THE BRAND LEADING THE BLAND

If Mrs Thatcher could be described as ‘the blond leading the bland’, then Tony Blair could equally have been described as ‘the brand leading the bland’. New Labour once famously said that it was more than comfortable to spend time in the company of the rich and shameless. Since Blair walked away from it all in June 2007 he has become a very marketable brand. He has done a number of deals which have brought him millions of pounds. Blair is an adviser, both paid and unpaid, to foreign governments (including a few dictators). Apparently he is highly in demand, is pretty well paid public speaker; international business consultant; a philanthropist (who works with two name associated charities and a third charity aiming to improve the lives of Africans.

Blair is also a Middle East peace envoy with an office in Jerusalem and is the author of a best-selling memoir, the proceeds of which he swiftly gave to charity. He is paid around £3 million a year to advise both JP Morgan, the US investment bank, and the Switzerland based global insurer, Zurich International. Not to mention, Tony Blair Associates (his own consultancy firm) which happens to advise the well heeled governments of Kuwait and Kazakhstan. Blair’s enterprises are what can best be described as a confusing mix of philanthropy, politics, and business administered via a complex mix of companies, which operate out of plush offices in Grosvenor Square in Mayfair in central London.

Some digging by the Daily Telegraph (admittedly no lover of Blair in or out of office) reveals that there are two parallel companies both with similar structures. One named Windrush Ventures and one named Firerush Ventures. As per legal requirement, the accounts are duly lodged with Companies House on Dec 30, in the quiet period between Christmas and New Year, they are audited by KPMG and signed off by Catherine Rimmer, one of Windrush venture’s directors. Ms Rimmer, a former Downing Street aide, is officially Mr Blair’s strategic director. Incidentally, Windrush Venture’s highest paid director, presumed to be Ms Rimmer, earns £200,000, according to the accounts.

The accounts show is that in the 12 months to March 31 2011, Windrush Ventures recorded a group turnover of a little over £12 million. In other words, Mr Blair’s management company was being paid £12 million - most of it coming from the secretive Windrush Ventures LP - for “the provision of management services”. The accounts show that about £3 million of it went on office and staffing costs. What happens to the rest of it is not entirely clear. Windrush Ventures employs 26 people with a total wage bill of almost £2.3 million at an average salary of £88,000.

It has office rental costs of £550,00 and a further £300,000 is spent on equipment. With a profit of £1 million - on which he pays tax of £315,000 - that leaves Windrush Ventures with about £8 million of “administrative expenses” unaccounted for. There is no obligation under company law to say what happens to that money. The accounts also show that in the previous year, Windrush ventures received about £8.5 million and paid tax after expenses were deducted of £154,000. That means that in the past two years, Windrush ventures was paid £20 million for management services and paid a total of £470,000 in tax. There is no suggestion that the accounts are anything other than entirely legitimate.

The Daily Telegraph also notes that it is not clear what monies go through Windrush and what income is channelled (for want of a better word)  through Firerush. Blair is apparently tight-lipped about the corporate structure - even going so far as to refusing to say why the companies are so named. There have been reports that Firerush is the structure set up to handle income from Tony Blair Associates, which if true - and on the scale of the Windrush accounts - would suggest the Blair Empire, including his charities, have incomes far beyond what anybody had realised. Firerush’s accounts have only partially been published and reveal little, although fuller accounts are anticipated later in the year.

TREADING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

News that two historic buildings in Monmouthshire (South Wales Argus 28th July) are to receive grants for essential repairs and maintenance work (from the National Assembly) is welcome news indeed. St Bridget's Church, Skenfrith - the medieval St Bridget's Church in Skenfrith will be offered the funds for repairs to its roof, drainage and masonry. The Savoy Theatre, in Church Street, Monmouth, have successfully applied for funds from the Historic Building Grants fund respectively. Cadw has listed both buildings. The grants are part of a total of £999,124 worth of funding announced this week for 24 historic buildings in Wales.

The Savoy Theatre in Monmouth which is the oldest theatre in Wales and contains a rare example of a small cinema from the intra-war period in Wales. The funds will be offered towards repairs to the front elevation of the building. I myself have trodden the boards at the Savoy, admittedly at a Green Hustings during the last Westminster election campaign, rather than an epic drama. Admittedly there may have been some fierce debate as to whether or not my New Labour lawyer opponent or my Conservative opponent might well have been well suited to play a stage pantomime villain.

