Protective shield?

On the same day that the Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond was meeting senior members of the UK government to put the case for more financial powers to safeguard jobs, Wales gets confirmation that 150 jobs are to be lost at the Newport Passport Office.

Unemployment in Wales is higher than the UK average. In difficult economic times, Wales fairs worse. Higher than average unemployment levels in the late 1960s led to a "regional policy" which devolved civil service jobs out of London. The Passport Office, the DVLA in Swansea and the Mint in Llantrisant were set up in Wales as part of this regional policy, creating hundreds of jobs. And now, because of the ConDem's public spending cuts, many of those jobs are at risk.

Every single job in Wales is worth fighting for, especially jobs which pay more than the minimum wage. Every job lost means less money circulating in our already weak economy, leading to job losses in the private sector too. As the PCS Union have argued, it makes no sense during a recession to enforce more people to take benefits from the public purse instead of paying in to the taxation pot.

Dependence on a Westminster government to either give or take away jobs is unsustainable for Scotland and for Wales. With his demands for more fiscal autonomy, the Scottish First Minister aims to ensure a long term income stream. Cuts to the Scottish budget from Westminster will continue to be savage. More fiscal autonomy will provide an element of resilience, a buffer to Westminster's cuts. Income from excise duties, energy revenues and more borrowing powers will come in handy over the next few years.

Meanwhile, Wales's First Minister was yesterday reported to be open minded about the Assembly gaining financial powers, having been decidedly lukewarm before the election. The cuts in Wales are savage too, and Labour have just won an election on the back of a promise to protect people in Wales from the Tories cuts, to act as a shield against them. Without powers over finance, they can't.

Don't Do As I Do, Do As I Say.

Rarely do I read the People newspaper but I did for a review of the Sunday papers on Vaughan Roderick’s politics show on BBC Radio Wales recently. The paper caught my eye because of its coverage of a growing movement which has received scant attention from much of the mainstream media.

In response to the huge amounts of tax evasion and avoidance the UK's super-rich are getting away with, people have begun to join together under the banner of UK Uncut, targeting the businesses associated with tax-dodging. The flagship Top Shop store on Oxford Street, London, was closed down a few weeks ago by people chanting and blowing whistles in protest. Demonstrations were simultaneously held in Top Shop and other Arcadia Group stores in 20 other towns and cities. The boss of Top Shop and the Arcadia empire, Sir Philip Green, has irked the protestors by avoiding paying tax on more than £1 billion. He achieved this by giving his wife Tina, a resident of Monaco, a tax-free £1.2 billion dividend in 2005. The clever accounting that permitted this may have been legal, but it was far from ethical in my mind, or clearly in the minds of the protestors who flooded into the Oxford Street store in their droves.

Vodafone has also found itself on the receiving end of UK Uncut’s campaigning after it was alleged they were let off a £6bn tax bill by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) – allegations both organisations deny. Nevertheless, the finger of suspicion remain as similar protests to the one visited upon Top Shop stores have taken place at Vodafone outlets throughout the UK this year.

Tax evasion is a practice that has been going on for decades but it seems to be increasing with every year. Now it seems people are waking up to it at a time when the mantra of David Cameron that ‘we are all in this together’ becomes more hollow by the minute.

The Westminster’s inactivity when it come to tackling tax evasion or avoidance by the super-rich runs parallel to their crack-down on the welfare state, which provides a safety net against destitution for those who are unable to work. Rarely has there ever been a purer distillation of the maxim there is one rule for the rich and another for the poor.

In a paper produced by the PCS union,tax evasion is cited as being not less than £70 billion and possibly as high as £120 billion, per annum in the UK. Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee claims £70 billion a year is being criminally evaded in tax, £25 billion avoided and £25 billion simply not paid at a time when tax inspectors are being made redundant in their droves at HMRC.

