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    Carwyn Jones

    Has announced that he will step down as party leader and as First Minister of Wales in the autumn. In the Blair era, it seemed that Westminster nabobs would simply appoint a pliant apparatchik to such posts, but Leonard was elected by the full Scottish membership, so does Y Barti Lafur have similar independence, are Welsh Labourites more moderate than Corbyn, and who would be the OTF preferred options?

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics...ister-of-wales
    Last edited by Diable Rouge; 21-04-2018, 14:28.

    #2
    Not sure really. Is Owen Smith interested?

    Having had mixed experience of Welsh local government, I'd like to see it made much more competitive by PR. And the number of county boroughs much reduced.

    The "Blair era" was over by 2000, when Alun Michael stood down.

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      #3
      Vaughan Gething is very ambitious. Would he be the first black leader of a UK country?

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        #4
        Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
        Vaughan Gething is very ambitious. Would he be the first black leader of a UK country?
        Most interesting - looking at his biog, strikes me as the anti-Leo:

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaughan_Gething

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          #5
          Is Vaughan a common name in Wales? In Ireland it was used as the english translation of O beachain, or "of the beehive". It's the same name as Behan.

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            #6
            Originally posted by The Awesome Berbaslug!!! View Post
            Is Vaughan a common name in Wales? In Ireland it was used as the english translation of O beachain, or "of the beehive". It's the same name as Behan.
            It's an English translation/mutation of 'Bychan' - small. I would be surprised if the Gaelic was any different.

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              #7
              Jesus Christ, couldn't they try harder? When all of this was happening, english people were speaking a wild variety of dialects containing many more phonemes that english speakers don't use now, giving the sort of linguistic flexibility that should have allowed people to make a much better fist of transliteration, or translate those names.

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                #8
                Originally posted by Vicarious Thrillseeker View Post
                It's an English translation/mutation of 'Bychan' - small. I would be surprised if the Gaelic was any different.
                Ah, practically the same as "beagán", then - here, the suffix "ín" serves the same purpose, so people are called "Máirín", "Eoinín (as in the Pearse story Eoinín na nÉin)", and "Diarmín", etc.

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                  #9
                  Vaughanie will have some scrutiny of the Welsh NHS performance if he wants to be leader.

                  Sounds from this like its making progress.

                  http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2018-0...e-departments/


                  If the Welsh NHS is underperforming, Ann Clwyd can tell him what the problem is.

                  One of our greatest weaknesses as a nation is the giant chip that we carry on our shoulder, a symptom of the centuries of being a poor relation to England. As a result, we view any criticism, even the constructive kind, as an attack and immediately pull up the drawbridge. Translated into institutional behaviour this becomes dangerous as it means organisations do not learn from their mistakes or the experience of others.

                  Given that my party has been in power at the Assembly, either out-right or in coalition, since its inception, it pains me to observe that it has a poor track record. In health, education and other areas we are lagging behind the rest of Britain. Meanwhile the Welsh Assembly government refuses to accept people’s concerns, spending more time defending the indefensible rather than fixing what is wrong.
                  My experience is that the Assembly members are good. I'd be delighted if they took more powers from the boroughs. Not least Clwyd's borough, where they've been holding a litter festival along the A465.

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                    #10
                    Bloke from the Nuffield Trust suggests another reason the Welsh NHS struggles.

                    https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/h...-500m-13562214

                    The funding formula is completely unfair, and doesn't fully reflect the older, poorer, sicker population Wales has.

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                      #11
                      The Barnett formula screwed over Wales in favour of Scotland for years. Gordon Brown was told about it several times but somehow couldn't be fucked to do anything. I'm sure that had nothing to do with his dour ancestry. Oh no.

                      NHS Wales does all right if you factor in that Wales has the most deprivation in Western Europe and the most rural communities in the UK outside the Cairngorms. It's suffered from the Tory strategy of relentlessly slagging it off using the Mail in particular to mount a campaign against it.

