April 28ybeere

It’s not exactly reaching fever pitch but the local government elections are at least creating more than usual interest.

And they are important as councils provide most of our services. Despite this, national government continues to insist on central control, often denigrating their efforts and underfunding them.

In my long involvement I have come to admire the work of local government members and staff although I maintain they were more effective when they had more responsibilities - and non paid members.

One of the disadvantages was it precluded many people, mainly men, who could not spare the time when making their career.  

It was generally the major industries and companies that allowed their staff to become councillors.

My memory of first reporting Caerphilly district council was the clicking knitting needles of the excellent women members.

Most of my forty years working for and reporting local government was spent in meetings, generally evening, and it was a relief when the larger councils opted for daytime working

By this time councillors were paid, quite handsomely, which made it a more attractive for many as a full time occupation.

My most arduous days were as press and information officer for the newly formed London borough of Hounslow when at critical political times there were all night sittings.

When  I retired I spent many enjoyable weeks scanning Penarth local council minutes at the county archive office.

I found it so interesting I wrote a book, ‘Who runs this town’ tracing the  one hundred years of Penarth urban district council and the men and women who, for nothing but self satisfaction, and perhaps, understandably, a sense of power and achievement, served their community.

Local government today is, for better or worse, much different, but men and women stilll give their time and experience.

I admire them and our councils, but am less than satisfied with national government.

April 28

 Care home exodus ‘illegal’

The government’s transfer of hospital patients to care homes without testing for  asymptomatic coronavirus was illegal, the High Court has ruled.

This results from legal action taken by two relatives of residents who were among the many thousands of elderly and vulnerable residents who died.

The High Court ruling blamed the then health minister Matt Hancock for failing to take into account the risk.

Mr Justin Coppel QC representing Dr Cathy Gardner and Fay Harris described it as the one of the most devastating in the modern era.

In ‘ Pandemic! My Care Home Diary’ describing  life at Sunrise Cardiff I told how coronavirus had exposed the shambolic state of social care, and the plight of the elderly and most vulnerable. 

The figures are shocking. - in the first wave almost 2000 care homes - one seventh of all homes in England - had severe outbreaks. In the three waves over almost two years 274,043 care home residents died, 45,632 involving covid.

I reported the plight of care homes had been made worse by the lack of PPE, personal protective equipment.

I added, ‘As demand for action grows, the elderly and vulnerable in our care homes are being forgotten, it is claimed, are being airbrushed out’.

What a terrible indictment of failure.

It will probably be years before the full story is told in the public inquiry but how we elderly were s disastrously let down must never be forgotten and never allowed to happen again.

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April 27

Utter confusion

Just at a time when effective decisions and unity is so important, this government is failing in many ways. 

Despite stubbornly continuing high Covid infections and hospital admissions it is being shrugged off.

The long running shambles over Partygate is now not expected to be resolved one way or another for weeks - fortunate timing for some. 

Instead of  tackling the massive problem of the failing economy the House of Commons spends much of its time on media driven non stories, like the farcical alleged deliberate leg crossing.

Where is the leadership, determination and even the ability to put things right, to come to the aid of the millions of citizens enduring their worst living conditions for decades.

The answer, sadly, is it that it does not exist. 

Politics is more important than policies.

April 25

Guessing game 

Misinformation is a much used word these days, with Russia a past master at the dark and dangerous art, but it is not only muzzled reporters and broadcasters to blame.

Newspapers, old fashioned journalism, still cares too little for accuracy in its bid to revive sagging circulation figures.

The latest example, in my view, is the reporting of the  French presidential elections by our press and, particularly the French papers.

For weeks they have been almost breathless in their forecast that the race was close, that the far right Marine Le Pen could be about to oust Monsieur Macron.

And what are they saying today?

They are hailing an impressive victory with the presidents cantering home with a reported 17 point advantage.

On to the next guessing game, our local elections next week.