To put this astronomical sum into context, it has been estimated that benefit fraud costs the state £1.6 billion. You’d think the Government would set their sights on targeting the larger of the two sums if they were genuine about tackling the UK’s debt before giving way to other considerations. Are we really expected to believe Con/Dems are not driven by political ideology? Is it really a coincidence that the Tory party has always strived to protect the interests of the wealthy few? Their efforts to close off higher education to all but the wealthiest, helps to understand why people are beginning to get very, very angry.

When it comes to the millionaire-stuffed Con/Dem cabinet’s preaching about the need to balance the books and be in this together, they should really take a closer look at their own affairs. Chancellor George Osborne, along with other family beneficiaries, will neatly side-step an estimated £1.6 million in inheritance tax thanks to the trust fund, now believed to be worth more than £4 million, that his father set-up. He is not the only UK Government Cabinet figure the finger of blame has been pointed at. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond and International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell, whose remit is to alleviate world poverty ironically, have also found to be engaging in some clever accounting to the detriment of UK tax revenues. As for Lord Ashcroft, the less said the better.

As history has shown with the Tories, it is a case of ‘don’t do as I do, do as I say.’ I hope more and more people join the peaceful protests being organised by UK Uncut because the Con/Dem Government and the large corporations they protect need to be embarrassed into doing the right thing.

Weather permitting, a demonstration is taking place at 10am tomorrow (Saturday) outside Top Shop in Queen Street, Cardiff. Protestors are urged to bring their own banners if possible. I hope to be there. There are rumoured to be similar events taking place in Swansea, Aberystwyth and Wrexham this Saturday for what is traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year for large corporations like Top Shop. Let’s hit them where it hurts – in the pocket.

A Message to Westminster

The Con/Dem coalition government was left in no doubt what Newport and the rest of Wales thought about the proposed closure of the city’s Identity and Passport Office.

Around 1000 protestors turned up to march from the historic Westgate Hotel to John Frost Square for a rally. I was joined on the march by Bethan Jenkins, AM for South Wales West (pictured), as well as many other Plaid activists.

The rally's strong support showed that people of Wales are prepared to stand up and fight for the future of their communities.

Here are some of the reports.

BBC Online.

Wales on Sunday.

South Wales Argus.

BBC Cymru

Strike ends

The 48-hour stoppage by members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union has now drawn to a close. An estimated 200,000 PCS union members withdrew their labour during the strike and widespread disruption was caused to public services everywhere. Plenary at the Welsh Assembly was postponed and Plaid Cymru and Labour AMs refused to cross the picket line. The Tories showed their true colours by criticising the halting of Assembly business. Should we expect any different from a party that always has and always will represent the interests of the ruling elite? As chair of the all-party PCS group, I was more than happy to show my solidarity with members of the union and their quest to defend their redundancy rights during the two-day strike by joining picket lines and speaking at a rally in Cardiff.

PCS Members have not taken the decision to strike lightly. Losing two days of pay is not an easy sacrifice to make, but they have certainly demonstrated that they are serious about protecting their contractual rights. More industrial action is planned for next week and an overtime ban is also in place. This of course will all be called off if the powers-that-be in Westminster do the sensible thing and get round the negotiating table with ACAS and the union.

It does not take Sherlock Holmes to deduce where the UK Labour Government is going with this downgrading of the civil service compensation scheme. They seem hell bent on doing the Tories’ dirty work for them by making it cheap to sack civil servants ahead of the anticipated post-General Election cull of public services. As an example of a party losing touch with its core support, this is up there with the abolition of the lower rate of income tax.

I fear this dispute is just the start of brutal cuts to our public services. Apart from the misery huge job losses will bring to thousands of loyal civil servants, it also has some incredibly bright economists scratching their heads at the logic of reducing public spending in a recession. Making low-paid workers and users of public services pay the price for the mistakes of the banking elite in causing the UK’s huge spending deficit, is simply wrong. The PCSU are right to stand against that principle.

I hope that union members stay strong and stick together for the duration of this dispute. That's the only way they'll stop their contracts being ripped up by their employer, and the best way to stop the planned vicious cuts to our public services.