21:06:00.004+01:002008-07-22T23:13:17.748+01:00The one about the bigger pictureA commenter to my previous post asks why I describe Richard Wyn Jones's recent comments as poorly contextualised. I'm happy to expand on that point.
For the avoidance of doubt, I do not suggest that Labour should be content with the hollowing out of its membership. I've posited some thoughts before about why card-carrying party membership lacks attraction for many people. It is not an outcome I Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-61602577620000616672008-07-10T06:53:00.001+01:002008-07-10T09:55:23.770+01:00When does a narrow margin become a clear majority?18 September 1997: 50.3% of votes are cast in favour of a Welsh Assembly, a result routinely described as being "the narrowest of margins".
3 May 2007: 52.6% of votes are cast for Labour and Plaid candidates, a result routinely described as representing "a clear majority of the people".
Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-53945952696771795392008-07-09T20:48:00.004+01:002008-07-09T21:14:52.425+01:00Labour's fate is in Labour's handsIn my previous post I left open the question of which party is setting the agenda in the Welsh Assembly Government. It's worth exploring, not least because much of the evidence presented in support of the "Plaid domination" thesis is about presentation. Examples include: the fact that the administration is called the One Wales Government* to statistics showing Plaid Ministers appear on TV more Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-35608437012209473712008-07-09T13:33:00.000+01:002008-07-09T22:30:42.308+01:00From our cold, dead handsLenin Cymru, Plaid's online Praetorian, gleefully points out that Don Touhig has confounded my assessment of a Labour Party at ease with nationalist anniversary chest-beating.
Don Touhig is entitled to his opinion, of course. I find his implication that the health and education portfolios are the poisoned chalices of this administration to the most eyebrow-raising part of the remarks. Retention Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-62451430592710243582008-07-08T06:22:00.002+01:002008-07-22T23:16:47.987+01:00Political Physics 101So there goes the anniversary of the One Wales Agreement, with much press coverage of Plaid's first year in government, prompting in turn toe-curling posts from the party's blogospheric cheerleaders.
To the obvious disappointment of some others, Labour did not feel moved to grumble about this eulogising. Nor should they, for there is inevitability in the coverage. What makes One Wales newsworthyNormal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-47556815093208665322008-07-07T22:46:00.002+01:002008-07-07T22:51:15.501+01:00Leave it son, he's not worth itAdam Price jokes:
"We’re sending George [Osborne] an invoice anyway for this bit of policy development work on behalf of the intellectual power-house that is the modern Conservative Party. No doubt, he could recycle some of his income from his recent IoD appearance in Jersey."
But who will the invoice be from? Policy development is an area where Plaid's costs are met from the public purse (theNormal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-87164579501404840092008-07-06T00:01:00.002+01:002008-07-07T21:38:09.278+01:00Normal Eye: week ending 6 July 2008In case you missed them, I'd recommend:
Frank H Little on James Griffiths of Betws, giant of the modern welfare state.
Robert J. Lieber on why the American era is not over. Jonathan Pearce: happy birthday, anyway.
Peter Black on Plaid's Peerage posturing.
Ideas of Civilisation: Glasgow East facts and fictions.
The Welsh Lobbyist on a Welsh Referendum Party.
Richard Thomson: Unionism's commissionNormal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-3349450997754632182008-07-05T00:01:00.001+01:002008-07-07T07:02:29.405+01:00Size isn't anythingThis appears in this week's Golwg:
Plaid Cymru has embarked on a new “independence initiative”, presumably in response to a recent opinion poll showing a vast majority of even the party’s voters opposed to its core aim. The premise from which the initiative starts is a time-worn one; small states are best.
The barrage of statistics that accompanied the announcement do not necessarily support Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-84671433776610693012008-07-04T22:13:00.002+01:002008-07-08T15:03:16.451+01:00AnniversariesThis week is the first anniversary of the publication of an historic document, one that sets out a route map for further constitutional reform and takes steps towards a new settlement.
I refer of course to the Governance of Britain Green Paper.
Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-76217512522886689662008-07-04T18:31:00.001+01:002008-07-07T07:03:31.097+01:00It's an All-Wales Convention - it's just that some of Wales gets a bigger say than othersConsider the following:
The Wales CBI (the members of whom employ approximately 50% of the private sector workforce in Wales) get one AWC place.
The Wales TUC (whose membership represents nearly 40% of the Welsh workforce) get one AWC place.
The Wales Young Farmers Club (whose membership represents less than 0.5% of the Welsh workforce) get one AWC place.
Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-80540305898099960052008-07-01T23:21:00.008+01:002008-07-03T15:45:19.090+01:00Cameron wanted English nationalism, not the West Lothian Question, answeredThis also appears on OurKingdom:
At the turn of the nineteenth century the very idea of a “Welsh question” was largely inconceivable. This was not so in Scotland and Ireland, where a strong sense of nationhood was buttressed by the relative novelties of their respective unions with England. Welshness, by contrast was identified with little more than the backward retention of an ancient language,Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-6417169880228101512008-06-29T00:01:00.000+01:002008-06-29T00:04:40.937+01:00Normal Eye: week ending 29 June 2008In case you missed them, I'd recommend:
Melanie Phillips on the modern-day blood libel and the western media's complicity.