But

April 26

Water power

The news that the Welsh government plans to go ahead with schemes to use energy from the sea to provide electricity is welcome but far too limited.

If, and it is a big if, they are ever completed, they would produce a mere trickle, compared with the massive but proven Severn harrage scheme that has bee floated for decades.

Four possible projects around the Anglesey coast have been announced, the first of which has received a £35 million grant from what is probably the last EU regional government scheme.

That and the other schemes would cost billions of pounds.

The most ambitious project - pie in the sky ? - is the North Wales tidal lagoon stretching for 19 miles from Prestatyn to Llandudno.

Compare the Anglesey plans with the massive Severn Barrage scheme, first floated many decades ago, which the government is now once again considering.

The Anglesey Morlais project would instal turbines to produce energy from what is accurately described as one of the world’s largest tidal streams.

The Bristol Channel, site of the Severn Barrage scheme, has the second highest tide in the world.

Geraint Llewellyn Jones, a director of the Morlais project company, emphasises the huge potential of water power which he says, was much better than wind or solar power.

He is right. The Severn Barrage scheme, last costed in the late 1970s at £18 billion, now revised to £30 billion, was predicted to produce one seventh  of the electricity needed in Britain and would last for two hundred years.

The Anglesey projects if,  to use a perverse analogy, they ever get off the ground, would be just a drop in the ocean.

April 23

Hold on….

One of the most unwelcome changes blamed on Covid is the difficulty and frustration of making phone calls.

Whether is a government department, energy company, shop, hospital clinic or doctor’s surgery it is never easy. 

Almost inevitably you find yourself in a queue. 

Sometimes you are given a number but mostly there is no indication of the time you will have to hang on.

But before you get to that you probably have to choose from a number of options, often given at such speed you have to listen again. 

If you are like me old and hard of hearing you give up. 

This morning was typical. I had to ring my local surgery to change an appointment time. Because I have difficulty hearing on the phone I asked  Melissa, my very efficient and cheerful help, to do it.

She was told at first she was number three in a queue but after a ten minute count down she became number three again.That simple call took half an hour, and wasted a lot of time.

I gave Covid as the possible reason for this procrastination but more likely it is a staff and money saving operation. 

The customer or patient is just not important these days.

And it is even more difficult for old people like mec Call centres are a the worst, I find.experience

April 21

 Cardiff  by sea

The biggest and most successful development in Cardiff over my lifetime has been the Cardiff Bay barrage. It has transformed old Cardiff from an attractive city although scarred by smoke belching steel plants into one of Britain’s most attractive cities.

I realised this again yesterday when I drove my scooter from Penarth across it to Cardiff.

From Penarth seafront I drove up to the town centre, past St Augustine’s church, a prominent landmark, and down to the Penarth Marina - once a flourishing dock, onto the barrage.

The old Cardiff was by the sea but it was certainly not a seaside town, No beach, deck chairs or holiday attractions.

It was a busy port, like the much smaller one in Penarth.

When I was a child, the interesting part of the waterfront was the pontoon from which the family set sail for days-out on the paddle steamer, the Cardiff Queen.

Today, Cardiff Bay is a bustling resort, complete with the obligatory big wheel, boat trips, restaurants and cafes, dozens of them.

Beside the imposing red brick Pierhead building, built in 1897 as headquarters of the Bute Dock Company. is the modest sized elegant glass Welsh parliament building, the Senedd, open to everyone, for years a favourite coffee stop for Rosemary and me.

I stopped at the waters edge, watching. dozens of yachts skimming over the water and the mini ferries taking trippers across the bay to Penarth Marina. 

It was not always so. For many years the Taff and Ely rivers had created a problem for the city,  flooding.

When I was with Cardiff city council serious flooding was a regular feature with the area bordering  the castle and Bute Park worst affected. I used to be in the team dealing with the regular emergencies.

