Well said, Carwyn

I am delighted that my good friend Carwyn Jones is following up issues I have recently raised in speeches such as the credit crunch and the importance of co-operatives to Welsh Labour.

Maerdy Archive Group

I was pleased to welcome members of the Maerdy Archive Group to the Assembly - not for the first time - a couple of weeks ago, for the launch of the Community Archives Wales online records project. You can find the Maerdy Archive Group material here.

The project has been supported by Communities@One, the Assembly's digital inclusion project, which is funded from my Ministerial budgets in the Assembly and from Objective One monies, as well as by the Heritage department in the Assembly.

CAW is a 15-month pilot project to enable eleven groups within Communities First areas throughout Wales to create their own digital archives and share them on the CAW website. The project employs 4 members of staff. It started in January 2007 and the current phase will end in September 2008. Digital community archives are collections of material in private hands that have been digitised and interpreted by community groups, enabling the communities to present their own history in their own words.

Members of the Maerdy Archive Group have been supporting my campaign to get the Maerdy Community Centre run by a broader-based group of people. Chris Bryant MP and I held a meeting two weeks ago where a lot of people indicated they wanted to become involved in the Community Centre, and later today we will be receiving the application forms from those who want to join.

Corporate Greed

I thought I should put up the full text of my remarks which seemed to get an unexpected amount of coverage in the Western Mail and Daily Post last week. What I said was:

Only Labour is fighting seriously in every area of Wales. But because of the breadth of our challenge, we need policies that work for all areas of Wales.

We must avoid the siren voices who want us to follow false choices. It is not a choice between following London’s lead or being different in Wales for the sake of it. It is not a choice between winning aspirational voters or getting the core vote out. It is not a choice between social justice issues and quality of life issues. It is not a choice between winning in Welsh-speaking Wales and winning in Tory-Labour marginals like here in Clwyd West.

Rather it is the challenge of setting out a broad appeal which chimes with the realities voters recognise. In tough times, people know there have to be tough choices. They understand how corporate greed has brought about the credit crunch. They believe in limits to corporate power to prevent irresponsible lending to those who cannot afford it. They know that unregulated markets undermine security for all of us.

As The Times’s former Economics Editor Anatole Kaletsky warned on Tuesday, we cannot go on living

in a world of naive market fundamentalism, where politicians and media
commentators assume that the market is always right, despite the copious
evidence that markets are often very wrong indeed.

It is precisely because I spent half my working life running businesses in the private sector that I am more sceptical about markets than many in New Labour ever were. Markets have their place – but market naivety is an irrational approach for socialists. The herd instinct of the market can distort economic policy judgements and investment decisions.

You only have to look at the construction sector to see how wrong markets can be. Irresponsible lending fuelled high property prices, a short-term sense of personal wealth, and irrational investment in get-rich-quick buy-to-let schemes.

The result was dramatic falls in the share prices of construction companies, many having crippling debts, and properties which in some places builders cannot sell at vastly reduced prices.

It will be public sector regeneration, construction and development schemes that will carry the construction sector through in Wales in the immediate future.

People are not stupid. They can see how corporate greed has got us into this mess. We need to restore some passion to our appeal. People see how decisions taken in other parts of the world affect their quality of life and the pound in their pocket. They want us to be on their side and take action against the short-term rip-off merchants. This is an issue that unites core Labour voters and those who want us to persuade them to vote Labour. It unites those who call themselves working class and those who call themselves middle class. In Labour language, it’s about fairness, about responsibility, and about social solidarity.

Welsh Labour’s response to the May elections has to be political as well as organisational.

We know we have to restore a campaigning edge to Welsh Labour. But we need to restore a political edge as well. We announced an Economy Commission in February to develop new ideas for the future. It is understandable that election pressures have meant it has been on hold since February. But that Commission now needs to be convened and to start taking evidence.

Trade unionists had a key part to play in developing Labour policies. Some people think that trades unions are only interested in bread-and-butter wage packet issues. The reality is that trades unions are actively concerned about quality of life issues and social justice issues. Trade unionists are actively involved in leading debates on childcare, environmental issues, and public health. Trade unionists are actively involved in their communities and understand the concerns people have about the quality of their local schools and local services and their concerns about the safety of their communities.

