What has the Welsh Assembly Senedd ever done for us? Well they have given vital help in protecting Jobs & The Economy

Over the last 10 years Wales has had to cope with less and less money coming from the UK government and yet we have still managed to support our local authorities providing £110m of funding across Wales.  By working much more closely with them, we have ensured that they have not had spending decimated in the last few years, unlike England.  From this standpoint we look at JOBS & ECONOMY :

Here in Wales
> Unemployment has fallen to 3% – the lowest rate since records began almost 25 years ago and below both the UK and the Scottish figure of 3.8%
> Employment is up more than 282,000 since the start of the Assembly and by 23.3% since devolution, compared with a 21.3% increase for the UK over the same period
> Since devolution, the economic inactivity rate in Wales has fallen by 5.3 percentage points, compared with a fall of 2.9 percentage points for the UK over the same period
> A new Development Bank of Wales has been established which is managing £1bn of Welsh Government Funding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Wales has
> Provided additional funding money of £9.1m in support of community pharmacies
> In addition to previous grants has given the hospitality sector a further boost of £30m in recognition of the strain under which it has been working
> Developed a new rail franchise, and protected a guard on every train, and fares have fallen in Wales compared to a rise across the UK.
> Continued to be a fair nation – a nation of fair work and fair trade – and so the Senedd has repealed major elements of the Trade Union Act in order to support all workers.

What has the Welsh Assembly Senedd ever done for us? Well they have provided vital help to deal with the pandamic ...

Wales is proud to have reached its vaccination target by the predicted 15th February deadline, and has now administered over 100,000 of the 1st jab.  It has already reached over 10,000 with the second dose, primarily being given to front facing health & care workers.  And to give specific help to NHS Wales & the health care sector :
* £1.5 billion of additional resources
* A £500 payment for social care workers in recognition of their efforts
* 580 million items of PPE for the health and social care sectors
* More than 100,000 video consultations with health professionals
* Over 145,000 cases reached through contract tracing teams in the public sector - consistently over 90% contact
* Over 1,000 IT devices supplied to 580 care homes 

 

 

 

 

 

But it has does so much more, both by way of financial & other practical support …

On ensuring jobs have been both retained and created :
* Protecting 100,000 jobs through our Economic Resilience Fund
* Supporting and advising 20,000 people through Working Wales
* Our £40 million proactive jobs and skills package

Providing as best an education as it can for our children & young people :
* Funding free school meal provision in the school holidays and until 2022
* 133,000 laptops for children learning at home
* 14,500 extra counselling sessions for children and young people
* £130m extra to deliver our Covid Commitment to education, employment and training
* Providing essential childcare for 9,600 children over the spring and summer
* Surveying 23,700 children on their experiences
* £90m of support for students and universities

And helping other groups, and activities :
* Establishing the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic COVID-19 Advisory Group
* £24 million to support the Third Sector COVID-19 response fund
* £50 million to transform homelessness services
* Supporting 5,000 people into temporary accommodation
* £1.5 million more to help victims and survivors of domestic abuse
* Working with the Shadow Social Partnership Council
* £63 million for the Cultural Recovery Fund

What has the Welsh Assembly Senedd ever done for us? Well there's help for People & their Communities ...

2020 has shown how community spirit is especially important for coping in a crisis such as the Covid pandemic.   So the Senedd is pleased to have been able to address some of the issues to help support communities across Wales, particularly with regard to the more vulnerable.  With that in mind this month looks at PEOPLE & COMMUNITIES :

Wales has led the way in the UK by passing the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act.  The Act was designed to improve how public bodies responded to all forms of violence against women.  It also put a duty on Welsh Ministers to appoint a national adviser – the first of its kind in the UK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During this crisis time when many are at a higher risk from an abuser the Senedd’s communications campaign has been able to reach out with support & information to those people who are yet to ask for help.  And more than 3,300 people have been trained to recognise the signs of domestic abuse and sexual violence through a Wales only E-learning module, ahead of England.

