BATTERED AND BLUE?

No one at work should run the risk of being assaulted - yet judging by the amount of working days lost due to assault related injury our Police officers run that risk pretty regularly. Research by BBC Wales has revealed that 1,735 working days were lost over three years at three of the four Welsh Police forces as a result of assaults on officers, suggest that our police officers are well and truly in the firing line. 

The BBC figures show that as result of assaults on Police some  494 days were lost in Dyfed-Powys over three years, 568 days in Gwent and 673 days in the South Wales force. Along with the temporary loss of officers who were unavailable for duty there was a knock-on financial cost, which the BBC has estimated to be around £189,800.

This is not good news, as our Welsh Police forces are also under continuing pressure to reduce costs, as part of Con Dem Westminster government's public spending review (which began in 2010) which include an intention to reduce or cut central police funding by 20% by 2015. What this means more locally is that collectively the Welsh Police forces will have to make total savings of £ 96 million – which will mean a loss of jobs (amongst both Police officers and support staff) and a reduction in the service offered to the public.  

At least as far as the law is concerned attacking or assaulting a police officer is still seen as an aggravated offence in the eyes of the law, and could carry a custodial sentence of up to six months. Speaking as an ex journalist, who in a previous life spent more than enough time covering Pontypool and Cwmbran magistrates court in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, that was not the case then, and I suspect that it is mostly certainly not the case now.

Now I am not and have never been one of the hang them and flog them brigade (I leave that sort of posturing to lightweight Tories), I and no doubt many people consider it unacceptable when public servants (whether Police Officers, Ambulance service staff and Doctors and Nurses in casualty) are attacked or assaulted while doing their job. What’s needed is a balance be achieved between deterrence and the consequences of an assault and restorative justice?

That said the news that some 10,160 incidents of serious violence were informally dealt with last year (that is almost 12 times the figure from five years ago) has raised more than a few eyebrows. This is apparently contrary to existing Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) guidelines, which recommend that such resolutions should only be used for low-level crime.

The Police it reveals regularly use "community resolutions", which may include an apology or compensation to the victim, instead of prosecutions and cautions, despite ACPO guidelines. Now there are times when for lower level offences the use of "community resolutions" is entirely justified and entirely good sense. What this may suggest is that the criminal justice system is creaking and that any crime statistics produced should be looked at with more than a serious degree of caution if not a serious dose of incredulity.

Now I have had my suspicions about crime statistics (whether UK wide or more local) for a while, I am aware that there is a level of anecdotal dissatisfaction particularly with the police response to what they may perceive as lower level anti social behaviour related crime. The perception rightly or wrongly is that while this type of crime may be less important to our hard pressed police officers it remains important to the residents of various parts of Gwent (and no doubt elsewhere). More than a few times it has been related to me personally that when called they (the Police) just don’t come.

I think that taken as whole our creaking criminal justice system may be reaching the point where it is failing to function, it is nether providing restorative justice or dealing with cranial behaviour, let along providing an adequate degree of protection to public servants going about their work. I think that the sooner criminal justice and policing are devolved to Wales the better, that way we can at least try to ensure that our communities are properly protected and the interests of justice are served.

LABOUR MISSING IN-ACTION

Cllr Debbie Wilcomx  (Gaer Ward)

Cllr Herbie Thomas (Gaer Ward)

Cllr Mark Whitcutt (Gaer Ward)

Before the last City Council elections in May 2012, Labour in Newport made much fuss of its public commitment to work hard and report back to the electorate of Newport. Apparently this agreement does not apply to Gaer Ward, where its elected representatives failed to attend a protest meeting in the Gaer last Thursday evening. 

The South Wales Argus has reported that Gaer Ward councillor and cabinet member for leisure and culture, Debbie Wilcox; cabinet member for human resources Cllr Mark Whitcutt; and Cllr Herbie Thomas were all conspicuous by their absence from the well attended public meeting which saw almost 100 residents, parents and governors meet to oppose the (Labour administered) City Council’s plans to close Gaer Infants School and turn the site into an autism unit. The infant pupils would then move to the Gaer Junior School and that would become a 420-pupil primary school. 

