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.
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.
Tory donor Stuart Wheeler is backing Gordon Brown
‘Surprisingly, Mr Wheeler also backed Mr Brown over the economic crisis, saying: 'I'm inclined to think Labour is right. The US and virtually every other country in Europe is taking similar action. Since everyone else says it is right, my view is that Labour is probably right.
'The Tories are saying nothing should be done. They may be right, but it doesn't look good to say that the best thing is to do nothing.'’
Welcome to Labour List. The Mandelson avatar amused me.
It is good to see the party going on the offensive.
Welsh Labour needs a profound debate about its direction, and the run-up to the leadership election next year should see a vigorous debate on our party's future role.
I was proud to be involved in the Yes for Wales campaign in 1997; equally proud to win the Rhondda back for Labour in 2003; and proud to have been given Ministerial office by Rhodri Morgan last year.
I have also been flattered to have been asked by many Labour Party members in Wales to consider standing for the leadership of our party in Wales. I am grateful for their confidence in me and their support.
However, I want to make it clear that I do not intend to be a candidate for the leadership when Rhodri Morgan stands down next year.
I am making this statement now because I do not want every Ministerial decision I make over the next twelve months scrutinised as though it were a calculated move in a leadership campaign.
I hope that there will be a contest for the leadership when Rhodri stands down. Welsh Labour needs to be part of the battle of ideas on the future of Wales and the future of progressive politics in Wales. There is no better way than to ensure that our leadership contest explores the opportunities and challenges before us.
I intend to contribute to that debate, and I believe there are real issues all candidates must confront.
Leadership is not a singular role. Leaders require strong allies and a strong team working with them collectively to deliver change.
I hope that I can contribute skills to that leadership team, particularly in terms of ideas and implementation.
Following the US election and the Glenrothes by-election, this is a moment of progressive potential.
In Wales, we need to take advantage of that moment. Our challenge is to demonstrate the relevance of Welsh Labour – that we are focused on Wales as it is, not Wales as it was.
We need to make it clear that our appeal is to the whole of Wales, not just to those areas traditionally seen as our heartlands – from the Eastern Valleys to the Welsh-speaking North and West, from the M4 belt to the A55 corridor, our Valleys communities and our rural towns and villages in between, there must be no no-go areas for Labour.
Equally, we cannot take any part of Wales for granted. And our performance will need to improve significantly on the 2007 Assembly election.
People are impatient for delivery. They want quality outcomes and they have high aspirations for themselves and their families. They want to see public services that are responsive and personally relevant.
They want a 'yes we can' culture in Welsh public service, not a 'No we can't' culture.
They want a Labour leadership in Wales committed to strengthening the Welsh economy, supporting the private sector in the creation of wealth and supporting the trades unions in ensuring that hard-working families and the vulnerable benefit from it.
They are comfortable in their Welshness but not obsessed with it. They are comfortable with the Welsh language and its role in our culture. They are proud of their heritage but ambitious for the future. They see Wales as part of Britain but a Britain that is changing constantly.
The new Leader will have to take Welsh Labour into the 2011 Assembly election, and support our Westminster candidates in the General Election before that.
He or she will need to explain that our arrangement with Plaid Cymru in the National Assembly is based around the One Wales document and it is a coalition not a merger.
Many will feel that the only leadership choice that really matters is about who can best maximise Welsh Labour's vote in those elections.
In case there is any doubt, I agree with my colleague Huw Lewis that this is a daft idea, as I told the Chair of the Institute of Welsh Affairs on the Maes today. I see that the Western Mail managed to take one of my sentences from the foreword to the IWA publication and make it look like I welcomed the idea. Well, I welcome all discussion on the future of the Heads of the Valleys, but I don't think this is an idea that will go very far.
Just a quick note on Huw's comments. The original budget for the Heads of the Valleys was £10 million per annum: last year under Huw and I between us the programme spent over £16 million and in the previous year under Andrew Davies the programme spent over £15 million. So we are well ahead of the original budget.
But Huw will remember that the Heads of the Valleys are not the Valleys as such. There are only two local authority areas (Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent) and two Assembly Constituencies wholly covered by the Heads of the Valleys programme (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney and Blaenau Gwent). Parts of Torfaen, RCT (including some parts of the Rhondda and some parts of the Cynon Valley constituencies) and Caerphilly Borough (including some parts of the Caerphilly and some parts of the Islwyn constituencies) are included.
The Co-operative Party blog picks up on the launch of RCT Homes as a community mutual, the Co-operative Party's model for public housing.
Last week the First Minister published the Assembly’s legislative programme for next year, building on the One Wales programme for government. One Wales set out our vision of a fair and just Wales, where everyone can live free from poverty and discrimination. We made a commitment to develop Wales-specific solutions to tackle child poverty. Our next step is to bring forward an Assembly Measure to provide greater support to children and families experiencing poverty. It will include a number of initiatives such as a duty on public agencies to demonstrate their contribution to ending child poverty and to provide free childcare places and other early years’ services in specific areas.
As regards older people, One Wales made clear our commitment to help people to be independent and improve the care provided to vulnerable people by public, private and voluntary organisations. A key element of this agenda is to establish a fairer and more consistent approach to charging for non-residential social care. We therefore intend to develop proposals for an Assembly Measure to use our powers to establish a level playing field for charges for specified services levied by local authorities.
We are working hard to get local authorities and other public bodies to work together. Our aim is to have effective and joined-up community planning to deliver high quality citizen-centred local services for Wales. Early in the autumn we expect to introduce a Measure for local government which will link well-being and community planning with service improvement.