What's the Welsh Assembly Senedd ever done for us? Well there's Environment and Housing ...

Wales goes to the vote in May this year (Covid permitting) so each month I will continue to highlight the many achievements of the Labour led Senedd (formerly the Welsh Assembly).  And l’ll start by letting everyone know that 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to vote.   Also the Senedd is are currently legislating for this to apply to voting in council elections.  This month looks at ENVIRONMENT & HOUSING :

Wales was the first country in the UK to introduce:      
> 5p charge for single-use carrier bags
> A ban on smoking in cars carrying children
> A ban on smoking in hospital grounds, school grounds and playgrounds 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

and
> Fracking has been banned in Wales
> Wales has legislated for sprinklers in all new homes
> The Right to Buy policy has been abolished in Wales.

Les

Brexit - what now?

 

I am so angry.

Partly at myself – I didn’t see it coming, didn’t realise how important the decision was, and didn’t realise how lack lustre Cameron’s campaigning had been until it was too late.

Leading up to that vote we had all been drip fed ludicrous ‘fake news’ about the EU.  Everything from it insisting on bringing in ‘straight bananas’ to ‘it’s all the fault of immigrants, coming over here, taking our jobs’. 

So I don’t blame those who voted for it …

Many have said since that they still stand by their decision, and they are untitled to their opinion.

Many were eventually so ground down by it, so bored out of their minds with it being constantly under discussion, that they caved in to accepting the decision, just wanting to ‘get Brexit done’.  (What a vilely clever little three word mantra that proved to be!)

But so many MANY more were duped from the outset by the lies upon lies that preceded the vote.

So I DO blame the result on the self serving garbage that spewed out of the mouths of people like Farage, and then Johnson who cynically chose the Brexit path for political expediency once he knew the outcome.

And I reckon they are all so wrong.  The idea of working as a team is sound, but it’s abundantly clear that there’s plenty wrong with the EU.  But you don’t solve that by leaving the team.  We should have stayed and worked on remedying this together.  Easy to see in hindsight but Theresa May could have said the vote was too close and wasn’t binding.  She would have suffered for a while but no more than she did anyway.

And now we have no right whatsoever to complain, and the consequent damage, not just in the act of leaving in itself but also through the abhorrent arrogance of most of the Tory cabinet, is such that the future – already dire for millions of individuals and businesses suffering the unnecessary austerity of the last 10 grim years – is going to get worse. 

So yes I’m so angry.

Let's celebrate the achievements of the Welsh Assembly

You may be aware that there will be an election next May to vote in your chosen representatives for the Welsh Assembly.  But you may not be aware of its many achievements, lead by the Labour Party throughout.  

Over the coming months I will be listing some of them, and as it’s especially relevant now I will start with how it has reacted to the covid pandemic, certainly handling it far better, and fairer, than the UK government’s woeful response.  Here’s just a few of many highlights :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite all this and much more there are those who would have you believe, and I quote, “the Welsh Assembly has failed to deliver for the people of Wales”.  Fake news at its worst, together with their catchy but totally inappropriate Twitter  ‘#savewales’.  If we need to ‘save Wales’ from anything I’d suggest it would be interference from this current incompetent UK Government!

I fail to see how anyone here in Wales would benefit if making decisions which directly affect us were returned to those outside of this country.  The Welsh Assembly is much closer to Wales both in distance and in spirit.  Is it perfect?  Of course not.  But has it ‘failed to deliver’?  The list above of just some of their achievements says otherwise.

Les
 

The Tory 10 Year CON

This procession of ghastly Tory governments have inflicted 10 long years of misery for the many, and undeserved prosperity for the few ...

