AM's Trusted With the truth

The Western Mail has a two page spread today about a Committee on Standards in Public life survey on public perceptions of honesty. The article is headed "Our Assembly Members seen as less honest than local MP's" which, on first glance, suggests that the public prefer their MP's to AM's. The key word though is "local".

Even though the survey did find that people trusted their local MP to tell the truth more than local AM (49% v 41%) in every other part of the survey Assembly Members were the ones held in better regard.

As a whole MP's were given a 30% trustworthy rating, compared to 35% for AM's. Interestingly UK government ministers received less than general MP's (29%) but Welsh Assembly Ministers significantly more than their backbench colleagues (41%) .

In encouraging news for Welsh Ministers they outscored their London rivals in every category:

Dedicated to doing a good job for the public - 49 v 40
Competent 42 v 40
Set good example 39 v 31
Do not use powers for own gain 44 v 39
Use public money wisely 34 v 27
Explain reasons for decisions 29 v 24
Tell the truth 32 v 26
In touch with public 33 v 22
Do not take bribes 58 v 55
Own up to mistakes 10 v 13

Of course, both set of politicians come off worse against most other professions, with doctors, headteachers and judges leading the way.

For some reason the Western Mail has decided to ignore all those results and stick to the one single figure that MP's trump AM's on for their headline! Could that be the reason why, right at the bottom of the trustworthy pile, well below both AM's and MP's, come tabloid journalists!

Home Sweet Home

A couple of posts ago I stepped in front of Huw Lewis and Lynne Neagle and suggested people back off them a bit about the expenses. Well, one AM seems to be getting no criticism at all for his expenses, even though his worries me more than most.

Step forward Mr Leighton Andrews, AM for Rhondda. Now a quick look at his expenses shows him to be very reasonable in his claims. There's no TV, no sofa, no curtains and certainly no Pyrex bowl. In fact all there is is mortgage payment on his second home along with Council tax and bills for the same. It comes to a total of something over £7k - well underneath the maximum allowances.

So what bugs me about Leighton's claims? Well, firstly think of why AM's get an allowance for a second home...

AM's are elected from constituencies all over Wales, many of which are too far from Cardiff for it to be reasonable for them to commute. They therefore get help in having a home in Cardiff for them to stay in when they're working in the Capital. For the other 3 or 4 days of the week they return home to their constituency, do the surgeries and live their family life.

Although the Rhondda is only 40 minutes from Cardiff there's plenty of AM's who live closer and still claim the allowance (that's you Mike German) so it wouldn't be fair to single Leighton out for that. The problem is, if he didn't have the second home allowance then I don't think Leighton would have to commute at all.

Leighton Andrews was born and raised in Cardiff (and Barry). Until 1997 he was head of public affairs at the BBC, in Cardiff. Between 1997 and his election in 2003 he was a Journalism Lecturer, in Cardiff. His wife is the director of BT Wales based, that's right, in Cardiff. Leighton Andrews doesn't seem to live in the Rhondda, before he was elected he lived in Cardiff and since election that doesn't seem to have changed. Of course he does have an address in the Rhondda, you don't get to be a candidate without such an address, but it's not his home, his home is the one we pay for in Cardiff.

So what you might ask? What's the difference between us paying for a flat in Cardiff when an AM lives at home and paying for a house in Cardiff where he lives full time? Well the difference is twofold. Firstly the point of expenses is to pay for somewhere to stay when an AM is away from home, not for their family home - the cost of which should come out of their wage like everyone else. Secondly, when Leighton visits the Rhondda to do his surgeries (according to his blog -twice in June and twice in July) the Hen Ferchetan hears that his usual preference is to commute from Cardiff and return to his family home that night. If anyone happens to see Mr Andrews soon, do ask him how many times has he slept in his Rhondda "home" since the last election? Could it really be less than 5?

So while most AM's seem to be spending our money on a place to live when in Cardiff, Leighton seems to be spending it on having an address in Rhondda to make him eligible for election there. Wouldn't it be cheaper for us to rent him a P.O. Box or something?!

Edit: An anon correctly notes that you do not have to have an address in a constituency to be eligible to stand - candidates usually make sure they have one to avoid damaging allegations of being parachuted in. An anon being helpful = now that's a first!

Be Nice!

It seems that Huw Lewis and Lynne Neagle have taken a bit of a flack over the expenses list, both in blog posts here, here and here, and in comments all over the place. Most of the people who found Amlwch to Magor through Google yesterday had used the search terms "Huw Lewis" "Lynne Neagle" and "expenses" or "allowances".

It's a teeny bit harsh in my opinion, as there's a few other AM's who deserve more of a tongue lashing than them. They are a special case in that they have double everyone else's allowance and because they placed themselves right in the spotlight with their day before announcement of returning all profits from the sale of the house, but they are hardly the worst offenders of stretching their expenses.

Mike German has to be considered one of the worst - why on earth does he need a second home seeing as how he lives 17 miles away from Cardiff! Alun Cairns as well deserves criticism for continuing to claim the full amount through a loophole in the rules. Lesley Griffith's £2k sofa and Nick Ramsey's £1,000 TV also raise an eyebrow.

So, just this once, maybe we should leave Huw Lewis alone!

Most Anticipated Non-Story of the Summer?

I was going to do the obligatory post on the release of Assembly Member's allowances but to be honest with you, having given them a cursory glance, I can't see much worth talking about.

At first i was going to comment about the big gap between the Labour AM's average "additional" expense (£4,691) and the other parties (Tories: £7810, Plaid: £8.662, Libs: £9,220) but then I had a look at the individual figures for each AM and looked at the electoral map of Wales explained that one (additional expenses is for a second home, most Labour AM's live much closer to Cardiff than those of the other parties').

