Senedd/Election Watch - February 2016

A UCL-Wales Governance Centre report on the draft Wales Bill recommended AMs reject it, describing current proposals as “constricting, clunky, inequitable and short-sighted”. There was also criticism of “blurry forms of executive veto”. Welsh Secretary, Stephen Crabb MP (Con, Preseli Pembs.), accused critics of being...

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Fourth Assembly In Focus : Economic Profile 2016

In about ten weeks weeks time, those of us who will bother to vote will elect a new Assembly and a "new" Welsh Government. My 2016 election coverage starts today with a mini series over three weekends focusing on three key areas of devolved public policy and how they've changed over the last five years : the economy, health...

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Locals Know Best?

(Pic : cardiffcityhall.com) Yesterday, the Welsh Conservatives held a debate on the issue of local accountability amidst proposals for local government reform, as well as the campaign to trigger a referendum to introduce a directly-elected mayor in Cardiff (A Mayor for Cardiff?...

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EU Referendum : The Deal

(Pic : Reuters via BBC) As you're probably all more than aware, last Saturday the Prime Minister, EU Commission and heads of government of other EU member states (EU Council) reached agreement on a renegotiated UK membership of the EU – you can read the text of the agreement here (pdf...

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The Main Event

Earlier this week, Plaid Cymru took the unusual step of splitting their weekly debate allocation into two equally important and interesting ones – the first dealing with the Wales & Borders franchise, the second with major sporting events....

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Senedd Spanks The Banks

The World's Local Bank? (Pic : Wales Online) In what looks set to be the penultimate topical members debate of the Fourth Assembly, yesterday AMs discussed bank closures. I'll come back to another interesting and topical debate later this wee...

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Assembly petitions reforms outlined

As attentions turn to the Fifth Assembly, a Petitions Committee review has recommended a number of improvements to the petitions system. (Pic : National Assembly of Wales) (Told you so.)The National Assembly's e-petitions system, launched in 2007, has become one of the main ways the public and organisations influence decisions...

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British military might deployed to defeat Weather

"Ooh, I just know that something good is gonna happ...." (Pic : via Vimeo) At least 30 people have been killed by wind and rain on British soil in the past five years. That stands compared to 2 deaths related to terrorism and 0 deaths resulting from the military actions of a foreign powe...

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The Great Cardiff Airport Swindle?

Were the Welsh Government diddled when they nationalised Cardiff Airport in 2013? (Pic : Wales Online) As others have said, the Welsh Government's reputation when it comes to spending public money has taken a big hit over the last few days, and brings what I said in Wales reacts to steel job cuts all the more into focu...

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