Spanish Civil War anniversary- Wales' contribution

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War, where around 169-177 people from Wales volunteered to fight against fascism in Spain. It was a brutal war, and it is widely thought to be the prelude to what was to come latert - the Second World War. The Spanish Civil War saw the first mass aerial bombing of a town at Guernica. It also saw the menace of fascism unleashed against the people of Europe. Franco, Mussolini and Hitler used it as a dress rehearsal.

I have always been encouraged by the example that the Welsh miners and other workers set by volunteering to fight for a democracy they had never visited. The fact that seven men went from my home patch, Penygraig, makes it a story that has great local significance too.

There are several memorials to the volunteers across Wales. However, the Welsh and other international contingents' participation in the Spanish Civil War is an underlooked part of history, yet it is so remarkable. There is a national memorial to the volunteers outside the South Wales Miners Library, but there is no memorial that names all of the dead or all of those that went.

With this in mind I am calling for a national permanent memorial to be installed at the Senedd. This would ensure that the brigadistas from Wales are commemorated for defending democracy at the heart of Welsh democracy. I am hoping that other Assembly Members support this idea.

Public meeting on proposals for the Severn

Chris Franks and I are hosting a public meeting on the plans for a Severn Barrage and whether the other potential energy projects would be less damaging to the environment and the surrounding communities.

A barrage will have an impact on the wider area of Cardiff and the Vale (not to mention the communities on the English side of the estuary).

It is an open meeting, admission is free and everyone is welcome to attend.

Date: Monday 6th April

Venue: The Paget Rooms, Penarth

Time: 7-9 PM

Speakers: Jill Evans MEP (Plaid Cymru), Gordon James (Friends of the Earth Cymru), Peter Jones (RSPB)

"Unreserved apology"

Victor Frederick has received an "unreserved apology" from South Wales Police in a letter hand delivered after the press conference on Wednesday. I'm glad that a full and unreserved apology has now been made, even if it has taken five weeks. We all still expect answers to the questions raised in my letter to the Chief Constable. We must be assured that this will not happen again to any other family or individual in the South Wales Police area.

Wanted - Answers from South Wales Police

The Western Mail features this story on its front page today. It was reported yesterday at Wales Online, in the Echo and here on the BBC Wales website.

Mr Frederick and Ms Heath asked me to help them make a complaint about the incident which took place in Riverside last month and to publicise it, so as to try to prevent something similar happening to others.

When they first came to see me, Ms Heath wept as she told me of her fear when machine guns had been trained on her and her 12 year old daughter as they watched her partner with four guns on him as he stood handcuffed in his underpants in the middle of their sealed-off Cardiff street. They were told to keep still or be shot.

Some very basic and simple enquiries could have avoided the stress and trauma which have been caused to this family. The couple described how edgy and nervous the officers were during the operation. The police appeared woefully ill-informed, saying they had expected the house to be unoccupied and asking questions about whether there was a back entrance. The raid related to "suspicious items" found at the music studio in Grangetown Mr Frederick shares with three other band members. Discarded guitar leads, a broken tape recorder, a "Danger - Keep Out" sign, a video tape of Mohammed Ali and a drink in an "ethnic container" in the fridge were enough for someone to conclude that the studio was a bomb-making factory. The operation involved raids on the studio and on Mr Frederick's home. The other band members were not subjected to the same treatment.

I've written to the Chief Constable of South Wales Police and to the Independent Police Complaints Commission making a formal complaint and requesting answers to some of the many questions that arise from this. South Wales Police have issued a limited response to press enquiries acknowledging that "Mr Frederick has done nothing wrong".

There are too many frightening parallels between Mr Frederick's case and this one. Thankfully nothing went wrong on this occasion, but after listening to the details of Mr Frederick and Ms Heath's experience, its easy to conclude that they were just very lucky.

Riverside Community Garden

Plaid Cymru AM Elin Jones, who is also Minister for Rural Affairs, today joined Riverside Councillor Mohammed Islam and myself on a visit to the innovative Riverside Community Garden project.

