Best of chums

At the Council's Annual General Meeting today it became clear that the Conservatives in Swansea have done a deal with Labour to take over the control of key council positions in a bid to control the Council.

Since January the Conservatives have voted with Labour, and against their former coalition partners on 11 separate occasions. The new informal coalition of Labour, Plaid and Conservatives now control 22 out of the 32 positions that the governing group has held in Swansea for the last 30 years.

Today Labour and Conservatives voted together to deprive the Liberal Democrats and Independents of the Presiding Officer and Deputy Presiding Officer, which are used to chair meetings of Full Council every 6 weeks.

It is shocking how fast the conservatives have left the first non-Labour coalition in 30 years and are now in bed with Labour. The Tories in Swansea seem to have no compunction whatsoever about doing a deal with Labour in an unseemly grab for power. It appears that in every sense a vote for the Conservatives in Swansea is a vote for Labour.

It was also amusing to see the varying degrees of enthusiasm employed by Labour Councillors as they were forced to indicate their support for Conservatives in a named vote. Some such as the Labour leader seemed to have little shame whilst others struggled to speak the name of their Tory ally. We would have thought that all those meetings between David Phillips and Rene Kinzett would have prepared them better for the big moment.

Losing It...

Rumour has it that the Mayals Conservative isn't too happy with the content of this blog.

It is reported that he has even paid a special trip to the leader's office to claim that we are scoring goals that are offside(r).

It is also rumoured that he is claiming to know the identity of our contributers. Of course it is common knowledge that Silent Witness is not Paxton, whilst Davros will always be Davros.

Sounds like too much pow wow juice to me.

Shameful Act

For once the Evening Post editorial has summed up the situation regarding Ioan Richard's bid to be next year's Lord Mayor perfectly.

For all their squawking about who is and who is not to blame, the fact is that a large number of opposition Councillors banded together last Thursday to deny Ioan Richard the position of Lord Mayor for purely spiteful and personal reasons. In doing so they denied a long-standing and hard-working local Councillor his reward for decades of hard work on behalf of the people who elected him.

The Evening Post correctly points out that the vote was contrary to the protocol adopted by the Council. They say the attempt by one Labour councillor to blame the coalition for failing to drum up enough support for Councillor Richard is a contemptible and pathetic smokescreen - 'shame on him, and the others involved in this spiteful episode.'

Rather predictably this article has caused Tory Leader, Rene Kinzett, to unleash yet another flame-mail. His diatribe is full of the self-serving arguments that the Post condemns. As usual he tries to put the blame onto others rather than accept responsibility for his own actions. The editor must be shaking in his shoes at the threat to involve the office of Nick Bourne and Tory Central Office.

PLC Coalition politicise mayoralty

There were disgraceful scenes in the Council chamber this evening as Labour Councillors joined with Plaid Cymru and some Tories to scupper the chances of Ioan Richard becoming Lord Mayor.

Members of the PLC Coalition ignored a protocol they had all voted for only weeks before to settle a personal score against the Mawr Councillor.

Attempts to occupy the moral high ground were effectively abandoned when Tory Leader, Rene Kinzett, stood up and admitted that he and the other opposition parties had tried to do a deal behind closed doors.

As Councillor Peter Black pointed out, he was effectively seeking to bring party politics into the mayoralty. Was this really what it was all about - trying to secure better sinecures in return for supporting a particular candidate? No wonder the Administration refused to go along with such a grubby deal.

Update: I have been forwarded a lengthy. self-justifying e-mail from Councillor Kinzett to all Councillors in which surely he protests too much about this post. What he fails to mention is that he demanded of the Council Leader that in return for the support of his group for Ioan Richard, he wanted the Administration to back Lady Pennard as the Deputy.

This was unanimously rejected by the Adminstration Group, including the Leader. Despite claims by Kinzett that Chris Holley cannot command the support of his group, the evidence demonstrates the contrary view to be correct. Keep digging Rene.