Renewal in office is a challenge for any government, but it can be done. We’ve achieved a lot, but crowing about our achievements won’t win us future elections. People want to hear about what we are going to do, not what we’ve done. The country has changed so much in eleven years. Welsh Labour needs new policies, new ideas and new thinking. We need to focus on the future.

Labour can only win the next election by being on the side of hard working and aspiring individuals and families.

Communities First

I outlined the plans for the future of the Communities First programme today in the Assembly.

Included in the plans is a new Outcomes Fund to boost community regeneration in some of the most deprived areas of Wales, worth at least £25 million over the next three years.

The Outcomes Fund is the centrepiece of our plans for the next phase of Communities First. Communities First partnerships will be able to bid for the funding but will need to demonstrate that their proposals will help deliver key Communities First priorities. They will also need to show that they are working in partnership with local public bodies and have engaged with local people in planning local services.

Plans for the next phase of Communities First will give the programme a sharper focus on stimulating practical improvements to tackle poverty, contribute to wider regeneration initiatives and improving employability. They follow an extensive consultation process earlier in the year. The programme will continue to be called Communities First with some new initiatives called Communities First plus. It will also contain new measures to intervene in partnerships that are struggling to make an impact locally.

A higher proportion of the overall budget will be spent in Communities First areas.

Back to work

Following yesterday's Panorama there has been more coverage of the action needed to help people back into work.

Last week, I explained how I was launching the Jobmatch programme funded by the Heads of the Valleys programme and DWP. ITV Wales ran a good report on it, which you can see here.

Poll result

47 people voted in the poll - where were the rest of you?! A couple of hundred people view this blog daily....

Results 35 against censorship, 12 for, or 74% to 25%.

Partial censorship climbdown

We have received clarification that we are allowed to reproduce our speeches in the Assembly Chamber, no matter how party political. This means of course that we can carry party political content on our websites, so the guidance is now self-contradictory:

Fair and accurate verbatim accounts of what was said by you or others in Assembly proceedings may be included, irrespective of content.

Go and see Black Watch

Black Watch is tremendous. You can see it tonight or tomorrow night in Ebbw Vale.

EBBW VALE: Leisure Centre (01874 611 622), National Theatre Of Scotland’s Black Watch. 1pm, 7.30pm. Tickets £18/£15.

Interim victory on websites

The Assembly Commission has now decided that the guidance on websites will not become operational until 1 September 2008.

But we are warned:

In the interim, those Members who use office costs allowance to support their websites should review them.

I will be carrying on as before on this weblog while awaiting legal advice. By 1 September, we will of course have long had Counsel's opinion.

A lengthy reply has been sent to me by the Clerk to the Assembly Commission on the points I raised here. I will be responding to it in detail next week. It demonstrates how badly thought-through the advice is, and the answers given raise yet more questions.

I know of only two AMs who really support the guidance on websites - the Presiding Officer and the member of the Assembly Commission responsible for ICT, who seems to think this is a 'one-blog' protest. He can't count then either: see here and here, to start with.

Censorship exposed

Good article by David Williamson in The Western Mail on the censorship issue.

Job Match Launch

Later this morning I will be launching the Heads of the Valleys Job Match scheme. Some initial coverage is here from the Western Mail, and here from the BBC.

The scheme is based n a successfu pilot in Blaenau Gwent where 1,300 people were helped back to work iand 70% were still in work a year later.

It is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government jointly with the Department of Work and Pensions and with Working Links.

Black Watch

I am looking forward to seeing the National Theatre of Scotland's performance of Black Watch tonight in Ebbw Vale.

As I have said before, we are funding the National Theatre of Scotland's Welsh debut from the Heads of the Valleys programme as part of our campaign to change perceptions of the Heads of the Valleys. I believe tonight's performance is close to a sell-out, but there are tickets for tomorrow and Saturday.

The play is being performed at the Ebbw Vale Leisure Centre. Tickets via Theatr Brycheiniog.