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                        #12
                        The Barnett formula screwed over Wales in favour of Scotland for years. Gordon Brown was told about it several times but somehow couldn't be fucked to do anything. I'm sure that had nothing to do with his dour ancestry. Oh no.

                        NHS Wales does all right if you factor in that Wales has the most deprivation in Western Europe and the most rural communities in the UK outside the Cairngorms. It's suffered from the Tory strategy of relentlessly slagging it off using the Mail in particular to mount a campaign against it.
                        Can'twyn Jones

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                          #13
                          In fairness to Big Gordo, I think it was less unfair in his day, certainly the population ageing.

                          I think that the Nuffield Trust (whence that bloke comes from) sometimes compares Wales and North East England directly, rather than Wales and England, to reflect the poverty, age, and poor health. Would be fair to do that with Education too.

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                            #14
                            Apparently, the Minister for Finance, Mark Drakeford, plans to throw his hat in his ring:

                            https://www.theguardian.com/politics...d-carwyn-jones

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                              #15
                              He's a decent guy. Did well in health imo.

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                                #16
                                Originally posted by Tubby Isaacs View Post
                                In fairness to Big Gordo, I think it was less unfair in his day, certainly the population ageing.
                                I see no reason to be "fair". Not taking money off Scotland was more important than giving money to Wales. If Plaid had been anywhere as much a threat as the SNP it would have been different.

                                Originally posted by Tubby Isaacs View Post
                                I think that the Nuffield Trust (whence that bloke comes from) sometimes compares Wales and North East England directly, rather than Wales and England, to reflect the poverty, age, and poor health. Would be fair to do that with Education too.
                                Wales does ok compared to anywhere else systematically neglected by Westminster

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                                  #17
                                  Yeah, Barnett was good for Scotland, but I think it was a reasonable pragmatic response to the oil situation. As I understand it, Wales wasn't worse off than England under the formula until fairly recently.

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                                    #18
                                    Wales is now worse off than England under the spending formula? How the fuck? That’s totally perverse that the one part of the UK whose GDP is closer to Portugal or the accession states is the one getting hammered.

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                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by Lang Spoon View Post
                                      Wales is now worse off than England under the spending formula? How the fuck? That’s totally perverse that the one part of the UK whose GDP is closer to Portugal or the accession states is the one getting hammered.

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                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by Tubby Isaacs View Post
                                        Yeah, Barnett was good for Scotland, but I think it was a reasonable pragmatic response to the oil situation. As I understand it, Wales wasn't worse off than England under the formula until fairly recently.
                                        Define fairly recently.

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                                          #21
                                          At uni in the 90s, we were taught that generally Wales gained from it more than England, but was screwed in compassion to the “special circumstances” NI and Scotland (oil and the Nats 70s surge being the drivers for Scotland to get more, along with special pleading about a dispersed rural population that requires more money to set up essential services (also applying to Wales if not in the same scale of rural dispersal- Sutherland has the same population density as Idaho or the Russian Taiga.))

                                          Be amazed if the Blairite Govs had the chutzpah to increase English funding relative to Wales. But not that amazed.
                                          Last edited by Lang Spoon; 22-04-2018, 18:38.

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                                            #22
                                            Drakeford defeats Gething, 54% to 41.5%.

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                                              #23
                                              Not impressed. Drakeford is OK but he's not that charismatic. Vaughan would have been better at battling off English Tory bullshit.

                                              I hope Vaughan stays on in health and doesn't get sidelined. It would be smart for Drakeford to keep him there. It's a heavy brief that will keep him busy and it's high profile so he daren't sabotage anything or he will get pilloried. And he is actually good at the job.

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                                                #24
                                                So, the Assembly will be upgraded to a Senedd, and 16 year olds would gain the vote.

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                                                  #25
                                                  And plans for more AMs. Yippee. All aboard the gravy train.

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