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Thursday, January 20, 2011

Where Wales leads?

In Wales, Assembly Members have agreed to have their pay frozen for the next four years. In Westminster, according to the Independent, they are only just getting around to asking MPs to give up the 1% pay rise ordered by the Senior Salaries Review Body.

The paper says that the Leader of the House Sir George Young will be putting a resolution before the Commons to block the increase in light of the pay freeze imposed on public sector workers.

They suggest that this will frustrate many MPs who argue they are already underpaid on £65,738 a year, and fuel anger at the tight curbs imposed after the scandal over expenses abuses. I certainly hope that this is not the case.

To be fair many Government ministers and backbenchers have opted not to accept pay rises over the past two years as the country suffered through recession. However, the Commons as a whole needs to follow the example set in Wales. Politicians cannot ask others to make sacrifices if they do not do so themselves.
Comments:
Peter in 1931 all MPs voted to take a 10% pay cut from £400 to £360 per annum. The figure only returned to £400 in 1935 and was increased to £600 in 1937. MPs therefore had the same salary between 1911 and 1937 except for the cut between 1931 and 1935. But of course that was in the good old days when Baldwin sent a cheque for over a million pounds to the exchequer because he was worried by the size of the national debt after the First World War. I can't quite see Tony Blair doing the same somehow.
 
I think the Assembly and AM's do act far more mature compared to Westminster. Despite it being the 'child' to the 'mother of all Parliaments'.

However I saw FMQ's and the viciousness between Carwyn and Kirsty was very obvious. Has something happened in the AM's xmas party!?.

But seriously I don't know why they speak to each other like that. Everyone else seemed fine. But there really is hatred between the two. Can you (or are you allowed) to say why.....!
 
Wales, in part because of its size, has enormous potential to really boost its GVA and wealth quotient. But as ‘Valleys Mam’ expounds on her great blog, one of the problems is "...inertia in the Bay and politicians (who) more concerned with process than action"

For example, I have offered my time to run 'nuts and bolts' workshops for Welsh biotech at the upcoming BioWales 2011; more specifically, a range of tips in getting patent protection in the USA. Would you believe that I have to fight to make this happen? WAG refers me XYZee who refer me back to WAG. Process gone nuts. And I am told that the section responsible for BioWales 2011 is in disarray - apparently something to do with the new ERP policy at the Department of Economy and Transport. Comical is not the word.

I was told by WAG that the speakers/workshop setup is a done deal, that it is handled by ‘the team” and when I contacted the team I am told that they are still getting it together.

I would contact IBW in NYC, but I was told that their life sciences guy is (according to the team) out of the picture, not his fault, just some more disarray from on high (IWJ). Why is IWJ (Deputy FM) imposing such disarray?

What on earth is going on?
 
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