The idea of a barrage met vigorous opposition including from local residents who claimed it would make matters worse, and there were opponents worried about the danger to the rich, prolific wild life in the estuary.

One of the objectors was local city council member Rhodri Morgan, later to be the First Minister.

The five year, £220million  project by the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation involved creating locks, bridges and sluice gates across 1.1km, creating a one mile road between Penarth,and Cardiff.

It was an example of cross party partnership bewteen the city and South Glamorgan.

The result has exceeded expectations, more than meeting its main purpose.

Its massive, complicated machinery controls the flow of water from the Bristol Channel - the second highest tide in the world.

It has managed to satisfy most of the concerns of the environmentalists by providing conservation areas and a facility for salmon to swim upstream, impossible in  the days of the mines and steelworks.

I thought of all this as I sat in the park half way between Penarth and Cardiff, watching children at play by the sheltered waterside and people at the cafes.

Thanks to the barrage Cardiff today compares favourably with many seaside cities throughout the world.

The gorgeous view of our capital with its steadily growing skyline of tall buildings and the iconic rugby stadium to the north across the bay reminds me of many I have seen, including, most spectacularly, the view of Toronto city from its lovely small island

The barrage has done Cardiff proud. 

I am more proud of it than ever.

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That was confirmed yesterday when I drove  on my scooter into Cardiff via the magnificent Picturesque route. I drive ufrom Penarth seafront up to town, climbed past St Augustine’s church that dominates the skyline and down to the Penarth Marina.

Then, on a lovely sunny morning I leisurely crossed the barrage onto the footpath and the mile or so into  bustling Cardiff Bay.

Hundreds of others were enjoying the vista of Cardiff, looking every bit  capital city with thee,egant bbuildinds, some in the city centre almost skyscrapers.

It matched, and even bettered some of the many cities I have seen around the world, reminding me especially of zToronto viewed from its Isla d 

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The view 

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BBC in Wales

BBC Wales’ move back into the heart of Cardiff after almost sixty years will see the creation of massive new housing development. The sprawling site on both sides of Llantrusant Road, with its expansive car park, is now a huge pile of rubble. 

I was working in London when the grand new BBC headquarters was opened on St David’s Day 1966; by Princess Margaret. After returning to Cardiff in 1971 I came to know it well, working there for years as a one-man company, Skinner Public Relations.

I worked with Iwan Thomas the chief public relations officer and veteran television and radio presenter. Most of my work was with the Welsh Symphony Orchestra. 

We designed and produced colourful, expensive concert programmes for their concerts in Wales and overseas tours and the Cardiff Singer of the World competition.

My most enjoyable experience was touring in Europe, North America and Japan.

When my broadcasting career started almost seventy years ago it was from the an impressive house in Park Place opposite the National Musuem.

I was a ‘stringer’, a freelance, complementing the staff reporters, just three of them for the whole of Wales. Apart from interviews I did  regular short pieces, usually three minutes, at a .guinea - one pound one shilling - for the weekly Sunday morning news programmes News Extra, often following a plea by the news editor that morning if I had ‘a short piece’.

When television came in the news studio was a former church in Broadway, about a mile from the radio studios. That all changed with opening of the Llandaff headquarters and a new era in broadcasting.

Today, appropriately I think, BBC Wales is is where it should be, in the heart of the capital city.

l hope to go there one day.

April 19

Green valleys 

I had a memorable Easter Monday, thanks to Brenda and Ivor who took me to their lovely house on the hillside above Tonyrefail.

Memorable because of the changes the years have made to the town and to the valley.

It was was almost five years ago I drove Rosemary there from Windsor Court Penarth andwhat a difference to the town centre.

The town centre  is a sad sight. Almost all the local traders have gone, the narrow road into the centre choked with cars parked outside the neat long rows of houses. But turn right and drive uphill for in a minute or two and the scene changes dramatically. 

