Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Tory rift continues
An apparent show of unity at the recent Welsh Conservative conference centred around leader, Andrew R.T. Davies' call for a 'coalition of ideas' to end Labour's rule of Wales, may not have been a sign that things were moving on within the Welsh Conservative group after all.
A column in today's South Wales Argus by leadership rival, Nick Ramsey shows that wounds are still raw as the Monmouthshire AM takes a side swipe at his group leader:
It seems the political silly season has started earlier than usual this year with the re-emergence of old calls to rebrand the Assembly as the Welsh Parliament - and we wonder why the public are disillusioned with politics!
I wish politicians would get on with the job of sorting out the very real day to day problems facing the country rather than wasting time on issues which primarily interest the political “bubble” class. I certainly won’t be supporting any unnecessary and costly changes to the Assembly’s name or any leap towards unrestricted income tax powers.
A fairly standard view from a Conservative one would think until we remember that the call to rename the Welsh Assembly came from Andrew R.T. Davies himself.
As the BBC report, in August 2012 Andrew R.T. Davies said it was time to change the Assembly's name in recognition of the primary law making powers it was granted in the 2011 referendum. It seems strange therefore for Nick Ramsey to bring the issue up out of the blue nearly two years later, so as to accuse the Welsh Tory leader of being a member of the 'political bubble class'.
The four sacked shadow cabinet members have not been readmitted to the inner circle of course, in apparent defiance of the wishes of the Welsh Conservative Party's ruling body. Factions within the 13 strong group of Tory AMs are growing more acute.
It seems unlikely that Andrew R.T. Davies is capable of even convening talks with other opposition parties to forge a 'coalition of ideas' when he cannot even unite his own group.
A column in today's South Wales Argus by leadership rival, Nick Ramsey shows that wounds are still raw as the Monmouthshire AM takes a side swipe at his group leader:
It seems the political silly season has started earlier than usual this year with the re-emergence of old calls to rebrand the Assembly as the Welsh Parliament - and we wonder why the public are disillusioned with politics!
I wish politicians would get on with the job of sorting out the very real day to day problems facing the country rather than wasting time on issues which primarily interest the political “bubble” class. I certainly won’t be supporting any unnecessary and costly changes to the Assembly’s name or any leap towards unrestricted income tax powers.
A fairly standard view from a Conservative one would think until we remember that the call to rename the Welsh Assembly came from Andrew R.T. Davies himself.
As the BBC report, in August 2012 Andrew R.T. Davies said it was time to change the Assembly's name in recognition of the primary law making powers it was granted in the 2011 referendum. It seems strange therefore for Nick Ramsey to bring the issue up out of the blue nearly two years later, so as to accuse the Welsh Tory leader of being a member of the 'political bubble class'.
The four sacked shadow cabinet members have not been readmitted to the inner circle of course, in apparent defiance of the wishes of the Welsh Conservative Party's ruling body. Factions within the 13 strong group of Tory AMs are growing more acute.
It seems unlikely that Andrew R.T. Davies is capable of even convening talks with other opposition parties to forge a 'coalition of ideas' when he cannot even unite his own group.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Looking for scandals
As the Inside Out blog suggests it is certainly starting to get nasty out there, with recriminations flying around the Conservative party over the failed prosecution of an innocent Nigel Evans, unbelieveable and unsustainable mud being thrown at Nick Clegg over Cyril Smith and of course the latest alleged expenses scandal, this time featuring Nigel Farage.
So, in the interest of a bit of light relief here is the latest episode of 'have I Got News for You' in which the UKIP leader bit off more than he can chew:
So, in the interest of a bit of light relief here is the latest episode of 'have I Got News for You' in which the UKIP leader bit off more than he can chew:
Monday, April 14, 2014
It's good to talk
The First Minister of Wales started his own personal twitter account over the weekend and was immediately drawn into discussion with a wide range of people on local government reorganisation. When I suggested that he should have come onto Twitter earlier so that we could make progress on these sorts of issues he said: I was afraid it would become compulsive. I'm still afraid.
What is most revealing is that the conversation between Carwyn and the various parties local government spokespeople on twitter is the first time we have really discussed this issue despite the fact that the Welsh Government have said they want to secure a cross-party consensus.
Perhaps next time, he should not rely on Twitter but get in touch directly.
