We're moving...

It's time for a refresh. And for some reinforcements. The Bevan Foundation blog is being re-styled and redesigned. Now it will have six regular contributors and be open to others to make occasional posts. The hope is it will become a forum for debate. We've taken a famous quote from Nye Bevan as our inspiration..."This is my truth, now tell me yours"

Come and join us

What price democracy?

OK so here goes, I am sticking my head up above the parapet on AM and MP expenses. Not defending anyone, not defending anything, but reflecting on the last few weeks.

It's obvious but needs saying, but if we want politicians that are not just from wealthy backgrounds but from all sorts then we have to pay them, and cover the costs of them doing their jobs.  This includes an allowance for somewhere to live when they are away from home, an allowance for the extra costs of running that home, and an allowance for running their offices. This will of course include costs such as renting an office, setting up websites, etc etc etc.  The inferences in the Western Mail piece on AMs expenses about "office cleaning" and "office camera" with carefully placed question marks are a feeble effort to make something out of nothing (I can vouch for Eleanor Burnham's camera as she snapped me last week at our child poverty launch - I haven't made it to her photo gallery yet but the dozens of photos are proof positive that she uses the thing) and is Chris Chapman supposed to vacuum the office herself? 

As always, whenever there is money to be had, and particularly when rules are sloppily drawn, there are some (indeed quite a few) opportunist / greedy people who exploit the system - some small time, like over-generous claims for food and luxury furnishings, and some big time, like flipping and phantom mortgages, as well as the people who compromise their positions with a spot of moonlighting.  As in the rest of life, so in the Senedd and Parliament.  

Unfortunately in the furore about politicians ex's the baby seems to have gone out with the bath water. As Peter Black points out, legitimate claims for cameras, websites, software and staff training are being treated with the same suspicion as loop-hole exploiting flipping and tax avoidance.  Does this matter?

Yes, because what the snide comments, insinuations and indiscriminate mud-slinging are doing is alienating the public for politicians and politics in general.  Yes the public ought to know about and be duly outraged over the tax dodgers and duck houses, moats and phantom mortgages.  But the general opprobrium is misplaced, and simply results in fewer people standing for office and, crucially, fewer people voting.  

And if we don't have politicians, and very few people can be bothered to vote, what is the alternative?  A monarchy? The House of Lords? One Secretary of State for Wales? Government by media? A parliament (Welsh or UK) full of those with private incomes? A government elected with a tiny share of the public vote? And what of the legitimacy of that government then, when it tries to impose any major change?

Absolutely the systems need to be tightened up (the idea of claims for hundreds of pounds without receipts is laughable, let alone the duck house, wisteria et al), and definitely there needs to be much greater transparency and openness.  But next time you read something about modest claims for fairly bog standard items, ask just who wins from these supposed 'exposes'? Because it is very unlikely to be the average person,  whose voice has, very successfully, been marginalised.

Up the Valleys

New report on our website on the Heads of the Valleys called 'Good to be Here'. Read it, comment on it, and change your thinking about it.

Child Poverty - plenty to be done

The Bevan Foundation's report on child poverty was launched last week, and has already attracted an encouraging response - see Valleys Mam, A Change of Personnel and Syniadau.

As part of the report's launch a panel of AMs (Eleanor Burnham, Mark Isherwood, Helen Mary Jones and Huw Lewis) discussed what more should be done in Wales.  Although the consensus about the need to tackle child poverty is now standard, what was more surprising was the broad agreement about what else is needed. Both Huw Lewis and Helen Mary Jones were pretty critical of Assembly Government to date - Huw pointed out that it took Wales 6 years to get round to its child poverty strategy (during which time child poverty nevertheless improved!) compared with Scotland's very rapid response, whilst Helen Mary questioned whether the priority given to child poverty was any more than rhetoric. Instead she said Ministers needed to get tough, really tough,  with each other, with civil servants who deliver, and with other public bodies. She called for Chief Executives to be held accountable for performance on child poverty and for Ministers to give an annual report to the Assembly on progress.  It was clear that both these AMs were champing at the bit to see some action.

There was also a broader mood of 'toughness', with both Huw Lewis and Helen Mary Jones commenting on the huge increases in public spending that had yet to make a visible impact on poverty, and frustration with public bodies who did not seem that poverty was anything to do with them.  All good stuff.

PS Sorry for the delay putting the report on our website following some technical difficulties (aka slo-band in Tredegar).  