Brenda and Ivor’s semi detached house is twice as big now since they moved in many years ago, four bedrooms a large dining room kitchen looking out onto a long garden with a stream and, trees bushes with a wooded green hill.

It made a perfect picture in the bright sunshine.

About twenty miles from Penarth, Tonyrefail and its surroundings present a different picture from the days when it was in a typical Welsh mining valley.

The local colliery is gone as is the ugly Coed Ely coke works that for decades had spewed out toxic fumes as it produced coke from a lovely green valley 

In its  place now, a lovely green valley. A few miles south there is another sign of the new age, a commercial complex with a huge supermarket and range of stores.

Many other valleys in South Wales have been transformed. Most of the them, including the Rhymney Valley which had fifteen collieries when I worked there as a reporter for many years with towns and villages overlooked by mountainous slag tips.

Modern houses have cteated  new communities on the green hillsides, reached by new roads. Just outside Tonyrefail hundreds of trees have been cut down at the start of work on a new double lane road linking with the modern network that leads down to the M4.

The valleys, so forlorn after the death of the coal industry is alive again.

. In it place, a loveLov

April 18

With infection numbers still high and almost 20,000 patients in hospital, the public at largehas apparently decided it is time to forget it and make hay while the sun shines.

That has been my experience in Penarth, and I have willingly been part of the exodus. 

For the first time for years I have gone out for three days running - in my case Scootering and limping.

The first adventure, my longest ‘drive’, was down through Penarth Marina, across the pedestrian  bridge looking down on hundreds of moored yachts, on past the  crowded  White Water Centre and the Wales International Pool to Morrisons supermarket, once for Rosemary and me a regular shopping haunt.

Today my drive was short, along the Esplanade to Sunday lunch at the Yacht Club, a pint waiting at my table. Tomorrow, Today, Easter Monday, my niece Brenda and Ivor are having me to lunch at Tonyrefail.

My world has changed and expanded enormously in the few months since I left Sunrise care home, with some misgivings after the  wonderful care I received there. 

Although I have joined the throng of happy holiday makers enjoying the warm  sunshineI, probably like most of them, cannot dismiss from mind the appalling experience of the people in Ukraine and the dismiss knowledge the black clouds over our life.

Easter is a time for celebration. This year, for so many it is a time of sorrow and fear.

April 16

Unwelcome

Over centuries Great Britain has become one of the world’s most racially mixed countries.

It has done so by generally welcoming people seeking a safe haven from oppression, hardship and a desire for a new life.

There have been exceptional times and circumstances when Britain’s benevolent view on immigration was not maintained.

I can remember seeing signs, ‘No blacks No dogs No Irish’.

Overall, Britain has reason to be satisfied with its immigration policies. and throughout the nation there are mixed communities living together peacefully.

But that welcoming approach is at risk.

Suddenly the mood has changed, not by the citizens but the government that seems intent on sending a message to the world that immigrants spell disruption, danger even, and must be kept out.

If they do arrive, fleeing, from an increasingly dangerous world, they risk being despatched thousands of miles to ‘holding centres’ in Rwanda, with its formidable record of strife and disregard for civil liberties.

That is the infamous plan just announced by unfeeling, disastrous Home Secretary Pritti Patel and Boris Johnson.

It sounds as harsh and hateful as the mediaeval practice of defending a castle by upping the drawbridge and pouring boiling oil and dropping cannon  balls on would be invaders.

If the plan goes ahead, Britain will become  pariah state.

We will be divorced from countries worldwide, as varied as Poland and Germany, who have accepted hundreds of thousands of refugees from war ruined Ukraine.

Instead, Britain is in the ‘up the drawbridge’ mode, letting in a meagre few thousand.

This has been widely condemned and the only hope for it to be abandoned is for it to be proved illegal.

That may take months, with thousands of bewildered, lost citizens facing life in a country they do not know, do not want to set foot in, and which is certainly not welcoming them.

