In case you were getting withdrawal symptoms from the loss of the Economic Summits that were being held last year and brought together a host of people to look at ideas to help business during the recession, fear not there is a new kid on the block, the Public Service Summit which in the First Minister Carwyn Jones own words aims to build on the Social Partnership of the Economic Summits. (We'll see)
At least there is some engagement with the difficult issue of public services and how they will be delivered with less money in the years ahead from Welsh Politicians, i have been concerned about the lack of engagement from all the Welsh parties for while.
Carwyn does acknowledge that there is a lot to do and lays out his thinking ‘We are determined to respond to the challenge in a positive, Welsh way – in line with our tradition of chwarae teg, fair play. As a nation, we have to do everything we can to narrow the equality gap, not widen it. In seeking to defend our people’s public services, I strongly believe that the answers lie in changing the way public bodies operate.
Second, change will only work if it engages and empowers the workforce – often it is the front-line staff who know where the solutions lie, and they have to be involved from the outset.
Third, we have to think in the round – we have to consider the future as well as the present and make sure our plans are genuinely sustainable, environmentally, socially and economically.
Finally, it’s vital that we all work across boundaries. Collaboration is crucial – and it has to be about results, not process for its own sake. There are great examples of collaboration – for example the waste management partnerships or some of the innovation around health and social care. But there have also been cases of “talks about talks” – and we don’t have time for that.
As with most ideas they are great on paper but it’s the action and delivery that counts, if he can succeed in changing the way public service are run, making them more efficient and equal and responsive to the public’s needs then he would have done well, but there is a long way to go and many others have tried and failed.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Telling it like it is - but to what effect?
Hat Tip to Betsan Powys
There is an interesting piece in the Western Mail Business section from Ron Jones Chair of Tinopolis who certainly pulls no punches in his critique of the Welsh Assembly Government's economic efforts.
Mr Jones takes issue with many aspects of Welsh Economic Policy starting with the clichés that surround the debate including renewed approach to economic development”, “meet the needs of new and existing businesses”, “stronger and more sustainable economy”, and “increase the prosperity and long-term well-being of the people”.
He goes on to challenge the string of strategies and policy documents that WAG produce which serve as an excuse for not taking action and questions the value of the WAG Economic Renewal Plan when politicians don’t want to admit the harsh realities we face.
And he’s also scathing over European Funds saying they were were 'stolen by the public sector' who failed to create any lasting legacy from the £1 billion of investment, not surprisingly these concerns were raised 10 years ago at the beginning of the roll out of the programme and dismissed by WAG Ministers who insisted the private sector would be involved.
It would be good to think that these issues raised are taken for what they are, a rather blunt and straight forward attempt to focus minds on the pressing economic issues facing Wales and the need for politicians to wake up to that reality of those many needs rather than simply dismissing it as wrongheaded because it doesn’t fit in with their agenda.
More from the DRUID
UPDATE Valleys Mam and Dylan Jones Evans have also blogged on the issue.
There is an interesting piece in the Western Mail Business section from Ron Jones Chair of Tinopolis who certainly pulls no punches in his critique of the Welsh Assembly Government's economic efforts.
Mr Jones takes issue with many aspects of Welsh Economic Policy starting with the clichés that surround the debate including renewed approach to economic development”, “meet the needs of new and existing businesses”, “stronger and more sustainable economy”, and “increase the prosperity and long-term well-being of the people”.
He goes on to challenge the string of strategies and policy documents that WAG produce which serve as an excuse for not taking action and questions the value of the WAG Economic Renewal Plan when politicians don’t want to admit the harsh realities we face.
And he’s also scathing over European Funds saying they were were 'stolen by the public sector' who failed to create any lasting legacy from the £1 billion of investment, not surprisingly these concerns were raised 10 years ago at the beginning of the roll out of the programme and dismissed by WAG Ministers who insisted the private sector would be involved.