While apologies were duly received from the elected Labour in Newport representative, they were obviously more concerned with following the Labour whip rather than meeting with concerned members of their own electorate. Newport City Council went so far as to publish a statutory notice in the South Wales Argus last week to announce its intention to follow through with the plans by September 1st 2013, yet Labour Ward councillors would not meet with concerned parents and their own electors. 

This is yet another example of the Contempt with which the Labour Party in Newport treats the electors of the Gaer (and Newport) and puts Party interests before the interests of the people. People can comment on the plans before May 22^nd by writing to the Chief Education Officer, Newport City Council, Civic Centre, NP20 4UR or by emailing gaerschools.consultation@newport.gov.uk 

THE RAMSEY SOUND TIDAL ENERGY PROJECT

The Ramsey Sound Tiday Energy Project is being developed by Tidal Energy Ltd who are installing a single DeltaStream unit off the coast of Pembrokeshire at Ramsey Sound for 12 months. The project will demonstrate the capability of DeltaStream as a tidal stream generator and provide evidence on how the device and environment interact. While the project runs the device will be connected to the Local Distribution Network thus allowing the electricity generated by the device to contribute to the renewable energy targets of the Welsh Government. After 12 months, at the completion of the test, the device and all of its associated infrastructure will be removed from the site. Just imagine what we could do if we have a Government in Cardiff Bay that was actually concerned about developing our countries renewable energy resources for our benefit - Just a thought!

THE BIG BUG OUT?

Making plans to leave...

Some minds are understandably focused on the Afghan exit strategy and how to get out while keeping NATO casualties to a minimum. Now I don’t for a moment question the courage and endurance of our service personnel who have been sent by the politicians in Westminster to complete a near impossible task.

I remain however critical of what followed, when collective eyes were taken off the ball and Afghanistan was effectively placed on the back burner out of sight and out of mind for a dubiously motivated and justified invasion of Iraq. I also deeply question the wobbly logic that ran riot and the mission creep that developed in relation to Afghanistan during the latter years of the Blair and Brown governments, after attention shifted back from Iraq. 

The Con Dem government is largely blameless inheriting the ongoing car accident of Afghanistan from its predecessor formerly New Labour government, who should take the full measure of blame for the unfolding mess. However things are spun, the reality is that things are not going well, it has been revealed (in a UN report) that three times as much opium was produced in Helmand last year than was being produced when British troops first moved in 2006.

A report by the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) forecasts an increase in opium production this year and says this has been partly caused by the lack of agricultural assistance. The report blames the situation on insecurity. As the pullout progresses and international troops wind down their combat role, the increase in poppy cultivation is a significant failure for the international project, and particularly the UK's role in it.

Most of the worldwide production of illegal heroin, the drug refined from opium, comes from Afghanistan, and the then Prime Minister Tony Blair cited this as a reason for the war in 2001, calling the drugs trade a part of the Taliban regime that "we should seek to destroy". Back in 2001, the Brits (and the USA) made a deal with the surviving Taliban to reduce opium production by 94%.

Just before the invasion Taliban actually brought in a ban on poppy growing, declaring it to be anti-Islam, which lowered the overall production. After the invasion, rightly or wrongly as result of Blair’s decision the UK took a lead role in counter-narcotics from the beginning, and sent troops to Helmand in 2006 partly because this was the largest area of poppy cultivation.  The UK (back in 2002) became the lead nation for counter narcotic activities in Afghanistan. British cash for a voluntary eradication programme which was run in 2002 produced what has been described independently as “a total failure.”

Ironically Opium production has actually become more important to Afghanistan’s economy since US and NATO forces invaded back in October 2001. After an initial drop in opium production caused by NATO’s invasion, opium production resumed and now the country produces some 90 per cent of the world’s opium, the great bulk of which now ends up on the streets of Europe and Russia.

