I should be in Aberystwyth but instead am still trying to fight of 'man flu' not very successfully (such is life) what with the winter we have been having (so far) its not really a surprise. Despite the worst of the weather the Posties in Newport were hard at it, despite the weather (and the thick frozen fallen snow).
Our postal services workers more than went the extra mile over the Christmas and the New Year to make sure presents and cards were delivered (I had double postal deliveries on more than a few days). Despite the terrible weather and the record level of mail sent, their huge effort was a reminder of the importance of a public post service. it's worth noting that when many of the big on-line retailers stopped delivering, the Royal Mail carried on.
Makes you wonder that would happen if the Mail was privatised I wonder? We cannot and should not simply view the Royal Mail as yet another asset to be sold off cheaply - no doubt making a few a fat windfall in the process - as happened with many of the other utilities that were sold off cheaply by the Tories in the 1980's and the 1990's to the lasting benefit of their chums in the City.
The Post Office is an important (if not vital) national institution that provides a massive social function on which many of our citizens and small business depend. We must oppose any Con Dem plans to sell off the Royal Mail. The Tories and their Lib Dem little helpers must step back from these plans and commit to keeping the postal service public in 2011.
Showing posts with label The Liberal Democrats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Liberal Democrats. Show all posts
Saturday, 8 January 2011
Friday, 26 November 2010
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
I welcome the news that Ofgem is to hold a wide ranging investigation into the questionable practises of the UK retail energy sector after the recent price rises. There is a real need to investigate the current 'competitive market' which does not work in the interests of customers and that an investigation is needed to clamp down on alleged 'cartel-like behaviour'.
We need is a serious investigation into the competitive practises of energy companies by the regulator. Any investigation must be thoroughly in-depth and tackle the cartel-like behaviour of these companies.There can be no justification for profit margins to rise by 40% in less than three months while at the same time inflicting significant energy price hikes on consumers.
British Gas customers are to face a 7% rise in gas and electricity bills which comes into effect on 10th December. As a result of rising wholesale prices, said British Gas. oddly enough British Gas has become the second major UK energy supplier to announce price increases for the winter months - when there is a greater demand, and coincidently a greater profit to be made.
Scottish and Southern Energy also intend to raise their domestic gas charges by 9.4% at the start of December, blaming wholesale prices for the increase in customer bills. This price increase announcement, was made just before just before they reported a 6.1% fall in pre-tax profits to £386m in the first half of the company's financial year.
The bottom line is that current energy system and the energy market seriously disadvantages all consumers, especially the most vulnerable in our society. There needs to a mandatory social tariff for consumers so that the fuel poor are removed from a competitive market that simply doesn't work for them or the rest of us.
We have a very real problem here in Wales where, according to National Energy Action Cymru, a third of properties live in fuel poverty. We must take steps at local, national and international levels to begin tackling the causes of fuel poverty.
Ofgem must clamp down on these injustices and come back with clear and firm recommendations. If the energy regulator takes firm steps against the actions of these greedy energy companies then this would be an important first step.
I suspect that the Ofgem investigation, won't come close to the Conservative pre-election promise for a proper enquiry into the energy industry. Oddly enough that pre-election pledge for an independent inquiry into the £25 billion-a-year energy industry (which has been subject to lengthy and repeated criticisms surrounding accusations of profiteering on electricity and gas) was quietly dropped by the Com Dem Coalition Government in August, no doubt when they hoped that no one would notice.
We need is a serious investigation into the competitive practises of energy companies by the regulator. Any investigation must be thoroughly in-depth and tackle the cartel-like behaviour of these companies.There can be no justification for profit margins to rise by 40% in less than three months while at the same time inflicting significant energy price hikes on consumers.
British Gas customers are to face a 7% rise in gas and electricity bills which comes into effect on 10th December. As a result of rising wholesale prices, said British Gas. oddly enough British Gas has become the second major UK energy supplier to announce price increases for the winter months - when there is a greater demand, and coincidently a greater profit to be made.