MAKE YOUR MIND UP TIME?

The New Labour machine always used to impress people because of its in truth over hyped efficiency - I suspect that fewer and fewer people are impressed as time progresses and the slow motion car crash that involves the final demise of this New Labour Government. In Scotland, New Labour's Douglas Alexander has said that he could not envisage circumstances in which Labour would enter an agreement with the SNP. Meanwhile in Wales, Welsh Secretary, Peter Hain, has said that he would expect Plaid Cymru to back a potential Labour and Liberal  Democrat coalition. So much for the same hymn sheet....

JACK STRAW AND 100% TRUTH

Jack Straw on the stand (rather than in the dock) will I suspect bring little comfort to those who have lost loved ones in Blair's wars, nor will sadly shed any new light on what went on in Blair's cabinet room during the run up to the Iraq War. We will get the truth, the whole truth from the perspective of Jack Straw (and the rest of them) - or rather we will get their sanitised version of their truth.

There is an old adage that those in the dock either stand together or hang separately - I suspect that no one will break ranks and there will be no revelations - how can there be? The deed is done, we are living with the consequences and may well do so for some time to come, but, Blair's cronies will swan off to fresh pastures, company directorships and city jobs, etc.

One thing to remember, as was pointed out to me the other day, is that the vote for war would never have been passed save for the support of many Conservative MP's. A little way down the line, one wonders of Cameron will get or need the support of Labour MPs for any vote on war with Iran? Another question to ask is if the USA decides to have a war with Iran, and it may be sooner rather than later will they get 100% support from David Cameron?

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

The award of funding to help sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses to diversify and improve their Post Offices is most welcome. In Monouthshire Usk, Caldicot and Magor post offices were 3 out of the 75 post offices across Wales to be awarded grants from the Post Office Diversification Fund. Most people and most political parties recognise that Post Offices play a vital roll at the heart of their communities and are real lifelines to vulnerable people.

The Post Office Diversification Fund is planned to run for three years and has been set up to offer help and advice with advertising, marketing, business advice, training and setting up new services for customers. The fund can also help with improving access, security and upgrading computer equipment, etc. This is the One Wales Government helping to deliver improvements to important services in our communities, which makes a pleasant change by way of comparison with recent Westminster Governments.

With a Westminster election pending, it is worth remembering that while the Post Office Closure Programme has always been Westminster driven and a non devolved matter enough voices of concern were raised in Wales to make the National Assembly listen. Despite the fact that local Labour MP's in Caerphilly (Wayne David) and Newport East (Jessica Morden) said one thing about the closure programme but voted for it in Westminster and hoped that no one would notice - oops! there were a number of successful local campaigns to keep their post offices.

The cold reality is that since 1997, the New Labour Government has ensured that less and less services can be provided through the post office network and has deliberately sought to undermine these vital small businesses; by taking away important income streams such as television licence and the processing of benefits and pension entitlement. The New Labour Government merely followed the policy of its Conservative predecessor by going out of its way to systematically undermine the Post Office Network by making it practically impossible for sub postmasters to earn a living, and forcing them to close their businesses. New Labour came to power in 1997, since then some 4,000 Post offices have been closed, and some 3,000 Post offices were closed by the previous Conservative administration.

When Polling Day comes, amongst all our other concerns, the voters should neither forgive nor forget this government’s role in decimating our Post Office network, if the rundown of our rural and small town Post Offices continues and more are forced to close down then many thousands of more vulnerable older people could become more isolated from the local community in our urban and rural areas.

There is a world of difference between a need for Post Offices to modernise to make them more financially viable, and the programme of wholesale closure that has been undertaken over the last fifteen years. One final thing, it is important to remember that the New Labour Government closed the Post Offices without adequately exploring how Post Offices could expand their services and was merely following the line adopted by the previous Conservative Governments.

ANOTHER NEW LABOUR SHAMBLES!

The welcome news that the New Labour Government has entirely abandoned its plans to impose a £17.5m cut to the training budget of the Territorial Army should come as no real surprise. This U-turn came around after all party efforts to persuade the Prime Minister to intervene and reverse the cutbacks.

On Monday, the New Labour Government began to try to backtrack and the cuts were reduced in scale from £20m to £17.5m. They also changed their mind on plans to suspend all routine TA training for six months and belatedly offered a compromise of one night's training each month for personnel not due to be deployed to Afghanistan.

