CYNICS ANONYMOUS...

My name if Jonathan, and I have a problem with cynicism! Perhaps I have been in the game (politics) for too long and seen too much, but, when I hear the phrase 'there will be a consultation process' I do tend to think that it has more to do with managing public opinion after a decision has been made. Hand on heart, I openly admit that I am something of a cynic and that I struggle with my cynicism.

Managing my cynicism is something that I mostly successfully. However, the way the UK Government (and many other levels of Government) treat people and they way they tend to involve people in governmental processes does not help. Certainly the after the fact nature of the process does make me speculate on why people are pretty disillusioned with politics and have a fairly developed loathing of practising professional politicians at most levels of governance.

So the UK government has confirmed that is intends to close Swansea coastguard station. The UK Transport Minister Mike Penning has stated that the station at Mumbles (which employs 28 people), would close by March 2015. I have no doubt that the loss of local expertise and expert knowledge that the closure will cause lives to be put at risk at some point, off Swansea, the Gower coast and in the Bristol Channel. News that the Coastguard Stations at Holyhead and Milford Haven, which had originally been in line for the chop have been granted a reprieve is some good news.

Part of me honestly wonders just how sincere the UK Westminster Government (for this read all levels of government) actually was (if at all) when the 'consultation process was announced. Obviously someone in London perhaps with a Metropolitan mindset was looking to save money, I am certainly getting the impression that Wales is out of sight and out of mind (for much if not all of the time) so who cares what happens there - at least as far as the Westminster Parliament is concerned. .

From a UK Government perspective no doubt the fact that the "Save Swansea Coastguard" campaign had collected 110,000 signatures and the fact that the campaign against the closure was very effective and very visible, was not doubt awkward but not insurmountable. One thing is true, here in Wales, this decision may be interpreted as being a little more evidence that  we are ceasing to receive any meaningful material benefit from being part of the Union.

COASTGUARD CUTS

Proposals put forward by the UK Westminster government mean that large areas of the Welsh coastline will be given little or no local emergency cover at night. If nothing else this is the Con Dem's recklessly putting money above lives and potentially putting lives at risk.

The UK Government plans mean that there will be no Welsh cover at night, as incidents will be dealt with from Southampton. Over centralisation of the coastguard means that there will be problems with identifying where incidents are taking place, already the over centralised ambulance service has had problems telling Newport (Pembs) from Newport (Gwent) and that is within Wales, heaven help any mariners in distress once its all run from Southampton, where first-hand familiarity with local Welsh coastal geography will be pretty thin on the ground.

This is madness and is completely inadequate, reckless and dangerous and a foolish cost cutting exercise. Only fifteen years ago there was the Sea Empress disaster, when 72,000 tonnes of oil spilled into the sea, and polluted more than 200k of our beautiful coastline. Milford Haven waterway is one of the largest concentrations of petro-chemical installations in the UK, and the third largest Port in the UK, despite this the Tory Government is considering shutting the local coast guard station (amongst others).

The Tories and and their willing Lib Dem partners are putting Welsh lives in danger, not to mention the lives of potential mariners. This much needed public service can be best run in Wales, so Plaid is calling rightly for a consultation on the idea of devolving the responsibility and money for maintaining this service, for the benefit of the people of Wales.

Plaid Cymru wants to see a consultation to seek the views of the people affected by these Westminster cuts. If the Tories and Lib Dems have no interest in the future of the coastguard services, and it is clear from their plans that they do not, perhaps it would be better to place it under the responsibility of the Welsh government with a fair funding deal to make sure people are safe along Welsh shorelines.