Bethan Jenkins AC/AM Blog

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Good to see Jocelyn Davies AM, Deputy Housing Minister launching this action plan…Here is the Government’s statement on the issue that was sent to all AMs.

I will announce the launch of the Mortgage Rescue Action Plan in a Plenary debate on Wednesday 24 June 2009.

The Action Plan sets out the actions we intend to take with our partners to address the threat to people’s homes due to mortgage repossession.

Mortgage repossession actions have risen significantly over the last two years, and is an indicator of the financial stress experienced by many households in the current economic climate. I recognised the need to tackle this issue last year when I established a working group to identify the action needed to mitigate the problem.

The Mortgage Rescue Task Group includes membership from the Council of Mortgage Lenders, Third sector advice organisations, the National Landlord Association, and representatives from the Local Authority and Housing Association sector. Its work has led the development of a new action plan to help prevent repossession amongst home owners.

The Mortgage Rescue Action Plan I will be launching incorporates a programme of action involving a wide range of partners, and requires complementary measures to enable people to retain their accommodation wherever possible. Where it is not possible we must ensure people have the help and advice they need to secure alternative accommodation which meets their needs.

The Action Plan includes measures to improve access to debt and related financial advice; training to improve the skills of front-line staff in providing this advice; ensuring court action for repossession is only taken as a last resort; and making the best use of our Mortgage Rescue Scheme to help those in greatest need. These actions will link in to the implementation of the Financial Inclusion Strategy which is currently being finalised.

We have already carried out wide consultation on a draft Ten Year Homelessness Plan for Wales. This Plan will set out our long term vision for tackling homelessness, including our emphasis on prevention through comprehensive advice and assistance, improved regulation, strengthening people’s financial capacity, and better liaison between agencies to ensure people have access to alternative housing options including mortgage rescue services.

I’m in a celebratory mood today. I never win anything, but today I’ve won the ballot for the short debate at the National Assembly that will take place next Wednesday at 6pm. I have quite a few ideas, but feel free to lobby me until end of play tomorrow and I will consider your ideas. Given that my efforts alongside other Plaid AMs failed in getting any time for government backbench debates  in the Assembly, this is really one of the few times in the day where we have a chance to put forward our agenda, on our terms. So no pressure then!

On a not so positive note, it was disheartening to learn today that George William and his family, based in Swansea but originally from Pakistan, have been detained in Yarlswood detention Centre yesterday for a second time. I have tried to help the family in their fight against deportation and their sons, who were detained last year, and I hope that I can help this time again. I met the family at their home, and the children were doing so well at school, so it is unfortunate that they have been lifted from the community so abruptly. I’ve asked Brian Gibbons as Social Justice Minister to look in to this case- specifically the areas where we can make a difference- in education and health, and this in the context that the children are now unable to receive education, and that their rights are quite clearly being undermined by being detained in this way.

I will of course contact the Home Office, but this is one discussion that I am really keen to have on the new cross party group on human rights. I often feel frustrated that we cannot do more to help asylum seekers, especially when they are detained, but if AMs come together to discuss common themes, I think we can strengthen our campaigning most definitely.

If you want to support the family, then please write to Alan Johnson at the Home Office , 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF. Will he do anything differently on this agenda to his predecessor, I wonder??

I am on the show AM PM tomorrow briefly- talking about the last meeting of the All Wales Convention, and a referendum on a Parliament for Wales. ITV Wales are also doing a piece on men with eating disorders in relation to over exercising, to which I hope to contribute. So watch this space!

Mencap Cymru’s Partners in Politics project has made the semi finals of this year’s National Lottery Awards.

The awards want to find the UK’s favourite lottery funded projects and we are very excited that our project has made it to this stage.

They need your help to make sure that the project that helps those with a learning disability enter the political process reach the final. To register your support for the project, please visit www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards or call 0844 686 2672
(calls cost
5p) before midday on the 10th of July 2009.

You can see the page on Partners in Politics specificially here.