What is most revealing is that the conversation between Carwyn and the various parties local government spokespeople on twitter is the first time we have really discussed this issue despite the fact that the Welsh Government have said they want to secure a cross-party consensus.
Perhaps next time, he should not rely on Twitter but get in touch directly.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Where has all the poetry gone from politics?
Reading Graham Henry's account of the war of words between Labour and the Conservatives in today' s Wales on Sunday, I was left lamenting the apparent death of oratory in today's poltics. In short the poetry and wordcraft contained in the speeches of William Gladstone, Lloyd George, Aneurin Bevan, Winston Churchill and Roy Jenkins, to name but a few, seems to belong to a long-gone era.
Carwyn Jones has complained that the Conservatives have declared a war on Wales, whilst David Cameron, in what must be the clumsiest turn of phrase ever used by a British Prime Minister, claimed that Offa's Dyke forms a line between life and death. That may have been the case in medieval times when opposing armies sat either side of it, but it is no way to talk of the Welsh health service.
Mr Cameron said Carwyn Jones was “sinking the hopes of a generation”, whilst Welsh Conservative Leader, Andrew RT Davies used an interview before the conference to compare Mr Jones to a “tin-pot dictator from Eastern Europe." Had he honestly thought through that allusion?
The language of politics is being reduced to the level of a school debating society, but without the vision, the carefully-crafted metaphor or the tightly argued rebuttal that even those contests can rise to.
Carwyn Jones has complained that the Conservatives have declared a war on Wales, whilst David Cameron, in what must be the clumsiest turn of phrase ever used by a British Prime Minister, claimed that Offa's Dyke forms a line between life and death. That may have been the case in medieval times when opposing armies sat either side of it, but it is no way to talk of the Welsh health service.
Mr Cameron said Carwyn Jones was “sinking the hopes of a generation”, whilst Welsh Conservative Leader, Andrew RT Davies used an interview before the conference to compare Mr Jones to a “tin-pot dictator from Eastern Europe." Had he honestly thought through that allusion?
The language of politics is being reduced to the level of a school debating society, but without the vision, the carefully-crafted metaphor or the tightly argued rebuttal that even those contests can rise to.
Saturday, April 12, 2014
The Welsh Health Service - enough already!
Kirsty Williams was absolutely right in her speech to the Welsh Liberal Democrats Conference last week to express her fury at the way that the First Minister is hiding behind the Welsh people over critcism of his government.
She told the Conference:
Our health service struggles like never before, our schools remain underfunded and underperforming, our economy lags behind the rest of the UK.
I am furious that we as nation are being portrayed in this manner.
Last week Carwyn Jones said these criticisms weren’t a war on Welsh Labour, or the Welsh Government, but a war on Wales as an entire nation.
How dare he take cover behind the people he is meant to lead. What kind of leader does that?
These headlines might hurt our sense of national pride, but we must not forget, it is Labour that is Wales’ weak link. Labour is holding us back, Labour – the weight around our nation’s neck.
Indeed I have commented before that after his ministers and him spent the last few yeats attacking the UK Coalition Government in the Senedd chamber, Carwyn Jones cannot expect to escape reciprocal treatment.
In my view it is the job of the opposition, whether they are Ministers in another place or Assembly Members here in Wales to highlight problems and hold the Welsh Government to account for them. That is not a 'war on Wales' it is a war on failure on behalf of the Welsh people.
The rhetoric in this weekend's Welsh Tory Conference however, has taken that process to a new and unacceptable level. To suggest as David Cameron did that Offa's Dyke "has become the line between life and death" is going too far.
Outcomes are clearly worse in Wales than in England, waiting times are longer here but the Welsh NHS is still in the business of healing people and it still does a reasonably good job thanks to a highly dedicated and skilled workforce.
It is no wonder that the RCN say that nurses are finding the political row over the Welsh NHS both "tiresome and demoralising'.
It is time to rein back the rhetoric and start approaching this issue from a more constructive point of view. That applies to both sides of the argument.
By all means criticise when it is justified, compare one health service to another and highlight government failures, but please can we stop the unacceptable hyperbole? Enough already!
She told the Conference:
Our health service struggles like never before, our schools remain underfunded and underperforming, our economy lags behind the rest of the UK.
I am furious that we as nation are being portrayed in this manner.