Dai bananas?

The de-contamination strategy continues. David Cameron says the Conservatives were 'wrong' on Scottish devolution.

Mr Cameron says that the Major Government:

should have spent more time in government thinking, how do we give legitimate help to those people within our United Kingdom who want to have a greater expression of self-government?

It is worth noting that he doesn't necessarily think that a democratic answer was the correct one. Finding "a greater expression of self-government" could easily have meant a symbolic solution.

Looking ahead, the man who is on course to be our Prime Minister said he would respect the right of the Scottish Parliament to rule on domestic matters in Scotland if he became Prime Minister.

Why then do David Jones and Cheryl Gillian (the Welsh Tory frontbench) want to veto a request from the National Assembly for a referendum on further powers?

We don't yet know Mr Cameron's view on that. Until we do the rest is just mood music.

Social enterprise research on the environment

Insulating buildings and fitting green energy across Wales could create thousands of jobs and slash climate-changing emissions, according to independent research released by Friends of the Earth.
The research – by social enterprise and environment experts Carbon Descent – was published to launch a new nationwide campaign calling for local councils to take urgent action to cut CO2.
Friends of the Earth’s campaign – Get Serious About CO2 – is calling on councils to commit to cutting carbon dioxide emissions in their local area by at least 40 per cent by 2020 and produce an action plan detailing how they will make the cuts.
The new research analyses the manpower required to insulate homes and businesses and install green energy on buildings – which are two of the key ways in which councils could achieve a reduction in their emissions at least 40 per cent by 2020.
Over a 10 year period, new jobs could be available as loft laggers, architects, plumbers, builders, electricians, plasterers and insulation specialists – with new admin, transit and warehouse positions also created to support the installation of insulation and renewable energy.
Councils have a big say over local energy, housing and transport but Friends of The Earth claim that at the moment that most councils do not have a long term target for cutting CO2 emissions.
Pauline Mann, of the Wyre Forest Friends of the Earth group, said: “With the economy in such a sorry state at the moment most places could really use the boost from more new local jobs over 10 years insulating homes and installing renewable energy.
I have often wondered why we are not encouraged to install solar energy as they do in Denmark.
Most of the Street lighting and Road lights are run by solar power.May be a social enterprise should look at producing and selling those. I know of quite a few people who would be delighted to buy and use them.
That would give me a good feeling in my efforts to be environmentally friendly,although I am now an avid recycler with my six bins!

Small business is owed so much

Small firms in the UK are owed around £10 billion in late payments on any given day, according to a report from Barclays. The Local Business annual Late Payments report reveals that each small business is out of pocket by £2,440 because of suppliers or customers failing to pay within the 30 day invoice period. Of the 750 SME owner-managers or senior decision makers polled, 36% said they had to use personal funds to tide over their business. SMEs are currently spending 1.3 hours a day chasing outstanding payments, equating on a national level to more than 685,000 working days. This has raised concerns that despite some positive signs of economic recovery, late payments are on the increase and nearly a third of small businesses claim they threatened their survival.
Money and cash flow is crucial for a small business, few have any reserves other than the owners pocket, their reserves are being held by late and sometimes non payers.Chief among these I have found are government and local authorities. The same is often true from the same sources in respect of grant payments to organisations. Either they are not efficient , in that case get your administration sorted , or they do not realise the effect on business.
This figure is far far to high.
Find out more at
https://sites.stockpoint.com/dain/newspaper.asp?site=D&Mode=Money&Story=200905
19/139u3925.xml

MPs research

Today's Western Mail claims that the Bevan Foundation received £4,000 from Dai Havard MP for a study on 'Common Health Conditions in Merthyr Tydfil'. Unfortunately, a quick check of Dai's invoices shows that the bill was in fact from Cardiff University not the Bevan Foundation.

The report is correct that the Bevan Foundation did undertake a different piece of research that was part funded by Dai Havard (for £2,500), and another piece that was part funded by Huw Irranca Davies (for £3,000). The research reports have been on our website for some time - see them here and here, with MPs' contributions fully acknowledged in the reports, in our annual accounts, and in our regular mailings to members.

I am 100% in favour of public scrutiny of public expenditure (and look forward to similar scrutiny of other public bodies' spending such as the BBC) but journalists have a duty to get their facts right.

Is the Welsh language prolonging the recession?

That seems to be the suggestion made by two leading Welsh economists.