I haven’t got a lot of time to blog today, but I wanted to do a short blog on Gordon Brown’s proposition of holding a closed inquiry into the Iraq War. I feel quite passionate about this issue as I took part in the campaign against the war while I was a student at Aberystwyth University. It is true to state that we were lied to on the reasoning’s for the occupation by the British and US Governments, and that those involved should be held accountable for their actions.

There is also enough evidence suggesting that all is not peaceful and stable in Iraq post invasion despite the propoganda that we see on our television screens. I have spoken to many Iraqi asylum seekers who confirm this view, and reserach from the Welsh Refugee Council shows that Iraqis are choosing to make themselves destitute as opposed to returning to their country of origin. 

The main argument thrown back at those, like myself, who opposed the invasion of Iraq is that at least we have now got rid of Saddam Hussein. Well if you take that analogy, then why are dictators the World over not treated in the same way as Saddam was treated? Why enter a country on the false pretence of looking for weapons of mass destruction, while the main reason was to shore up the country’s oil reserves, and to oust Saddam Hussein? The Iraqis I have spoken to tell me that yes, they did not respect what Saddam Hussein did while in power, but that any move to change the system, or campaign for his removal should have come from Iraqis, led by Iraqi’s- not external forces such as Britain and the USA.

An open inquiry into the role that the British Government played in the Iraq War is vital- to uncover all that took place during that period in an open and transparent manner. To do anything less would be an insult to the people of Iraq. Plaid Cymru MPs have been active from the outset in calling for a public inquiry, and I commend them for that action. To be fair to Nick Clegg, he has been strong on this matter also. I cannot help but be cynical as to the cry from the Tory benches for an inquiry/ an open inquiry. Many Tory MPs voted for the invasion in the first place. They are merely jumping on the bandwagon now in this regard.

It seems from press reports today that Gordon Brown may back-track from the pledge to hold an inquiry in private ( the reason given for this being that of ‘national security’) due to pressure from opposition parties, and more importantly his own Labour party members. What is interesting also today is that Butler, the ex civil service head who led a 2004 inquiry into intelligence failings over whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction has also come out against a call for a private inquiry, stating-

“There is no prospect that an inquiry conducted entirely in private can purge the national feeling of mistrust,”

“The form of the inquiry proposed by the government has been dictated more by the government’s political interest than the national interest.”

This is intensified by the fact that the Government intends to report AFTER the next general election. Call me cynical, but this is a glaring attempt to defer the inevitable hammering the Labour Government will get as a result of the findings.

I really hope that the inquiry will be held in public. I am wavering as to whether I can actually say that a private inquiry will be better than nothing at this stage, because I am very distrustful of inquiries such as this taking place behind closed doors, without full scrutiny or input from the public at large. Not to mention the money that will be spent on an inquiry that may potentially fail to uncover some of the real issues surrounding the role of the British Government in Iraq.

After a positive discussion on Saturday in Pontypridd  on the need for the left in Wales to unite, and to mobilise discussion on the way forward- especially in relation to responding to the economic crisis, and the referendum on a Parliament for Wales, it’s disappointing to read Peter Hain’s comments in the Western Mail today regarding the referendum. There is a wide consensus formulating now on how cumbersome and unworkable the current LCO system is, yet Peter Hain is still one of the few people to be ‘quietly pleased‘ with it- but given that he played a key role in creating this mess of a system, why should I be surprised?

Peter Hain says that now is not the right time for a referendum, and neither does he see there being a right time in the ‘next few months or couple of years’.

That’s a very loose comment regarding timelines. Why would it have to fail? People like Peter Hain are setting it up to fail, and the campaign hasn’t even started yet! Nobody wants to be part of an unsuccessful campaign, but surely if people put their heads together, get active, and talk it up then we will at least move some way to pushing it up the political agenda in a positive way. Why is it always doom and gloom? After all, many opinion polls of late shows a growing support for Welsh devolution. We should be using this as a spring board for preparing a yes campaign, of engaging people in the process.