Scottish and Southern Energy also intend to raise their domestic gas charges by 9.4% at the start of December, blaming wholesale prices for the increase in customer bills. This price increase announcement, was made just before just before they reported a 6.1% fall in pre-tax profits to £386m in the first half of the company's financial year.
The bottom line is that current energy system and the energy market seriously disadvantages all consumers, especially the most vulnerable in our society. There needs to a mandatory social tariff for consumers so that the fuel poor are removed from a competitive market that simply doesn't work for them or the rest of us.
We have a very real problem here in Wales where, according to National Energy Action Cymru, a third of properties live in fuel poverty. We must take steps at local, national and international levels to begin tackling the causes of fuel poverty.
Ofgem must clamp down on these injustices and come back with clear and firm recommendations. If the energy regulator takes firm steps against the actions of these greedy energy companies then this would be an important first step.
I suspect that the Ofgem investigation, won't come close to the Conservative pre-election promise for a proper enquiry into the energy industry. Oddly enough that pre-election pledge for an independent inquiry into the £25 billion-a-year energy industry (which has been subject to lengthy and repeated criticisms surrounding accusations of profiteering on electricity and gas) was quietly dropped by the Com Dem Coalition Government in August, no doubt when they hoped that no one would notice.
Thursday, 18 November 2010
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT...
As Health spending in Wales currently makes up almost half of the Welsh Assembly Government budget, it is more than a tad deceitful for the Welsh Conservatives to claim that they would ring fence entire health budget, revenue and capital, in line with Retail Price Index.
Think about it - if the health spend is ring fenced in cash terms then every other budget (including the Education budget) would have to be cut by 20%, without the ring fence this comes in at around 11.9% across the board - which is bad but at least attempting to make the best out of bad job.This would be seriously massive cut to ring fence one department.
In Gwent local Conservative AMs are doing their best to try to distance themselves from their own Government's cuts including the threatened closure of the Passport Office in Newport. Yet, if you follow their ill-thought out logic then when you ring fencing in health, we will end up facing even deeper more damaging cuts than the billions that have already been proposed by the Conservative dominated Con-Dem Government in London.
The Conservatives (and their Lib Dem little helpers or willing allies - take you pick?) are already planning to take some £5 billion out of the Welsh budget, if we go with their plan to ring fence the health budget, then we would have to take that £5 billion out of only half the budget available. Every time you see a local Conservative offering their support for public spending or campaign against a cut, we should all remind them of this ill-thought out plan that they have proposed.
Think about it - if the health spend is ring fenced in cash terms then every other budget (including the Education budget) would have to be cut by 20%, without the ring fence this comes in at around 11.9% across the board - which is bad but at least attempting to make the best out of bad job.This would be seriously massive cut to ring fence one department.
In Gwent local Conservative AMs are doing their best to try to distance themselves from their own Government's cuts including the threatened closure of the Passport Office in Newport. Yet, if you follow their ill-thought out logic then when you ring fencing in health, we will end up facing even deeper more damaging cuts than the billions that have already been proposed by the Conservative dominated Con-Dem Government in London.
The Conservatives (and their Lib Dem little helpers or willing allies - take you pick?) are already planning to take some £5 billion out of the Welsh budget, if we go with their plan to ring fence the health budget, then we would have to take that £5 billion out of only half the budget available. Every time you see a local Conservative offering their support for public spending or campaign against a cut, we should all remind them of this ill-thought out plan that they have proposed.
Friday, 12 November 2010
USK POST OFFICE
The news from the Royal Mail that it intends to close the Usk sorting office next year will not only mean a relocation of the workforce to Pontypool as of January 2011, but also shows that particularly if the manner of the announcement is repeated across Wales over the next few years that there is little or no concern for our local communities. It's apparent that the Royal Mail has already made its mind up and I concerned that whatever coherent case is made against closure the Royal Mail will merely pay lip service to it, go through the motions and then merrily press on.
Monmouthshire is a relatively large county and the closure of the office in Usk will lead to a poorer service for the public, especially in rural areas. The Royal Mail has said the closure was a commercial decision yet it has refused to say how much money would be saved by this move to Pontypool. So much for transparency - as far as I can recall (despite the desires of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Government) the Royal Mail is still publicly owned so should come clean with the details of any savings that are being made.