April 12

Open house

It’s all done. After four months I am now settled in at my new home, Bridgeman Court, Penarth.

The flat is bright and shining after being completely decorated and re carpeted. 

My kitchen is fully equipped, including a coffee machine, and - the finishing touch - I now have a new drinks cabinet in the living room.

If you would like to see how my move from Sunrise back to Penarth has worked out, come to the seaside and Number Ten

I will be happy to welcome you.

Troubled days

My son Robert’s recent account, on internet, of bombing in the City of London, including his own office, and his subsequent conversation years later with Gerry Adams, a key figure in The ‘Troubles’ in Ireland, was news to me.

My experience of those dangerous days started in 1971 when, as Cardiff city council’s public relations officer, I went with the Lord Mayor to visit the Royal Welsh Fusiliers who were stationed in crude, makeshift sites in Londonderry, including car parks.

Since it had started two years earlier the sectarian war had escalated. 

High walls and barriers divided streets and whole districts. Neighbours had become enemies. Death came often and suddenly in town and countryside.

Those young Welsh soldiers we visited had a thankless, dangerous task. They were certainly not welcome. I saw young children spit at them in the street.

I went back twice to Northern Ireland to see the troops.

Over the years the tempo of the conflict eased, ending finally after almost thirty years, heralded by the Good Friday agreement and the setting up of the restored parliament at Stormont.

But the circumstances that created the horror have not been totally eradicated. 

Hopes still linger among the most ardent that their ambition will eventually be achieved, that the sacrifices made will be vindicated. There have been rare incidents including bombings.

If ever there was a perfect lesson to be learned of the madness of people and nations seeing the gun and the bomb as the way to achieve their aim it is Ukraine today.

April 13

Historically shameful 

This government today made shamefully bad history, probably unique.

The shocking saga of the ‘us and them’ decision by prime minister Boris Johnson to ignore the strictest laws imposed on Britain for centuries and to celebrate illegally while the country suffered and mourned has reached it climax.

Yesterday came what should be the reckoning, to decide if it we remain to be seen  as a sympathetic, democratic, law abiding society.

There should only be one answer - the departure of a man who consistently broke the rules he set for everyone else.

Will he go ?

His reaction, an apology and professed humility to the wholesale fining of him and a bevy of others of his ilk who carried on partying and drinking in Britain’s darkest days is unacceptable, or should be.

But if he acts now as he has done for many years, bluffing and lying, before and in office, I doubt it.  He will try to cling on.

He is on a cliff edge, clinging on by the tips of his fingers, but will he drop or will the power of ruling the country prompt his cabinet and members to haul him back from the brink?

The next few days will tell.

April 11

The Lodger

I have a lodger in my new home who came, uninvited and unwelcome, but whose company I am beginning to accept, even enjoy.

He is no trouble, and costs me nothing. At first he began to annoy me, following me everywhere, from room to room, watching me as I eat my meals, read my book and write my daily blog, as he is doing this minute.

But he cannot stay. I must somehow get him to leave. But how? 

I don’t want to, but I might even have to take drastic action.

I am hoping it will be a fleeting visit and that he will decide it is time to go.

It would be so easy for him. After all, he is just a fly.

it is so easy for him he is only a fly.

L decide to leave, soon it 

Internet 

Draft

Memories

One of the special pleasures for Rosemary and me over many years in Penarth was going to the Yacht Club just along the seafront. I used to drop in from time to time for a quiet drink and we regularly enjoyed lunch and dinners there.

 It is now becoming one of my favourite treats.

Yesterday was typical. I got ‘dressed up’ and drove out from Bridgeman Court on my scooter, down the road and onto the crowded pier.

Then along the Esplanade where I dismounted, managed to open the club door and make my way via the lift, installed a few years ago when we were having trouble with the stairs.

The welcome, as always, helped make the occasion, as did the arrival of my lunchtime drink, a pint in a handled glass.