CONditioning - whilst the rich now believe they not only have the right to their wealth but they are entitled to even more, everyone else has had 'know thy place' drummed into them

The Anti Robin Hood CON - take from the poor by imposing benefit cuts, and give to the rich by handing out tax rebates

The CON of Divide and Rule - setting the JAMS against the most vulnerable by blaming the latter for everyone else who has suffered through the effects of austerity, and taking advantage of the numerous TV programmes which have painted anyone on benefits as being scroungers

The Status of Money CON - pushing hard on the idea that money somehow makes a person better than others, where only those with money are viewed as being successful, and as a consequence the arrogance of the wealthy has grown even worse, and a culture of greed & selfishness have become more the norm

And possibly the most disgraceful of all is the 'Thankyou' CON - being used in the current pandemic crisis, and after BJ thanked the NHS workers who nursed him through coronavirus, he and his government then try a triple whammy :
* proposed increase to the surcharge applied to migrant workers, fortunately overturned by the extreme backlash from across the UK, b ut then shouldn't be there in the first place
* most of a so-called bonus where given to UC claimants and key workers will be clawed back, so not really much of a bonus
* key workers 'thanked' with the promise of a pay freeze, which makes you wonder what the government does to punish people

TORIES DON'T CARE!
Just when you think they couldn't stoop any lower they do, and still get away with it.  
THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!

This Tory Government ... The 10 Years of Con

This procession of ghastly Tory governments have inflicted 10 long years of misery for the many, and for the most part undeserved prosperity for the few.  In doing so they have done even more damage ...

CONditioning - whilst the rich now believe they not only have the right to their wealth but they are entitled to even more, everyone else has had 'know thy place' drummed into them

The Anti Robin Hood CON - take from the poor by imposing benefit cuts, and give to the rich by handing out tax rebates

The CON of Divide and Rule - setting the JAMS against the most vulnerable by blaming the latter for everyone else who has suffered through the effects of austerity, and taking advantage of the numerous TV programmes which have painted anyone on benefits as being scroungers

The Status of Money CON - pushing hard on the idea that money somehow makes a person better than others, where only those with money are viewed as being successful, and as a consequence the arrogance of the wealthy has grown even worse, and a culture of greed & selfishness have become more the norm

Some say the clock's been turned back to the 30's - yes to the greedy mill owners of the 1830s!  So you would have thought by now everyone who's not the richest miniscule percent will have been totally ground down.  But along comes a pandemic like most have never experienced before, and the vast majority have ended up working alongside each other. regardless of wealth & status, in looking after those worse off than ourselves.

So maybe there's still hope yet.  I mean,  just who was that idiot who said there's no such thing as society?! 

Les

Labour's future, it's in our hands

One of the worst things after a general election is having to listen to everyone's verdict on the outcome, and why it happened.  Everyone is suddenly an expert on politics, all joining in the blame game, the recriminations, and stating their opinion as fact.  (The actual worst thing by far this time will be the suffering, the vilifying, and the dying, of many more people across the UK.  This of course will continue until this government is booted out, but in theory not for another five long years.)

Maybe it helps others to do this, but it certainly doesn't help me!  So let me redress the balance ...

In my opinion there are loads of reasons why we are still having to deal with a Tory led UK government hell bent on ruining the country so they, the very few, can carry on living the high life at the expense of the very many.

- Let's start with the constant betrayal of Corbyn by many of Labour's own MPs.  I cannot condone this but I think a possible reason is that they are no longer solely responsible for electing the leader.  It's likely that non MP Labour members have a different take as to what we need in our leader, but at the end of the day it's the MPs who have to have to work with the leader, respect them, be able to follow them, and be expected to do so even when they don't agree with them.  After all would councillors like myself want the people of Swansea electing our council leader?

- Then there's Anti-Semitism v Islamaphobia.  Very easy to highlight the former as being both bad, and rife with high profile defections of Labour MPs to other parties, and so blame the Labour leadership for not dealing with it.  And equally the Tories are able to get away with the latter when terrorist & similar incidents keep happening most recently the knife atrocity in London, resulting in two dead, in the very last stages of the campaign. 

- And of course we have the right wing media which control the majority of what goes out in the press, over the internet, and on TV.  Even supposed Labour papers have not clearly been supporting Labour, and/or with too little, too late.  And it certainly suited the Tories that the media called it the Brexit Election right from the start.  One comment repeated over and over is that Labour did not have a clear enough message on Brexit, and I reckon people believed it regardless whether true or not simply because the media kept on doing this.  And so they were also able to get away with ridiculing Corbyn as being 'on the fence' yet look what the remain stance did for the Lib Dems, as they haven't even got a leader now! 