Last week Carwyn Jones said these criticisms weren’t a war on Welsh Labour, or the Welsh Government, but a war on Wales as an entire nation.
How dare he take cover behind the people he is meant to lead. What kind of leader does that?
These headlines might hurt our sense of national pride, but we must not forget, it is Labour that is Wales’ weak link. Labour is holding us back, Labour – the weight around our nation’s neck.
Indeed I have commented before that after his ministers and him spent the last few yeats attacking the UK Coalition Government in the Senedd chamber, Carwyn Jones cannot expect to escape reciprocal treatment.
In my view it is the job of the opposition, whether they are Ministers in another place or Assembly Members here in Wales to highlight problems and hold the Welsh Government to account for them. That is not a 'war on Wales' it is a war on failure on behalf of the Welsh people.
The rhetoric in this weekend's Welsh Tory Conference however, has taken that process to a new and unacceptable level. To suggest as David Cameron did that Offa's Dyke "has become the line between life and death" is going too far.
Outcomes are clearly worse in Wales than in England, waiting times are longer here but the Welsh NHS is still in the business of healing people and it still does a reasonably good job thanks to a highly dedicated and skilled workforce.
It is no wonder that the RCN say that nurses are finding the political row over the Welsh NHS both "tiresome and demoralising'.
It is time to rein back the rhetoric and start approaching this issue from a more constructive point of view. That applies to both sides of the argument.
By all means criticise when it is justified, compare one health service to another and highlight government failures, but please can we stop the unacceptable hyperbole? Enough already!
Friday, April 11, 2014
Remembering Sue Townsend
Sad news today that Sue Townsend, the author of the Adrian Mole diaries, has died. Like many others I enjoyed the books immensely but I could not hope to do justice to a review of them as Alexis Petridis did two years ago in a Guardian piece that has been republished as a tribute to the books' author.
The point of course, as Sue Townsend says is that the book wasn't even aimed at teenagers: "It was written for parents, that was the intended audience. It was for the mothers of teenage boys.":
That seems obvious now. Reading it as a 40-year-old father, I recognise it as a book clearly written by one of my own: Mole is simultaneously lovable and completely exasperating, and as anyone who has had kids will tell you, love and complete exasperation are pretty much the defining emotions of parenthood. I find my interest resting less on Mole and his on-off girlfriend Pandora than his mum and dad, particularly his mum Pauline, with her ambitions crushed by the suburbs and her late-flowering feminism and her fantastic line in The Growing Pains about how the only thing more boring than listening to other people's dreams is listening to other people's problems.
Indeed, reading it as a 40-year-old father, I occasionally wonder what I got out of it 30 years ago. I missed almost everything I now love about the book. I didn't notice how doleful its very Midlands sense of humour is – like a long resigned sigh you laugh at – or how beautifully drawn the other characters are: not just his parents, but Bert Baxter, the octogenarian communist who refuses to die until he sees capitalism dismantled, and Pandora's earnest, Guardian-reading family, their marriage torn asunder by the foundation of the SDP. I didn't get a lot of the references. I had no idea who Iris Murdoch was, nor Malcolm Muggeridge, nor indeed RD Laing, whom one of Mole's teachers doorsteps during a school trip to London in the hope he will give the delinquent Barry Kent "a quick going-over". And I completely overlooked how Townsend uses Mole's naivety as a vehicle for the occasional burst of more vicious wit: "Bert showed me a picture of his dead wife," he writes. "It was taken in the days before they had plastic surgery."
"That would have been a completely serious point to Adrian too," says Townsend. "He wouldn't think there was any humour in that at all. When it was done as a radio play that was what was so wonderful, the actor who read it was 13¾ as well and he didn't get it at all. He read it without any semblance of humour in it: he didn't know."
And 30 years ago, that was the point. I identified with Adrian Mole, which on one level seems bizarre – he is a self-obsessed prig and a hypochondriac to boot – but on another seems perfectly understandable. His brand of adolescent angst felt and still feels more realistic and relevant to me than any other hero of the great teenage novels I went on to read. Holden Caulfield might have been alienated, but he knew how to book into a hotel, get served cocktails and hire a prostitute, all of which marked him out as almost unfathomably exotic and alien. Adrian Mole couldn't even repaint his bedroom without the Noddy wallpaper showing through, which seemed much more my style.
