The Ranelagh Blog
Plaid Cymru's renewal - first steps towards a new leader
Tuesday, 14th February 2012
By Ferelith Gaze, Account Manager
With just over a month to go until the Plaid Cymru leadership vote, Simon Thomas pulled out of the race in favour of Elin Jones. As Mr Thomas told the BBC, given their shared views ("a successful, sustainable, independent country") he believed it would be better to pool their talents.
Ms Jones has been Assembly Member for Ceredigion since 1999, and was Rural Affairs Minister within the Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition. The focus of her campaign has been tackling poverty in Wales, particularly through national self-sufficiency. A vocal advocate for Welsh independence, she has ambitions for a 2020 referendum.
Mr Thomas' withdrawal may help consolidate the votes away from current favourite Leanne Wood, a candidate particularly favoured by the left of the party and who secured the most nominations. She has also been endorsed by prominent party members including Hywel Williams MP and former MP Adam Price. First elected in 2003, Ms Wood has gained ground in the campaign through her vigorous stance on Welsh independence, the urgency she places on reviving the Welsh economy, and her strong campaign management.
The third candidate, Daffyd Elis-Thomas, is a prominent AM with almost 30 years' experience in the party who appeals to Plaid's core voters. The Assembly's Presiding Officer between 1999 and 2011, and former MP for Meirionnydd (1974-83) and Meirionnydd Nant Conwy (1974-92) who now sits in the House of Lords, he has campaigned on sustainability, pragmatism and the green economy.
Current leader Ieuan Wyn Jones - Deputy First Minister during the Third Welsh Assembly, and often cited as responsible for the party's electoral breakthrough in 1999 - is stepping down after ten years. His departure follows Plaid's accrual of just 19% of the votes in the Assembly elections and its subsequent relegation to Wales' third party.
The election is part of a greater move to modernise the party, with January's report Moving Forward: Renewing Plaid for Wales recommending the creation of permanently campaigning party, better policy formation with greater clarity in its messages and restructuring to improve leadership and accountability.
These efforts are already paying off, with revived interest in the party giving a bump in new member numbers. In the last four months, Plaid has seen its membership increase by 23%.
Hustings are taking place across the country and the results announced on 15th March. With three strong candidates, and momentum building for a grassroots revival, Plaid’s members have a tough decision to make.
The new Feed-in Tariffs criteria
Friday, 10th February 2012
By Saskia Bradbury, Account Executive
The Department for Energy and Climate Change has unveiled its plans for solar photovoltaic feed-in tariffs. DECC plans to relax the eligibility criteria for the scheme and the threshold at which multi-installation tariff rates would apply. The Government says this is a means to ensure that community groups, small businesses and councils continue to benefit from the scheme.
As with all their recent announcements on solar FITs, the new reform package has come in for criticism. Launching a further consultation on the future of solar subsidy, the Government proposes cuts to domestic-scale solar PV installations – taking subsidies from 43p to 13.5p per kilowatt hour by July. A further cut to 12.9p is planned for Autumn.
There are concerns that this could damage take up of the Green Deal (which begins in Autumn 2012), not least as the Government has not given further details of how the £200m package of financial incentives will support the scheme.
Following outspoken comments by critics of the new FITs proposals, Energy Minister Greg Barker told the solar industry to “get real”. He yesterday defended the Government’s plans to cut the feed-in tariffs three times this year, insisting the industry will continue to grow.
The Government, and many industry representatives, argue that the 43p tariff is unsustainably high bearing in mind falling costs and increased take up. The Minister defended the Department’s plans, saying "We are proposing a more predictable and transparent scheme as the costs of technologies fall, ensuring a long-term, predictable rate of return that will closely track changes in prices and deployment."
The FITs scheme has been a particularly thorny issue for DECC. An inheritance of generous tariffs, along with falling solar technology costs, led to high levels of solar PV uptake - which many argued resulted in a policy which resulted in well-off homeowners, with large roofs, receiving high levels of subsidies. The Government's response - to half subsidies three months early - was challenged in the High Court, and in January the Court of Appeal upheld the decision to block the Government's attempts to reduce solar subsidies. The court battle continues.