- Another aspect I believe has come into play is the fact that there are some who need to be guided by who they think are the people in the know ie the government.  Tories had a snappy mantra 'Get Brexit Done' - almost didn't matter what it said just so long as it was short!  This  I suspect appealed both to those who voted leave, and to those in neglected communities who have been told that being in the EU is to blame, and end up grateful for the few crumbs that the Tories have promised, even though it's them who took away the whole loaf in the first place!

- And so we get to the Manifestos.  We have found election after election that these aren't worth the paper they are written on, so why on earth should anyone believe the truly inspirational honest & costed manifesto of Labour.  Compare this with the much more cynical one of the Tories.  You can just hear them now when they cooked this one up, saying 'we'll con the electorate into voting us back in by fooling them into thinking that austerity has ended.  We'll give just enough back to high profile public concerns like the NHS & Police and they won't notice that it only restores things to 2010, and in many other cases not even that'.  All couched not so much in outright lies as in underhand distortion & manipulation of the truth.

I've probably only just touched the surface - I haven't even started on how come Labour came back from the dead in 2017 yet disappeared into hell this time?  And why didn't all the opposition parties work together more when most clearly had no time for Johnson et al? 

I'm sure there are many more aspects to why we have the result we have.  But my real point here is we have to go forward somehow, ignore the crap, the negativity - and boy is there a lot being spoken right now!  The Labour Party is NOT finished, and we KNOW we have right on our side.  We've just got to find out a way of getting this across.

Les

This Tory UK Government ... The Fatcats-Getting-Richer Con

No not the Tory politicians themselves but their fatcat cronies.

At a recent meeting someone came out with a very pertinent comment in the light of the demise of yet another high profile big company.  If a local community organisation can ensure it keeps it books in order and so ensure it survives then how come Thomas Cook couldn't?

But then those greedy fatcat CEOs, much applauded & feted by this Tory government, get a bonus whether or not the business is doing OK.  So NO incentive whatsoever in doing a good job!

Les

This Tory UK Government ... The Luck Con

Thatcher started it but certainly this rotten-to-the-core cabinet are carrying on her legacy.  And it takes the 'I'm alright Jack' con to a whole new level. 

Over the last 8 years these Tories have been reconditioning everyday Jill & Jo into believing not only it's right to feel smug about your own good fortune, but you can treat those not so lucky as if it's all their own fault, and it's OK to look down on them, treat them as inferior, even worthless.

How can it be their own fault to be born with a disability? 

How can it be their own fault when a company goes bust so they lose their job?

How can it be their own fault when their partner is abusive and they have to leave with nowhere to live?

I could go on, and on, but I think you get the picture.

Les

This Tory UK Government ...

A new year but this government is still hanging on.   

'Strong & stable'?  Weak & feeble more like, plus uncaring, greedy, rotten, incompetent ...  

Les

This Tory UK Government ... The I'm-alright-Jack Con

The greed and the selfishness are bad enough but worse still is the blame culture that the Tory government have been peddling for the last 8 years. And of course they have managed to blame everyone but themselves, and made the blame stick. 

Together with austerity, their strategy has been so very rotten.  Unfortunately it's also been very clever at maintaining the political status quo in that (very) broadly the voting public are :

- the wealthy electorate who will vote Tory to stay that way

- the not so wealthy, but not so that they have to worry about money, and for all sorts of reasons their votes will get shared around all parties

- the JAMS who have either been scared into believing they daren't vote other than Tory lest they lose what little they have, or are so disillusioned in the main parties that they get lured into UKIPs even-more-right-wing-than-Tories 'promised land'

- and the least wealthy who are either in despair of anything changing so why vote at all, or can't even vote because they are now homeless.