We all fell in love with Adrian Mole and his world, simply because it was so realistic in its ordinariness. Sue Townsend's genius was to capture that world in a funny and insightful way. The books were beautifully observed and well-written. They created a genre. That is quite a legacy.
The point of course, as Sue Townsend says is that the book wasn't even aimed at teenagers: "It was written for parents, that was the intended audience. It was for the mothers of teenage boys.":
That seems obvious now. Reading it as a 40-year-old father, I recognise it as a book clearly written by one of my own: Mole is simultaneously lovable and completely exasperating, and as anyone who has had kids will tell you, love and complete exasperation are pretty much the defining emotions of parenthood. I find my interest resting less on Mole and his on-off girlfriend Pandora than his mum and dad, particularly his mum Pauline, with her ambitions crushed by the suburbs and her late-flowering feminism and her fantastic line in The Growing Pains about how the only thing more boring than listening to other people's dreams is listening to other people's problems.
Indeed, reading it as a 40-year-old father, I occasionally wonder what I got out of it 30 years ago. I missed almost everything I now love about the book. I didn't notice how doleful its very Midlands sense of humour is – like a long resigned sigh you laugh at – or how beautifully drawn the other characters are: not just his parents, but Bert Baxter, the octogenarian communist who refuses to die until he sees capitalism dismantled, and Pandora's earnest, Guardian-reading family, their marriage torn asunder by the foundation of the SDP. I didn't get a lot of the references. I had no idea who Iris Murdoch was, nor Malcolm Muggeridge, nor indeed RD Laing, whom one of Mole's teachers doorsteps during a school trip to London in the hope he will give the delinquent Barry Kent "a quick going-over". And I completely overlooked how Townsend uses Mole's naivety as a vehicle for the occasional burst of more vicious wit: "Bert showed me a picture of his dead wife," he writes. "It was taken in the days before they had plastic surgery."
"That would have been a completely serious point to Adrian too," says Townsend. "He wouldn't think there was any humour in that at all. When it was done as a radio play that was what was so wonderful, the actor who read it was 13¾ as well and he didn't get it at all. He read it without any semblance of humour in it: he didn't know."
And 30 years ago, that was the point. I identified with Adrian Mole, which on one level seems bizarre – he is a self-obsessed prig and a hypochondriac to boot – but on another seems perfectly understandable. His brand of adolescent angst felt and still feels more realistic and relevant to me than any other hero of the great teenage novels I went on to read. Holden Caulfield might have been alienated, but he knew how to book into a hotel, get served cocktails and hire a prostitute, all of which marked him out as almost unfathomably exotic and alien. Adrian Mole couldn't even repaint his bedroom without the Noddy wallpaper showing through, which seemed much more my style.
We all fell in love with Adrian Mole and his world, simply because it was so realistic in its ordinariness. Sue Townsend's genius was to capture that world in a funny and insightful way. The books were beautifully observed and well-written. They created a genre. That is quite a legacy.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Counting the words
The Welsh Language Socety have been busy They have published a word count for all Assembly Members' contributions in Plenary sessions for the first three months of this year.
The intention is to measure the use of Welsh by AMs and the former Presiding Officer, Dafydd Elis Thomas leads the field with 96% of his contributions yn Cymraeg, closely followed by Rhodri Glyn Thomas (93%) and Alun Fffed Jones (92%).
As a monoglot English speaker I was a bit surprised to see that I used 61 Welsh words during this period but I am not going to look into it more closely.
What is also interesting about this analysis is that it also covers the number of English words spoken and so offers an indication of the volume (though not necessarily) the quality of the total contributions by AMs in this period.
Naturally, the table is topped by Welsh Cabinet Ministers who tend to speak longer and more often than other AMs as they answer questions and deliver statements as well as making speeches. In terms of the opposition though three members delivered more than 100,000 words.
They are Plaid Cymru AM, Simon Thomas with 126,473 words (of which 65% were in Welsh), Welsh Liberal Democrats Leader, Kirsty Williams with 111,417 words and myself with 108,614 words.
Bottom of the heap is Labour's Gwyn Price with 2,269 words.
The intention is to measure the use of Welsh by AMs and the former Presiding Officer, Dafydd Elis Thomas leads the field with 96% of his contributions yn Cymraeg, closely followed by Rhodri Glyn Thomas (93%) and Alun Fffed Jones (92%).