The menu board presented the usual delightful dilemma - on one side the range of starters and main courses and the reverse, the equally exciting desserts.

As always as I did when I ask with ‘Owy’, I gave the starter a miss and, knowing the too generous helpings, asked for a smaller main course.

As usual, I could still not manage it all, although I did have a dessert.

A lovely meal and a doubly memorable visit.

It gave me deep pleasure, tinged with sadness, reliving the past visits with Rosemary. I could almost visualise her sitting opposite me, talking about our life and our family.

It made me realise, yet again, how unbelievably fortunate I was to meet Rosemary seventy six years ago, and the love and pleasure we enjoyed together over our sixty six years of marriage.

the 

April 10

 Springtime

Spring is on the calendar, and in the air, with warm sunshine forecast for Easter bank holiday next week and at last a chance for us to enjoy it.

It will not all be plain sailing, with packed roads, airport delays and flight cancellations but millions will be happy to have the chance.

How different and desperately sad is the plight of the people in Ukraine.

The stories and pictures are the most harrowing I can remember, and the dark clouds of fear extend across the globe. It is a war even more horrific than the pandemic, another worldwide catastrophe.  And, far worse, the Ukraine debacle is man made. 

It is impossible to see how this conflict between good and evil can be settled and it will only be achieved if every nation that respects human rights and liberties can be united, fearless and forceful in opposing wickedness and brutality.

April 9

Looking westward from Penarth pier I see the massive bulk of Hinkley Point atomic power station, towering over the Somerset countryside. Very impressive - and controversial. 

Britain led the way in civil nuclear projects with the opening of Calder Hall in 1956, decommissioned in 2003. Over the years five more sites built, at one time meeting 20 percent of the country ‘s power needs.

Hinkley Point is being built by the French firm EDF which operates Britain’s five  atomic sites. Its cost, original estimate, £18billion, but it is already £5billion over budget.

Due to open in 2026 it is running late, partly due to the pandemic. More problematical is its likely value in Britain’s search for green power, compared with other energy developments includIng solar farms and off and on shore wind turbines.

Prime minister Johnson has no doubt about its importance, unlike some other countries including Germany.

He is so confident that he has just announced the building of another eight major atomic power stations over the next thirty years.

I have my doubts. Just think of some of his other fanciful ideas that never got off the ground, or under the sea - the  massive airport in the Thames estuary and the tunnel linking England with Ireland.  Pie in the sky, said the experts.

Equally nebulous is the Severn Barrage scheme, a much more realistic major project now belatedly championed by Richard Gove.

Inevitably, expensive long term schemes risk being abandoned and the latest pipe dreaming may end the same way, by which time Mr Johnson will be long gone from power.

 atomic power station 

April 8

Taking off.

Coronavirus almost killed Cardiff airport, its Chief Executive Spencer Birns, reports today.

For months from March 2020 the runway was deserted; no passengers flying the world on business or pleasure.

I was shocked and saddened. I had been interested and involved in the airport from its opening seventy years ago when, with the closure of  the city’s first, primitive Tremorfa airport - more an airstrip - Glamorgan Rhoose airport opened later to become ‘Cardiff Wales’.

It took off dramatically from 1952, thanks to a multi-million investment by its owners, the former Glamorgan county council. 

I was there, reporting for the BBC the official opening by the Duke of Edinburgh.

My wife Rosemary and I were on the first scheduled flight by Air Lingus to Dublin on our honeymoon and twenty years later, as South Glamorgan county public relations officer,  I became its information and marketing officer, continuing for eleven years.

The airline that led the way was Dan Air, offshoot of a London transport company and the first money making route was Cardiff Amsterdam, initially using aged Dakota DC 9 planes. 

More airlines came, including British Airways and a new Air Wales, adding more routes, scheduled and for the developing holiday market.

The airport was run by a committee of officers from the three Glamorgan county councils with Eddie Mahoney pilot, as director. 