I don’t know who Peter Hain has been talking to in Plaid on this matter, but I haven’t heard anything internally to suggest that we are taking the line of deferring the referendum or talking it down in any way. As far as I’m concerned, it is a key element of the One Wales Agreement, and Peter Hain should respect that. But then again, he sees his role as Secretary of State for Wales as one where he can influence decisions publicly, bully his way in to discussions, and shape the debate to suite his end. I didn’t expect anything less when I heard that he had been reinstated by Gordon Brown in to that position.

Jonathan Morgan AM said in his speech last week on the future of the Conservatives in Wales that his nightmare scenario would be to wake up in 2010- the Assembly will have requested a referendum, and that a Tory Secretary of State will veto that request. This is not an unlikely scenario if the Tories do take power in Westminster.

The very fact that Jonathan Morgan is worrying about it speaks volumes. So, yet again, the challenge for us in Wales is to lead on this agenda now, and deliver on the promise of a referendum before a Tory Government is no doubt elected to Westminster. What do the Labour party want as their legacy in power? Delivering a compromised and complicated LCO system, or playing a part in delivering a referendum on a parliament for Wales?

 Perhaps they should look at what their colleagues in Scotland are doing as part of the Calman Commission for some inspiration. We need to be bold, and confident if we want to move Wales forward.

Today I went to the launch of the Cymru Yfory Declaration for Welsh Democracy outside the Senedd where Rev Barry Morgan spoke about Cymru Yfory’s role in educating people about devolution, and the next step in that process. The declaration includes one hundred initial signatories- from prominent Welsh writers,  to actors, sportsmen, poets, churchmen and politicians.

I was led to believe that the declaration was seeking to get signatures from new people, new names who are supportive of this agenda.  This was true in that it did not include many Assembly Members or politicians, but many of the other names were quite familiar in Welsh circles. This is not a criticism at all of the efforts of Cymru Yfory, but merely an observation that there is still a long way to go in garnering more widespread support yet for a referendum. The very fact that the website allows people to sign the declaration is a great campaign tool, and a way in which local, grass roots groups that are starting up can be active locally in encouraging people to sign it.

I was a little perplexed that there was but one Tory politician ( correct me if I’m wrong) on the initial declaration. Nick Bourne AM  informs me that it was only with his ‘blessing’ that David Melding’s name was there at all.  It begs the question, if Nick Bourne can allow a member of his team to sign up to quite a bold statement about the future of devolution in Wales, then why could not one member of the Tory group find the time or the effort to respond to the letter that I wrote last year, asking that politicians on the backbench either in the Assembly, Westminster or the European Parliament to meet to discuss the issues surrounding more powers for Wales? There does not seem to be any strategic thinking or consistency in their attitude towards future powers for the Assembly.

Cymru Yfory has agreed to host a meeting on my behalf before the end of recess where elected representatives can come together to discuss the referendum on future powers for the Assembly, and the timelines for action. I intend to re-issue the letter that I wrote last year to politicians in the hope that more will respond this time around.

It seems to me that we must push this matter forward, and ensure that we are well prepared for when the referendum does take place. As I have said before on this blog, the no campaign has mobolized, they are out there, visible in the All Wales Convention meetings and on our airwaves. Those in favour of more powers for the Assembly must not be left behind. Yes, those who have been involved in previous and failed referendums will be more cautious, but we should be careful how we make comparisons to the present situation.

This is a new age of democracy and devolution. People are disengaged with politics, but I sincerely believe that we can captivate people’s attention by ensuring that we create a lasting, open and transparent system of democracy in Wales. The current system does not work, and serves as a disincentive for people to actually get involved in Welsh politics, and to be inspired.

And given that a Tory government in Westminster in a future general election is now almost nigh on inevitable, it is time for Labour activists to think about what that means for them. They can help to deliver more powers for Wales, and strengthen Welsh democracy at a time when they know that their powers on a Westminster level are numbered for many years to come.

Good luck to Cymru Yfory in their efforts, and I hope that their initiative goes from strength to strength.

