A friend and I were discussing the coming referendum on additional powers for the National Assembly and idly speculating what we, as residents of Powys, might do in order to raise our profile in Cardiff Bay. This would be particularly relevant after the demise of the ‘One Wales’ Government in May.
His idea was to set up border posts on all access points to Powys, charge a toll of all inward journeys and use that money to make up for the much-publicized failure of One Wales’ economic policies.
My idea was simpler, if we want to stem the flow of resources from the rest of Wales into Cardiff, all we need to do is to petition 10 Downing Street for Powys to be allowed to secede from Wales and to re-join England. Powys couldn’t be worse off by being part of England and, with a fair wind, might even be better off with regard to certain devolved areas like education and health.
All idle speculation, of course, but something has to be done about reversing the trend for the rest of Wales being transformed into the new state of Greater Cardiff.
Monday, 28 February 2011
Monday, 7 February 2011
Say No To Further Increases In Council Tax
The political groups on Powys County Council may have already decided to increase council tax for the seventh successive year. It’s time to take a stand and simply say to our County Councillors: “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”.
By agreeing to carry out the Welsh Assembly Government’s orders and raise Council Tax in Powys our Councillors are aiding and abetting in the transfer of scarce resources from Powys to South and West Wales for the further aggrandisement of their headquarters in Cardiff Bay. WAG are doing this by forcing council taxpayers in Powys to make up the ever-increasing shortfall in the funding that Powys County Council receives from WAG.
Remember, it is not profligate spending by the county council that has caused the funding shortfall, rather it is profligate spending by the euphemistically misnamed “One Wales” government who would rather waste taxpayers money on a huge subsidy to private operators who run the North-South Air Link, on private contractors who wilfully overspend on road projects in Wales which the Assembly Government has failed to control and bailing out the Millennium Arts Centre located, guess where? Yes, Cardiff Bay.
This is the same “One Wales” Government that now wants us, the hard-pressed Powys taxpayers, to give them more powers to continue their profligacy. It is time to say “No” to any further rises in council tax, it is a tax than only ever increases, and it is a grossly unfair tax. Remember the council tax base in Wales, the notional value of our properties, was re-valued upwards in 2006, so that most of us faced a huge increase in our council tax bills then. This hasn’t happened in England, there council tax payers are still paying their council tax based on 1991 valuations. But then they don’t have to pay for an additional tier of government.
Currently, we in Wales contribute towards four tiers of government: the UK government at Westminster; the regional government at Cardiff Bay; our county councils and our town or community councils. We have become grossly over-governed and it is time to change the governance in Wales. At least one tier of government needs to be removed and quickly, before the tax burden in paying for this becomes unsupportable.
Write to your representatives and demand no further increases to council tax until at least one tier of government is removed.
By agreeing to carry out the Welsh Assembly Government’s orders and raise Council Tax in Powys our Councillors are aiding and abetting in the transfer of scarce resources from Powys to South and West Wales for the further aggrandisement of their headquarters in Cardiff Bay. WAG are doing this by forcing council taxpayers in Powys to make up the ever-increasing shortfall in the funding that Powys County Council receives from WAG.
Remember, it is not profligate spending by the county council that has caused the funding shortfall, rather it is profligate spending by the euphemistically misnamed “One Wales” government who would rather waste taxpayers money on a huge subsidy to private operators who run the North-South Air Link, on private contractors who wilfully overspend on road projects in Wales which the Assembly Government has failed to control and bailing out the Millennium Arts Centre located, guess where? Yes, Cardiff Bay.
This is the same “One Wales” Government that now wants us, the hard-pressed Powys taxpayers, to give them more powers to continue their profligacy. It is time to say “No” to any further rises in council tax, it is a tax than only ever increases, and it is a grossly unfair tax. Remember the council tax base in Wales, the notional value of our properties, was re-valued upwards in 2006, so that most of us faced a huge increase in our council tax bills then. This hasn’t happened in England, there council tax payers are still paying their council tax based on 1991 valuations. But then they don’t have to pay for an additional tier of government.
Currently, we in Wales contribute towards four tiers of government: the UK government at Westminster; the regional government at Cardiff Bay; our county councils and our town or community councils. We have become grossly over-governed and it is time to change the governance in Wales. At least one tier of government needs to be removed and quickly, before the tax burden in paying for this becomes unsupportable.
Write to your representatives and demand no further increases to council tax until at least one tier of government is removed.
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
The Road To Damascus
Oh what joy! This morning I received an e-mail from one of our local county councillors and currently Mayor of Llandrindod, Gary Price. In it he asks for help to run a street stall in Llandrindod promoting the ‘Yes for Wales’ campaign.
It is both interesting and revealing to note that this is the same Gary Price who, at a public meeting of Sir Emyr Jones Parry’s All Wales Convention held at the Monty Club in Newtown just two years ago, very publicly stated that if he had his way, he would abolish the Welsh Assembly. Over the last couple of years, Councillor Price has either undergone a political conversion to nationalism of Dasmascene proportions, or he has become a simple yet cynical political opportunist. Now, he not only wants to represent Plaid Cymru in the Assembly having been adopted as their candidate for the election in May, but he also wants the rest of us to vote for extra powers for that Assembly.
As I think Lincoln once said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and you can fool all the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time.” Think hard on this Councillor Price.
It is both interesting and revealing to note that this is the same Gary Price who, at a public meeting of Sir Emyr Jones Parry’s All Wales Convention held at the Monty Club in Newtown just two years ago, very publicly stated that if he had his way, he would abolish the Welsh Assembly. Over the last couple of years, Councillor Price has either undergone a political conversion to nationalism of Dasmascene proportions, or he has become a simple yet cynical political opportunist. Now, he not only wants to represent Plaid Cymru in the Assembly having been adopted as their candidate for the election in May, but he also wants the rest of us to vote for extra powers for that Assembly.
As I think Lincoln once said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and you can fool all the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time.” Think hard on this Councillor Price.
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