Writing in the latest Bevan Foundation review Professor David Blackaby and Professor Philip Murphy of Swansea University assess what actions the Assembly Government could take to deal with the recession. Not many, seems to be the conclusion.

Education is one area where they suggest WAG could do more to up-skill the Welsh workforce. So what’s stopping them? That damned obsession with the language…

Does the schooling system provide sufficient business and economic skills to its pupils? Evidence suggests these skills are highly rewarded in the labour market but they are not a mainstay of the curriculum. Similarly other features of the current curriculum may need to be reviewed. For example is the amount of time given to learning Welsh in schools an efficient use of resources? If it should remain compulsory should it be compulsory up to the age of 16?

Having planted that idea the authors go on discuss what can be done to make Wales a more business friendly environment. And then, up it pops again…

Should the Welsh Assembly Government consider the business costs of additional legislation in relation to the Welsh Language?

It is long article – long on analysis, short on solutions – and I don’t want to unfairly seize on one element, but it seems odd to me that they keep coming back to the cost of language policy. What of the costs of other policies deemed to have a social benefit?

What is their vision – a nation of English speaking entrepreneurs?

Facts we need to know

Research by the Department for Work and Pensions explores the characteristics and circumstances of families and children in 2007. The report is based on analysis of the Families and Children Study (FACS). This study began in 1999, with a representative sample of all lone parents and low/moderate-income couple families. From 2001 a representative sample of lone parents and all couple families with dependent children were interviewed.
FACS provides information about children, their parents and families as a whole across a wide range of subjects. The first part of the report focuses on the circumstances, lives and conditions of families, and topics covered include: family characteristics, health, education, work, income, benefits and tax credits, social capital, money management, housing and deprivation. The second part of the report focuses on the circumstances, conditions and lives of children, and topics covered include: child characteristics, health, schooling, children's activities, childcare and child maintenance.

The report is: DWP Research Report No.578 ‘Families with Children in Britain: Findings from the 2007 Families and Children Study (FACS)’ by Dan Philo, Natalie Maplethorpe, Anne Conolly and Mari Toomse

The main findings include the following:

* Almost one-quarter (23 per cent) of children lived in a lone parent family. Lone parent families were more likely than couple families to live in social housing, to be in the lowest income quintile and to have at least one child with a disability.
* Four out of five (83 per cent) families had at least one parent working 16 or more hours per week (pw). Fifty four per cent of lone parents worked 16+ hours (pw) and 57 per cent of couple families had both partners doing so. Forty one per cent of lone parent households were workless compared with 5 per cent of couple households.
* One in 6 children (17 per cent) lived in a household where no one worked over 16 hrs (pw). The majority of these (11 per cent of all children) were in lone parent households.
* Forty one per cent of lone parents and 55 per cent of couple mothers who worked less than 16 hrs (pw) reported ‘do not want to be apart from my children’ as a reason for not working full-time.
* Fifty one per cent of lone parents working less than 16 hrs (pw) reported ‘always or often’ running out of money before the end of the week or month. Thirty seven per cent were worried about money ‘almost all the time’.
* Over half (56 per cent) of children with working mothers were placed in child-care. Use of informal childcare (41 per cent) was more prevalent than formal childcare (28 per cent).
* Perceptions of the affordability and quality of childcare remained similar to 2005 and 2006. For 2007 around a quarter (27 per cent) of mothers reported that there was ‘not enough childcare’ and that childcare was ‘not at all affordable’ (26 per cent). Mothers were positive about the quality of childcare in their local area, over a half (58 per cent) said it was ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ good.
* Approximately 42 per cent of families with a child maintenance interest did not have an order/agreement for child maintenance. Two thirds (68 per cent) of families with an agreement in place received payments. Families with a voluntary agreement were more likely to receive payment on time compared to those with a CSA assessment.
* One in ten mothers had a limiting long-term illness or disability that limits daily activities They were more likely to be lone parents than couple mothers, live in social housing and to be in a lower income quintile.
Background to the research
1. The sample was drawn from Child Benefit records. Interviews with 7,109 families with a total of 10,631 dependent children were conducted in autumn/winter 2007. Main interviews were conducted with the ‘mother figure’ in the household, with partners interviewed where present and willing to participate.
2. The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) conducted the fieldwork for the research, and the analysis of FACS contained in this report.
3. ‘Families With Children in Britain: Findings from the 2007 Families and children study (FACS)’ by Dan Philo, Natalie Maplethorpe, Anne Conolly and Mari Toomse. DWP Research Report Series No. 578 will be published in early June 2009. A summary and copy of the report is available on the DWP website: http//www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/.