Pow Wow Frolics

Watching the aftermath scenes of the Valencia - Inter tie tonight reminds me of events at the Licensing Committee today - or more to the point, the heated words in the members lounge afterwards.

Labour had called for an election to fill the job of chair and to supposedly implant Fairwood Conservative into a Special Responsibility allowance.

Unfortuneately the FC had other ideas and decided to go AWOL for the meeting staying at home on the farm. Together with two Labour absentees, this resulted in a five a side match taking place. The vice chair duly held on and Nasty Nick ended up usurping the throne. Nasty Nick's record in the game is a quite impressive won 2 out of three.

Rumour has it that David Phillips was questioning the morality with some animation of those who had bothered to turn up. He was totally oblivious to the fact that the real reason behind his rancour was FC's absence.

This leaves the Tories in a rather asymetric format. One has two jobs, another has one and the FC is crying wee wee wee all the way home.

Now that I have dealt with the prolitariate wing who could forget Lady Pennard viewing the frolics from the farmhouse. It appears that an overdose of pow wow juice has lead her to issue an ultimatum. Give me the Deputy Mayorality or I'm orff!!

The Silence of the Bland...

OK, I know I've asked this before, but I'd really like one of the Plaid/Lab/Con Coalition across at Inside Leg to address themselves to three questions that arise out of their shambolic performance over Scrutiny Chairs.

Firstly, now that we all know that the letter inviting them to take up Scrutiny Chairs sent in June 2004 is real, why did they not do so?

Secondly, why not just ask if the offer was still open? Was it that the PLC Coalition needed to win a victory - however unnessary - in order to look like an Opposition? If so, it's really not working that well.

Thirdly, why does the Labour element of the Coalition now believe that it is so important that Scrutiny should be in the hands of the Opposition? They never did when they were in power, so what can possibly have changed their minds?

Fourthly, will they turn up? They never bothered much before.

Is all well with the PLC Coalition?

I only ask after what I am told by members and onlookers from all sides about last night's Council meeting to set the budget and council tax for next year. It would be a shame if such a principled bunch began to fall out - though I predict it won't happen until they've voted their placemen and women as Chairs and Vice-Chairs to the committees they were too inefficient to be able to capture on the last two occasions. (But will Rob Stewart actually turn up to Regeneration Scrutiny when he's Chair? I'm told that he's only ever attended one meeting...)

First, despite the fact that Plaid Cymru's amendments had been agreed to beforehand, it seems that David Phillips was still trying to renegotitate them with Darren 'Baby Face' Price as he was proposing. No wonder Phillips is facing a leadership challenge.

Then Labour voted against the amended motion, thus opposing both the transfer of an extra £500K for improving facilities for disabled people, and the installation of a sprinkler system in the new Penyrheol School. Not that the last one is much of a surprise really, as when the school burned down the last time, Labour rebuilt it without a sprinkler system. At least they're consistent.

Rene 'Dear Leader' Kinzett's New Model Tories proposed a 2% council tax increase to be paid for by either running reserves down to a dangerous and possibly illegal level, or presumably by £1.4m cuts in services. They didn't have the guts to explain what they would cut, though new convert Margaret Smith rather let the cat out of the bag by giving away details of the Tories' scheme to do away with Council water coolers. Is this the best they can do?

It's time for the Three Amigos to devote one of their regular meetings to putting the PLC Coalition back on track. What they need is a single leader..a Great Leader perhaps? I'm waiting for the 'Dear Leader' to defect to Labour myself...he could then join the two Labour insiders who are out to replace the hapless Phillips.

Every Little helps.

These two characters, (possibly of hetrosexual leaning despite the drink) proudly hold the key to the Conservatives proposal to implement a 2% rise in Council tax.

Lady Pennard obviously believes that taking the waters from the cold tap in the administration khazi is not only beneficial to maintaining ones sexuality but also has the side effect of saving the average council tax payer a whopping 24p a week. (In layman's terms: Half a small bottle of pow wow juice).