It would be good to think that these issues raised are taken for what they are, a rather blunt and straight forward attempt to focus minds on the pressing economic issues facing Wales and the need for politicians to wake up to that reality of those many needs rather than simply dismissing it as wrongheaded because it doesn’t fit in with their agenda.
More from the DRUID
UPDATE Valleys Mam and Dylan Jones Evans have also blogged on the issue.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Four damming reports and one unrepentant Government
It’s not a surprise that the Communities First Programme has once again been found to be failing the very people it was set up to help, the most deprived communities in Wales. The criticism this time came from the Public Accounts Committee in the Assembly in a report that pulled no punches.
Their hard hitting report follows on from the Wales Audit Office’s hard hitting report last year and will make uncomfortable reading for the First Minister Carwyn Jones who was robust in his defence of the programme in FMQ’s yesterday. Maybe such a spirited defense was due to the fact Communities First has been Welsh Labour’s flagship regeneration policy and has not delivered any discernible improvement in those communities in education, unemployment and poverty reduction to name a few areas over the last 10 years.
I hope the display was just for public consumption and there is some hard thinking and debate going on about the programmes future and the next phase called Communities Next when it rolled out inside the Welsh Assembly Government. After all the criticism in all four reports over the past 10 years have remarkably similar conclusions about a lack of strategic leadership, a lack of monitoring and evaluation and most of the money available to each areas has been spent on the Partnership and administration leaving very little available to spend on actual projects.
On a final point I welcome the Cross Party consensus in the Public Accounts Committee which should shake WAG out of its complacency, but on past form I find it hard to believe they will accept the findings despite the damming criticism. So are there ideas from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats on how to tackle such ingrained poverty and social deprivation in some of our most deprived communities because it’s easy to point to what Labour and Plaid Cymru are doing wrong but it takes more effort to come up with an alternative to a failing programme or scheme.
Their hard hitting report follows on from the Wales Audit Office’s hard hitting report last year and will make uncomfortable reading for the First Minister Carwyn Jones who was robust in his defence of the programme in FMQ’s yesterday. Maybe such a spirited defense was due to the fact Communities First has been Welsh Labour’s flagship regeneration policy and has not delivered any discernible improvement in those communities in education, unemployment and poverty reduction to name a few areas over the last 10 years.
I hope the display was just for public consumption and there is some hard thinking and debate going on about the programmes future and the next phase called Communities Next when it rolled out inside the Welsh Assembly Government. After all the criticism in all four reports over the past 10 years have remarkably similar conclusions about a lack of strategic leadership, a lack of monitoring and evaluation and most of the money available to each areas has been spent on the Partnership and administration leaving very little available to spend on actual projects.
On a final point I welcome the Cross Party consensus in the Public Accounts Committee which should shake WAG out of its complacency, but on past form I find it hard to believe they will accept the findings despite the damming criticism. So are there ideas from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats on how to tackle such ingrained poverty and social deprivation in some of our most deprived communities because it’s easy to point to what Labour and Plaid Cymru are doing wrong but it takes more effort to come up with an alternative to a failing programme or scheme.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
'David Cameron and the mystery £72 billion'
I guess its easier for David Cameron to focus on his opponents flawed character rather than on those pesky details of the Government's budget that he and George Osborne are so keen to reduce, judging by the following post from Benedict Brogan at the Telegraph
'How much of the public spending detail should David Cameron be expected to master, two months or so before polling day and three months – possibly – before an emergency Tory Budget? My colleague Jeff Randall has put the Tory leader on the spot about Treasury figures in an interview for his programme on Sky News.
And Mr Cameron struggled to explain the Government pie chart showing where our money goes, specifically the £72 billion marked under ‘other’. At first Mr Cameron suggests it’s money spent on Whitehall or quangos. Actually, it’s cash for culture and other bits. Jeff reckons Mr Cameron should have the answer at his fingertips, given that ‘other’ represents about 10pc of overall expenditure.'
'How much of the public spending detail should David Cameron be expected to master, two months or so before polling day and three months – possibly – before an emergency Tory Budget? My colleague Jeff Randall has put the Tory leader on the spot about Treasury figures in an interview for his programme on Sky News.