National Apprenticeship Week
Thursday, 9th February 2012
By Anna Wolffe, Director
National Apprenticeship Week got off to a glamorous start on Monday with a launch event at Channel 4 to encourage apprenticeships in the creative industries. The high-profile event marked the start of a campaign to rebrand apprenticeships as a "gold standard option for ambitious young people" and to develop the UK’s skills economy. To this end, David Cameron announced three initiatives to raise the status of apprenticeships and encourage more employers to give young people their first jobs.
A second round of bidding for the £6m Higher Apprenticeship Fund has now opened, with funds now made available for a wider range of degree level places including aerospace, renewable technologies and law. Business Minister John Hayes MP reiterated the Prime Minister’s assurances that these higher level apprenticeships would have the equivalent prestige to university degrees, saying: "our mission is to put practical training on a level playing field with academic study, creating a highly skilled, creative workforce that can take on the best in the world".
In addition, the Government wishes to encourage small businesses to take on apprentices by offering incentive payments of up to £1,500. Employers will be able to develop their own skills training through the Employer Ownership Partnership, which reallocates £250m from training providers and colleges.
However, these measures have faced criticism for being open to abuse. Government figures indicate that over 450,000 people started apprenticeships last year, but some have questioned whether employers are rebranding short training courses for existing employees as apprenticeships, with no new jobs being created.
With ONS figures showing youth employment at 1.04m, the Government will face increasing scrutiny to show that the 40,000 new apprenticeships expected from this new round of funding provide valuable long-term opportunities for school leavers.
The post-Huhne ministerial team
Friday, 3rd February 2012
By Anna Wolffe, Director
At 10am this morning came the announcement from Keir Starmer QC that Chris Huhne and his ex-wife would be prosecuted for perverting the course of justice for a speeding case dating back to 2003. Huhne’s resignation as Energy Secretary led to a limited re-shuffle, with Ed Davey (previously a minister at the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills) stepping up and Norman Lamb (previously Nick Clegg’s parliamentary aide) taking over Davey’s position.
There has been minimal change in portfolios - and no doubt Huhne was the source of a few tensions within his party (and the coalition) - but the news is still a blow for the Lib Dems. Huhne is the second Lib Dem to leave the Cabinet, is a well-known face, and is an experienced political operator who put a strong Lib Dem stamp on his policies.
Ed Davey is a lesser known public figure, with his previous roles including Chief of Staff to former leader Sir Menzies Campbell and Foreign Affairs Spokesman. Davey’s popularity within the party as a member of the modernising ‘Orange Book’ wing meant that he was earmarked for ministerial office from the onset of the Coalition agreement. He is seen to have done a good job in his role as Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs Minister at BIS, in particular winning plaudits for his work in handling the contentious issue of Royal Mail privatisation. However, without the political experience or gravitas of Chris Huhne, there may be many challenges ahead for Davey in heading up the department which has recently clashed with the Treasury over Government priorities during the recession. He will have the opportunity to show how he has settled into his brief when the
FITs appeal is heard and the Green Deal is introduced later this year.
As for Chris Huhne’s political career, Liberal Democrat backbenchers have been quick to point out that he is innocent until proven guilty. In the meantime, Huhne could be set to cause a stir from the backbenches as someone who has little to lose by standing up to the Conservatives.
#AskGove at the Education Committee
Wednesday, 1st February 2012
By Ferelith Gaze, Account Manager
Some criticised the Education Committee for being slack in its investigations – crowdsourcing questions for an #AskGove session rather than thinking up their own. But the response was huge (5000+ questions) and the critics were silenced in what became an innovative coup for Chairman Graham Stuart MP.
Since then though, DfE has confidently co-opted the event and spent the day churning out policy summaries in 140 characters. It’s certainly in-line with Gove’s policy of cutting down paperwork. For DfE, it isn’t the elevator pitch, but the Twitter test.