Monmouthshire is a relatively large county and the closure of the office in Usk will lead to a poorer service for the public, especially in rural areas. The Royal Mail has said the closure was a commercial decision yet it has refused to say how much money would be saved by this move to Pontypool. So much for transparency - as far as I can recall (despite the desires of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Government) the Royal Mail is still publicly owned so should come clean with the details of any savings that are being made.
Sunday, 7 November 2010
WATCHING THIS SPACE...
The High Court judges decision to order a re-run of this year's General Election campaign in the Greater Manchester constituency of former New Labour minister Phil Woolas may well fill more than a few column inches over the next few months. Phil Woolas who was accused of stirring up racial tensions in his campaign leaflets by suggesting Mr Watkins (the Lib Dem candidate) had pandered to Muslim militants, and had refused to condemn death threats Mr Woolas said he had received from such groups. The court heard that Mr Woolas had run a "risky" campaign, which was designed to "galvanise the white Sun vote" because he feared he faced defeat on polling day.
So the Lib Dems and Phil Woolas got their day in court and Phil lost.What happens next may prove even more interesting, and not just necessarily for Phil Woolas who appears to have been seriously thrown to the wolves by the Labour Party. Will the electorate use the forthcoming by-election as an opportunity to give the Lib Dems a kicking for siding with the Tories, is there as yet still unfinished business between the electorate the the Labour Party. What will happen to the Tory and Lib Dem votes as this by-election which will be a first opportunity to pass judgement on the proposed Tory - Lib Dem public sector spending cuts?
So the Lib Dems and Phil Woolas got their day in court and Phil lost.What happens next may prove even more interesting, and not just necessarily for Phil Woolas who appears to have been seriously thrown to the wolves by the Labour Party. Will the electorate use the forthcoming by-election as an opportunity to give the Lib Dems a kicking for siding with the Tories, is there as yet still unfinished business between the electorate the the Labour Party. What will happen to the Tory and Lib Dem votes as this by-election which will be a first opportunity to pass judgement on the proposed Tory - Lib Dem public sector spending cuts?
Thursday, 13 May 2010
DRAGONS EYE
Ended up getting involved in Dragons Eye speed dating exercise (between the big 4 political parties in Wales) filmed in the (highly recommended and very welcoming) WHAT Café by the Hand Post (in Newport) yesterday - it will be broadcast at 7pm (on BBC 2 Wales) and well after the news at 11.35pm (on BBC 1 Wales) tonight. Oddly enough it's not a programme I watch - being involved in politics I tend to avoid 'political' programmes like the plague. A similar thing happened to me previously as when I was working for the Metropolitan Police Press Office I stopped watching the Bill.
Anyway despite the somewhat artificial cobbled together nature of the exercise it was an interesting non partisan way to spend an hour and a quarter (which may end up as 5 mins tops after editing) seeing what we had in common. The Labour and Lib Dem representatives agreed that Wales needed fair funding and that Wales had been underfunded, that Barnet had to go and that replacing it with Holtham (in full) was the way to go (the Tory didn't) - he never even recognised that Wales had been short-changed, despite years and years of contributions to the central pot.
There, were however, refreshingly some areas of common ground, for example we agreed (all of us) that front line NHS services needed to be protected from any future cuts. There was even some common ground on exiting Afghanistan and growing the green economy and green jobs (Plaid, Lab and Lib Dems).
The Lib Dems also agreed that we needed a referendum on more powers and that the National Assembly needed the tools to do the job - never got the chance to discuss that with the Tory representative though. Touched on Trident with the Lib Dems, just touched on better care for our service personnel their families and veterans with the Tory and the need for an independent venture capital fund to grow small to medium sized businesses and that small businesses are the life blood of our communities, and the need to scrap business rates, when proceedings got called to a halt.
We were summing up in a non partisan way and commenting on the things that we all had in common, when the Lib Dem went a tad off message to try and score a cheap political point (well that is what they do best!) talking about the elephant in the room i.e. the fact that shock horror - Plaid wants independence for Wales! Now this is no secret, it's not like we have hidden it, we are proud of it - it's a long term aim - what's yours is a serious question that needs to be asked!
