Things are going to get worse....

I'm not about to defend Brown's Labour government, I posted about it before in October of last year - see  It's Broken Britain and we've got no money, but hold on..

But then again the record of the current Conservative led coalition government is no better, in that there 'Plan A' has gone all pear shape.

Let's remind ourselves of the crash of 2008, brought about by light touch regulation of the financial system, when they leveraged the risk high, to a point that everybody went shit, and panicked like mad.

We know that following any crash in the world economy, there will be a period of consolidation, when companies and private individuals in a period of low confidence will either pay off their debts or save for the future (or it seems in the US default a lot).

So the argument goes, it's wrong in the short term, to cut public expenditure to quickly and too fast, especially if your are reliant on private monies to step into the breach and help the economy grow.

And as we know the Conservative led coalition government Plan A ain't working, because it cut to quickly and too fast, and why growth is negative or near to zero. This means that in order to meet their deficit reduction target, by 2015, they will have to cut harder over the next few years.  This austerity could last over 8 years according to some experts.

But who pays for all this? - I say it should be a fair mix of cuts and tax increases, a fair distribution of tax burden. That those who made the most during them good days, when light touch regulations; which they lobbied for, made them very very rich; should in leaner times fully contribute to the upkeep of the country, and not rely on fancy tax avoidance schemes.

After all, why did the world economic system nearly collapse in 2008? - well it wasn't down to pensioner nor the disabled nor single mothers nor the unemployed.

So why, when it comes to a choice between asking the rich to pay a bit more, or the poor to loose out the most; has the Conservatives led coalition government decided to choose the latter.

Blame the poor, the disadvantaged, the elderly for living too long, blame it on over regulation, blame it on the EU, blame it on work-shy lazy layabout good for nothing British workers....but above all never accept that you, the ruling elite and your rich friends should also share the blame.

An elite, out of touch with the reality of day to day life, where ordinary people struggle to match their incomes with outgoings...when in desperation they have to turn to pay day rip off merchants to survive, or food banks in ever increasing numbers..

With the economy in ruins....their electricity policy in tatters....building aircraft carriers we cant afford, with no planes to fly off them.......in a party at war over Europe, with smaller police numbers..... they about to ask us to vote for something the majority of us never wanted - police commissioners, and the millions wasted....by a Minister of State who doesn't know how to use a calendar...supported by the Liberal Democrats who thinks it's OK to make an election pledge, fully knowing its was a 'bit doggy' and then act surprised when we the people feel aggrieved when they renegade on it...........it's not really a record anybody can be proud of is it?....and just goes to show how poor the 'elite' really are when push comes to shove, and they've laid off Jeeves.

As we leave an age when the establishment covered up the truth, journalists illegally paid investigators to hack for gossip, or paid the police the same, when people who 'of course' new about rumours of child abuse against Jimmy Saville chose not to do anything, and the banks nearly collapsed 'cause of a lack of proper regulation....and all this and more happened during the watch of supposedly educated and clever people.....it's no wonder how fucked up the UK has become.

And the answer of  those right wing idiots to all of this, you've guessed it a smaller state and less regulation  - 'I'm all right jack, know bugger off and die, you pleb'

As Lord Kinnock said in his famous 1983  I warn you speech:

- I warn you not to be ordinary

- I warn you not to be young

- I warn you not to fall ill

- I warn you not to get old.

A new grid connection across the island.

The National Grid is consulting about proposed routes for a new grid connection to serve Wylfa B (if built) and the offshore Celtic Array.  The consultation can be seen on their website.  The preferred option is a  overhead line along one the following corridors:

There was a subsea HVDC option, but that would have cost more. I'm always surprised when those who support the construction of Wylfa B and associated infrastructure, then turn round and oppose wind turbines on land, normally on the grounds it may keep the tourist away. Or those who oppose wind turbines on land but think that the more expensive off shore wind farms are better, forgetting that a grid connection would also be needed for them.

As for Wylfa B, whilst I have no problems with nuclear power, it seems it's now too expensive as a viable option if we want to keep the cost of electricity down, and not forgetting the line of new pylons buzzing away as they cross the landscape.

UKIP and jam jars.

I see UKIP are at it again, making a mountain out of  a molehill.

The Daily Post today has a letter from John Buffon and MEP for Wales claiming that the EU has banned "the reuse of containers such as jam jars" he explains further the EU rule is "to prevent 'dangerous' chemicals leaching out of pre used containers". Anyone who breaches the rules could be fined £5000 or even go to jail he writes.

What a load of utter crap!!!!!

An article in the Northern Echo says "Church organisations and the Women’s Institute are warning members that selling produce in re-used bottles for public events breaches a European rule preventing containers being re-used unless designed for that purpose."

The Northern Echo further explains "A spokesman for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said local authority environmental health officers were allowed to use their discretion in enforcing the rule.

 He said: “The EU rules state that anyone selling commercially must use a container that is designed for that, so, technically, the rule means people selling products cannot reuse a container that was not designed for re-use."