The Tories have continually told the same lie about the credit crunch, easily believed as Labour were in government at the time.  "Don't blame austerity on us" the Tories bleat, " it's all Labour's fault."  And of course in Scotland & Wales they can blame the devolved governments.

I'd like to think there's a growing number of anti Tory, and one of these days there really will be a huge backlash against them.  But how many more people - children as well as adults - are going to go hungry, go cold, lose the roof over their head, and ultimately their life, before this happens? 

Les

This Tory UK Government ... The Lying Con

I've always thought if you are going to tell a lie you might as well make it a big one.  Well Theresa May, and one of her lackeys have come out this month with not one but two beauts ...

Tory Treasury minister Liz Truss stated ‘we are not making cuts to local authorities’, and the Prime Minister claiming that ‘austerity is over’.  What appalling contempt of the voting public as in fact they are planning a further £1.3bn cut to council budgets next year.

Am I surprised?  Of course not.  Am I angry?  YES!!!  

There's is so much money swilling round this, the 6th richest country in the world, and all that needs to happen is for everyone to have a share.  Yes there will still be those well off - that's absolutely fine.  But what's not so fine is those well off being so much MORE well off.

I have read somewhere that wealth leads to greed for more.  Sadly this is exactly what appears to be the case in the UK at the moment, and worse still there doesn't seem to be any end to it.

Les

This Tory UK Government ... Good-with-the-Economy Con

This month I'll start by repeating what I finished with in August, that the Tories keep saying they are the party who is 'good with the economy'.  Of course I refute this totally but recognise that if something is said often enough then people will believe it whether it's true or not.  But here's another nail in that particular Tory coffin ...
  
One of the worst Tory failings when it comes to the economy is their short term strategy.  By itself this would be bad enough, but it's made far worse as they flog off all of our public services, and usually don't even get as much as they should for it. 

As many of us know they have this flawed privatise-everything ideology, regardless whether or not this is the UK's best interests.  But why would they care?  They don't need the money!

Les

This Tory UK Government ... The Take-The-Mobility-Car-Away Con

Since 2013 the government has gradually been replacing Disability Living Allowance with Personal Independence Payment, which because of the way it's applied has often meant taking away the applicant's mobility vehicle, so far off 51,000.  The DWP apply a points system which I suspect is strictly adhered to with no leeway for common sense by looking beyond just the medical conditions but also quality of life.  Classic example is one recently where a woman who is terminally ill, has 5 separate medical conditions, yes is still deemed not eligible. 

But as if all this isn't bad enough the stupidity of this cruel government means that they take away the personally modified vehicle straight away when over 3000 have successfully appealed.  By which time the original car may well have a) lost it's value and/or b) been scrapped and so c) the government has to pay for yet another adapted costly car.

Campaigners fighting to change this include a Tory MP who points out that in some cases doing this that far from giving them more independence means the person can no longer work.  Hence the government's benefit bill goes up.

What a waste of money.  And yet they have the gall to keep on saying they are the party who is 'good with the economy'!

Les

This Tory UK Government ... The Public Sector Wage Cap Con

Short but not so sweet this month ...

Oh how generous of them finally overturning the public sector wage cap.   

Not at all because they aren't going to fund it!

Les

This Tory UK Government ... Story so far

And now for something slightly different ...  my take on two of the 'highlights' on the UK Tory government, namely the Credit Crunch & Brexit.

I reckon the last 8 years have been the worst politically in my living memory.  'What worse than Thatcher?'  Well, yes, but of course she started it, and the cabinet have just carried on where she left off, inflicting such damage that the thought of how we would manage to reverse it should Labour get back to power is difficult to imagine.

I am not one of those who hate all Tories, and with most I meet I just don't agree with their political views.  But this cabinet, they are something else!  Their behaviour most of the time has come across as mean, cruel, divisive, greedy, arrogant and nasty.  Apparently they see themselves as the elite, the ruling class, the 'we know best' and yet they are oh so incompetent, or maybe just vindictive?  And from their snooty ivory towers (presumably overlooking their moats) they look down on the rest, treat us like we don't count, and have taken us back not just to the dire 1930s, but to the even worse mid 1800s.

