Brown helped cause the crisis

Carywn Jones today defends the British union by saying:

"Labour is a unionist party...The economic crisis spells out very clearly that any talk of independence is in tatters. The global economic crisis shows how we are better off in a strong Britain rather than independent like Iceland. Iceland has virtually gone bankrupt while Britain, under the leadership of Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has been leading the world in developing progressive policies to address the financial crisis."

Yet Will Hutton in yesterday's Observer says:

"German criticisms about the structure of the British economy are telling. Between 2001 and 2008 New Labour allowed British banking assets to rise from twice GDP to more than four times GDP, a similar trajectory to Iceland, as the by-product of a wild credit and asset-price bubble. Meanwhile Gordon Brown lectured Germany for not following the British example, not embracing financial deregulation and the American business model."

Who was in charge of the British economy between 2001 and 2008? For the most part, Gordon Brown. Progressive? I can't decide which is more regressive; the development of the de-regulatory American model which got us into this crisis, or the way that he has failed working people by allowing unemployment to spiral whilst bailing out the bankers and bosses.

Time for a workers' bail-out

It's now been established that work at Hoover in Merthyr Tydfil is under threat. 337 jobs are now confirmed to be at risk. The plant is not in my region of South Wales Central, but some of the workers are. We've also heard in the past few days that Bosch plans to lay off several hundred workers. That came after more news of 50 job losses Waldon Cars in Tonyrefail, and the problems at L'Oreal in Talbot Green where I met management and workers to try and find a way to minimise the impact of changes there.

It was not long ago that we could claim record numbers of people in employment in Wales. Now that claim has been turned on its head. Unemployment in Wales (standing at 6.7% in the latest statistics) is now outstripping most of the rest of the UK. Repossession rates are also on the increase. The part-nationalisation of some banks by Gordon Brown should have halted mortgage repossessions. Yet Northern Rock's house repossession rates increased after it became a publicly-owned bank. Gordon Brown has bailed out the banks but has not followed up on imposing limitations and conditions to protect working people.

Bank executives are still receiving huge bonuses and are still laying off thousands of workers. Lloyds TSB and HBOS branches in Cardiff, Barry and elsewhere in Wales could face closure if the merger of those two banks goes ahead. The HBOS Card Accounts building across the road from the Assembly might also have to cut jobs. In Merthyr, the PCS Union has warned that Merthyr's HMRC (Customs and Revenue) offices could shut as part of the UK Government's cutbacks. Seventy people are employed there.

The Assembly in Cardiff is limited in what it can do in a global recession of this scale. Ieuan Wyn Jones has been able to save some jobs at Hoover, and Jocelyn Davies has introduced a mortgage rescue scheme for the worst case scenarios where repossessions would result in homelessness. The Economic Summit was a decisive step and I will be pressing for the One Wales Government to take more measures to protect as many jobs and homes as possible. There's plenty more to be done on both ends of the M4, but as a matter of urgency Gordon Brown must abandon his UK-wide programme of civil service cuts. There is no way Labour in London can justify cutting jobs which they bankroll at a time like this. The bailout for banks has saved the salaries of the executives- now we need a bailout for workers.

Action on the Credit Crunch

Leanne Wood: The biggest issue facing all of us is the potential fall-out from the credit crunch. It has been predicted that unemployment will reach 2 million UK-wide by Christmas. As well as losing jobs, people are likely to lose their homes, pensions and public services. Private finance initiative and housing stock transfer schemes will cost much more than we first thought, and £500 billion was allocated to rescue the banks last week. In addition to that local authorities have lost money in Icelandic banks. All of that will put pressure on public services.

Carwyn Jones: It is difficult to have a debate along those lines without crystallising it around some proposals. To suggest a way forward, an all-Wales economic summit has been arranged for Thursday to discuss the current financial crisis. It will be chaired by the First Minister and attended by the Deputy First Minister and the Secretary of State. It will bring together the leaders of some of Wales’s top companies, trade unionists and others from key economic sectors in Wales such as construction, retail and financial services. The purpose of the summit is to listen at first hand to the difficulties that already exist or that are anticipated in the months and years to come and then for the Government to formulate a way forward.
Action has already been taken in the draft budget announced last week. More than £290million has been allocated to fund the Flexible Support for Business programme. We have also, recently, introduced a £7 million package of rate relief to help smaller businesses. It is important that we try to gain, at first hand, the views and experiences of businesses before considering what we might do to assist them and before we see what might be done to give Members an opportunity to engage in the issues.

Hain in the neck

On Sunday's Politics Show, Peter Hain appeared to oppose the Welsh referendum pledge that his party have signed up to as part of the One Wales agreement (as the Hen Ferchetan reports here). He has said that a referendum should not take place before 2011, because we won't win. He clearly wants to be on the winning side. The whole point of having a referendum is to see whether the people want what is on offer. Waiting for public opinion to change when the pledge has already been made defeats the object. The 'Yes' campaign will take our case to the people of Wales. Do people want a stage-managed referendum?

Welsh Ramblings has questioned whether Hain really is committed to more powers for the Assembly. Times have changed since the Labour party in Wales had its course decided by its MPs rather than its AMs. Welsh Labour's Assembly Group should decide and are deciding their own agenda now. They should have the final say on where Welsh Labour stands on this referendum, not Peter Hain or any other out of touch MP. There is a growing realisation now that Thatcherite policies and economics have been unsustainable and are leading to the possibility an economic collapse. The need to break away from the London consensus has never been clearer, and getting a Parliament, despite its limitations, is the most obvious next step forward. There are difficult times ahead and we should remember Gwyn Alf Williams who wrote how in the past the people were "left naked under an acid rain" of Thatcherism.