A stock of good-quality affordable homes is the foundation of thriving local communities and healthy family life in all parts of Wales. We want to develop a Measure within this legislative programme to give local authorities the power to apply to the Welsh Ministers to suspend the Right to Buy in areas of housing pressure for a limited period of time.
The government is also looking at a draft legislative competence order in relation to the provision of bus and coach services championed by my Merthyr Labour colleague Huw Lewis AM.
Not everything we do in the Assembly depends on legislation of course. I am pleased we have been able to put more money into the Heads of the Valleys programme, well above the original budget of £10million a year.
Congratulations to former Labour Councillor Ron Bundock, still carrying the regimental banner at Royal British Legion events, who is 90.
Ron has been active in a whole series of issues, including crime prevention.
At last night's Rhondda Labour GC we paid tribute to Emrys 'Emmo' Thomas, who died recently after an illness which had lasted for some months. Emmo's funeral halted the traffic in Treorchy just over a week ago, following a moving service at his home, conducted by the Rev. Cyril Llewellyn, with Allan Rogers, former MP for the Rhondda, giving the tribute.
Emmo was one of the first people I met in the Rhondda when I was seeking selection for the Assembly seat. He was a great supporter not only of me and Chris Bryant MP, but of every Labour candidate at all levels. The top pictue shows him working on my 2003 campaign. As a letter in the Rhondda Leader said, he was behind every Labour Councillor who ever won election in Treorchy. He never wanted to stand himself, even though the affection for him across Treorchy, Ynyswen and Cwmparc was such that he would have stormed it. He was genuinely respected across the political spectrum, and I recall Plaid Cymru Treorchy Councillor Cennard Davies picking him out for a special mention in welcoming him back to the fray after the local elections this year.
Emmo had been a Labour Party member for 51 years, and last year we held a ceremony in the Stag in Treorchy to give him his 50-year membership award. His uncle Iorrie Thomas was the MP for Rhondda West from 1950 until 1966. He was an active campaigner on community issues as well as in elections. The bottom picture shows Emmo on one of the London demonstrations we held in support of the Burberry workers where his son Leighton worked. He was a strong supporter of the GMB.
Emmo was also a great sports fan. He despaired a little of his beloved Glamorgan in recent years but he was devoted to cricket and football. He enjoyed Cardiff City's play-off final in 2003, and he would watch football on Sky Sports round the clock. I joined him sometimes at Ton Pentre home games where he would organise the teas at half-time.
Emmo was a good man. He will be missed by all, and our thoughts remain with his wife Pat and the family.
I am delighted that my good friend Carwyn Jones is following up issues I have recently raised in speeches such as the credit crunch and the importance of co-operatives to Welsh Labour.
I thought I should put up the full text of my remarks which seemed to get an unexpected amount of coverage in the Western Mail and Daily Post last week. What I said was:
Only Labour is fighting seriously in every area of Wales. But because of the breadth of our challenge, we need policies that work for all areas of Wales.
We must avoid the siren voices who want us to follow false choices. It is not a choice between following London’s lead or being different in Wales for the sake of it. It is not a choice between winning aspirational voters or getting the core vote out. It is not a choice between social justice issues and quality of life issues. It is not a choice between winning in Welsh-speaking Wales and winning in Tory-Labour marginals like here in Clwyd West.
Rather it is the challenge of setting out a broad appeal which chimes with the realities voters recognise. In tough times, people know there have to be tough choices. They understand how corporate greed has brought about the credit crunch. They believe in limits to corporate power to prevent irresponsible lending to those who cannot afford it. They know that unregulated markets undermine security for all of us.
As The Times’s former Economics Editor Anatole Kaletsky warned on Tuesday, we cannot go on living
in a world of naive market fundamentalism, where politicians and mediaIt is precisely because I spent half my working life running businesses in the private sector that I am more sceptical about markets than many in New Labour ever were. Markets have their place – but market naivety is an irrational approach for socialists. The herd instinct of the market can distort economic policy judgements and investment decisions.
commentators assume that the market is always right, despite the copious
evidence that markets are often very wrong indeed.
Until recently a number of my constituents were working at Tower - now some have moved to Aberpergwm.
Tower's achievement is a shining example of the cooperative ethos of popular power and workers' control - and I was delighted to attend the reception held by the First Minister last night to commemorate the workers' achievement.
I outlined the plans for the future of the Communities First programme today in the Assembly.
Included in the plans is a new Outcomes Fund to boost community regeneration in some of the most deprived areas of Wales, worth at least £25 million over the next three years.
The Outcomes Fund is the centrepiece of our plans for the next phase of Communities First. Communities First partnerships will be able to bid for the funding but will need to demonstrate that their proposals will help deliver key Communities First priorities. They will also need to show that they are working in partnership with local public bodies and have engaged with local people in planning local services.
Plans for the next phase of Communities First will give the programme a sharper focus on stimulating practical improvements to tackle poverty, contribute to wider regeneration initiatives and improving employability. They follow an extensive consultation process earlier in the year. The programme will continue to be called Communities First with some new initiatives called Communities First plus. It will also contain new measures to intervene in partnerships that are struggling to make an impact locally.
A higher proportion of the overall budget will be spent in Communities First areas.
Following yesterday's Panorama there has been more coverage of the action needed to help people back into work.
Last week, I explained how I was launching the Jobmatch programme funded by the Heads of the Valleys programme and DWP. ITV Wales ran a good report on it, which you can see here.
Later this morning I will be launching the Heads of the Valleys Job Match scheme. Some initial coverage is here from the Western Mail, and here from the BBC.
The scheme is based n a successfu pilot in Blaenau Gwent where 1,300 people were helped back to work iand 70% were still in work a year later.
It is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government jointly with the Department of Work and Pensions and with Working Links.
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