They were exciting years. I travelled widely in Europe and North America, usually with the committee chairman, promoting it. 

Our biggest success was when CPAir - Canadian Pacific - introduced its Toronto route, successful for many years.

One trip with Welsh travel agents to set up a Cardiff/Israel route was memorable.War broke out the day our team landed in Tel Aviv.

The official welcome dinner by the Israel government was interrupted when the chief host was called away by the army.

Year by year, with flights and passengers increasing, to 1.5 million, the cost of running the airport dropped until it at last made a profit. I wrote a press release with the news of the ‘windfall’ for our ratepayers.

We made promotional films, television ads, organised show days for travel agents in Wales and Europe and I gave talks to local organisations.

Highlights of the rise of our airport included the visit by the Pope in 1982, heads of government, international artists and sports stars and the regular ‘invasion ‘ of the army of rugby international supporters. 

Our initial Airport Open Day, complete with exhibition and air show, was too successful, with a massive traffic jam extending all the way from Cardiff.

One Christmas, St Nicholas, the Netherland’s Father Christmas flew in, with his white horse.

Those were indeed the days, and I am optimistic enough to believe they will come again.

Wales needs it. Wales major airport, now owned by The Welsh government that have invested £85million in it, will surely fly again.

H

aifirst airport director eas Eddie Maloney, a pilot, and 

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April 7

 Returning to our derided, under fire local government, the latest attack is a report on the pay of its ‘fat cats’.

A national newspaper claims that 25,000 are paid £100,000 or more while 608 earn over £150,000, more than the prime minister.

Shocking? 

As usual it is all too glib,  dishonest and inaccurate 

Of course there are well paid men and women running our local government, but are there too many and are they worth it?

In my experience, yes. 

I have been looking at the facts rather than the fantasy.

Thre are 398 main authorities in the UK, almost 12,000 including the smaller authorities, employing 2million.. Very big business.

Cardiff council where I worked for many years employs 11,000 and has an annual budget of £650,000.

All its chief officers and senior staff are professionally qualified.

SSE, a private energy company with same number of staff has a chief executive with an undisclosed but no doubt substantial salary, perhaps like some of he local government fat cats more than Mr Johnson.

I have been retired for many years but if I were still working, as a deputy chief officer I would have been among them, working up to seventy hours a week think I would be worth it.

And, remember, our pm, as a journalist, was reputedly paid over £2,000 per column, and he was sacked for false reporting,

April 6

Local government

Local government in Britain is unloved and unsung, by the government and, generally, by the public, the reluctant council tax payers.

For many years it has been derided, downgraded and neglected, emasculated by central government that over the past decade has had its funding cut by half.

Some of its most useful public services have been drastically reduced or abandoned resulting in further condemnation.

Will things ever change?

Once again there are signs of a possible overhaul and revaluation. The most positive and significant, I think, is the move to more elected mayors, of cities and linked areas. This is already having an impact in England.

It is a move I have been advocating for many years, having seen it working in other countries, notably Japan and, most effectively, in Germany.

There, every community, from village to city, has elected leaders with real power to run their area, obviating to a large extent political wrangling.

My involvement with the German system going back sixty years came about with the town twinning of Caerphilly with Stuttgart  and Ludwigsburg in Baden Wurttemburg, one of the wealthiest states in Germany.

Dr Klett, elected  Stuttgart Oberburgermeister immediately after the war, oversaw the city’s revival and increasing wealth. His initial term of office was eight years, giving him breathing space to develop ambitious projects. He was so successful he lasted over thirty years.

I saw the same in Japan where the huge city’s hero  was Governor Minobe who was all powerful for many years.

In Britain, when I joined Cardiff city council fifty years ago it seemed almost feudal, with the ‘city fathers’ - lavishly robed chosen, not publicly elected aldermen. They have all have gone, thank goodness, but generally we have mayors and chairmen usually chosen by the party in power, for one year. Figureheads not leadersor initiators. Here today, gone and forgotten tomorrow.

