Democracy night review

Last night's event was an outstanding success. Credit must go to Matthew Tucker for the organisation and Kay Lewis-Thomas for her firm chairmanship, but also to the young farmers themselves for the splendid turn-out and sharp questions.

As usual with an enthusiastic audience and many candidates, the hustings ran out of time. The only criticism I have of the planning is that not enough time was allowed for candidates' summaries at the end of the evening. There were two opponents' assertions in particular I wanted to challenge but did not have time to do so.

Labour's Jeremy Miles claimed credit on behalf of Carwyn Jones's government for granting £88,600 to the YFC in Wales in the 2015/16 budget. However, as this report makes clear, this is less than allocated in previous years and indeed Labour originally intended to cut the grant altogether. It was only vigorous political action spearheaded by Kirsty Williams which won back funding for the YFC.

I agree with Peter Croker-Jakes (Conservative) that empty pubs are a blot on the Neath landscape. However, he did not acknowledge that these result from the failed business model of public house ownership initiated by the Thatcher/Major governments. Liberal Democrat Greg Mulholland has fought over the last decade what often seemed like a one-man campaign against Conservatives and the establishment generally to achieve some reform of the system, and his fight goes on.

Democracy evening at the Neath Constitutional Club

These are the opening remarks I hope to make tonight:

First, I would like to thank Matthew Tucker and the Neath YFC for arranging this democracy evening. It’s good to know that the old-fashioned hustings is not dead in the age of social media.

As a Blaenhonddan community councillor a few years ago I recall the YFC’s volunteering to assist us with our efforts in the environment. We weren’t able to arrange anything on that occasion but we were grateful for the offer. Perhaps something has come of the initiative since.

I suspect that as a town-dweller whose expertise is computing, I shall be learning more than informing tonight especially when it comes to question time. I do enjoy walking in the countryside though, and I would make a plea to landowners here not to restrict access unreasonably. The people who abuse the right to roam are a small minority and can be dealt with.

My personal knowledge may be limited, but my party has strong links to farming. Our leader is married to a farmer, and another Liberal Democrat AM, Bill Powell, lives on the family farm. So we have good farming credentials. We have also consistently supported devolution. One of the advantages of devolution is that while the present government in Cardiff has messed around with Glastir, introducing in our opinion unfairness in the system and leading to a backlog of as I understand it around a thousand claims, this is as nothing compared to the foul-up of EU farm payments in England.

Our manifesto makes a strong commitment to agriculture which we recognise as essential, a major contributor to the Welsh economy and the backbone of rural communities. We believe that the natural environment is best cared for by a continuation of farming tailored to the needs of individual areas, including their environmental needs. We are concerned about the rise in the average age of farmers and the fall in average farm incomes.

Support for farmers should continue to be given to all farmers in an equitable way so as to maintain the balance between small and large, upland and lowland. The maintenance of food security should be central to any agricultural decisions made in Wales and that such decisions should always consider their long term impact on Wales' ability to continue to feed itself.

The manifesto commits to several policy initiatives to safeguard agriculture and food production across Wales and especially to embed food production using suitable systems into all environmental decision making in rural Wales. In view of the restrictions on time I’ll cut the statistics and most of the detailed policy points. What may be of particular interest here today is our call to review TAN 6 guidance on ‘Planning for Sustainable Rural Communities’ so as to achieve real progress in the delivery of affordable rural housing across Wales, important both for younger entrants as well as providing appropriate accommodation for farmers wishing to handover to the next generation.

The incoming Welsh government needs to develop further support for young farming entrants in Wales with an emphasis on the potential contribution of share farming and the significance of local authority owned agricultural holdings across Wales to provide access to the land.

I’m sure we will come on to EU membership later in discussion so I shall close at this point.

