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Benedek

Listed below are comments made by Benedek between Tuesday, 17th November 2009 and Thursday, 3rd December 2009.

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Guess who? 2:33pm on 03 Dec 2009 Labour is committed to have 40% of its candidates in next year UK election female. If anyone does stand down it could be really interesting. Look what happened in the Vale. Letters in the press criticising the all women shortlist, members boycotting the selection meeting and those who turned up not voting for candidates favoured by the party bosses. Instead they voted for a woman in her 60s who wasn't even member of the party during the Thatcher years. The real fun will start when selections for the 2012 council elections get underway. Labour rules state that in multi member wards at least one of the candidates must be female. With the Local Boundary Commission recommending more multi member wards the chances of turmoil amnongst male Labour councillors who will not be able to stand will be pretty great. It wasn't enforced for 2008 but everyone expects to to be enforced for 2012. Last year in England constituency parties that didn't abide by the rule were suspended. Happy days for the other parties and the growing band of independent councillors.
Lessons learned 10:39pm on 29 Nov 2009 14 The Assembly is responsible for transport. We have a capital city with a railway station fit for the 19th century. Just imagine if on Saturday the game had been against England and people were trying to get back to Bristol and Gloucester.English supporters would have thought that they were in a Third World country. What happens outside Cardiff station isn't exactly the greatest advert for the new 'comfident Wales' we hear so much about from the political class in the Bay. Of course they don't have to worry about the chaos outside Cardiff station because they can go back to their subsidised flats or claim for a night in a hotel after the corporate hospitality. No need for them to fork out £60 for a ticket. Frankly it wouldn't happen in the rest of Europe. You might be happy to be treated as if you are waiting for a train in the days of the Raj. I'm not and neither should anyone else in any part of Europe in the 21st century. Real money needs to be spent on Cardiff station and not wasted on pet projects such as Air Ieuan and would be spent if the priorities of the Minister of Transport a certain 'country solicitor' as one of his Party described him were different.
Lessons learned 07:41am on 29 Nov 2009 Having stood in the pouring rain outside Cardiff Station after yeaterday's horror display forget about the referendum. Is there any chance that our politicians might decide to provide us with a transport system fit for the 21st century? What an advert for the new Walesas thousands stood loke cattle outside an empty station. All this after paying over £60 to watch a bunch of amateurs play real professionals. I though the whole experience summed up what is wrong with Wales in a nut shell. Capital City don't make me laugh. Capital City at least have main transport links that work. Manwhile all Ieaun Wyn Jones is interested in is new transport links between North and South which are used by very few. No new links to the airport or improvement around Newport as money is put into Plaid's pet transport projects which are driven by ideological motives. Last night I was more interested in getting on to platform 4 than moving from Part 3 to part 4 One good point was that at least it showed that my prostrate was in good working order
Holding your breath 3:15pm on 26 Nov 2009 Completely meaningless statement considering that nothing is going to happen before the next General election. We don't even know what the general direction of public expenditure under a labour government will be until the pre budget report. No date has been set for the next comprehensive spending review and we will have to wait until the Tories' first emergency budget in June to see where they will make the cuts. Does anyone seriously expect Wales to get more money as public expenditure in England is being cut to shreds. This is Alice in Wonderland politics.
No rush, lads 2:24pm on 24 Nov 2009 Those who argue for an October referendum seem to be placing all their hopes on a Tory win in next year's UK election. In this scenario a 'yes' vote is a certainty as Welsh voters decide to protect Wales from the Eton Taliban. The only problem with this is that if the Tories do win many Welsh voters will have voted Tory as they did in 1979. Labour will be more interested in analysing the defeat and selecting a party leader by the time of the party conference in September of 2010. For many in the Labour party campaigning for a yes vote in the autumn of 2010 will be the last thing on their mind. I also can't see a new Tory government rushing through a referendum act when their main concern will be to ensure that any emergency budget measures are implemented. For the Assembly cabinet the main issue should be not lawmaking powers but how to cope with the cuts in the Assembly's budget caused by the emergency budget. The only people will a problem with this scenario of no referendum before 2011 are Plaid's leadership who sold the coalition to party members on the premise of a referendum before the next Assembly elction. Labour to use a rugby metaphor have 'kicked the problme to touch'.
