Downtime

Leighton's website is undergoing a revamp.

As a result, it may be off-line for short period of time later today.

Welsh Labour debate

My Labourlist article seems to have created a mini-debate on the future direction of Welsh Labour, with an argument against it by two party members in the Western Mail today.

However, they seem to have overlooked the fact that everything I cited in support of my case in my article is the policy of Rhodri Morgan's Welsh Labour-led government - policies we are actively pursuing in fact, as I have said in many Ministerial speeches such as this one.

Assembly debates Gaza

Unusually the Assembly has a Foreign Affairs debate today on the situation in Gaza.

A timely opportunity to remind people to donate to Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Smile at the super-mutual!

Co-operative Financial Services and the Britannia are to form a new super-mutual as 'an ethical alternative to shareholder-owned bank'.

I argued in a speech in Neath back in November that the current crisis offered a moment of progressive potential that could see a re-emphasis 'on the value of mutual solutions'. A summary of some of the points in that speech was given in my Labourlist article.

This is a very interesting development.

I notice that Britannia's Chairman is Rodney Baker-Bates, who was the Director of Finance when I was at the BBC in the 1990s, having joined the Beeb from the banking sector.

Change

Change has come to the White House

Burberry cuts British jobs again

Burberry has just announced further 'cost efficiencies'.

This actually means more British job losses, this time in Rotherham.

During the Keep Burberry British campaign to try to save the Burberry Treorchy factory two years ago, we warned that if Treorchy went, Yorkshire jobs would be next.

Yes he can!

Debating Welsh Labour's Future

I said back in November that though I did not intend to be a candidate for the leadership of Welsh Labour, nevertheless I intended to contribute to the debate.

The Western Mail has picked up on my Labour List article and has published an editorial in support of it.

Digital inclusion

Digital inclusion is a process not an event. We are all learning more about interactive opportunities as we go along.

I'd given up on Twitter as having any point to it, but at the EU Digital Inclusion event in Vienna in December some people tried to persuade me that there were uses for Twitter - so I have added it as a way of updating Facebook from the mobile.

Let's see if it makes any difference....

New article

I have an article on Welsh Labour and community engagement on Labourlist.

No merger of Post and Mail...but what about Mail and Echo?

I see Trinity Mirror has ruled out a merger of the Daily post and the Western Mail - which doesn't surprise me, different papers and different audiences.

But what about the Western Mail and the Echo?