Then I thought about posting on Huw Lewis and Lynne Neagle's pre-emptive strike in the Western Mail this morning, when they promised to pay back the profits from their Cardiff home when they step down or are defeated. Yes the timing of it is the most see-through production since The Invisible Man, yes they haven't actually made the arrangements yet and it could be hot air, but it still is a good gesture that other AM's should take note of and Huw and Lynne should be applauded for.

So all that's left is to point out that Lesley Griffith AM (Lab) spent £2,000 on a sofa, Nick Ramsey AM (Con) £1,000 on a TV and Lynne Neagle AM (Lab) £400 on a pair of curtains. Have these people never heard of IKEA?

Edit: having looked at the examples in the Mule today it seems the Draig is right and Lynne and Huw's curtains actually costed £800, with Plaid Presiding Officer Lord Ellis-Thomas also spending £400 on curtains! As for sofas, while Lesley Griffith paid £2000, Angela Burns, Rhodri Glyn Thomas and Janet Ryder all found ones at less than half the price. Lib Dem Elanor Burnham gets the award for prudence however, she spent £44.79 in Argos and £4.08 in IKEA!

Words of Advice

Early Day Motions are a bizarre tool of the London Parliament. They're basically way for MP's to make statements about anything and everything they want to. EDM's in the past few days have go from the USA's use of Music as torture (claiming it to be an infringement of the musicians human rights), the removal of US nukes from UK soil and congratulating Lewis Hamilton on winning the British Grand Prix!

Two EDM's this week should raise a few eyebrows down in the Bay. They are signed by, among others, 7 Labour MP's representing Welsh constituencies. Chief protagonists it seems are ex-First Secretary Alun Michael and Paul Flynn. The text of the first EDM is:

That this House congratulates the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for his principled stand in rejecting calls for a widespread cull of badgers; notes that the evidence shows that such a cull would do nothing to help eradicate bovine tuberculosis and would be likely to make matters worse; considers that he is right to take his decision in accordance with science; and hopes that the Minister for Rural Affairs in the National Assembly for Wales will set aside her intention to allow a cull, and return to an evidence-based approach.

Just in case everyone didn't quite get the message, another EDM was quickly drafted and signed, this one not even trying to appear courteous to Elin Jones and the Welsh Assembly Government:

That this House applauds the courageous decision of the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to reject the irrational, evidence-free calls for the mass slaughter of badgers; notes that after a wholesale cull of badgers in the Irish Republic bovine tuberculosis levels are higher there than in Northern Ireland where no cull took place; agrees with the Independent Scientific Group's conclusion, after a 10-year study, that badger culling cannot meaningfully contribute to the future control of bovine tuberculosis; welcomes the Government's search for an effective vaccine; calls on farmers to reduce unnecessary cattle movements that increase the susceptibility of cattle to cattle infections; and regrets the cheap populism of those who demand a cull of badgers that is likely to increase the spread of bovine tuberculosis.

Cheap populism? Ouch!

I'm Lazy, You Die

I am not an organ donor. I don't carry an organ donor card. Why? Have i got a religious objection to my body being harvested after death? Nope. Am I sickened by the idea of being buried without some parts of me? Nope. Am I afraid that my family's trauma would be intensified by seeing parts of me put into others? Nope. In truth, the reason that I haven't got an organ donor card is that I am lazy. I have never bothered to fill in the forms or call the number or whatever it is you do to get a card.

That's pathetic I know, but I'm pretty sure that I'm far from being the only person who's laziness has prevented them sorting out organ donation. When I realise that one Welsh person dies every fortnight because they couldn't find an organ to transplant it shames me. But not enough to take 5minutes to get it sorted.

That's why I hope the Welsh Government bite the bullet and bring in the "opt-out" system that they've been talking about for ages. Such a system would mean that we are all potential organ donors, unless we make a point of opting out. So the lazy among us would automatically become life-savers instead of organ-wasters. It's a controversial move, and I can understand the argument of the critics that such an important thing should be decided by every person and not thrust on us.

That argument doesn't hold water though. There's three kind of people when it comes to organ donating. Those who have made a point of getting a card, those who have made a point of not getting a card, and the rest of us who want to make a point but can't get off our fat arses long enough to do so (e.g. me). Under an opt out system those who really want to give will still give, those who object will opt out and the rest of us who don't see it as a massive question of morals will become givers, possibly saving 150 additional people each year.

It seems that public opinion is staring to align with the government's plans. A recent poll had 48% of Welsh people supporting an opt out system.

While the 48% is what makes the headline, the poll has another figure which is a much stronger argument in favour of a new system. Only 11% of respondents did not want their organs removed after death. 72% wanted to donate, while 12% wanted their family to decide. 72% of the Welsh population is 2.16m people. The amount of registered donors in Wales is currently at 780,000. That's 1.38m lazy people who, like me, could be depriving others of life.

Sod this, I'm getting a card right now.

The Secrecy of Rape

Plaid AM Nerys Evans sent a questionnaire to all sitting AM's asking about domestic violence and rape. While staticians would point out that 60 is hardly a good sample for a poll, that wasn't the point. The point was to create publicity around a much more detailed poll on the same subject that was released today.

As a PR move, it certainly worked and has got people talking about the issue and both polls. 3 of the 8 AM's who replied admitted to having been raped in the past. None had been to the Police.

We always hear the statistics that few rape victims make a police complaints. We hear these facts so often we have become numb to them. It's interesting how the anonymous revelations of 3 of our AM's have hammered home the dire message with so much more force than a poll of 700 regular people.

Fair play to the 3 for being honest in their replies.