 I suppose if you were looking for the ideal container designed for re-use that does not leach out dangerous chemicals I suppose the ideal candidate would be a jam jar. After all we use glass 'cause it doesn't leach out dangerous chemicals.

Mr Buffon talks of common sense but sadly; in the world as it is today, there are many out there who would for profit, sell you food in reused containers knowing that it could through leaching damage your health.

As ever UKIP are trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, there are very good reasons behind the legislation, but that wont stop UKIP  going for the headlines......have you heard EU have banned reuse of jam jars, gosh...what will cook do now....what a bunch of  right wing idiots and no mistake.

Prospects for Wylfa B get even gloomier.

Yesterday, there was only two companies left to bid for Horizon Nuclear and build Wylfa B.

Today,  if the report in 'The Times' is correct, this in the near future could go down to one. It seems that Toshiba and owner of Westinghouse; seen as a front-runner and heavyweight player in the nuclear sector, according to 'The Times' "wants to quit the nuclear industry altogether and is struggling to raise finance for the join venture."

It would appear that the days of nuclear energy are coming to an end, with Germany and Japan already committed to phase out their own nuclear plants, and investors very reluctant to invest in new builds due to ever growing costs.

The Chinese walk away from Wylfa B?

The talk was, especially amongst local politicians,  there would be at least 3 strong bids to take over Horizon and build Wylfa B.

And according to this weeks Holyhead and Anglesey Mail that would indeed seem to be the case. "Plans for Wylfa B have taken a major step forward as bids have been submitted for Horizon....bids have been received by three consortiums" they say.

However, according to the Financial Times this Wednesday (in an article by Guy Chazan, Anousha Sakoui and Jim Pickard) "A Franco-Chinese consortium has walked away from the race to build Britain’s new generation of reactors in a setback to the government’s hopes of ushering in a revival of nuclear power."

Also the Westinghouse consortium had failed to secure Chinese state backing and the Finacial Times says "Some industry experts believe only Chinese companies have the financial firepower to shoulder the immense cost of building new reactors."

So it seems on Friday that only two bids were received from Westinghouse and Hitachi, and we may know who is the preferred bidder in about three weeks,  but even then there is still uncertainty as to whether Wylfa B will ever be built.  

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.  

At what cost do we build Wylfa B?

In the Daily Post today there is a letter from our very own MP (Albert Owen, just in case you had forgotten) about 'mixed messages on future of nuclear'.

In the letter he says "What future investors in nuclear technology and the supply chain want is clarity and certainty. Strong commitments."

But at what cost? - we know that nuclear power is not cheap, but surely there must be a point when you say sorry this is far too expensive.

OK, in the short term there would be benefits for the island if a new power station was built. But if this means even more expensive electricity bills, surely one needs to question whether in the long term its a viable solution for our electricity needs.

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.

We need investment in state schools.

It's not rocket science, we have been here before, following a recession most private companies will try to consolidate debts - and those already stretched will find it hard to gain additional monies from banks.

The affect of this can be seen most sharply in the construction industry. For many 'SME' construction firms public contracts are their bread and butter, that kept them going, whilst private jobs was the jam.

I'm talking about local firms here, with long and successful histories of employing local people, whom are part of the local community and by their presence make the community better.

Of course the current thinking within the public sector is 'bigger is better'. Rather than say Jones of Amlwch repairing schools in Amlwch or Jones of Holyhead repairing school in Holyhead, no they say we need a big contract and a big firm (excuse used as ever the EU).

This is an idea that has come from the private sector, for example a local convenience store of mine had their door handle broken for some time. The spring had broken, it would have taken a local company ten minutes to fix, but no the manager informed me they had to wait till the 'maintenance company' sent and 'engineer' from Manchester to fix the door, 'cause that was company policy.

Things it seems are pretty bad at the Ynys Môn Council when you read (as I mentioned in a previous post)  "No budget allocation is available to cover other categories of maintenance, for example painting and decorating."

Think what we know about education on the island, firstly there is far too many surplus places, ideally the council would build new primary schools to merge and replace existing schools, that are not only expensive to keep, but not really suited to the needs of modern education.

And the islands secondary schools wont last for ever, take Ysgol Bodedern, the last new secondary school to be built on the island, that was in 1977, that's over 35 years ago.

So what can we do? - well may I be so humble and suggest that we need a 'big plan' to invest for the future. And this means borrowing money, and I'm not talking about some expensive PFI scheme or an equity swap with the private sector, I'm talking of council's being allowed to borrow money to invest in new infrastructure. Can't be done you say, then I refer you to monies made available in an attempt to clear the backlog in the maintenance of our highways see:  £60m boost for maintenance in Wales.

After all not all debt is bad debt, especially with the interest rates at a historic low. We need to invest in education and the future needs of the islands children, we need to repair old schools, better still build new schools. Above all we need timely support for our local building firms and provide a boost to the local economy.

Of course this is not something the Council can do alone, and this is where the Welsh Government should step in. It's all well and easy pointing fingers and saying things should improve following an Estyn report, but you are either part of the solution of part of the problem.

Is a collapsing education system really the legacy a Welsh Labour Government wants to be remembered for?

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.