Welsh Political News

The news caused a great guffaw of laughter. The last MP, the PASC select committee would pay to advise on PR would be Lembit Opik. But he was named by Mike Grannatt of Luther Pendragon as the only MP they employed.

It’s no laughing matter now, because a PR paper checked whether any income had been declared. The Register of Members’ Interests are bare of any mention of the £2,400 Lembit received over the past three years. In cash said Luther Pendragon, by cheque said Lembit.

I know of no circumstances in which a sum of £2,400 should not be declared. It’s likely that the standards committee will investigate this and tells whether Lembit has transgressed.

But nothing silences the irrepressible Lembit. He is in revelatory mood to one Welsh newspaper with a morsel of exclusive breathless gossip about his current attempt to destroy his persona as a serious political figure. He revealed to an under whelmed reporter that in a new series he flaunts an unexpected reticence. He refused to propose marriage to his Cheeky Girl. What else will he refuse to do on live television?

Could this be part of Lembit’s slippery PR skills in trying to kill an embarrassing story with a juicier one. George Galloway produced such a coup at a press conference called to nail his for claiming conference expenses when he worked for a charity. He startled the press by confessing that at the conference he had ‘carnal knowledge of two women’. The hacks lost all interest in his expenses.

This time, Lembit’s non –proposal did not outrank the non-declarations.  Back to the PR training Lembit, with you as the student.

Statistics liberated

From tomorrow, politicians will not be in charge of statistics.

Gordon is giving away power. It was his idea a decade ago. It’s great news for Newport because the new wholly Independent Statistics Authority is headquartered in Newport.

Tonight the Authority was launched with a glittering reception in Westminster. The cream of statistics world was there including eminence grise Lord Moser. He ran the Central Statistics Office from 1968. He told the audience this evening of one Chancellor he returned some figures produced by his department’s statisticians with the comment ‘These figures are not compatible with my policies’. He had a sharp response.

In 1989 I had a letter from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher saying it was unworthy of my to suggest that transferring the running of Newport’s Business Statistics Office to the Chancellor’s department was sinister. It was not my suggestions. It came from worried statisticians in Newport fearful that their objective work would be tainted with a political commentary.

Tomorrow’s launch will be the most significant moment in the long honourable history of British statistics. Free from all possible political interference at last.

Dear Sirs

I refer to the letter from Colin Jones in your 26 March letters page and would agree with him on many of his points. In particular he makes a valid point regarding the numbers of unemployed and homeless arriving in Rhyl from elsewhere. Many of these people, predominantly young males, present themselves at the Marine Villas Homeless Unit on Crescent Road in the town centre. They can be seen queuing for a bed from early in the day and make a nuisance of themselves.  They make for an intimidating presence for locals and for the many visitors arriving in Rhyl who disembark at the coach park opposite. They gather outside and around the unused public toilet where they can be seen openly drinking, taking drugs, urinating in public and generally behaving in an anti-social manner. There is no supervision and no apparent police presence with the will to bring them to order. The surrounding area bears the scars of their daily visits which is bringing the whole neighbourhood down!

The local people deserve better from our local authority and the police. We need to understand why these people are coming to Rhyl in such high numbers and discourage this immediately - Unlike Mark Webster who was quoted recently as saying that he sympathised with the homeless who appear to have caused the fire at the Grange Hotel and thought extra facilities should be made available for these people, it is my opinion that we must break the mould and discourage more of them coming to  Rhyl for theirs and our sakes .  I am not sure that Webster’s constituents would want a larger homeless unit opposite their homes.  Why should the people of west Rhyl have to suffer because of poor management and supervision of these people and this area. 

Ideally a New Homeless shelter should be resited and its location & size should be agreed by all stake holders starting with the Local community but until this is possible, the very least that the local families deserve is that the area should be policed and properly supervised so that they is zero tolerance policing outside the Unit to stop people causing problems, frightening children and the elderly and generally making a mess of the area. To improve West Rhyl we need to encourage families and local people to want to live & work here rather than having the huge turnover of people who drift in and out constantly. Residents of West Rhyl deserve to have a safe and pleasant environment in which to live and work  this will only happen if it is community led and then we can look forward to a  better future in Rhyl.

Colum McCormack Welsh Lib Dems

County Council Candidate - Rhyl West

Room for change
Britain’s tallest MP has circulated all MPs with a tall order.

Daniel Kawczynski is usually obsessed with regurgitating the press releases of the farmers unions begging for more taxpayers’ cash to ladle into the direction of farmers. Now he on to a new tack.

He asked whether we as MPs do not regard the first past the post electoral system as the fairest way to elect MPs The assumption is that no system could possibly be better that the one that elected splendid people like us.

I reminded him that in the General Election of 1997 and 2001 more that 20% of Welsh voters voted Tory. The result was not a single Tory elected in our 40 MPs. Fair, Daniel?

Come trample
Are MPs becoming less territorial?

I recall with a shudder bitter denunciations 20 years ago of those MPs who ventured into other MPs territories to speak without advanced notice. One Welsh MP was reported to assert his constituency limits by cocking his leg up and marking the boundaries with his individual scent. Serious woe was dumped on the heads on any MPs who trespassed.

The Assembly Ministers generally still respect the tradition but Westminster Ministers are negligent. This weekend, the whole of Plaid’s AMs descended on my constituency for their conference. Good choice. But, I don’t recall any courtesy letters.

It does not matter. I am not territorial. All politicians are free to trample over my constituency any time they wish. Stop the notes and save the planet.

Skoda power
Must be a slow news weekend. The Argus report on my blog story on how I closed down the M4 on Friday was the best-read story on their news site.

Amazingly there were two non-malicious comments. Thanks. But, Sarah from Cwmbran marvelled that I have had the tyre and wheel changed when with MP’s expenses I could go out ‘ and buy a new Jaguar.’

You have been reading too many lurid stories Sarah. For the record the car is a splendid Skoda that I bought in 2001 and it has 130,000 miles on the clock. I hope to keep it for few more years yet

Someone else objected that I was not travelling by train. There are no trains at 5.00 am in the morning' But half of my journeys are by rail.

Yesterday evening, I had a very enjoyable meal with a group of friends to celebrate a family birthday. Proof that this expenses feeding frenzy may be  getting out of hand was the first optimistic bill that I was asked to sign. It was for £16,642.24.  Some mistake with decimal points (I hope).