On a mission

I'm prepared to bet that Andrew Davies, the Finance and Public Services Delivery Minister, never wears knitted cardigans or turtle neck jumpers.

The man means business and his business is transforming the way public services in Wales are delivered. If you're in his company for more than five minutes, I'll offer a second bet that he'll have uttered the words 'public service delivery' - at least twice.

Now of course his lot have been in charge since 1999 so you may wonder just why in 2008 such a change of culture is needed at all. But this is the change on which Andrew Davies is so very focused: he wants the emphasis to be on you, the citizen and what you want from public services - accessible health care, good education for your children - all those things that he clearly believes have been hampered by the emphasis having been on the service provider.

So who does he blame? Local Government? Not really, though they need to spend less on making more of an impact (especially the non-Labour ones he mentioned this morning, just over a week ahead of polling day, I suppose.)

But more interesting was the direct challenge he issued: "The Civil Service needs to raise its game".

Sir Jon Shortridge, the Permanent Secretary or in civil service terms, the boss, doesn't vacate his seat until May 1st but that didn't stop the Minister from issuing challenges and pointing fingers this morning.

Men like Andrew Davies don't suffer from slips of the tongue very often, which is why another line didn't go unnoticed. "My Rural Affairs Minister ... um ... My colleague the Rural Affairs Minister ... "

A man with more than one mission?

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