Lady Pennard's now legendary remark regarding cannistered water "turning you into a gender bender" was greeted from all sides of the chamber with the jovial response that the Tory ammendment merited.

These were the grounds for the proposed removal of all dispensers in County Hall in an attempt to make give Joe Public his weekly five bob.

The newly appointed Fiscal Affairs Spokesperson has got her career off to a flying start by revealing this central plank of Conservative local taxation policy.

However the cries of "Sit down Margaret, you've said quite enough, you're making our amendment look ridiculous" may indicate that the new tax saving policy has yet to meet the approval of the Cameron think tank.

Not a Coalition - honest!

All the constituent parts of the PLC Coalition loudly deny that they are in fact a Coalition. It's like the Pope denying he's a Catholic if you ask me.

As I've said before, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. In that context, I'm told that Rene 'Dear Leader' Kinzett, David Phillips, and Darren 'Baby Face' Price have taken to seeing Chris Holley together to talk about the Budget.

If there is no PLC Coalition, why do they need to do so? Such a visit only makes sense if they are working together, but don't trust each other that much...

PLC Coalition follow the cash...sorry... principles.

Well, I hear that the PLC Coalition's principled cash-grab went off almost without a hitch last Thursday.

My spies tell me that procedural chaos was only narrowly averted by Rene 'Dear Leader' Kinzett rushing about telling various of his Coalition members what to do. It seems that the most amusing sight was watching Labour politicians voting Tory, Tory politicians voting Labour, and Plaid voting for both of them. Still, it is heartening to see the different members of the Coalition learning to cooperate - when will we get their first joint policy statements, I wonder?

Now they'll be able to show us that all their yada yada about 'the importance they attach to scrutiny' was genuine by actually turning up for the meetings. The Labour element of the coalition never bothered much before. Perhaps the 'Dear Leader' and 'Baby Face' should have a word with their friend David Phillips?

Still no answer from Coalition leaders to the big questions , like why they are suddenly so convinced of the necessity of their running scrutiny when they either turned it down, (Plaid) or didn't bother to answer the offer letter (Labour) back in 2004. Neither did either party ever ask officially if the offer could be repeated. Almost makes you think that the whole rigmarole that we have gone through in the last weeks was a charade...

Another thing, why do Labour now feel it is so vital for the opposition to run scrutiny? They certainly didn't feel the same way when they were in charge prior to 2004. Then, the Masters of the Universe did not allow the opposition to have any Scrutiny Chairs...though to be fair, they did offer Vice -Chair positions, which some opposition councillors took up at the time.

Funny though, when the Assembly said that Scrutiny Vice-Chairs could get an allowance, Labour snatched them all back, and re-distributed them to their own councillors. A coincidence, I'm sure.

It all goes to reinforce the growing impression that Labour are in it for the cash, Kinzett's New Model Tories for revenge, and Plaid - well, who knows? By the way, is it true that the 'Dear Leader' now has two Chairs? If so, will he give up one of his two allowances?

A special responsibility

I am grateful to an anonymous e-mail, which was forwarded onto this site, for providing this information.

Throughout the present dispute over chairmanships on the Council one of the constant refrains of the opposition is that the present Administration is only in it for the money. That is far from the truth. Still it is a bit rich given the history of special responsibility allowances in Swansea.

In considering this we need to remember that Councillors' Allowances are set by the Government. In Swansea the Special Responsibility Allowances were set locally in accordance with that guidance, just like every other Council.

In the last full financial year of Swansea's ruling Labour regime, from 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2003, before they lost control - the total spent on Special Responsibility Allowancess was £460,356.34 per. Two years on, for the second full financial year of the Swansea Administration between 1 April 2005 and 31 March 2006, the total claimed in Special Responsibility Allowances was £375,282.25 per annum. A significant drop of nearly 20%, despite claims by Ray 'Ranter' Welsby that we have increased them by the same proportion.