Now the last election and the next one won't be fought on it, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the opposition parties will bring it up to try and cloud the issue, perhaps to distract from the lack of Wales focused polices and the fact that they are merely paying lip-service to improving Wales as they are branch offices of their London based Parties.
To be honest, with a few honourable exceptions and certainly not as people, I do heartily dislike the Lib Dems, at least with the Tories and New and Old Labour, you get what is says on the tin. The Lib Dems are different, hungry for power (and all the trimmings that go with it) at every level of government they are prepared to say and do anything for power, at a local level they have talked up a scare about the threatened closure of a local post office (which was not under threat) and have campaigned vociferously for speed humps (for 6 months) only when they prove ineffective and exceptionally noisy to residents, then spend the next 6 months campaigning to get rid of them!
What will happen in the next few weeks and months is that pretty rapidly the Voters both locally and nationally will come to regret voting Lib Dem - especially when the cuts start to bite. The Tories both locally and nationally may also yet come to regret bringing the Lib Dems on board. From the Lib Dem perspective trading the prospect of a referendum on STV for a more limited form of PR for a few ministerial limousines may prove in the medium to long term their undoing. Additionally I suspect that many voters will never trust or vote for them again.
Anyway despite the somewhat artificial cobbled together nature of the exercise it was an interesting non partisan way to spend an hour and a quarter (which may end up as 5 mins tops after editing) seeing what we had in common. The Labour and Lib Dem representatives agreed that Wales needed fair funding and that Wales had been underfunded, that Barnet had to go and that replacing it with Holtham (in full) was the way to go (the Tory didn't) - he never even recognised that Wales had been short-changed, despite years and years of contributions to the central pot.
There, were however, refreshingly some areas of common ground, for example we agreed (all of us) that front line NHS services needed to be protected from any future cuts. There was even some common ground on exiting Afghanistan and growing the green economy and green jobs (Plaid, Lab and Lib Dems).
The Lib Dems also agreed that we needed a referendum on more powers and that the National Assembly needed the tools to do the job - never got the chance to discuss that with the Tory representative though. Touched on Trident with the Lib Dems, just touched on better care for our service personnel their families and veterans with the Tory and the need for an independent venture capital fund to grow small to medium sized businesses and that small businesses are the life blood of our communities, and the need to scrap business rates, when proceedings got called to a halt.
We were summing up in a non partisan way and commenting on the things that we all had in common, when the Lib Dem went a tad off message to try and score a cheap political point (well that is what they do best!) talking about the elephant in the room i.e. the fact that shock horror - Plaid wants independence for Wales! Now this is no secret, it's not like we have hidden it, we are proud of it - it's a long term aim - what's yours is a serious question that needs to be asked!
Now the last election and the next one won't be fought on it, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the opposition parties will bring it up to try and cloud the issue, perhaps to distract from the lack of Wales focused polices and the fact that they are merely paying lip-service to improving Wales as they are branch offices of their London based Parties.
To be honest, with a few honourable exceptions and certainly not as people, I do heartily dislike the Lib Dems, at least with the Tories and New and Old Labour, you get what is says on the tin. The Lib Dems are different, hungry for power (and all the trimmings that go with it) at every level of government they are prepared to say and do anything for power, at a local level they have talked up a scare about the threatened closure of a local post office (which was not under threat) and have campaigned vociferously for speed humps (for 6 months) only when they prove ineffective and exceptionally noisy to residents, then spend the next 6 months campaigning to get rid of them!
What will happen in the next few weeks and months is that pretty rapidly the Voters both locally and nationally will come to regret voting Lib Dem - especially when the cuts start to bite. The Tories both locally and nationally may also yet come to regret bringing the Lib Dems on board. From the Lib Dem perspective trading the prospect of a referendum on STV for a more limited form of PR for a few ministerial limousines may prove in the medium to long term their undoing. Additionally I suspect that many voters will never trust or vote for them again.
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