Now the UN report predicts that this year more than 75,000 hectares of land in Helmand is under cultivation for opium poppies, three times as much as in 2006 - and this is expected to increase. In Afghanistan any counter narcotics activities are merely an unavoidable occupational hazard because there is no viable alternative industry which can create the 50% of licit GDP that opium trading represents.

Opium, which is the basic raw material for heroin, and most of the illegal drugs that are on sale on the UK's streets come from Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s Government and business leaders operate in a wildly unregulated free market economy, where opium offers the safest and most profitable investment available to both peasant farmers and Narco-entrepreneurs.

The World Bank recognises that the narcotics trade accounts for 1/3 of all economic activity and acts as a major source of demand for services, goods and construction. The trade also provides income and livelihoods for a large number of people generates almost half a billion dollars a year for farmers.  Perversely the drugs trade goes on giving by providing several hundred million dollars in income for labourers and supports the country’s ramshackle rural economy.

The bank also acknowledges that the trade actually supports the Afghan balance of payments to the point that it produce a net surplus, not to mention supports the Afghan currency. Additionally as a result of imports from drug proceeds actually generates significant amounts of customs revenue (Source: The Fulcrum Strategy (Version 3) By David James, July 2006).

The problem is that the drug trade destabilises Afghanistan, and the chronic corruption and the effects of the ongoing insurgency combine to actively undermine the country’s tax base.  Security aside a stable tax base is one of the key requirements if the Afghan Government, post pull-out, is going to be able to sustain a potentially prolonged campaign against the Taliban.

Any Government that is pretty much dependent on foreign aid in lieu of a revenue stream is in trouble that might work out over the short-term but will not last over the longer term. What may in the end lead to the plug being pulled and foreign aid drying up is that much of the international aid to Afghanistan ends up being stolen before it ever gets to its intended recipients. 

The problem for the rest of us is that the opium based drug trade’s impact spreads far beyond the porous boundaries of Afghanistan. Back in March, Viktor Ivanov, the head of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service, made a presentation to UN’s 56th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, stating that, opium growth has increased by 18 per cent from 131,000 hectares to 154,000 and that “Afghan heroin has killed more than 1 million people worldwide since the ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ began and over a trillion dollars has been invested into transnational organized crime from drug sales”.

Transparency International in its 2012 Corruption Index (CPI) ranked Afghanistan as one of the (joint) most corrupt country with North Korea and Somalia. President Hamid Karzai in the United State for the NATO Summit in Chicago (in 2012) was asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer about this rampant corruption issue in Afghanistan. As usual, President Karzai’s answer was “it is the contractual mechanism that the US applies in Afghanistan” that encourages bribery, fraud, and corruption.

The Afghan President has consistently blamed the west for the loss of billions of aid dollars and the rise of corruption in Afghanistan. The harsh reality is less simple as on a daily basis, ordinary Afghans are less concerned about the kinds of bribery that occurs when the US and Western  development agencies hand out big development contracts. Ordinary Afghans are more infuriated by the kinds of bribes that they often have to give to get what they are legally entitled to via “harassment bribes.”

Basically harassment bribes are like when a retired Afghan has to pay some cash to the pension officer to receive his retirement check. Or, when a young man or woman freshly graduated from college has to get his or her paperwork done in order to become a teacher. To accomplish this any prospective teacher will be asked to fork out a hefty bribe. Or your Tazkira or national ID card is held up until you pay some cash to the officer in charge. These are all simple illustration of harassment bribes.

Saigon  (in 1975) or Kabul (in 2015)

Harassment bribery is widespread in Afghanistan, and it plays a large role in breeding inefficiency and has a profoundly destructive effect on civil society. While President Karzai consistently wags the finger at the West for widespread corruption in Afghanistan, yet his administration has failed to take responsibility for banishing bribery on the lower level. The West has for a quiet life has looked the other way as local low level corruption tends to be written off as a fact of life something that indirectly may feed support for the Taliban. 