The reason for this is that the Swansea Administration agreed to pay one fifth of their allowances into the street cleansing budget right from the start. The question now is will the Tory, Plaid Cymru, Labour Coalition do the same, or will the cost to taxpayers rocket back up to the previous figure?

Coalition Cooperation in Action

I notice that over at Inside Leg, the PLC Coalition (formerly New Labour) spin-site, much is made of 'things that needed to be taken apart' in yesterday's Environment Scrutiny committee. Having made enquiries, perhaps I could 'take apart' the voting for the Chair and Vice-Chair as a service to Plaid, Labour, and Conservative voters who think that these three are still separate entities?

Labour's June Burtonshaw is now Chair, and was voted in by a combination of Labour councillors, Darren 'Baby Face' Price of Plaid Cymru, and re-cycled Tory, Margaret Smith. Then Smith retained the Vice-Chair's post with the support of Labour and Plaid.

So there you have it. The Plaid-Lab-Con Coalition in action. Good to see them getting on so well together. Incidentally, surely it is about time that the PLC came clean and told us who actually leads their Coalition? They must do away with this sham of pretending to have three separate leaders.

Electoral Pact anybody?

Of course, there is one reason why Plaid and the Conservatives wouldn't be too worried about Labour getting £100,000 to campaign with in the local elections in 2008... perhaps they have an electoral pact?

It wouldn't do to have PLC Coalition members fighting each other, would it!

Watching the Defectives

Oh dear. This plotting business appears to be a little too complicated for the Plaid-Labour-Con Coalition leaders to get right with any consistency. After getting the tip-off about their failure to get rid of Nick Tregoning and Paul Tucker at Area 2 Planning yesterday, I rang one of my moles with a few questions about what they had been trying to do. It seems that Labour's David Phillips was going to propose his fellow PLC Coalition leader, and new best mate, Tory 'Dear Leader' Rene Kinzett. (They get on well together outside the chamber too; another source saw them nip out for a high-level pow-wow in a nearby office.)

Darren 'Baby Face' Price wasn't there, but then I guess that given Plaid's new role as Labour's Little Helpers in the Assembly, they didn't really need him to be. I'd always thought Plaid had a bigger role to play than as a glove-puppet for Swansea New Labour - and now for their new Tory partners. Seems I was wrong.

What really sums the new coalition up, however, was that in the attempt to unseat Tregoning and Tucker, two non-voting PLC members who were there actually stuck their hands up and voted. Luckily, eagle-eyed officers spotted the 'mistake'. No doubt the PLC spinners across at the former New Labour spin-site will have some excuse for this. Cue injured huffing and puffing from Inside Leg!

Grabbing the money

Surprisingly, a quick poll of Councillors has revealed that the only people who really care about the special responsibility allowances are those in the Plaid, Labour, Conservative Alliance.

So far the resistance to the PLC takeover has been largely motivated by sheer bloody-mindedness on the part of the Adminstration group. This is especially so when one considers that of the four who relinguished their post yesterday, one does not claim his Special Responsibility Allowance at all.

Still, whilst the Inside Outers continue to gloat, we can rest assured that they continue to neglect their real job of scrutinising the Administration. And if it takes an election for Chair and Vice Chair to get them to turn up for meetings then what is the harm in doing it every month.

Meanwhile, the question on everybody's lips is 'would David Phillips acknowledge the facts if he tripped over them?'

Bog Standard

After debating the withdrawl of the Dog Licence from Post Offices, Lady Pennard switched chambers. She was spotted coming out of the Administration khazi by the Mawr mouth whose prostate was giving him jip. On her return we believe there were cries of strap her to the bidet and turn on the hot water. But the big question remained was she chairing Area 1 or 2?

Smoke filled rooms

The smell of intrigue in County Hall is pungent with all the groups weighing up their options. If it had not been for modern health and safety policies the Councillors would not be able to move for the smoke filled rooms.

