Nos Galan

The Nos Galan races were again this year a terrific success. I'm pictured here with my fellow Plaid candidate and running partner Ioan Bellin. We both improved our times on last year - though given that my time improved by one second to 21.39 - it'll be another 100 years before I'm in the elite category!!!

I was delighted to see so many friends running Nos Galan and it really is a great event. A big thank you too to the volunteers who make it happen. For one night political rivalries were put to one side and I was inspired onwards by the encouragement of Cllrs Crimmings and Ward - thanks both!

The key thing with running and training is to keep it up and over Christmas I was talking to a friend about the really great Cwmaman Dragons running group run by Lee Davies and Tony Dally. I hope to join them soon - but if you're looking to start training now for Nos Galan why not join the dragons - or do a spot of Nordic Walking with Lee at the Country Park on a Saturday.

The End of the Liberal Democrats is Getting Closer

We now have a clearer view of the position of the Liberal Democrats on tuition fees:

Nick Clegg, Vince Cable and other leaders will vote in favour (thus ensuring in all likelihood that Higher Fees are introduced)
Simon Hughes and others can't apparently make up their minds and therefore will abstain (again helping the Tories to get fees through Parliament)
and then apparently a number of backbench Lib Dem MPs including Roger Williams and Mark Williams from Wales will vote against

And this from a Party that pledged not to increase fees! Less a Party more a rabble in the current circumstances.

More than anything however going into government has exposed the very significant weakness of the Lib Dem political position. You can for a while get away it seems with being all things to all people, and very different things to very different people. This can 'work' as long as you are in opposition - but in Government such an approach gets exposed for precisely what it is - political opportunism with very few core beliefs. This is I'm sure what we're seeing now, and will see again over the next few years as Lib Dem MPs whose politics range from a harder left position that most Labour MPs in some cases, to considerably more right wing that the majority of one-nation conservatives.

The problem for the Lib Dems is that they are not one party - rather a disparate collection of protest groups that didn't find a comfortable home in the UK context in either the Tories or Labour.

The next few years will be very interesting in terms of the rise and fall of the Lib Dems.

Managed badly we could return to Liberal representation akin to the 1950s where no one is happy with the direction of the Party. Alternatively, Clegg and his team could set out a right wing socially and economically liberal political position. This would undoubtedly be challenging, many members would leave, particularly in Wales and Scotland, but at least the Liberals would have a definitive political position to face the next election. Anything surely would be an improvement on the current 'position'.

Tackling Top Pay

During the General Election Plaid put forward proposals to link the pay of the most senior managers in an organisation with the average pay. I think its fair to say that the other parties weren't overly keen on the idea! Imagine my surprise today then to read a proposal from a UK Government Commissioned report to link top to bottom pay in the public sector. Coverage of the Will Hutton report is here on the BBC.

I would support such a move, but more importantly why single out the public sector. I'm convinced that such wage policies in the private sector too would lead to improvements and encourage the most senior managers in a company to align their interests more closely with the average worker.

Conservatives in Chaos

There's been an interesting exchange overnight on Twitter between Vaughan Roderick (@vaughanroderick) and others about the Conservatives rapidly unravelling budget policy. Apparently within 24 hours we've been treated to three different versions of how the health budget will be protected. Now you might think that the difference between the GDP deflator and RPI is so minimal that it wouldn't make much of an impact - but actually the difference by the end of the next Assembly term would be £200 million every year - an enormous chunk of the Welsh budget.

There is a very serious underlying point here about the Conservatives in Wales. They have worked hard to present themselves as the acceptable face of Conservatism - and it seemed they were making some progress. The UK Government's cuts programme has taken us right back to the 1980s, and therefore they have been desperate to regain the initiative in the Welsh context and present themselves in a positive light. But rather than look in detail at the challenges facing the Welsh budget, I suspect the headline chasing instincts of Andrew RT Davies, overruled the more rational and careful members of the Conservative team in Wales.

The Conservatives are now left with a very real dilemma, the 'policy' was clearly ill-thought through and if anyone is any doubt, just listen to Andrew Davies trying to defend it yesterday on Good Morning Wales. The detail of the policy needs to be worked through very rapidly and effectively - and be clear that this will be painful - every school in Pembrokeshire, the Vale, Denbighshire etc that will be closed by the Tory spending plans will I'm sure be identified! But the Tories have to do their homework, and explain their cuts; because it is one scale of problem to adopt bad policy - to adopt an incredible policy which every journalist knows isn't worth the paper is written on is fatal.

Caring for Carers

I was sadly not surprised to see the BBC story this morning on the number of young carers in the UK. The story details how there are four times as many carers as previously estimated. Having visited RCT Crossroads and found out about the excellent work they do, and seen friends and relations caring for their relatives I know how vitally important carers are.

The danger in the current circumstances is that the very important support for carers may be cut in the midst of widespread public sector cuts. The truth however is that unpaid and with little thanks this army of carers makes an enormous contribution to society and if they stopped their activities the burden on health and social care budgets would be far higher.

Remembrance Sunday / Concert

I was delighted to join Cllr Brian Arnold and the Legion in Ynysybwl yesterday evening for a Remembrance Concert. There really was a feast of entertainment laid on including Tylorstown Brass Band fresh from winning the UK band championships, Ynysybwl Ladies Choir, Ystrad Mynach Male Voice Choir and the Ynysybwl Drama Group. There was also a formal service of remembrance and poems read by Tiegan James - the Grand-daughter of Leighton James, Secretary of the Legion in Ynysybwl.

It was a very well put together evening and I particularly enjoyed the Band's rendition of Benedictus by Karl Jenkins, having heard a really interesting interview with him on the Roy Noble programme on Thursday afternoon.

It was also good to catch up with Arfon Williams who has done excellent with the Golden Grove appeal - raising money to create a centre for the care of veterans suffering from PTSD in Wales. He's a remarkable man, and the team has already raised over £100,000 for this centre.

The most sobering element of the evening was the address by the President who told us that more soldiers who served in the Falklands have now killed themselves since coming home, than were killed by the Argentinians during the conflict. If ever there was a stark warning about why we must invest in veteran's service then that is it.

Student Fees and the NUS/UCU Demo

Sian Taylor from the Students Union at Glamorgan has posted a link to an NUS video of the real story of the demo on Wednesday. It is a real shame that the papers are focusing on a small element of the demo, when tens of thousands of students and lecturers turned up to make a very clear statement about the impact of fees. The video is on youtube here. Its worth having a look at.

You may also think why are we worried about what's happening on student fees in England? But if fees at £9,000 are introduced in England it would have an enormous impact on the Higher Education Sector in Wales and lead to some very challenging choices indeed. The answer of course is to defeat this proposal in the House of Commons - and it'll be interesting to see what the Liberal Democrats - Ministers and MPs do on this particular issue. It cannot pass without their support.