Andrew Constantine

Today's main BBC website has Betsan Powys blogging about meeting the new and most senior Welsh civil servant. I quote the entry:

"The most important, influential person in Wales - arguably - is a woman, one who sounds nothing like a civil servant, one who looks nothing like a civil servant and one whose relish at the thought of delivering better public services was so passionately put, Sir Humphrey would have blushed. Sir Jon Shortridge, the retiring Permanent Secretary (in more ways than one), only just managed not to.

Dame Gillian Morgan - 'no relation' said the First Minister hastily - left the Rhondda at the age of 7 to live in Hampshire. She became a GP, working in hospitals and taking on various roles in the health service before heading towards management. She's been Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation since February 2002 but took a step back towards Wales when she was "excited" by becoming one of the three members of the Beecham review team, the team who advised the Assembly Government on reforming public services.

A passionate, excited Permanent Secretary then, who is planning to be just a little bit more visible than Sir Jon. She will, at least, have 'a profile but not an in your face profile".

Why?

Because the role will change. Gone is the need, argued Sir Jon this morning, to concentrate on laying the foundations. The man who pretty much wrote the Government of Wales Act has done that bit (even if some argue that there are plenty of wobbly bits beneath the concrete).

It's the same message as the one we heard from Rhodri Morgan in Llandudno. Wales has proved it is capable of governing itself. It's pretty clear that Dame Gillian's appointment confirms that the new mood, the new drive is towards creating more efficient and more distinctive Welsh public services.

If "the next phase of devolution" means anything, then that is probably it.
If Dame Gillian is indeed planning to concentrate on improving public services, then it seems inevitable that her own profile will be that little bit more public.

But most of all I think it's fair to guess that someone who didn't use the word 'governance' once but talked bluntly about the challenges set by the One Wales document, about her 'passion' for making Wales one of the best, if not the best, small country in the world will play things differently to Sir Jon." [end]


I draw your attention to two points from the above:

1. Wales has proved it is capable of governing itself; and
2. her "passion" for making Wales one of the best, if not the best, small country in the world.

The question that the above blog provokes is when will England be given the chance to prove it is capable of governing herself?

And the answer from the various Unionist parties (such as Labour, Tory, Lib Dem, BNP and UKIP) is that England will not given such a chance under their policies.

You have to wonder whether some of the leadership of these Unionist parties are just at heart plain old-fashioned racists, who think the English are so stupid that they cannot be trusted to run their own country.

__________________
Andrew Constantine says: The EU is a French-German racket and is incompatible with democracy. An independent England will quit the EU forthwith.

Free England Party - Independence for England
http://www.freeengland.com

Signatory to The English Claim of Right
http://englishclaimofright.com

cassie

The remainder of that blog piece is as follows:
The phrase "Wales has proved it is capable of governing itself." used by Betsan Powys, a BBC journalist, bears further examination.

What exactly is meant by the word 'Wales'? Here, I suggest that it means 'the Welsh'; certainly that is a clear implication! In other words: "the Welsh have proved capable of governing themselves" ie without the English!

Does anyone imagine that any part of the BBC organisation would publish "England has proved it is capable of governing itself" with all the accompanying implications?

Considering Betsan Powys' phrase with Dame Gillian's "no expensive drugs necessary" does put a different gloss on it. Here, the clear implication is that the same or similar level of funding from Westminster will continue. In this situation, 'self government' is not necessarily the same as 'independent self government'.

It behoves us to be cautious, but the implicit anti-England and anti-Englishness in this BBC Wales blog should not be overlooked!




__________________________

Millennium3

It's in the plan:

European Parliament UK Office - UK MEPs

England will probably get its own Parliament by departures. Unless we are soon to have a new country/EU province called West Midlands!

stathan

Well cop for this little bit of reality from someone who is Welsh and lives in Wales.




1) Both BBC Wales and HTV Wales are universally regarded in Wales as hotpots of Welsh Nationalistic Nepotism and staffed entirely by the 'Taffia'... unless you are Welsh speaking, called Rhodri (or Betsan) related to a present employee....you don't get a presenting job full stop.


So hardly surprising that BBC Wales are heavily slanted towards Welsh Nationalism



2) The Western Mail is virtually a Plaid Cymru rag masquerading as a national newspaper with disastrous falling circulation figures and is teetering on the edge of oblivion.

3) The really important statistic :-

One in ten Welsh voters voted for Plaid Cymru in May's elections.


Hardly a stampede for an Independent Wales is it?

Britannist

What do the other political parties (all Unionist) in Wales (Labour, Conservative, Liberal 'Democrat, UKIP etc.) think about this Stathan?

stathan

I've no idea.


The media situation in Wales is just regarded as a joke by everyone (except perhaps Plaid Cymru)


Our TV presenters of course are more or less picked from the 20% of the population that speaks Welsh so naturally the standard of many is absolutely dire.

Whenever I see some young presenter who is frankly wooden and incompetent I tend to look for their name on the credits and invariably a surname recognisable from a long standing older presenter is present.


It's been like that as long as I can remember, as I say it is a standing joke amongst the Welsh population, we really don't put any faith in their nationalistic utterances and bias because we know what the score is, perhaps people from outside Wales don't and get a distorted image.




Another good example of the nepotism at BBC Wales is the position of head of Welsh sport...the position was first created in 1953 and every single head of BBC Welsh sport since then has been a former rugby international. Now either ex Welsh rugby internationals are superb broadcasters or the old boys network is still working like a good un!

cassie

You are confirming my opinion. Unlike Scotland, Wales is too enmeshed with England for true independence to be rationally contemplated.


____________

Britannist

The very thought of the ancient link between England and Wales being broken is an appalling one.

Northumbrian

A link forged by English military superiority and suppression. Am I supposed to be proud of that?

Millennium3

It's how we got to where we are - try and undo that and we return to local tribes of hunter gatherers - solve the GW problem I suppose.