……………………………….

According to the website, the aim of the Declaration for Welsh Democracy

 ’is to highlight the issues at stake in the debate on Wales’ constitutional future and to win public support for law-making powers for the Assembly and a referendum to bring that into effect. It does this by drawing attention to the principles that we believe any system of governance should adhere to, and how holding a referendum on primary law-making powers for the Assembly can move us nearer to such a system in Wales. We would urge everyone who believes that Wales needs a system of governance that would allow the Assembly to get to grips with changing the lives of the people of Wales for the better, and which will be stable, accountable and democratic, to support this Declaration.

A DECLARATION FOR WELSH DEMOCRACY

We the undersigned believe that the creation of a system of effective democratic governance for Wales is a matter of major importance.

Such a system should:
Be efficient in its use of time and resources;
Be comprehensible and transparent;
Promote wide participation by the public and civil society;
Respect the autonomy of the National Assembly as the elected body which represents the people of Wales;
Offer constitutional stability and thus a means of concentrating on the implementation of a policy programme that can get to grips with the problems and release the potential of Wales.
We believe that this would best be achieved by the granting of primary law-making powers to the National Assembly, and we call for the holding of a referendum to that end.

So the Euro elections are over. Congratulations to Jill Evans who will return to the European Parliament. We did really well in a number of constituencies throughout Wales-topping the poll in Ceredigion, Ynys Mon, Llanelli and Conwy -in areas we targeted as part of our aim to win Westminster seats in the next General election. We were also close to Labour in many Valleys seats, increasing our share of the vote.

It has to be said that I am personally  a little bit disappointed that we did not beat Labour in to 2nd place in Wales. I would be lying if I said otherwise, given that they are losing support on such a large scale. I have just been to the photo call to congratulate Jill on winning her seat, and there, IeuanWyn Jones said that we must now look to developing new seats as a party- seats in Valleys areas where we can beat Labour. I am pleased that he said that today, because we have to take risks, we have to break new ground, and show disillusioned Labour voters that we are the natural alternative.We also most definitely lost some votes to the Greens in last night’s vote. But I am not sure what can be progressed on this agenda.

Like everyone predicted, this election has been a disaster for Labour – their vote has halved and puts Brown’s authority in to question yet again. The MPs are meeting tonight in London. I was sitting next to Betty Wiliams and Dianne Abbott this afternoon at the Speaker’s Conference which was taking evidence on equalities in Wales, and they had to rush off to get their train for ‘a special meeting’. What conclusions they will come to are any body’s guess. Oh to be a fly on the wall!

This has also been a very bad election for the Lib Dems who have lost in areas where they have MPs.  All the spin in the World cannot detract from the fact that this cannot be a pleasant result for Kirsty Williams as the new Lib dem leader in Wales – coming in after UKIP, and the Tories winning in Brecon and Radnor.  No doubt it is a positive day for Tories in Wales, but where they have done well are in areas where it is a Labour / Conservative battle (eg. Vale of Glam, Cardiff North, Delyn) – but where the Tories were our main opposition, we beat them as a party.

Now’s the time to evaulate, look forward, and carry on campaigning…..

Saturday, June 13 2009

PONTYPRIDD YMCA Hall

WALES AND THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

10.30 Welcome from John Haylett, Morning Star political editor

10.40-11.00
Keynote address
John Griffiths, Labour AM, Newport East, Deputy Minister for the Education, Culture & the Welsh Language

11.00-12.30
Session 1. The recession and its impact
PANEL:
John Lovering, Professor of Urban Development & Governance, UCW Cardiff
Andy Richards, Wales secretary, Unite—the Union
Mari Rees, Labour PPC, Preseli Pembrokeshire

12.30-1.15 Break

1.15-2.00
Session 2. The National Assembly’s response

DISCUSSION to be led by Christine Chapman Labour AM, Cynon Valley

2.00-2.45
Session 3. Countering the crisis in Scotland
DISCUSSION to be opened by Scottish TUC general council representative (to be confirmed)

