Labour's mp3 player stuck on repeat

Harriet Harman on Radio Wales today repeated the tired old incantation: "Cutting too far, too fast, tax bankers' bonuses." Well, most Liberal Democrats - and thousands of council workers in England, most of them in Labour local authorities - would agree with the "too fast" bit. I am sure that Vince Cable's timetable for reducing the deficit would have been acceptable to international lenders.

But "too far"? The coalition government's cuts are less than envisaged by Alistair Darling (see diagram), Labour's last chancellor of the exchequer. To argue for smaller cuts now smacks of hypocrisy.

Besides, we don't have to look beyond Italy, never mind as far as Greece, to see how the money markets punish those governments who are seen not to be serious about trimming their deficits.

The bankers' bonus tax is pure gesture politics. It was admittedly a useful on-off for Alistair Darling. It might in the future deliver a slap on the wrist to those traders not shrewd enough to avoid it, but it is not a serious long-term tax-raiser in the same way as the coalition's bank levy is. And, as Lorely Burt, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee on Business, Innovation and Skills points out:
"The sheer hypocrisy of Labour to point the finger on bankers' bonuses is staggering. Labour presided over the biggest boom in bonuses this country has seen, from £3.1bn in 2001 to £11.5 billion in 2007. At the same time, they sat back and knighted the financial speculators who led this country to the brink of economic collapse."

Postscript: Tristram Hunt and Caroline Lucas on "Any Questions?" tonight cited the United States as an example of a nation where economic growth has resumed and unemployment has begun to fall, in spite of a massive deficit which the President and Congress have not seriously trimmed. But America is a special case which no other country on earth could emulate with impunity.

Farewell St Dunstan's, welcome Blind Veterans UK

It is a sign of the times that the name "St Dunstan" does not have the resonance it did when many of us were younger. One cannot argue with the charity's decision to change to "Blind Veterans UK" which conveys its aims directly. One other side-benefit is that that distasteful Noel Coward joke will lose currency.

Whatever the name, the demands on the charity continue to increase. As fundraiser Kirsten Munro pointed out in a recent letter, "Growing numbers of ex-service men and women are now experiencing age-related blindness, and younger soldiers are still returning home with eye injuries sustained in current conflicts. We anticipate that this year we will have record numbers of veterans using our services."

There is a Welsh connection in that one of the charity's three support centres (the other two are in Sheffield and Brighton) is in Llandudno.

Barbara Thompson: Playing Against Time

A Film about Parkinson's Disease and Music
Directed by Mike Dibb, with Barbara Thompson and Jon Hiseman.
Dibb Directions Production for The Wellcome Trust.

To be broadcast this coming Sunday, February 19th, on BBC4

If you wonder whether you have heard Barbara Thompson's music, I would point you to the sound-track of ITV's "A Touch of Frost" featuring David Jason.

Update 2012/2/16 : Barbara Thompson & Jon Hiseman spoke on Radio 4's "Midweek" yesterday: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01by7br#synopsis

Leighton Andrews at the BBC

I suppose it is the same man: http://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2012/02/leighton-andrews-at-bbc.html

Labour consistency and stability

This is the line pushed in at least one South Wales Labour citadel: that by voting Labour in year after year, there is no flip-flopping. The voter can rely on a consistent approach. Well, events in Glasgow give the lie to that one: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-16964356. Local Liberal Democrats speak of "long-established fiefdoms", "a sense of anachronism and political decay", "all the real opposition has been within the administration", "They seem to have deselected about half their councillors. That rarely goes well!" and "the Labour group is a very nasty network of cliques, splits, personality clashes, sectarian and other issues".

What's happened to the Gleision report?

The fatal incident in the drift mine at Cilybebyll occurred in September of last year. The statutory procedure for investigation clicked into place as soon as practical thereafter. Surely at least a technical conclusion should have been reached by now?

First Welsh pub to win coveted CAMRA award

Congratulations to the Bridge End Inn in Ruabon in North Wales on winning the National Pub of the Year competition. It is all the more remarkable for having been re-opened by its current owners only in March 2009. The McGivern family had earmarked the pub as the ideal premises for the family microbrewery – McGivern Ales - overseen by son Matthew. Having reopened the pub 5 weeks after taking it on, the family were praised by CAMRA members for restoring the pub’s interior, and for introducing an extensive real ale and cider range. There are more details here.