Lost in translation - what does small government mean?

In Mondays Daily Post Dylan Jones-Evans (the economic adviser to the Welsh Conservatives Party) has an article with the headline "Small Government, not Big Society, should be the focus of Coalition".

A conclusion he reaches is "if a real difference is going to be made to the delivery of public services within such constraints, then the real focus of the UK Government needs to be on encouraging and supporting its own employees to develop bright ideas to make our public sector not only the most innovative in the World but, more importantly, the most cost-effective."

And what is the Coalition Government doing to encourage its own employees to achieve this, um would that be cutting pensions rights, freezing pay and making it easier to sack them - yep go figure.

He also spouts the usual right wing clap trap "that the public sector continue to have low productivity, be risk adverse and focused more on managing process than outcome".

Which may be true for some councils but not all councils, take for example Gwynedd County Council and their contract to maintain the A55 Expressway across the island - see Gwynedd Council A55 Partnership Leads the Way?

And “This is a unique agreement, whereby a public sector workforce undertakes an operational and maintenance service for a private sector company,” said Gwyn Morris Jones, Gwynedd Council’s Head of Highways. “It is also unusual to have such a long term – 18 years – contact in the civil engineering sector.”

Returning to the Prof's headline that the Conservative led coalition government should focus on small government [or small state for it's from the USA] rather than the big society, I got slightly confused because according to one website -  RationalWiki

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has helped to reinvent the concept of Small Government™ in the minds of the British people through his Big Society™ program. The Sunday Times remarked that it was "an impressive attempt to reframe the role of government and unleash entrepreneurial spirit." Through this campaign, Cameron demonstrated his advanced knowledge of Small Government™ by repackaging it for the British public. Because the Brits are socialists, they love Big things, especially government. Thus, they simply cannot understand the benefits of Small Government™ (this is likely due to socialist indoctrination at state schools). Because all government is simply a sliding scale between Small and Big Government™, cuts in government programs aren't just making government smaller, they're making everything else bigger! Hence, the Big Society™!

Rational Wiki who are they you may ask? - from the website  It's best to think of RationalWiki as a bunch of drunken skeptics down the pub pointing at bullshit and loudly shouting "BULLSHIT!" and then returning in the morning to add their references, maybe. Our good stuff is great, though.

To finish, it seems to me this idea of a 'Small Government™'is really a right wing concept from the United States, and Dylan Jones-Evans does really like to point out this or that from the United States in his articles.  I suspect though that should you;for example,ask the majority of the poor of the USA, who did not have nor could they afford health insurance, they may say they have hope now because big government had intervened.  

Council boundary changes are welcome news.

The proposals by the Local Government Boundary Commission to reduce the number of councillors on the island by 25% has finally been accepted by the existing Councillors.

This is welcome news, as I have for some time been of the opinion that multi member wards was the way forward for the islands Council  i.e see  Ynys Môn - Review of electorate arrangements – Local Government.

In the past the perception was that  if you upset the local councillor, things could be made difficult for you - so to speak. Sometimes wards were ruled over by shall we say long standing councillors whom got elected by default 'cause no one else stood against them, and if you where not in their gang tough....

At next years election at least there will be a choice, and following the election a choice of 3 Councillors from whom to seek help.

Having said that I'm still of the opinion there we have far too many councils in Wales, and that we should reduce the number - as I have said in the past bring back the old Gwynedd County Council -  Merger – odds on favourite.

Education on the island.

A recent Estyn report on the quality of local authority education services for children and young people in Cyngor Sir Ynys Môn concluded:

Overall judgement: Unsatisfactory

The local authority’s education services for children and young people are unsatisfactory because:

• standards for children and young people are below what could be expected at all key stages;
• attendance rates in secondary schools are unacceptably low;
• the school improvement service is inadequate
• not enough progress has been made in planning for school places;
• operational leadership in the delivery of education has not driven improvements in areas of under performance and schools and officers have not been held to account; and
• business planning and risk-assessment processes have not been robust enough to identify and address the slow pace of progress in education services and schools.

Capacity to improve: Unsatisfactory

The local authority has unsatisfactory prospects for improvement because:

• there has been long-term under performance at service level;
• the pace of action to bring about improvement has been too slow in the past to assure inspectors that improvement can follow this inspection without external challenge;
• self-evaluation processes have been patchy and progress against recommendations made in previous inspections has been limited;
• school leaders have not been held to account; and
• service level lines of accountability are unclear.

There is only one thing you can say - it's another damning indictment of the piss poor leadership the Councillors of the island have given us. I for one think that since power was taken away from the under performing councillors things have actually started to improve at the council. It's less me me, and more about us.

Want more evidence as to the lack of leadership - Mike Barton in his report to review the future management strategy of property assets says:

An ongoing programme of revisions to condition surveys indicates a worsening situation with regard to building conditions and the maintenance required to retain premises in good order.. .. And...

No budget allocation is available to cover other categories of maintenance, for example painting and decorating.

Yes 'what the fuck' indeed, oh and don't forget that many of these so called Councillors are Governors as well, and that many of them are still prancing around as if this had nothing to do with them.

I think Councillor McGregor got it right, when he said this morning that this was another nail in the coffin of Ynys Môn Council.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the next logical step is a merger with Gwynedd County Council and possibly others, as we were in the good old days, when someone standing as councillor did so for the benefit of the community and not as it now seems to gain advantage for themselves and friends.

The Conservatives of Gwynedd, are no more - they are a dead parrott.

In the recent elections for Gwynedd County Council, Plaid Cymru came within a whisker of becoming the ruling party - which means that they will now need to enter into a coalition with one of the other parties, or gain support from a few independent councillors.

However, the coalition talks won't include the Welsh Conservatives, because in terms of election results they do not exist within Gwynedd.

The three brave individuals whom did stand under the Welsh Conservative banner didn't do that well, they where:

Martin Anthony Peet in the Pentir ward, gained 60 votes.
Bronwen Naish in the Criccieth ward, gained 98 votes.
Robert Edward Hawkes in the Tywyn ward, gained 247 votes.

And all of them came last in their respective wards.

So in Gwynedd where the electorate in March 2011 was 85,540 (see The Electoral Commission) the Welsh Conservatives only managed a total of 405 votes or less than 1% (0.4735% to be precise).

Of course some true 'conservatives' could be hiding under the banner of independents, but that surely would be 'political cowardice'.

Anglesey Councillors stand together by falling out

BBC Radio Cymru - Taro'r Post

On Taro’r Post today there was a discussion about merging Anglesey County Council and Gwynedd County Council. Taking part where John Chorlton and Goronwy Parry, both Anglesey Councillors, both against the merger with Gwynedd County Council.

And well done to both of them for putting forward a united front by…arguing amongst themselves, requiring a Gwynedd Councillor from Caernarfon to intervene and tell them to behave.

Also I was interested in the argument put forward by John Chorlton, that if Councillors want to fall out with one and other in private behind closed doors it has nothing to do with us. John knows best, sadly his best is not good enough.

It has everything to do with us, and it’s blatantly obvious that the Councillors still haven’t got it. The problem isn’t with the Council at such, the problem has always been political infighting amongst Councillors that has resulted in a political impasse. There’s no point them denying it now – all of Wales have heard them acting like children on the very programme you would expect them to behave and show some decorum at least.

One is a Labour Councillor, the other is a Conservative Councillor, so the political parties cant even blame the independents this time.