Overwhelmed by both large and small scale corruption what can an effectively endemically corrupt Afghan government seriously do to discourage bribe givers and takers (at all levels of government) even if it wanted to? Endemic corruption aside the security situation is the key, with NATO leaving and the Taliban waiting in the wings even a diehard optimist would struggle not to think that things don’t look good.

Behind the NATO pullout lurks the unspoken question of how can a successful NATO withdrawal ensure that the corrupt Karzai Government retains its hold on power. And at least in the short term can they (the Afghan Government) keep the Taliban at arm’s length and can the whole sorry process be made to look good for domestic political consumption at home.  

STILL WAITING FOR CARWYN AND GEORGE

The Labour in Wales run Welsh Government has now promised an update on its stance on the M4 Relief Road by mid-July – so much for the previous promise f a decision by the end of last year or early this year. None of this brings the slightest crumb of comfort, peace of mind or clarity to the residents of Brynglas (in Shaftesbury ward in Newport) whose homes may yet still be threatened by a new tunnel.

They have been left in the lurch as they are now going to have to wait until mid July before they hear about the fate of their homes. Until the Welsh Government announces its conclusions from what was a significantly flawed consultation exercise on the M4 which looked at a number of options, including improving the existing M4, a variety of upgrades to the Southern Distributor Road (SDR), the construction of a new tunnel and a new M4 relief road across the Gwent levels south of Newport – people continue to live in limbo.

We are still well short of the white smoke from either Westminster or Cardiff Bay as no agreement between the Con Dem Government and Welsh Government on how any relief road (George Osborne’s’ favoured option) would be funded has been reached. What has been quietly overlooked in relation to the on-going problems with the M4 and some of the larger options for dealing with the traffic congestion on the existing M4 is the problem of the funding model.

Amongst the reasons why the option of the M4 relief road (South of Newport) was dropped a few years ago; aside for the financial cost (around £1 billion pounds) and environmental impact was the key issue of the funding model. Ministers were advised that not only would the new relief road to be subjected to tolls, but the existing M4 would also be tolled.  Interestingly enough the only other toll road in the UK is the M6 in the Midlands which has seen toll prices increase by 175% since it was opened.

Another one of the reasons why this option was dropped was because of evidence gained from the operation of the M6 toll road - which had never made any money because motorists can avoid it by using nearby non tolled motorways.  That tolled Motorway has seen the number of users drop and it has done nothing to reduce congestion.

It is simply unacceptable for motorists to end up paying tolls on the Severn bridges, on the existing M4 any potential new relief road.  There are already significant complaints about the cost of the tolls on the Severn bridges and an additional burden on motorists and businesses can no way be justified. This is why Plaid Ministers in the then One Wales Government took  officials’ advice not to proceed go ahead with the relief road but opted to work to ease congestion around Newport by using the southern distribution road (SDR) as an alternative route.

What, in the seriously flawed consultation process, was Option C which would involve the grade separation of some junctions and partial or full closure of other junctions on the Newport A48 Southern Distributor Road was the most sensible option if combined with improvements to the existing M4.  This option would not only provide an alternative route to the M4 in the event of periodic accident related closures and congestion but would provide much better value for money coming in at around £300m. Incidentally the option D which included a new tunnel and widening of the M4 was priced at around £500 million.

At the moment the Labour in Wales Government and the Con Dem Westminster Government appear to be in favour of the most expensive (financially and environmentally) option – their only quarrel appears to be how it will be funded and whether or not it will be tolled. My own personal theory is that one of the reasons why Government at various levels favour the more expensive options may have something to do with the ongoing (and pretty profitable) if questionable relationship between Government and the Construction industry. 

MAKING LOCAL GOVERNMENT WORK FOR WALES

Let's be brutally honest many of our smaller communities, our small and large towns and our cities have suffered in the past from ill-thought out developments and questionable short term economic thinking. Our local small to medium retailers, local businesses and local consumers have suffered accordingly and we the consumers have paid the price with a loss of local services and choice.

Many people have real and serious concerns about the economic future and the character of their communities. We need to ask ourselves some serious questions about who these decisions in relation to redevelopment are being made for? And do our communities really benefit, locally or otherwise, certainly at times it is not us the customers? In the not so recent past local government has hindered economic growth and has damaged the economic vitality of our communities, but, it does not have to be this way.