Lee Eliot Major and David Halpern on social mobility (from 07:35).
Adam Price: Welsh Labour's choice: split or die. Huw Lewis: yeah, right.
Iain Dale on why Wendy Alexander's fall is nothing to be pleased about. Robert Hazell on the SNP's five big hurdles (paid link).
Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-52111120694354044392008-06-28T11:59:00.004+01:002008-06-28T20:56:13.728+01:00Labour did badly, but did the BNP do well?Given how much Labour lowered expectations about its performance in the Henley by-election, it was quite an achievement for the result to have still generated a bad news story for the party. The spectre of trailing in behind the BNP bête noire gave form to that.
There is no denying that the result is abject enough for Labour. Those without a partisan axe to grind also acknowledge that a squeeze Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-68279642671692370992008-06-28T00:01:00.001+01:002008-06-28T08:00:56.159+01:00More devolution needs a stronger Labour PartyThis appears in this week's Golwg:
Gordon Brown marks a year as Prime Minister tomorrow, and by any standard it has been a torrid year. A toxic blend of strategic error, bad luck and incumbency fatigue has apparently destroyed the Prime Minister’s credibility. The commentariat have written him off, directing a level of vituperation not seen even in the twilight of John Major’s Premiership. WorstNormal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-47531893478603290612008-06-26T18:20:00.010+01:002008-06-28T21:06:29.175+01:00You've got a friendOutside of those parts of Wales where they were in direct and prolonged competition, many Labour Party members used to harbour affectionate and paternalistic thoughts towards Plaid Cymru. This sentiment was particularly notable among Labour's metropolitan, middle-class, (often English emigré) vanguard, many of whom admired Plaid's leftist stance safe in the knowledge that they posed no real Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-65727682447359427192008-06-25T00:41:00.002+01:002008-06-25T00:48:17.709+01:00Plus ça changeAugust 2007: Plaid Cymru announce the "biggest inquiry ever into the implications of independence for Wales"
June 2008: Plaid Cymru announce "a forum within the party where we can debate our long-term constitutional aim" of independence for Wales.Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-32839193054497322202008-06-23T08:18:00.004+01:002008-06-30T08:11:16.677+01:00We need to think this one throughThe Western Mail's Martin Shipton has dug deeper into last month's release of documents revealing a 1984 internal Government debate about replacing the Barnett formula (I talked about this here). His conclusion: "Wales underfunded for decades" is premised on the suggestion by Treasury officials that a notional needs-based allocation would have resulted in an additional 6% allocation for Wales.* Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-75629410952146887612008-06-23T00:01:00.001+01:002008-06-28T21:03:24.482+01:00For Wales, can we please see Scotland?I did a post a couple of weeks ago on whether it might be possible to base the Assembly's funding on either notional or actual Welsh tax receipts, rather than the somewhat clunky consequentials of comparable English spending departments. One of Wales's better known nationalist bloggers was dismissive, suggesting that my analysis was "contrived" and was based on figures that "simply do not exist".Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-47971947514737667372008-06-22T00:01:00.001+01:002008-06-22T23:59:27.102+01:00Normal Eye: week ending 22 June 2008In case you missed them, I'd recommend:
David T: Fuck off, Shami Chakrabarti.
Glyn: Devolution's been bad for Montgomeryshire.
Mick McAteer on what's wrong with market-based public service reform.
Their Lordships debating Britishness (from 34 minutes in).
The Daily Pundit: Miliband's first Cabinet.
Robin Shepherd on what needs to happen after the Irish "no".
Keenan Mayo and Peter Newcomb: an Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-86033750355031063162008-06-21T09:58:00.009+01:002008-06-21T18:33:23.751+01:00The small change of politicsToday's Western Mail informs us that Plaid are calling for a share of the Treasury's oil tax receipts to be allocated to Wales. I discussed this idea a few weeks ago, arguing that the formulaic principle it enshrined was one that would likely lead to a reduction in the Welsh block grant.
I was tempted to reprise these arguments. I toyed with the idea of having a pop at Plaid's rather absurd Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-14656095433214148122008-06-21T00:01:00.001+01:002008-06-21T00:02:31.003+01:00There is nothing principled about these acts of sincerityThis appears in this week's Golwg:
Politics is suddenly abuzz with the assertion of principle. Gordon Brown was accused of lacking it, first for pressing on with 42 days, and then for allegedly buying the votes necessary to see it through. David Davis’s resignation then earned him the opposite critique, that of putting principle before self-interest. Meanwhile in Cardiff Bay, Dafydd Elis-Thomas Normal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15442738.post-13895993523156933232008-06-20T18:56:00.003+01:002008-06-23T00:15:44.941+01:00Why should we respect Ireland's decision?No-one who saw Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Jose Manuel Barroso's faltering joint press conference yesterday could conclude other than that neither were up for it. A European Council only a few days after the Irish "no" vote was always going to be tricky, but Europe's governing elite still conspired to make heavy weather of the affair.
Here, the Europsceptic press/political nexus has deployedNormal Mouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07374935277497669293noreply@blogger.com