As with national government, having an eye on the next election in a few years’ time encourages councils to make rash decisions or, worse, dither and delay. No wonder Britain  lags behind.

Mr Johnson seems to have at last realised that the local government situation is so dire something must be done. Hence the push for motivated mayors at different levels, more power for communities, regional government perhaps with the overall aim, less control by central government.

The ambitious plan was announced by Michael Gove, the designated ‘ levelling up ‘ chief with a decade long plan to provide, yes, to level up Britain’s forgotten communities.’

He describes it as the biggest shift of power to local leaders is modern times, with every part of England to get ‘ London  power and mayor’s if they wish.

But will it happen?  I am sceptical. Over the decades, centuries, even, our governments have preferred to be firmly in control. 

Yet we have examples of enterprising councils who made Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester great and internationally famous.

If only revival of our local government could match that spirit and ability.

 

to have r

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there is short term thinking

They, and the system, made local government human, working with and for the community.

 the 

April 5

 Off to sea

A big decision. I am going sailing again. Not like Owen with his dinghy but on the P&0 Ventura.

A week in the western Mediterranean, in comfort, too, with as usual, a balcony midship - near the dining room!

Rosemary and I enjoyed two cruises on the Ventura and I know my way around.

As with my recent lovely break with Robert, Karen and Owen, I am surprised and delighted how my life has changed and I am so grateful to be able to look forward to holidays.

My last cruise, booked for March 2020, was scuppered by coronavirus but I held on for some months before giving up and getting my money back. But I did not give up looking at cruise brochures.

If, as I am sure, this trip is a success I will keep up one of my hobbies, scanning those brochures.

April 3

Dining out

One of the innovations prompted by the lockdown was the move to outside dining, with restaurants and cafes encouraged to provide tables outdoors.

The Vale of Glamorgan Council transformed the Esplanade by reducing car parking spaces to provide  sheltered accommodation.

It has been a great success and whenever I drive along the seafront on my scooter the tables are crowded with drivers enjoying looking out to sea rather than on a line of Carson.

Now, for some inexplicable reason, and apparently no consultation the council says it’s back indoors.

The restaurant, cafe owners and the public are furious, claiming it will be a disaster for businesses recovering after dire months of lockdown.

The result of the open-air dining has been a boost to Penarth,with visitors pouring in from Cardiff, just a short drive from Cardiff.

So, will the council think again?

April 1

The reckoning

The inquiry, set up by the prime minister into Britain’s response to the coronavirus/Covid - due to start this spring - will be complex and wide ranging. It will look into the country’s response to the pandemic and find lessons for the future.

Of all the probing, one of the most serious aspects for Mr Johnson is PPE - Personal Protective Equipment contracts.

The report from the National Audit Office, published two days ago, is a catalogue of errors, questionable contracts and waste, running into billions of pounds.

The figures are startling, 

The report acknowledges that in the spring of 2020 countries throughout the world were desperately competing with each other to secure vital PPE equipment.

Britain alone made 10,000 contracts, with the Department of Health and Social Care buying 31.5billion items, costing £12.6billion so far, with a further expected 13.1billion.

Of these, 17.3 billion was used ‘on the front line’, one billion is stored in China and 5billion have yet to be delivered.

The sting in the report is about how the contracts were made, including those via the government’s VIP system.

Of the total ordered, over 14billion are in storage, already having cost £737million and still racking up costs of £7million a month.

Of those, the report says, 3.6billion were not fit for use as was 53% of those bought under the VIP system.

Fraud could have contributed between 0.5 to a full 5%, it added

Another indictment; the Department of Health and Care is assessed to have bought 3.9billion more than needed -10% of the  total PPE purchase.

Figures that should be causing Mr Johnson nightmares. One consolation - if the inquiry follows the pattern of previous ones over many years, judgement may not come for years.

 

HH

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