And finally on Tuesday it was announced that the TA training budget will remain untouched, meaning most units will continue to train one night a week, as well as one weekend a month - and any proposed cuts would no longer take place. This is good news for the TA and band news for the dying New Labour Government - if you ever wanted a simple example of how Gordon Brown is not longer in control then the TA fiasco is a good example.

We have a Government in name only, that is no longer fit for office and has lost all sense of direction and purpose. It does little or no good and is merely bumbling along from one crisis to the next. The sooner this Government is gone the better the better for all of us. Once again Labour (New or Old) has ended in tears and in this case the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan. Roll on Polling Day!

NEW LABOUR U-TURN ON TA CUTS

New Labour Ministers in the face of widespread opposition inside and outside of Parliament have reduced planned cuts to the Territorial Army (TA) and have been forced to make some concessions over planned cuts to the TA's training. Originally the MoD planned to cut £20m from the TA budget and halt all training for six months except for those due to be sent to Afghanistan.

Now following the latest New Labour U-Turn every unit will get one night's training a month while the TA budget will not be cut by as much. With more than 500 reservists serving in Afghanistan the future of the TA has has rapidly and quietly risen up the political agenda in recent months.

Despite this change of mind the TA's budget this year will be cut by £2.5m less than originally outlined, this belated change of mind is better but is still not good enough. Sadly it is fairly typical of the shoddy way that both successive New Labour and previous Conservative Governments have treated our soldiers over the years.

A MAN OF STRAW

One other thing that I have never worked is out how violent behaviour and assaulting Police Officers can be squared up with alleged peaceful democratic protest. If you really claim to belief in freedom of speech and democracy then that goes as far as to allow someone who holds views that you may find utterly offensive, repulsive and insulting to speak their piece.

You cannot get selective when it comes to freedom of speech. Sadly that fiasco in London and the near wall to wall media coverage before and after the event, has given the oxygen of publicity to the BNP on a scale they could never have imagined in their inbred sad little dream world - which is a real shame!

A few things struck me - Jack Straw was very weak, very tired and looked a tad punch drunk - very reminiscent of how Tory Ministers used to look like in 96/97 in the dying days of the John Major Government.

Jack Straw aside from avoiding the main issue, which is that his and successive governments (and most political parties) have failed to deal with the issue of immigration which has left the field to the extremists and allowed vulnerable people to be exploited by unscrupulous employers, is clearly representative of a government that is clearly on the way out.

The pretty basic failure to deal with immigration has been compounded by a failure to process (and this includes reject) asylum applications speedily which has left many people in limbo (often for years) neither able to work, pay their taxes, access services and to participate in and make a contribution to the economy and society.

Also thought that the panel, save for spending over half the programme attacking Griffin, largely failed to expose what a complete idiot Griffin is, not to mention his pretty obvious partial and selective grasp of both reality and history and the real dangerous insanity of his parties policies - which was a real missed opportunity!

TESCO - EVERY LITTLE HELPS!

In Monmouth constituency, in Chepstow, Tesco is throwing its weight around with an ultimatum to its workers at the Tesco Distribution Centre at Newhouse Farm Industrial Estate in Chepstow – where workers have been given a stark choice of accepting pay freezes and relocation of their jobs or losing their jobs.

Tesco’s attitude towards its existing employees is appalling and unacceptable; with some staff at the Tesco Distribution Centre at Newhouse Farm Industrial Estate in Chepstow facing the possibility of redundancy or even eight year pay freezes as part of the transfer deal to a new distribution centre at Piling near Bristol.

While Tesco workers who sign up have been told that they will get their Severn Bridge tolls paid for two years but not thereafter and that the consequences of not signing up to the new deal could lead to redundancy.

The workers at Tesco would be in a better position to defend their jobs if the late Prime Minister Tony Blair or his successor Gordon Brown had actually signed the European Social Chapter, which gives workers better protection and protects their rights, sadly new labour never signed the chapter.

By strange coincidence Tesco is also listed by the Electoral Commission as a small but regular donator of cash / funds to the Labour Party, between 11^th March 2003 and 30^th October 2008, Tesco donated £73,664 pounds in cash to the Labour Party. In the same period the Liberal Democrats got around £28,000 from Tesco.