Game on, not game over. 1:45pm on 24 Nov 2009 Poll that has Labour just 6 points behind the Tories points to a Tory lead of 9 points in England. Another poll today by a company used by political betting.com has the Tories 17 points in front. Even in 2005 the majority of voters in England voted for the Tories. All the indications are that Gordon Brown is not an asset fot the Labour Party and will not gain votes for Labour in any election campaign. The Tories might not have sealed the deal with the electorate but all the opinion poll data suggests that Cameron has.Elections are decided by many factors but there is nothing to suggest that Labour will make up the deficit by next June. Not only will the economy not have recovered but Blair's appearance before the Chilcot inquiry will once again make the lies over the Iraq War an issue. Even in the You Gov poll being quoted with regard to a majority in favour of lawmaking powers the raw data suggests that the Tories are just behind Labour in Wales and way in front of both the Liberal Democrats and Plaid. Unfortunately some people believe that unless the polls suggest a win 1997 style then nothing is certain. Poll leads now being consistently held by the Tories would have delighted any politician between 1950 and 1979. Although nothing is certain in life the comments by Michael White in the Guardian of a Tory win with a working majority are probably spot on. But whoever wins, our friends in the Assembly have to get used to serious cuts in their budget. Also further bad news for the nationalists with a poll north of the border showing that the majority of Scots do not want independence and that the SNP will not make a break through in next year's UK election.
Ratio Ga Ga 12:02pm on 24 Nov 2009 We are often being told by some that Wales should follow Scotland. In Scotland all the ward boundaries were changed for the 2007 council elections. Scottish councillors are all elected for large multi member wards. As for the so called democratic deficit of 5 councilors being elected on 28% of the vote. That's is easily resolved by adopting the Scottish PR system for electing councillors which ensures thta every vote counts. It cannot be right that there are some wards in Wales at the moment with an electorate of under 1000 whilst other councillors have to represent over 3000 voters. I've looked at the Boundary Commission report for Neath and Port Talbot. In the Afan valley for example they have recreated the old West Glamorgan ward for the Upper Afan valley but with 2 councillors instead of one. For years County Councillors who were responsible for over 85% of local government services pre 1996 represented wards of over 4000 voters. You never heard them complain. They just got on with the job often for allowances which were peanuts compared to the salaries now being earned by certain councillors. They would have been astonished by the allowances now being claimned by some councillors. Criticism of the independent boundary commission has nothing to do with fears for democracy and everything to do with certain individuals worrying about the loss of income if they cease to be councillors after 2012. There shoudl also be no political interfernce with the work of an independent body without any political axe to grind.
Yes, probably. 07:50am on 19 Nov 2009 Those who filled in the You Gov poll were also asked who would win the X factor!
Yes, probably. 07:58am on 18 Nov 2009 What a complete waste of a year. As for pressure on Rhodri Morgan's successor. It definitely wouldn't come from the Labour Party. If Plaid wish to place a motion before the Assembly before June 2010 then that is up to them. Labour AMs will only vote in the affirmative if the wider party agree. With Labour MPs opposed to a referendum before 2011 and an election to be fought before June then the odds of such an event happening is pretty slim. To argue that the Assembly can become a full law making body without extra members and therefore have no effect on Welsh representation at Westminster is nonsense. You also can't have full law making powers in my opinion without some form of revenue raising powers to finance those new laws particularly in the present economic climate.Those who point to the large numbers of Acts passed by the Scottish Parliament should really look at the effect of many of those Acts. Many Scottish commentators argue that too mnay new laws have been passed in Scotland for the sake of it. Scottish opinion poll data also suggests that many Scots just don't believe that the Scottish Parliament has had any effect on their lives.It will also be interesting to see how they continue to finance some of the services set up by those new laws when the Scottish Audit Office is arguing that there is a £3 billion black hole in the Scottish budget. It will be even bigger if the Barnett formula is ever changed. The Jones-Parry report might interest the anoraks but I doubt whether many members of the public will be excited by its publication. A non event I'm afraid when over the past year those in favour of lawmaking powers should have been out there arguing their case and not hiding behind the Commission. As for the 'fog' argument. How many voters understand the effect of European legislation on their lives. If you use the logic of Jones-Parry there should be a directly elected European government to create more transparency. Now that would cause some discussion in Upper Cwmtwrch.
Minding your language 07:18am on 17 Nov 2009 The majority of people in Wales are not really interested in whether any of the three speak Welsh or can even read Homer in the original Greek. The real issue is what will they do to enable so many of the fellow citizens to enjoy the fruits of economic life that they lead as assembly members. While the elite argue about arcane constitutional issues most people in Wales continue to struggle to live on some of the lowest wages in the UK. 10 years after devolution we are still bottom of the league in too many aspects of life. Perhaps on Thursday Betsan you should do a vox pop and just go to any town in Wales and ask ordinary people in the street without prompting what they think of the Jones -Parry report. It will be interesting to hear the answers.

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