Stop the censorship!

My colleague Huw Lewis rightly raises an internal issue which has been pre-occupying Assembly Members today - the attempts of the Assembly Commission to censor our weblogs under new guidance circulated to us all by email.

This illiberal guidance is supported by the Assembly Commission member responsible for ICT, Peter Black, normally the self-appointed champion of liberal causes.

I have had support from colleagues in all four political parties in the Assembly for my challenge to this guidance. I am taking legal advice on its application.

Ludicrously the Assembly panjandrums are saying that we cannot say on our websites what we can say in the Assembly Chamber.

This is madness.

Heads of the Valleys

I spoke at the launch of the Bevan Foundation's new report on the Heads of the Valleys yesterday - and was pleased to be able to report that we have spent more on the Heads of the Valleys programme than the £10 million per annum originally planned. In fact it has been £17 million last year and £15 million the year before.

I am also pleased that we were able to announce a further £1.3 million investment in social enterprise last week.

The only Tory in the Rhondda - NOT

An anonymous comment has drawn my attention to this post about the Tory elected in the RCT ward of Llantwit Fardre - which is not, as I have said before, in the Rhondda.

Election Reflections (2)

Looking around the Welsh elections for some positives, obviously the Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend results were outstanding (including Ogmore). It is disappointing that BBC Wales has failed to give appropriate coverage to the recovery in Bridgend. Labour also made 5 gains on Anglesey: before we had no councillors. And I thought given the extraordinary difficulties across Wales, the overall performance in Swansea was good.

Election reflections (1)

It was of course a bad day for Labour all over Wales and England.

Here in RCT, we were delighted to hold on to the Council. In 1999, of course, RCT was lost to Plaid Cymru. In the Rhondda in 1999, Plaid won 19 of the 25 council seats, leaving Labour with only 6.

This time, in what was the worst set of results for Labour across Wales and England arguably in 40 years, we held on to RCT with a clear majority. In the Rhondda, we came back with 17 out of the 25 council seats to Plaid's 8.

The 5 seats we lost to Plaid included one in Treorchy, where they held the other two seats already; and in Treherbert, where in 2004 we had only won the two seats with majorities of 11 and 3 . We lost two other seats by margins of 28 and 56.

Plaid hides Price and Evans

Perhaps it's no surprise that Plaid Cymru's peculiar Party Political Broadcast last night failed to feature Adam Price MP or their MEP Jill Evans. Plaid must be embarrassed by their latest outbursts.

Price's remarks that Plaid would be prepared to do a deal with the Tories at Westminster after the next General Election has caused a backlash against the nationalists in the Valleys where Tories are scarcely seen.

His remarks are almost as embarrassing for Plaid Cymru as Jill Evans attacking the thousands of jobs set to come to South Wales at St Athan. Many of my Rhondda constituents have worked at St Athan and the new Defence Training Academy which Jill Evans rejects will offer them real job opportunities. It has been estimated by assembly government ministers that the development will bring 5,000 jobs to the area.

Rhodri Morgan was right to say:

"We have worked very hard to win this project for Wales against severe competition from the West Midlands and elsewhere. The Defence Training Academy will involve activities which are far less military in character, since the academy will involve teaching skills such as engineering, electronics, and IT - all equally as valuable in civilian life after they have left the armed forces as they will be for maintaining military equipment."

Apology to Welsh Tories

I did the Welsh Tories an injustice yesterday, suggesting they were not standing candidates in the RCT council elections.

They are not standing candidates. But they are standing one candidate.

Step forward the brave Welsh Conservative in the Llantwit Fardre ward.

BBC Tries Harder

Maybe some of the messages we have been giving the BBC hierarchy about the UK network's
failure to get to grips with Britain post-devolution have hit home.

Today on Breakfast News they had Colette Hume from Cardiff explaining the Wales and England teachers' strike, and on two occasions Bill Turnbull was heard to talk about elections for all the Welsh and some of the English councils. In that order. Then they had a report on the Northern Irish economy with Declan.

Of course, it could just be a flash in the pan: sustaining it will be the test.