Storm in a teacup

The fuss over the likely loss of women AMs following the next election is a storm in a teacup.  The so-called gender balance of the Assembly was trotted out as some great achievement. Meanwhile sweet nothing was being done by WAG to help ordinary women - on equal pay, child care, public transport, decent jobs and the rest. Yes, there was a lot more talk about domestic violence and other 'women's issues' - but action on the ground? No.  The number of women AMs hides the real problems. That is what I am concerned about and not a load of puff.

No welcome for Mike Tyson

The welcome dished out to Mike Tyson on his visit to Wales yesterday hard to believe.  He was mobbed by crowds in Merthyr Tydfil. as he went to pay his respects to Johnny Owen\s family, before going for drinks with Councillors. His visit was given front page coverage on the Western Mail, who only grudgingly acknowledged that he was 'controversial'.

Controversial! This man is a convicted rapist who served 3 years for an assaulting an 18 year old woman. 

It speaks volumes that the public and media are willing to conveniently overlook this while rolling out the red carpet.  The celebration in Wales compares with the protests that greeted his arrival in Belfast, where there was plenty of opposition.  Any illusion that Wales is fair and equal has just shattered.

Backing Wales

Is the Cambria Politico blog serious? Their campaign to back Wales is laughable - and not even original! I am just about old enough to remember the risible 'I'm backing Britian campaign' of 1968. If they think some badges and a few cruddy t shirts is enough to turn around the economy they need their heads seen to.

Forecasters wrong again!

So much for our economic pundits who have got it wrong once again. Just as the morning news stories were discussing the technical end of the recession when .. oops, the figures show it hasn't.  Just like the predictions that prices were falling a year ago ... and they turned out not to be.  Ask any woman or man in Ebbw Vale or Llandudno or Llantrisant if they think the recession is ending and you would have got a more accurate answer than the pundits.

John Lewis hype

What is it with the hype about St. David's Shopping Centre and John Lewis? News shops open - fanfare! Shoppers go shopping - shock!  The Western Mail online edition carries no less than SEVEN different items in the first three pages of its 'news' coverage.  Is that really the only news in Wales?

We should have learned from the recession? Endless, credit-fuelled consumption is not the answer. It doesn't help the economy. It doesn't help the environment. It doesn't even make us really happy.

Grow up people, and start asking some serious questions about why more than 10% of males are unemployed in Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent and why manufacturing has contracted by more than 10% in a year.

As soon as Rhodri made that announcement

As soon as Rhodri Morgan has announced he is going I hear that the Office of the First Minister is to get a big boost.  Staff are going to be brought together from various outposts into a strategic centre.  The outgoing FM was always said to be not very keen on this sort of big government.  Looks like the next FM won't have much choice!

All Wales Convention heading for long grass?

Will the All Wales Convention's report end up in the long grass?  Published on the same day as the Queen's Speech, in the middle of the selection of a new  Labour leader and First Minister, to be shortly followed by a General Election, and then the Assembly election in Spring 2011.  Summer - autumn 2010 looks like the only possible time for a referendum.

And would a Tory Westminster government after May 2010 actually go along with a referendum happening at all?

Interesting times.