The scheme enables local people to get together to grow their own fresh food. Allotments have so many benefits, all of which can be seen at the Riverside project. It brings people together from different generations and cultures as well as providing great opportunities for health improvement. They have strong links with Riverside Farmers' Market and are hoping to be able to sell their excess produce there in the future.

I’ve recently obtained figures which show that there are lengthy waiting lists in many local authority areas for allotments. Elin is committed to expanding local food production, particularly in urban areas. Riverside Community Garden shows the potential we have to be more self sufficient and therefore sustainable in. RCG a model that is worth promoting as one that should be rolled out in other urban areas. All we need is more allotment land!

From the Record: Asking Edwina Hart about immigration rules and NHS recruitment

Leanne Wood: I have raised with you the recruitment problems of Cwm Taf NHS Trust, which resulted in the closure of some hospital wards over the Christmas period. The chief executive of the trust has told me that they have had difficulties in recruiting doctors, particularly from the Indian sub-continent, as a result of the recent tightening of immigration rules. Will you agree to raise this issue with the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration in the UK Government and call for a relaxation of the new rules so that more doctors can be recruited to work in Welsh hospitals?

Edwina Hart: There is no doubt that the change in immigration rules has had an impact on the availability of medical staff in Wales, particularly in the middle and lower-grade training positions that are key. This has made it difficult to ensure that all posts are filled. In fact, discussions are under way, under the auspices of the postgraduate deans, to establish a number of specific short-term training opportunities for overseas doctors. These are programmes that have been developed across the UK by the postgraduate deans in collaboration with the Home Office and the General Medical Council. The Welsh Assembly Government’s views are known by central Government, but I would be happy to take up the matter through the appropriate channels.

Affordable housing LCO illegal?

According to the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments (JCSI), a cross party group of MPs and Lords, the recently agreed affordable housing LCO may not be intra vires or in other words, it may be illegal. Their report says that there is no provision in the Government of Wales Act for decisions to be made jointly between Welsh Ministers and the Secretary of State for Wales. After all, Welsh Ministers are not accountable to the UK Parliament.

I've blogged about the problems with this LCO before. Betsan Powys reports the responses to the JCSI report:

"Jointly the Wales Office and Welsh Assembly Government put it like this:

"Both the UK Government and the Welsh Assembly Government have noted the conclusions of the JCSI, but we are confident that the Order we have agreed, and which was approved in the National Assembly for Wales, is legal under the Government of Wales Act. We therefore intend to proceed with the Order."

Or as the Counsel General, Carwyn Jones put it in the chamber: "the JCSI doesn't have a veto of any kind over the way in which an LCO does proceed in the future. Certainly, we are confident that there is no difficulty in terms of the vires of the LCO with regard to any future devolution of power."

"Gaza is still the issue": public meeting tonight

Gaza Is Still The Issue
Public Meeting Tonight- Wednesday 11th March
7 PM at the Law Building, Cardiff University, Park Place
Free Admission, All welcome

Speakers-
STUDENTS from the recent sit-in at Cardiff University
Dr MARCELO SVIRSKY, Cardiff University, A scholar & activist on Jewish-Arab relations in Israel
LEANNE WOOD AM, Plaid Cymru, South Wales Central
CHRIS NINEHAM, Stop the the War Coalition
Prof. CHRISTOPHER NORRIS, School of Philosophy, Cardiff University

The meeting will be looking to build on the momentum of the student campaign which got Cardiff University to disinvest from the arms trade.

Businesses oppose regulation shock!

At today's Welsh Language LCO Committee, business representatives called for a voluntary approach to the provision of Welsh language services as opposed to a legislative one. These are the same organisations which have resisted most other forms of regulation from the minimum wage through to measures to protect the environment.

Regulation is needed where the market fails, and many Welsh speakers would agree that the market has failed them and the language. If we are serious about protecting the Welsh language and giving Welsh speakers the freedom to use Welsh in Wales, then there has to be some form of regulation.