That clear eye for an opportunity is characteristic of Gove’s Department for Education. He made some early missteps (think Bookstart and school sports), but since then U-turns (and yacht turns) have been few. For the most part, he has stuck rigidly to his original policy bible of teaching as a profession, schools free from local authority control, renewed status of traditional academic subjects, good behaviour as key, phonics all the way, and reduced Departmental outpourings.
This approach also reflects Gove’s determination to create joined-up policies. He clearly has a firm idea of where one policy will affect other areas of the Department’s workings.
Want some evidence? Look at literacy: phonics (systematic synthetic phonics to be precise) has been hardwired into DfE, with the Year 1 screener and with the Department setting out criteria for phonics resources, as well as creating a rare example of ring-fencing with the matched funding policy. And there are traces of parallel policies elsewhere (with Departmental guidelines on its favoured procurement routes) and overlaps with Gove’s interest in overseas teaching, as well as the curriculum and exam boards (to what extent should the Government be involved in the development of textbooks?).
Yet while the policies are consistent (and certainly controversial at times), he is suffering the wait for evidence, as well as – inevitably – the inability to throw money at a policy. His Labour predecessor, Ed Balls MP, was an expert in crushing opposition through repetition of statistics – Gove’s policies can be radical, but at the moment his evidence is often anecdotal. Allowing his policies to bed in and measuring their impact will take time. There’ll be plenty more debate on Gove’s tenure as Education Secretary in the months to come.
The Big Question
Friday, 27th January 2012
By Fiona Graham, Account Manager
The Scottish Government this week published the Consultation on its proposals for a referendum on independence. As is fast becoming an SNP tradition, the consultation paper was launched on the most delicious of Scottish celebrations – Burns' Night. The referendum appears inevitable, but the question and the answer are still the cause of a big stushie.
After weeks of speculation about the referendum question, the SNP have settled on “Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?” with a straight ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. The consultation also asks for views on a third option, Devo-Max: should Scotland be given more powers of self-government?
The Unionists want a question asking whether voters want to stay in the United Kingdom or leave. And most are totally opposed to a Devo-Max question. Then there is the issue of who will be eligible to vote. 16 and 17 year olds? Only those resident in Scotland? Scots living in other parts of the Union? Or all those on the electoral roll in the UK?
And how long after a ‘yes’ to independence vote would the Union be officially broken? Alex Salmond this week suggested Scotland could leave the Union in 2016 – would 18 months be long enough to tie up all the ends? How long is needed to end a union of over 300 years?
This consultation isn’t the end of the questions over an independence referendum – it is only the start. The next two years will provide ample opportunity for campaigning from both sides of the divide. The impact on the United Kingdom, its people, and its businesses should not be underestimated.
Future of Forestry in Wales
Friday, 27th January 2012
By Rebecca Brake, Account Executive
On the 29th November 2011 the Welsh Government published its Business Case on the creation of a Single Environment Body for Wales (SEB), concluding that Countryside Council for Wales (CCW), Environment Agency Wales (EAW) and Forestry Commission Wales (FCW) should be merged.
The Welsh Environment and Sustainability Committee this week heard evidence from witnesses from across the industries affected by this decision. Witnesses included representatives from the three merger organisations as well as representatives from industry groups including Confor (Confederation of Forest Industries), Dwr Cymru and the Snowdonia National Park Authority.
There was a general feeling of support for the merger of CCW and EAW among the witnesses although concerns were raised from several parties about the inclusion of FCW. There was a consensus that Wales would benefit from a more integrated approach to the environment and sustainable land management, which the SEB should provide, and in that sense FCW should be involved. However, some witnesses, particularly those representing the forest industries, raised concerns that the skills and expertise provided by FCW will be lost in the merger and that their businesses will suffer as a result.
On Monday the Welsh Government will be launching its consultation into the proposed National Environment Framework and later in February a public consultation on the SEB should be released. In the meantime the Environment and Sustainability Committee will be working to publish its response to the SEB proposals after its final evidence session on Wednesday, which will hear from Minister John Griffiths.
© 2010 Ranelagh International