And Mr Cameron struggled to explain the Government pie chart showing where our money goes, specifically the £72 billion marked under ‘other’. At first Mr Cameron suggests it’s money spent on Whitehall or quangos. Actually, it’s cash for culture and other bits. Jeff reckons Mr Cameron should have the answer at his fingertips, given that ‘other’ represents about 10pc of overall expenditure.'
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Gerry Hassan on Brown and Rawnsley
There will be plenty written about Gordon Brown, his character and fitness to hold high office following revelations about his treatment of staff today in the Sunday Papers and in the coming weeks ahead of the publication by Andrew Rawnsley’s latest book ‘The End of the Party’, and while its well know Gordon Brown has a bad temper I got the feeling of sour after reading Andrew Rawnsley’s justification in the Observer, this after all was a man very close the New Labour project and a chief cheerleader for it like many journalists on the left.
Gerry Hassan writes about Andrew Rawnsley that he was as part of the establishment that has diminished British politics in a critique of New Labour and Gordon Brown over at Our Kingdom a few weeks back, Gerry wrote ‘This brings us back to Piers Morgan and the impending publication of Andrew Rawnsley’s new book, ‘The End of the Party’. It is fitting that New Labour’s period in office has been bookended by Rawnsley books. The first, Servants of the People reduced politics to tittle-tattle, gossip and positioning about who had Tony or Gordon’s ear. It earned Rawnsley lots of attention and reviews, and yet it is a depressing, diminishing book with a vacuum at its heart. This is a version of politics without ideas or ideology, and all about personalities, egos and power.
The End of the Party (Viking 2010) promises more of the same with 816 long pages filled with tales of Gordon shouting, throwing things and abusing people. These books have become the defining tomes of our truncated, atrophied democracy, and like Rawnsley’s regular Observer columns they are a deliberate collusion with those in authority, to tell a partial story about the UK. It is the Rawnsley account of our times which has led to the supposed shock value and subversion of The Thick of It and In the Loop, accounts which are all about masculinised preening and strutting, and bereft of any notion of values.
The rest of the article dubunks other myths about Gordon Brown painting his as a Labour tirbalist wanting British patronage and a man that always goes with the flow rather than standing against the tide, it also challenges the myth that the PM was a radical as he’s often portrayed but claims instead he is someone who has always played it safe and been conservative with a small c in his politics and life.
The full article is HERE
Gerry Hassan writes about Andrew Rawnsley that he was as part of the establishment that has diminished British politics in a critique of New Labour and Gordon Brown over at Our Kingdom a few weeks back, Gerry wrote ‘This brings us back to Piers Morgan and the impending publication of Andrew Rawnsley’s new book, ‘The End of the Party’. It is fitting that New Labour’s period in office has been bookended by Rawnsley books. The first, Servants of the People reduced politics to tittle-tattle, gossip and positioning about who had Tony or Gordon’s ear. It earned Rawnsley lots of attention and reviews, and yet it is a depressing, diminishing book with a vacuum at its heart. This is a version of politics without ideas or ideology, and all about personalities, egos and power.
The End of the Party (Viking 2010) promises more of the same with 816 long pages filled with tales of Gordon shouting, throwing things and abusing people. These books have become the defining tomes of our truncated, atrophied democracy, and like Rawnsley’s regular Observer columns they are a deliberate collusion with those in authority, to tell a partial story about the UK. It is the Rawnsley account of our times which has led to the supposed shock value and subversion of The Thick of It and In the Loop, accounts which are all about masculinised preening and strutting, and bereft of any notion of values.
The rest of the article dubunks other myths about Gordon Brown painting his as a Labour tirbalist wanting British patronage and a man that always goes with the flow rather than standing against the tide, it also challenges the myth that the PM was a radical as he’s often portrayed but claims instead he is someone who has always played it safe and been conservative with a small c in his politics and life.
The full article is HERE
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