Thinking new thoughts?

After marching his troops half way up the hill, he marched them down again.

On reflection Jonthan Morgan realised he didn't have the firepower to follow through with his assault on Nick Bourne, so in this week's speech to Cardiff University he pledged loyalty to his 'culturally English' Leader. There were plenty of coded digs, but nothing quite as overt as his last speech.

There were though some interesting ideas. A more independent Welsh Conservative Party, directly elected Mayors for the big urban authorities and positive discrimination - reserving vacant list seats for women. Nothing particularly original, but bold for a Tory.

The truly radical idea though was to hold a 'US style open primary' to chose the next leader of the Welsh Conservative Party.

Clearly Mr Morgan thinks he has greater mass appeal than Darren Miller or Andrew RT Davies. But though there are difficulties with the idea, and the parallel with the US is less than exact (our voters don't register their Party affiliation), it is imaginative, refreshing and worth considering.

This is what he said:

What have we got to be afraid of?

If we are to stretch our horizons, then we have to stretch our imaginations.

If we are to convince the people of Wales to embrace the Party and make it theirs then we have to make it a Party they are openly proud to support and vote for. There’s no better place to start than with the selection of the person at the top.

It looks at though at least one leadership election will be debating new ideas.

All change (again) on welfare reform

Apart from PCS's campaign, there has been relatively little comment on the latest changes to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions - Yvette Cooper being the 9th incumbent since 1997. Ms Cooper has a golden opportunity to dump the pernicious reforms promoted by her predecessor and bring forward some progressive proposals based on support not sanctions. She could start with increasing Job Seeker's Allowance, as argued by Joseph Rowntree Foundation and in the forthcoming issue of our magazine; go on to ending the threats of withdrawing benefits when people don't find non-existent jobs; start offering decent, long term training to equip people with the skills they need, and en route make sure they provide a decent service to disabled people.  

But if she doesn't well, there will surely be another Secretary of State shortly. Who knows it might even be Theresa May, Shadow Sof S. 

Swine Flu - pandemic of the fortunate?

Today's Scottish Review is worth a read, for its challenging view on:

• How the World Health Organisation's 'alert' has misled the public
• How we are being deceived by official statistics
• How the response to the virus may be a 'psychological operation' by national governments.

Meanwhile every five seconds, a child dies of hunger. For this child, swine flu is not a problem.

What's he up to?

Huw Lewis is a cleverer politician that most of the cabinet give him credit for.

On Friday night he urged Rhodri Morgan to stay on until the expenses row blows over "for the sake of the party and the country" - and of course to help those caught up in it.

By association he allied himself with his popular outgoing leader, while also distancing himself from him.

In a cleverly crafted section of his speech, Huw Lewis followed up his priase for the First Minister by drawing a contrast with the man who sacked him twice:

"We come from different generations, with very different backgrounds - it would be completely bizarre to think that we could agree on every issue under the sun. Indeed on some issues we are on a different page altogether".

While supposedly praising his leader he portrayed himself as loyal, young, rooted in the Labour movement and with a new agenda. Clever, eh?

Huw Lewis has demonstrated how politics is an art not a science.

His putative opponents have been slow in waking up to his strength as a candidate, they should no longer be in any doubt.

Michael Moore

Twenty years after his documentary Roger & Me, about the destruction of car manufacturing in his home Town of Flint, Michigan. Filmmaker Michael Moore says the bankruptcy of General Motors should provoke a re-think about the future of car production:

Just as President Roosevelt did after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the President must tell the nation that we are at war and we must immediately convert our auto factories to factories that build mass transit vehicles and alternative energy devices. Within months in Flint in 1942, GM halted all car production and immediately used the assembly lines to build planes, tanks and machine guns. The conversion took no time at all. Everyone pitched in. The fascists were defeated.

We are now in a different kind of war -- a war that we have conducted against the ecosystem and has been conducted by our very own corporate leaders. This current war has two fronts. One is headquartered in Detroit. The products built in the factories of GM, Ford and Chrysler are some of the greatest weapons of mass destruction responsible for global warming and the melting of our polar icecaps. The things we call "cars" may have been fun to drive, but they are like a million daggers into the heart of Mother Nature. To continue to build them would only lead to the ruin of our species and much of the planet.

In other news...oil prices are climbing up again