In view of Tesco’s behaviour and the fact that Tesco is looking to up sticks from Chepstow and relocate to Piling near Bristol, the National Assembly should explore the possibility of reclaiming or recovering any Welsh Development Agency or Assembly funding that Tesco may have received to help expand and develop their distribution centre at Chepstow over the years.

Doing a moonlight flit with if public money is involved is not an acceptable option - any Welsh Government or WDA funding should be reclaimed from Tesco, especially as they are relocating out of Wales.

LADY K - LEST WE FORGET

As Lady K sales off into the sunset retirement home for former politicians, aka the House of Lords it worth noting (The Western Mail (Monday 15^th June 2009)) that Neil and Glenys Kinnock were the recipients of more than £10million in pay, allowances and pension entitlements accrued during their time working at the European Union in Brussels. Lady Kinnock (who as a Labour MEP may have mentioned Wales twice in 10 years) was appointed as Europe Minister by Gordon Brown this month, was a MEP for 15 years. Her other half who failed to win a General Election as Labour leader, made a mint as an EU Commissioner for ten years until 2004 and blocked investigations into allegations of fraud.

Lord and Lady K – with a total of £775,000 in wages for Lady Kinnock and £1.85 million for her husband clocked up £2,625,000. A £64,564 ‘entertainment allowance’ for Lord Kinnock. Allowances for Lady Kinnock’s staff and office costs of £2.9million. A total of five publicly-funded pensions, worth £4.4million, allowing them to retire on £183,000 a year. A housing allowance that allowed them both to claim accommodation costs although, as a married couple, they lived in the same house in the Belgian capital between 1995 and 2004.

We now can see why Lord and Lady Kinnock remain loyal servants to the Labour party; loyalty will always be rewarded to the few at the expense of the many. With Lord Kinnock in the House of Lords and Lady Kinnock in Gordon’s cabinet you could say they are both members of the greatest un-elected quango of them all - over seeing what go's on in Wales. May be this is Gordon Brown’s New Labour redefining "Champagne Socialism"?

THE GREAT GAS PRICE RIPOFF

The new report by Customer Focus (the Energy watchdog) makes interesting reading as it flags up an interesting fact, in that the energy suppliers have not been fully passing on declines in wholesale costs to their customers - which means that Customers are being overcharged by an average of £74 on their annual energy bills.

Despite some recent fluctuations in price, Crude oil has fallen from $147 a barrel in July last year to about $70 a barrel. No one is disputing that the six main energy suppliers have not cut their prices since the beginning of the year, but Consumer Focus research suggests that current gas bills should be at least 7.4% cheaper (£60.10 annually) and electricity bills at least 3.1% cheaper (£13.80 annually).

Customer Focus’s new research for the first time shows the reality, that the energy companies are pocketing £1.6bn extra, while millions of households struggle to make ends meet. Consumer Focus says its research, based on applying hedging strategies outlined by the energy regulator Ofgem, shows that energy suppliers are overcharging customers by a combined £1.66bn this year.

The Energy companies who have reaped a 500% increase in profits over the last five years have been quick to blame rising oil and gas prices, and quick to rake in the profits, as the average annual dual fuel bill has risen from £662 a year in 2005 to 1,048 in 2007. The New Labour Government has been more than happy to rake in the extra tax revenues and the Energy companies have been equally slow to pass on reductions in energy costs to their customers – the only real losers in this happy picture are the energy customers.

So what we have here is an effective monopoly on energy supply in the UK; the number of energy supply companies has fallen from twenty two to six in the last ten years, with less that £30 differential between all of the energy supply companies, which works out to be no more than a few pence a week difference in bills, what we have is an energy cartel which brings minimal benefit to hard pressed energy customers but maximum gain to it's members. Hmmmm....

TAKING PART IN THE NUCLEAR CONVERSATION

Sometimes the differences between what goes on in Wales and what goes on in Scotland are pretty blatant - it is becoming increasingly clear that we got a seriously flawed devolution settlement. The Scottish Government will be a full party to any discussions about the construction of any new generation of Nuclear power plants in Scotland and along with the Scottish people it will play a full part in the planning process.

In Wales things are quite different, the National Assembly may end up as a coat holder, actioning decisions made elsewhere in relation to Energy Policy in general and Nuclear Energy in particular. Now this fact should be a matter of serious concern, especially when it comes to Nuclear Energy developments that may take place within or near to Wales - any planning processes related to Energy provision should take place with the full involvement of the people of Wales and their elected representatives and alternative energy generation schemes should be fully (and seriously considered) as well - this may not however, be the case.