2.45-3.00 Break

3.00-4.20
Session 4. The way forward for Wales
PANEL:
Bethan Jenkins, Plaid Cymru AM, South Wales West
Robert Griffiths, general secretary, Communist Party
Jeff Evans, Wales senior national officer, Public & Commercial Services union
Vaughan Gething, Wales TUC past president

4.20-4.30 Closing remarks from Darren Williams, Welsh Labour Grassroots secretary

REGISTRATION: £5 per delegate (£1 unwaged)

Book places beforehand with Keith Jones, Unite—the Union, Transport House, 1 Cathedral Rd., Cardiff CF11 9SB
Registration also available at the door.

So tonight we find out the Euro election results. This of course after a weekend of Westminster government resignations, pre-shuffling cabinets, shock entries like Glenys Kinnock and the reincarnation of Peter Hain as Welsh Secretary, disastrous Labour council results in England calling in to question Gordon Brown’s authority, and leaked emails from Mandelson criticising Gordon’s style of leadership. How can we keep up? And what is next in the pipeline?

I’m not sure I would like to say who will win the fourth Euro seat in Wales. I’d obviously be over the moon if Plaid got it, but from what I’m hearing its too close to call, and that UKIP may be in with a chance of clinching the seat. Whatever happens it won’t be a good day for Labour, and could lead to yet more questions over whether Brown should stay- providing the much needed momentum for that backbench email revolt in the Labour party ( although one would think that James Purnell and Caroline Flint’s resignations would have been enough…)

It really is a hard time to be involved in politics- not that its easy at the best of times! People on the doorstep are furious with the expenses saga, and the implosion in the Labour ranks only intensifies the problem. Yes, reform of the system is essential, but it shouldn’t have taken this issue for change to happen. I recall Gordon Brown stating when he became leader that reform was at the top of his agenda, and I actually thought, well, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Yet nothing happened. I sincerely believe that he is one of those people in life who wanted to be leader for that reason alone, and lacked vision when he finally took office. An article in the Independent yesterday took my eye in relation to this viewpoint. Steve Richards states that -

‘One of Brown’s most perceptive advisers provides an illuminating insight into the calamity of the non-election in the autumn of 2007. He tells me it was not just the polls that worried the new Prime Minister when he called off the election. There was a deeper issue. Brown could not make up his mind whether to break with “Blairism”. He would have had to justify calling an early election by making his own distinctive pitch. But the aide sensed Brown did not dare to do so, partly because he feared disunity, especially an onslaught from Blairites and their supporters in the newspapers. So he chose to be the equivocator instead’.

So, it was not only the fear of the Tories making gains that has nagged at Brown’s conscience, but that he did not have his own vision for Labour to take it forward- too afraid to turn his back to the ‘New’ Labour agenda, and the potential infighting that would ensue. Yet look where they are now- a Labour party spiralling out of control. I am sure Tony Blair is enjoying every minute of it. And would a new leader in Alan Johnson really change anything at this stage bar saving a few Labour seats in any future General election? Would he be able to offer Labour a new vision, and take the party with him? Its impossible to tell.

..And so to Wales, and the Labour leadership that may or may not happen when Rhodri Morgan celebrates his birthday in September. Will this cause more internal problems for Labour as a party at a time when they need to recover on a UK level, and offer new ideas? Is this really the motivation behind Huw Lewis’s call for Rhodri Morgan to remain as leader in Wales? The Bevan Foundation has its own analysis, yet I will  suggest that maybe Huw Lewis has suffered a knock in support due to his own expenses problems, and seeks time to gather support from AMs before any leadership race kicks off properly. Judging by the mess in Westminster over this issue, he probably needs longer than until September to do that, and to get the nominations he needs. I may be way off the mark, but I think its really strange that he is saying this now, after priming himself for so long for the leadership race – making statements on policy and the direction of the party. Peter Hain said on the Politics Show today that Rhodri Morgan has been clear in what he intends to do, and does not seek to deviate from that position. We live in very interesting times indeed…