Dear Rhodri
'Unprecedented', 'shattering', 'shocking': the kind of words that make you sit up and listen. Or in this instance, read.
Last night I was given a copy of a letter signed by 36 leading Welsh health clinicians, or as I'm putting it this morning, just about anyone who is anyone in clinical research in Wales. It's the kind of list that has you reading the text of the letter they've sent to Rhodri Morgan very, very carefully.
They don't pull their punches. They accuse the Welsh Assembly Government of appearing to contradict its own priorites of supporting research and development - not just in the area of health and social care but more generally ('small, clever nation' ring any bells?) by cutting a million pounds from the budget of the body that's responsible for scientific, medical research. Patients will miss out. Higher education institutes will find it even tougher to attract good people and to win competitive grants.
Pound for pound they say, we would be spending Β£46 million per year in this area if Department of Health levels of funding applied in Wales. Instead we're spending Β£26 million and even that has been - apparently - cut by a million.
And most damaging of all perhaps is their final point: that "the development of a National Institue for Health Research, a commitment in the One Wales document, will fail to be delivered".
And guess what? It turns out that the man appointed by the Health Minister, Edwina Hart, to lead the way in Wales on health research and development resigned the day after the draft budget appeared.
Why do I say his budget has been 'apparently' cut by a million? Because this draft budget is extraordinarily hard to read. Where it used to be relatively straightforward to work out which bit of the budget was going to be spent where, now there are big pots of money and a plan that Ministers compete for their slice of the millions. So who eventually gets what? Well it's Saturday and we still haven't worked it out. We'd hoped members of the Finance Committee had worked it out by the time they met on Thursday but - well, they seemed pretty non-plussed to me and, I suspect, to the Finance Minister. Andrew Davies may have been rattled once or twice but left the committee room pretty much unscathed.
But the clinicians seem pretty clear about it. The million has gone. Where? Who knows but no-one seems to have told them about it. And anyway let's face it, whether it's found or not by the time the draft budget is finalised, they're not a happy bunch. WAG simply say funding they're behind medical scientific research, funding in this area has altered significantly and ministers are still in discussions to finalise funding arrangements.
The Finance Committee meets again next week and will concentrate on health spending plans. The Health Committee meets on Wednesday. Who's on the list to speak to them? Might they now like to add to it?
I'm Betsan Powys, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Wales' political editor. I'll be blogging the inside track on .
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WE SAY...
Let them eat...WMC OPERA.
"politiks is the language of pontcanna priotities...down the priory."
"small, clever nation"? ...Mmmm...iconic.
Love the blog Betsan but I have an bone to pick regarding your John Griffiths comments on the politics show.
As any primary school artist will tell you, you can't have red and green water in the same mix as it would turn into a murky brown. Or perhaps you were making a subtle comment on John's ideas?
wait until the local authority budget is spelt out. Then the fun and games will start. This is a very difficult settlement. To make matters worse it is for 3 years. The problem that the assembly faces is that it has no control of taxation. In fact Andrew Davies has less control over finance than the smallest community council in Wales. At least a community council can set any level of council tax and then allow the electorate to decide whether it was appropriate or not. All Mr. Davies does is to hand out the money given to him by Westminster. Money spent in one direction means less money for another service. It's called opportunity cost. Wales will never be a maturte democracy until it tackles the arguments set out by one commentator in a recent article about tax raising powers and the develoved admininistrations. It's simple ' no representation without taxation'. Until this question is answered Wales or Scotland do not deserve devolved administrations.
Michael
Having emptied plenty of pots of murky brown water down the sink and stuck plenty of murky brown paintings on the wall over the past few months, I should have known better! I thought John Griffiths' comments on the Politics Show were fascinating. Unravelling just what he means by a 'red green' future, left, distinctively Welsh politics - and just how unacceptable that furrow would be to some of his colleagues, will keep us going for a while. Peter Hain keeps talking about 'aspirational' politics these days. This feels like a clear retort from a wing of the party that had been pretty quiet. Let the thousand flowers start blooming + the leadership race get going!
I reckon whoever runs the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ web server admin (one perl script failure after another...) should join Rhodri Morgan and his collection of re-cycled failed 'Ministers', and their chief policy advisors, and their professional obfuscators a.k.a Special Advisors - on the dole!
John
To post responses, I go through exactly the same painful procedure as you do. I've no idea how many try to post a comment, fail and give up but I'll follow it up again. One more error message and I'm in danger of officially complaining about RSI - post, post, post ...
Betsan,
Good on John Griffiths, about time the 'Empire Struck Back' so to speak. There seems to be an assumption by the press that whenever the devolutionist left is getting on with running the country, and not responding to every 'brit nat' provocation, it is in some way losing the argument. As John demonstrated so ably the progressive left is alive, kicking and proudly wrapped in the ddraig goch. More to come I suspect - keep watching your space..........
Perhaps they could get that Β£1 million of Peter Hain's Welsh Office budget?
Ordovicius delivers the John Griffiths/Politics Show transcript, Huw Lewis delivers his thoughts. Well worth a read: www.huwlewis.org.uk
Response to Huw Lewis looks worth a read too..........