The public consultation on the LCO closes on March 20th. Do you have a view? If so, either contact me at leanne.wood@wales.gov.uk, or you can submit comments to swyddfadeddfwriaeth@cymru.gsi.gov.uk or legislationoffice@wales.gov.uk

Wales Can

Check out and get involved in the debate on Plaid's new website WalesCan.com, it's putting our case for independence.

Recover, Reform, Renew

This morning Plaid launched our policy response to the economic downturn.

While Plaid in the Welsh government has received wide praise for the action taken to date, the main responsibilities and levers of the economy lie with the UK Government. The UK economy is heavily dependent on the financial sector- a senior government advisor was quoted this week as saying that the City of London was all-important to New Labour and that “the rest of the country can be turned over to tourism”. Today Plaid called for the need for a balanced economy instead of New Labour's 'eggs in one basket' approach. We also believe that sustainability is the key to job creation. I have said this many times before and I have raised it again in the Assembly this week with Rhodri Morgan. There is a great opportunity to create green manufacturing jobs and to ensure that the new affordable houses being built across Wales are energy efficient and environmentally friendly. The green technology sector already accounts for 9% of Wales' GDP - I look forward to seeing that percentage grow.

There is a growing consensus in support of the need to increase public expenditure to reduce the effects of the recession. The planned £500m cut to the Assembly's block grant in 2011 following major private sector job losses will be nothing short of a catastrophe for our nation.

From the Record - PFI

Yesterdays news led me to ask this in the Assembly:

Leanne Wood: We are all acutely aware of the current economic conditions and that the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. The Westminster Government has committed billions of pounds of public money to bailing out the banks, and that money will have to come from somewhere. It seems likely that the bailouts will be paid for, in the long term, by cuts to front-line public services.
We heard in the news today that the Westminster Government intends to provide further billions of pounds to bail out failed and failing private finance initiative schemes. Is it not ironic that public funds are now needed to save private finance initiative schemes? The Welsh Assembly Government is to be commended on its cautious approach to PFI. As times get more difficult, the wisdom of the decision not to embrace the idea of the private sector running public services will become more apparent. However, this Government’s past prudence could work against us in terms of the PFI bailout unless we get our share of any money that becomes available. Will we get our Barnett share of this bailout so that we, too, can build new schools and hospitals?
We also need to be aware that all of this will have an impact on what was meant to be the biggest PFI scheme in the whole of Europe, namely the proposed military training academy at St Athan. The estimated cost of that scheme has already crept up from £11 billion to £12 billion. The project has already lost its lead partner and has since acquired a new partner in the form of a French catering company—

The Presiding Officer: Order. This is not a debate about defence or anything else. This is about the business statement. I would like a question.

Leanne Wood: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Do you agree that PFI is fiscally dangerous, that the Government is under contract to pay for services under PFI—

The Presiding Officer: Order. This is not a debate about PFI. However, if you would like to ask the Leader of the House whether he will organise a debate in which you can raise these issues, that would be quite in order.

Leanne Wood: I am coming to that, Presiding Officer.

The Presiding Officer: Well, it is taking some time. [Laughter.]

Leanne Wood: I would be grateful, Leader of the House, if you could find time for this Assembly to discuss the implications of this latest Westminster bailout. We need to know whether there will be a Barnett consequential for Wales and whether the precarious nature of PFI projects in this economic climate raises questions about the planned development at St Athan.

Carwyn Jones: The Government supports the defence training academy. That project will bring many jobs to the Vale of Glamorgan and surrounding areas. It is the Government’s hope that that project continues to move forward.
The banks are a matter for the UK Government and, indeed, Governments around the world. Despite the imprudence and incompetence of so many banks, it nevertheless remains the case that the banking system must be kept afloat. The hope is that all the shares in the banks that the Government has bought over the past year or so will eventually be sold at little or no cost to the taxpayer. However, I suspect that that time is not at hand, if I may put it in that way.
On the need to debate these issues, the First Minister is able to answer Assembly questions as they come. I know that he will have made his points clearly this week in the meeting of the various First Ministers of the UK’s devolved institutions and the Prime Minster that we wish to ensure that the Welsh budget is protected.