While the Scottish parliament and the Scottish people will be full participants in the process of deciding how and where any nuclear power stations may be sited in Scotland, in Wales, the Welsh people and their elected representatives may well end up as impotent onlookers in any discussions as long as Westminster dictates Wales’s energy strategy. New Labour’s consistent refusal to devolve control of planning consent for 50MW power generation projects to the National Assembly damages our economic prospects for only with complete planning control over power generation can Wales generate long–term sustainable job opportunities.

As far as the somewhat distracted dying New Labour Government (if one can use that word) is concerned, we have a a clear case of the lights are on but nobody being at home and there are no new fresh original ideas about solving our energy problems. Back in 2008, Gordon Brown’s cabinet’s confirmation of Tony Blair’s decision to back the nuclear option to solve the UK energy needs was both disappointing and short-sighted, but, was not unexpected. By making nuclear power its priority this failing Brown Government has effectively abandoned any serious attempts to conserve energy, and has significantly undermined its own commitments to tackling climate change.

When it comes to power generation there are real job opportunities here that need to be fully grasped; the renewable energy sector should play an immensely important role in creating more green energy jobs. We need to create a decentralised power generation system which will create sustainable long-term jobs for local people, not damage the environment and contribute to providing our local communities with a long-term viable economic energy future. Now is definitely the time for control of energy policy to be devolved to the National Assembly and time for some original non nuclear thinking and a fundamental sea change in attitude from all levels of government in Wales towards energy policy.

Useful Weblinks and Documents

Department of Trade and Industry (originally released Wednesday 23rd May 2007)

Energy White Paper Supporting Documents

http://www.gnn.gov.uk/environment/fulldetail.asp?NewsAreaID=360&ReleaseID=286370

Jackson Consulting Discussion Paper

This discussion paper, produced in April 2006, reviewed previous policy and practices for sitting of nuclear power stations and considered sitting issues that would be relevant to any new nuclear build.

SUGGESTED NUCLEAR SITES:

1. Hinkley Point
2. Sizewell
3. Bradwell
4. Dungeness
5. Hunterston
6. Hartlepool
7. Torness
8. Wylfa
9. Heysham
10. Calder Hall
11. Oldbury
12. Chapelcross
13. Berkeley
14. Trawsfynydd

Source: Jackson Consulting report, April 2006

UK Government Energy White Paper (originally released in May 2007)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/23_05_07_energy.pdf

Not so much lame duck as dead duck...

We live in interesting times, having toughed it out with his internal (and not so internal) critics and from his increasingly beleaguered perspective, having dropped some dissenting fellow travellers over the side, Gordon Brown has survived to limp on. The reason why this is interesting is because having had an electoral pasting all Gordon can offer labour MP's is the less than palatable choice of hanging together or hanging individually.

In Wales for some of Gordon's motley crew that is not much of a choice, especially as 15 of the constituencies held by sitting Labour MP's were lost at the polls on Sunday evening. The note of quiet and despair that surrounded the handful of Labour activists at the count on Sunday evening was noticeable, I think that the next few months are going to be particularly interesting.

Watch New Labour unravel before your eyes!

Just in case you missed it catch the BBC Newsnight Programme from Friday 5th June 2009 (on the BBC IPlayer) to see Peter (the Pain) Hain get flayed alive before your eyes by Kirsty Wark - the resemblance to startled rabbit caught in a set of full beam headlights in the middle of the M4 is quite striking - on a par with the famous Paxman interview with Michael Howard (where he continually refuses to answer a direct question) in this case Mr Hain has definitely not been briefed and has no clue as to what's coming next. Superb TV entertainment - 9 out of 10.

A matter of days?

On November 20th 1990 - Margaret Thatcher (with a 10,000 yard slightly crazed stare in her eyes) said "I fight on, I fight to win'

2 days later she was history...

On Friday 5th June 2009 - Gordon Brown (with a 10,000 yard slightly crazed stare in his eyes) said "We fight on"

I wonder how many days will pass before Gordon is history...

You could not make this up!

Just when you thought that Wales had finally got shot of the last of the Kinnocks - Gordon Brown (who is busy rearranging the furniture on the boat desk of the New Labour Titanic) finds the time to put the other Kinnock into the Lords and brings Peter Hain back from the political dead to revitalise the Gordon's Team Zombie...you could not make this up! Am I dreaming this?