Port Talbot worker buy-out

This is being trawled by the Conservative government spin machine this morning. To a Liberal, brought up on manifestos in which co-ownership was a major plank, this is the most attractive solution to the problem of Tata's wish to withdraw. However, I am also deeply suspicious. If the joint government/private sector ownership of Royal Mail, in our 2010 manifesto, could not be pushed through by Vince Cable in coalition, how likely is it that Tories ruling alone are serious about intervening in the free market?

See also http://peterblack.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/the-time-for-talk-is-over-on-tata-steel.html

Digital Indy suspends mortality

It appears that famous people have stopped dying. Since March 26th when the paper went digital only, the obituaries section of the Independent newspaper, one of the features which made it unique when it launched in 1986, appears to have gone into suspended animation. What are we not being told?

The Abbey works: uncertainty continues

The rumoured decision by Tata to sell its remaining UK assets is logical, in that the multi-national already has a rolling-mill in Ijmuiden in the Netherlands inherited from the Hoogovens side of Corus. One assumes that the running costs on the continent are less than in the UK. The company could have made the further coldly logical decision to wind down and ultimately close Port Talbot in order to reduce competitive steel-making capacity. The projected sale does offer a glimmer of hope, but one wonders whether another organisation has the financial capacity to support the works until global demand picks up again. The green shoots, in the form of rising commodity prices, are there but it could be at least another year before the recovery is in full swing.

Optimists will point to the recent deal done by the Scottish government with the Liberty group in transferring ownership of Tata's Scottish resources. However, there is a difference in scale and it could be that Liberty is already stretched financially.

It could all have been so much different if the UK government had cared about industry and shown that it had.

EU accounts have consistently been signed off by the auditors

It seems that the Euromyth that EU accounts are never approved persists, in spite of ample evidence to the contrary.

Try http://www.britishinfluence.org/it_s_the_british_media_that_needs_auditing or http://www.richardcorbett.org.uk/the-eu-accounts-have-never-been-signed-off/ (to show that Labour MEPs agree).

For an enjoyable demolition of other Euromyths, see the alphabetical list at http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/euromyths-a-z-index/ with updates here.

Jews in Iran

They are a diminishing population, subject to discrimination at all levels according to the wikipedia entry. Kim Sengupta in the Independent paints a different picture, drawing on the experience of Ciamak Morsadegh a hospital surgeon newly elected to the Majlis, the Iranian parliament.

The MP is Jewish, representing the largest Jewish community in the Middle East outside Israel, one that is growing in size while those in almost all other Muslim countries in the region have shrunk severely or disappeared altogether – largely due to persecution.

Israel has long portrayed Iran as an implacable enemy, an existential threat, even. In recent years, Netanyahu's government mobilised its international backers in the US Congress and elsewhere to lobby fiercely against the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, with dire warnings about a dangerous regime acquiring weapons of mass destruction. The campaign failed. The nuclear agreement was signed. And the resultant easing of international sanctions – providing a road to recovery for the country's ailing economy – was a key factor in the sweeping gains by the reformists and their allies in the recent elections; a victory that should pave the way for great changes in Iranian politics and history.

There is still the unacceptable number of judicial executions in Iran, which is a continuing stain on a country which needs to be readmitted to the comity of nations. One trusts that this is a matter which can be addressed by Prince Charles on his probable visit to Iran.

Al-Jazeera to make massive job cuts

Al-Jazeera rose to prominence as it foolishly screened militant jihadists' snuff videos, presumably in a deliberate bid to gain publicity. However, the station soon settled down to become that with the greatest coverage of world events on terrestrial television, exceeding BBC News Channel. BBC remains the most impartial of all news media, but al-Jazeera after allowing for a slight bias towards Sunni Muslim régimes was close behind and ahead of the field dominated by special interests. I still feel deprived by al-Jazeera's decision to shift its UK transmissions to High Definition only. Now falling oil revenues compel the station's owners to make further cuts. The job losses are reported to be largely at the Dohar HQ but they must also impact its global news-gathering.