As a monoglot English speaker I was a bit surprised to see that I used 61 Welsh words during this period but I am not going to look into it more closely.
What is also interesting about this analysis is that it also covers the number of English words spoken and so offers an indication of the volume (though not necessarily) the quality of the total contributions by AMs in this period.
Naturally, the table is topped by Welsh Cabinet Ministers who tend to speak longer and more often than other AMs as they answer questions and deliver statements as well as making speeches. In terms of the opposition though three members delivered more than 100,000 words.
They are Plaid Cymru AM, Simon Thomas with 126,473 words (of which 65% were in Welsh), Welsh Liberal Democrats Leader, Kirsty Williams with 111,417 words and myself with 108,614 words.
Bottom of the heap is Labour's Gwyn Price with 2,269 words.
Wednesday, April 09, 2014
Statistics and police statistics
All the papers today cover the criticism by the House of Commons Public Administration Committee that we cannot rely on police statistics.
The Western Mail says that the report, Caught Red-handed: Why We Can’t Count on Police Recorded Crime Statistics, argues there is “strong evidence” that crime is under-recorded and warns the “attitudes and behaviour” behind the problem are now “ingrained”:
The committee is concerned there is a particular problem about under-recording “sexual crimes such as rape in many police areas.” This was attributed to “lax compliance with the agreed national standard of victim-focussed crime recording”.
The MPs are alarmed by the so-called “no-criming” of sexual offences such as rape. These can, they write, can be classified as “‘crime-related incidents’ (CRI), rather than recorded crimes.”
The report states: “Any instance of deliberate mis-recording of sexual offences is deplorable, but especially so if this has been brought about by means of improperly persuading or pressurising victims into withdrawing or downgrading their report. The disparities between different police forces in the ‘no-crime rates’ for rapes and sexual offences are sufficient in our view to raise serious concerns about the varying approaches taken by police forces to recording and investigating these horrendous crimes.
“We look forward to the outcome of the research commissioned by the Metropolitan Police examining the force’s ‘no crime’ decisions in respect of sexual offences. The fact that this research is necessary, following the 2008 Independent Police Complaints Commission report into the Sapphire Unit is a damning indictment of police complacency, inertia and lack of leadership.”
They add that amongst the forces in Wales and England, South Wales and Dyfed-Powys ranked second and fifth lowest for their no-crime rates for reported rape incidents, respectively. North Wales and Gwent ranked 13th and seventh highest, respectively.
The committee note that the UK Statistics Authority has “stripped” Police Recorded Crime data of its quality kite mark and warns that “numerical targets drive perverse incentives to mis-record crime.”
This is something that needs to be put right quickly. Statistics are important so as to direct resources. The Welsh Government has taken a strong line on reducing sexual crimes, the police forces need to keep up and enable those policies to be put into effect. More evidence to back up the case for the devolution of policing to Wales.
The Western Mail says that the report, Caught Red-handed: Why We Can’t Count on Police Recorded Crime Statistics, argues there is “strong evidence” that crime is under-recorded and warns the “attitudes and behaviour” behind the problem are now “ingrained”:
The committee is concerned there is a particular problem about under-recording “sexual crimes such as rape in many police areas.” This was attributed to “lax compliance with the agreed national standard of victim-focussed crime recording”.
The MPs are alarmed by the so-called “no-criming” of sexual offences such as rape. These can, they write, can be classified as “‘crime-related incidents’ (CRI), rather than recorded crimes.”
The report states: “Any instance of deliberate mis-recording of sexual offences is deplorable, but especially so if this has been brought about by means of improperly persuading or pressurising victims into withdrawing or downgrading their report. The disparities between different police forces in the ‘no-crime rates’ for rapes and sexual offences are sufficient in our view to raise serious concerns about the varying approaches taken by police forces to recording and investigating these horrendous crimes.
“We look forward to the outcome of the research commissioned by the Metropolitan Police examining the force’s ‘no crime’ decisions in respect of sexual offences. The fact that this research is necessary, following the 2008 Independent Police Complaints Commission report into the Sapphire Unit is a damning indictment of police complacency, inertia and lack of leadership.”
They add that amongst the forces in Wales and England, South Wales and Dyfed-Powys ranked second and fifth lowest for their no-crime rates for reported rape incidents, respectively. North Wales and Gwent ranked 13th and seventh highest, respectively.
