Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Plaid Cymru Assembly Member talks sense
Just in case anybody thinks I have a complete downer on Plaid Cymru and their crazy ideas I thought it might be worth mentioning the entirely sensible comments of former Welsh Minister, Rhodri Glyn Thomas in this morning's Western Mail.
Personally, I would disagree with Rhodri on the funding of education and health but otherwise he provides a healthy dose of realism for the fantasists in his own party and in Labour who believe that a kneejerk oppositionism is the only possible response to the new government:
“We’re into a new era, and it’s the responsibility of us as politicians to decide what the spending priorities should be at the Assembly.
“All the economic forecasters are saying that times will be tough for the next decade, and we have to take that on board and be realistic. What do we want to achieve over the next 10 years, and how can we best spend the money we will have? We need to focus on that very specifically.”
Mr Thomas said it would be wrong to exclude the health and education budgets from cuts.
“Obviously there has been a commitment to safeguard frontline spending on health and schools, but I believe there is still a lot of scope even within the health and education to tackle waste,” he said.
“It was completely ridiculous, for example, to reorganise the NHS in Wales nine years ago creating 22 local health boards. That meant 22 chief executives, 22 finance directors and 22 medical directors.
“All that happened was that in many cases middle managers were over-promoted into jobs with salaries of £100,000 and more.
“The original error was compounded when the reorganisation was reversed and senior managers were allowed to stay on with their big salaries, even though their jobs had disappeared.
“In my local area of Carmarthenshire, the county council has just announced it is looking at cutting 500 jobs. It’s the relatively low-paid workers they are planning to cut. How about the people at the top, who are on very high salaries?”
I am not sure that his former Cabinet colleagues will be that pleased to read his comments.
Personally, I would disagree with Rhodri on the funding of education and health but otherwise he provides a healthy dose of realism for the fantasists in his own party and in Labour who believe that a kneejerk oppositionism is the only possible response to the new government:
“We’re into a new era, and it’s the responsibility of us as politicians to decide what the spending priorities should be at the Assembly.
“All the economic forecasters are saying that times will be tough for the next decade, and we have to take that on board and be realistic. What do we want to achieve over the next 10 years, and how can we best spend the money we will have? We need to focus on that very specifically.”
Mr Thomas said it would be wrong to exclude the health and education budgets from cuts.
“Obviously there has been a commitment to safeguard frontline spending on health and schools, but I believe there is still a lot of scope even within the health and education to tackle waste,” he said.
“It was completely ridiculous, for example, to reorganise the NHS in Wales nine years ago creating 22 local health boards. That meant 22 chief executives, 22 finance directors and 22 medical directors.
“All that happened was that in many cases middle managers were over-promoted into jobs with salaries of £100,000 and more.
“The original error was compounded when the reorganisation was reversed and senior managers were allowed to stay on with their big salaries, even though their jobs had disappeared.
“In my local area of Carmarthenshire, the county council has just announced it is looking at cutting 500 jobs. It’s the relatively low-paid workers they are planning to cut. How about the people at the top, who are on very high salaries?”
I am not sure that his former Cabinet colleagues will be that pleased to read his comments.
Comments:
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Couple of comments here:
"We’re into a new era, and it’s the responsibility of us as politicians to decide what the spending priorities should be at the Assembly"
Within this new era, it's the resposibility of politicians to create jobs and wealth in our communities in Wales.
"All that happened was that in many cases middle managers were over-promoted into jobs with salaries of £100,000 and more"
Seem to remember that the Lib Dem councils of Swansea & Cardiff came under attack for having Chief Exec's on more than £100k by the BBC, saying that they are on more than Carwyn Jones. It soon transpired that there's quite a few civil servants in WAG on more than £100k too; how much have these civil servants been paid in bonuses?
"We’re into a new era, and it’s the responsibility of us as politicians to decide what the spending priorities should be at the Assembly"
Within this new era, it's the resposibility of politicians to create jobs and wealth in our communities in Wales.
"All that happened was that in many cases middle managers were over-promoted into jobs with salaries of £100,000 and more"
Seem to remember that the Lib Dem councils of Swansea & Cardiff came under attack for having Chief Exec's on more than £100k by the BBC, saying that they are on more than Carwyn Jones. It soon transpired that there's quite a few civil servants in WAG on more than £100k too; how much have these civil servants been paid in bonuses?
# posted by 
: 4:23 PM
: 4:23 PM
Well, the Tory Vale (pop 100,000) has I think 5 senior officers on £100k+, including the best paid Chief Executive in Wales, so anonymous has only half a point inn criticising the - much bigger - LD led authorities in cardiff and swansea.
It wasn't just the 22 health boards that wasted money though - just look at the plethora of local govt authorities in Wales. Way too many for a population of about 3 million - the failed vale being a case in point.
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It wasn't just the 22 health boards that wasted money though - just look at the plethora of local govt authorities in Wales. Way too many for a population of about 3 million - the failed vale being a case in point.
# posted by : 6:42 PM
: 6:42 PM<< Home