So the Credit Crunch, surely a dream come true for them.  Not surprisingly they took full advantage of the fact that Labour were in power at the time, so they could put the blame on them.  And then suckered enough of the electorate for them to return to power albeit propped up by the Lib Dems.  Even better they used it as an excuse to impose austerity, of course not on themselves or their wealthy pals, like the CEOs of banks & big business.  And certainly not for any sound economic reasons, even though that's what they would have you believe.  The simple fact is the least well off in the land have been subsidising the wealthy ever since!

And as for Brexit ...  what a blinder Cameron played when he gave in to his Brextremists.  Maybe I'm taking cynicism a bit too far but I have long suspected that Cameron didn't give a damn which side won, and I'm certain he didn't lose any sleep over it.  He knew that either way he could walk away, unscathed, and leave behind the appalling mess he had created.  What makes me so angry is that the media push the myth that it's a party political issue when obviously it isn't, as in theory Cameron was backing Remain!

My Dad once told me that one of the frustrating things about politics is that in reality parliament does a huge amount of work on which all parties more or less agree but we only ever hear of the conflict.  Sadly despite whatever good has taken place that we never get told about (as it doesn't sell papers!)  And what for me is truly frightening is that it doesn't seem to matter what harm they do, the Tories just keep getting away with it.  The divide between wealthy and not so gets wider & wider.  A few years ago no one would even dream of accepting frozen budgets let alone cuts, of vilifying the disabled & those on benefits as all being scroungers, of such widespread use of foodbanks as if it were acceptable, the treatment of those immigrants who have lived & settled here for decades, the running down of the NHS ...  and the list goes on and on.  But people continue to vote for them because they are caught up by the understandable fear of the alternative, of which the Tories take full advantage.  'What if it's even worse?'  If you are 'just about managing' then you simply wont risk it.

This paints a very gloomy picture, I know, but really not sure there is any other way to put it. Any positives, anyone?


Les

This Tory UK Government ... The Divide & Rule Con

Classic example in the news at the moment, involving Thesesa May's bung to grammar schools while all the rest go without.  Of course this gets everyone arguing over the merits of grammar v comprehensives, when what we all should be talking about is how to provide the best education for ALL our children!

Les

This Tory UK Government ... The Bonus Con

I've just found some definitions for the word bonus such as: 'a sum of money added to a person's wages as a reward for good performance' and 'something extra beyond a stipulated payment'.  In every one they either clearly state or infer that a person needs to have done more than what would normally be expected in doing that particular task or job.

Whilst I still think CEOs of some companies are overpaid, I can concede that their role, together with the important decisions they have to make, is pivotal to the success of the company, and as such warrants a high salary. 

But, and it's a BIG BUT, surely to earn that pay they should perform at least sufficiently well to ensure the continued viability of the business, and so b) only get a bonus for going that bit extra - higher productivity, a more satisfied workforce etc.  Sadly some companies have other ideas ... 

Somehow Persimmon Homes managed to get through a bonus scheme linked to share values, such that in 2017 CEO Jeff Fairburn received a total of over £47million - a basic salary of £675,270, a bonus of £1.3 million, and the rest a share award of over £44m.  This year the total package was going to be over £100m until a share-holder backlash reduced it to £74m!

Forget the obscene shares payout (how DID that get agreed?!) but I ask you how can a company in any way, shape or form justify paying a bonus that is more than the salary, indeed DOUBLE???!!!

This is eye-wateringly beyond belief and totally unwarranted. 

And as for Carillion, there the CEOs still got bonuses even though the company was actually failing.  I wonder where they found the definition of 'bonus' for that?!
 
In August the media lauded Theresa May when she attacked firms who hand bosses excessive pay "as the unacceptable face of capitalism", and the Tories had promised in their manifesto that executive pay should be approved by an annual vote of shareholders.  But since then it has been much more quietly made known that they've watered these proposals down - oh what a surprise!

Les