One way that local government can help, rather than hinder, our small to medium sized enterprises and our communities is by improving procurement practice something that helps create and sustain local jobs. Plaid has called for legislation to be used to ensure that Welsh public sector contracts are allocated wisely to maximize job creation and investment opportunities here in Wales. The Welsh Government has previously announced a National Procurement Service, Plaid Cymru has rightly warned that unless further concrete action is taken then we in Wales will see savings but we will not see the full benefits.

The Party of Wales leader Leanne Wood said:

“Procurement is one of the successes of the National Assembly. By ensuring that Welsh public money is spend in the Welsh economy then we can create and support employment. A Plaid Cymru government would work towards achieving a target of 75% local procurement in Wales because we know that this could create 46,000 jobs here. That would make a huge dent in the unemployment figures.

“Spending that money with local companies in our local communities can also have a significant knock-on investment effect. By creating the demand we will also be improving the skills of our workforce, will be increasing the number of jobs, and will be supporting our local and national economies.

“Many businesses have told us that the process of bidding for work needs to be simplified, and for that reason, at a local government level in particular, we have argued for contracts to be unbundled. We have also worked to remove barriers to make it easier for small, local firms to apply for contracts. It’s about supporting our companies and sustaining our economy.

“Procurement is one way in which Plaid Cymru has made a real difference to employment levels and economic performance, and we will continue to make the case for ensuring that the money of Welsh taxpayers is used as wisely as possible, for the sake of our communities.”

INSIDE A PRIVILEGED PLATO’S CAVE...

On Tuesday (16^th April), Prime Minister David Cameron admitted to the Today programme that he did not remember much of the 1979 election which brought Thatcher to power. I remember the run up to the 1979 election quite clearly and Election Day with it. Initially I thought this rather odd that Cameron had no recollection of 1979, but, of course he was cocooned from the grim realities of Mrs T and the consequences for what she (and the motley crew of supporters who stood shielded behind her) did as he was no doubt living at the time in a privileged version of Plato's cave.

He went on to say that his earliest memories of Mr’s T were defending the Falkland Islands - a "brave and resolute thing". Fair enough, but, this conveniently overlooks the fact that it was cuts to the Royal Navy pushed through by her government that effectively gave the green light or at least sent the wrong messages to the brutal shambolic military dictatorship then ruling the roost in Argentina.  Cameron went on to say that Mrs T was on the right side of the big arguments, a great moderniser and an extraordinary leader - all pretty subjective concepts to start with. 

The consequences of the clash between dead from the neck up dinosaur like and mostly undemocratic Trade Union leaders and Mr’s T hit home hard and fast in my home as the steel strike and its consequences were played out with redundancy. What followed later after the miners’ strike was years of rundown and neglect which ravaged our valley communities – something which explains why patches of the Valleys and West Wales are still blighted with poverty and unemployment.  

For DC and significant numbers of people on the other side of the Severn Bridge the 1980’s were very different experience, they were certainly pretty grim here. Manufacturing locally was weakened, but, the real damage was done in the early 1990’s as John Major tried to cash in on the peace dividend following the end of the Cold War, I know because | was trying to get a job (with no success) at the time with firm after firm in South Gwent and across the bridge in Bristol. In the end, I ended up going to London for work.

Some twenty years down the line I still struggle to find any degree of impartiality when it comes not towards Mrs T but towards the things that were done in her name. I suspect that across large sections of the UK certainly outside or much of London and the south east many people who saw the scale (and cost) of the funeral will have thought that it was way over the top, especially in times of austerity.

If nothing else this whole episode should reveal how utterly cut off and remote from the lives and experiences of many people in Wales, Scotland and the North and West of England, that David Cameron actually is. Certainly the decision to go full on and formal on a state funeral for Mrs T which was not doubt made long ago will have blown away the tattered remnants of Cameron’s green and caring Conservatism.