and there lies one of the big dilemmas – size matters, yet “local” goverment becomes very centralised as soon as you create these large authorities, and ceases to be “local”..

2. On the evolution of local government, ( you won’t get a revolution for obvious reasons ), the Assembly would do well to rebuild terms of reference, mandates or whatever you wish to call them to place emphasis on service delivery and away from score keeping, bureaucracy and other forms of self justifying activity.
The crap spoken about size of budgets under the control of assorted jobsworths is worthy of “yes Minister” at its best, the fact is that most of these people operate within all sorts of boundaries which are quite acceptable to the risk averse types that inhabit these roles. Rolling out real improvements in service by applying simple efficiency measures would be an essential goal, but likely to be thwarted by people who can only dream up obstacles and objections. Thus, we will keep on living with a paper chasing, ass covering , pension ( and severance) accumulating “elite”.

Welsh Labour won’t do away with all those cushy numbers that are held by their members out in the country. Their big dilemma is how to fiddle/reorganise in a way which maxes the return to the Party ( or minimizes the damage ! ) No other party can expect much in the way of demographic payoffs. There again, who deserves it when they have all been pretty rubbish at stimulating voter interest for years.

The assessment at the time of LGR in 1996 was that most Welsh LAs are too small to do the business and so it has proved true. The bigger, the better I say having worked for many years in a mega (and well run) Shire council in England and then in Wales, I know that a large Council is much more capable of riding the storm. (and employing those specialists to make the system work properly).

Various attempts to set up joint commissioning have usually failed whether between local authorities or with health (‘consortia’) and IMHO the only way forward is a small number of very large Councils eg North Wales, Dyfed-Powys, Gwent, South Glam, Mid Glam, West Glam, a minimum population of 300,000. Thankfully the Minister seems to be moving in this direction. There is also a case for looking at an All Wales service for areas such as Social Services and Education and addressing the divide between the health service and Social Services for vulnerable adults. We lack an All Wales approach to a number of vulnerable groups, result is that services are bought at vast expense in England or the user gets a poorer service.

Bigger, more strategic LAs could also address better some of the really difficult problems.

So lets hope that out of all this talk of ‘re-oganisation’ will come legislation at the Assembly which will guarantee the future independence of local government in Wales.

Returning to Ukip, and after listening to Farage being interviewed on radio Wales earlier today, we feel bound to ask have Ukip ‘gone native” on devolution? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04q0k9d

Won’t argue with that observation green dragon. However right now UKIP are driving attitudes, even policies where they exist, and the other major Brit parties are reacting and competing for the same pitch when they should be adopting a hostile stance if they had any morality left in them. If UKIP flipped and said “bring more in”, you’d see Labour leading the lurch in that direction !!
The entire spectrum of Anglo Brit politics is now severely damaged by the years of corruption and lack of any attempt to lay foundations for a future. Society built on Dependency culture on the one hand and huge greed on the other are all symptoms of the same malaise at the centre, probably most exposed in the behaviours of Blair & Brown,and continued by Cameron and Osborne. Falange &Co would be a minor diversion but essentially same thread of distraction politics while the elite minority fill their boots wallets and anything else to hand, with rest of us “focussed” on keeping foreigners out ( of Britain ) and other “perceived ” problems created by the ruling elites. The threat to Wales ? It is seen by the UKIPpers and the other Parties as a sideshow to manage as they see fit. That position will get worse if as expected the SNP will serve notice with a sound electoral thumping for the others in 2015

Falange “appointed” his Provincial Governor at Margam yesterday, not Welsh ( good ) not elected ( what would you expect, probably 1 of few that could spell his own name ) . Sign of the times

I have written elsewhere on this blog that the rise of Ukip, that an English nationalist party is challenging Labour in its heartlands, is a massive indictment of Plaid Cymru which might as well pack up and go home.

I would have no objection to seeing the civic centre sold off, it was a mystery to me why the Guildhall was abandoned. And there’s another jewel a little further along in the form of the Rec’.