The committee note that the UK Statistics Authority has “stripped” Police Recorded Crime data of its quality kite mark and warns that “numerical targets drive perverse incentives to mis-record crime.”
This is something that needs to be put right quickly. Statistics are important so as to direct resources. The Welsh Government has taken a strong line on reducing sexual crimes, the police forces need to keep up and enable those policies to be put into effect. More evidence to back up the case for the devolution of policing to Wales.
Tuesday, April 08, 2014
UKIP lose key activist
The Independent reports that a woman who was heralded as the “future face” of Ukip says she can no longer face campaigning for the party because of their illiberal stance on immigration.
The paper says that Alexandra Swann was supposed to represent the party's new, younger membership when she publicly defected from the Conservatives at Ukip's spring conference in 2012. At that conference Nigel Farage introduced her to a jubilant party faithful, boasting: "I'm very pleased to say that the Swann has migrated to Ukip".
However, UKIP's increasingly incendiary rhetoric on immigration has apparently pushed the 25 year old Ms Swann away:
She says: "The focus moved to immigration. It was difficult with the anti-gay marriage stuff. Now so much of their argument is anti-immigration which didn't sit well with me.
"The rhetoric wasn't so much about it when I joined. I think we should be discriminating on the skill level [of immigrants] as opposed to what country they're from."
So UKIP will have to fall back on their base of white elderly middle class males for votes after all.
The paper says that Alexandra Swann was supposed to represent the party's new, younger membership when she publicly defected from the Conservatives at Ukip's spring conference in 2012. At that conference Nigel Farage introduced her to a jubilant party faithful, boasting: "I'm very pleased to say that the Swann has migrated to Ukip".
However, UKIP's increasingly incendiary rhetoric on immigration has apparently pushed the 25 year old Ms Swann away:
She says: "The focus moved to immigration. It was difficult with the anti-gay marriage stuff. Now so much of their argument is anti-immigration which didn't sit well with me.
"The rhetoric wasn't so much about it when I joined. I think we should be discriminating on the skill level [of immigrants] as opposed to what country they're from."
So UKIP will have to fall back on their base of white elderly middle class males for votes after all.
Monday, April 07, 2014
Fighting for local jobs
The Welsh Liberal Democrats Conference took place in Newport and was a great success. From my perspective though it offered an opportunity to take up a local issue directly with a UK Government Minister.
The UK Business Secretary, Vince Cable held a question and answer session so I was able to raise with him his department's plans to privatise the Land Registry, who currently employ 430 people in the Swansea area.
The Department of Business Innovation and Skills, which Vince Cable heads, is currently asking people to comment on whether the Land Registry should deliver its services at arms-length from Government through a privately owned company.
I told Vince that the Land Registry is an important employer in the Swansea area that makes a surplus which is reinvested in its business. It is an innovative and successful government-run business with a good reputation for customer service.
As a Trading Fund the Land Registry already has the flexibility to innovate and reinvest surpluses as is evidenced by its very successful sale and publication of quarterly house price information. It has also been for some time a flagship department in terms of customer service. There is no evidence that the proposal to privatise it will improve on that.
The present set-up is independent, transparent and accountable. The proposed change is not. The Land Registry is a staff-orientated department with a good record in training and continuing professional development. A private company would not make that investment and as a result the quality of service will suffer.
Hopefully he will take my views on board.
The UK Business Secretary, Vince Cable held a question and answer session so I was able to raise with him his department's plans to privatise the Land Registry, who currently employ 430 people in the Swansea area.
The Department of Business Innovation and Skills, which Vince Cable heads, is currently asking people to comment on whether the Land Registry should deliver its services at arms-length from Government through a privately owned company.
I told Vince that the Land Registry is an important employer in the Swansea area that makes a surplus which is reinvested in its business. It is an innovative and successful government-run business with a good reputation for customer service.
As a Trading Fund the Land Registry already has the flexibility to innovate and reinvest surpluses as is evidenced by its very successful sale and publication of quarterly house price information. It has also been for some time a flagship department in terms of customer service. There is no evidence that the proposal to privatise it will improve on that.
The present set-up is independent, transparent and accountable. The proposed change is not. The Land Registry is a staff-orientated department with a good record in training and continuing professional development. A private company would not make that investment and as a result the quality of service will suffer.
Hopefully he will take my views on board.