Tonight, whilst the Administration Group were discussing their options, the Labour Party were meeting in County Hall to consider whether they were prepared to enter into a rainbow coalition with Tories and Plaid to take all the Committee Chairs. Quite why a public facility is still being used free of charge by a political party for its meetings might be something that the Cabinet might wish to investigate.

Meanwhile, it was rumoured that new Conservative Leader, Rene Kinzett, was ensconced with the Plaid Cymru group trying to convince them to support his personal vendetta against the Administration. Both Plaid and Labour need to decide whether their grassroots will countenance this sort of pact with the previously hated Tories and what impact it will have on their respective Assembly campaigns.

Most intriguing of all was the directive issued to Council Leader, Chris Holley by Rene and his Renegades. Having already lost two of his original group members back to the Administration Councillor Kinzett is understandably sensitive about the possibility of more of his colleagues being talked into following suit. Accordingly, he demanded that no Administration Councillor should approach or speak to any of his group without seeking his permission first.

Many in the Administration reacted to this demand with scorn but were surprised nevertheless to read on Alun Cairn's blog that this 'understanding' was not mutual. Not only has Rene been trying to tempt Richard Lewis into his group but he and other Conservatives continue to put pressure on Joan Peters and Huw Rees to come back into the fold. In all three cases we understand that they received a very firm rebuff.

How deluded the Tories are is summed up by Cairn's suggestion that the recruitment of Independent Councillor Margaret Smith back into his party somehow constitutes a 'recovery'. As the Tories Economic Development Spokesman and a banker, you would have thought that his arithmetic was good enough to realise that four is one less than five and that any independent observer would reasonably conclude that Kinzett's defection had led to a catastrophic schism within the local Conservative Party.

Another unlikely alliance

It has been just over a week since Rene Kinzett took over the leadership of the Council's Conservative Group and already he is finding that political leadership is not as easy as he thought.

Two fifths of his group have deserted him and, even though he may pick up an independent in return for a suitable incentive, he has still been left leading a rump and sharing an office with Ray Welsby.

Of course this still leaves him in a reasonably strong position if only because of the way that the group numbers stack up. What he is going to do with this influence has yet to be seen.

His attempt to separate himself and his group from Administration policies on e-government, the Leisure Centre and the Bendy Bus is a gamble that may yet rebound on him. For the last three years he has been closely associated with all of these policies. When they start to come good just in time for the elections then he may well find himself out on a limb. Equally, if any of them should suffer a setback he will have great difficulty convincing anybody that he was not complicit in formulating and implementing the policy.

What is most interesting however is Rene's choice of allies. He has recently been seen around County Hall deep in discussion with Labour Group Leader, David Phillips. Whereas, even we would not suggest that he is about to form a Lab-Con Administration, it is certainly possible that his group will join with Labour to claim all the scrutiny chairs.

We are sure that the Tory blue rinse brigade, who account for the party's grassroots these days, will not be amused at this unlikely partnership. It may prove awkward too for Tory AM, Alun Cairns and his running mates in the Assembly elections. He will have some fun explaining to local voters how his party can advocate a rainbow coalition in Cardiff Bay, whilst at the same time stabbing the same potential partners in the back in Swansea and teaming up with New Labour instead.

We really do live in interesting times.

Threesome

All sorts of groups now value the figure 'three' as an ideal operating size. Some though reach that number by mistake.

A tribute to Joan Peters

Councillor Joan Peters is a longstanding Conservative Councillor who has been badly treated by her own party. It is a tribute to her loyalty therefore that she has decided to stick with them.

The saddest thing about her enforced removal as leader of the Conservative Group was the shabby way in which it took place. Rumours have it that Welsh Conservative Leader, Nick Bourne, even took the trouble to travel all the way to Swansea to make sure that there were no hitches in Rene Kinzett's little coup. When we put this to Tory spin doctor Richard Hazlewood on his blog he failed to post our comment. We are happy therefore to give him or Nick Bourne the opportunity to deny it by e-mailing us. We will, of course publish any reply as an update to this post and correct anything here that is inaccurate.

Mr. Hazlewood's post was a masterpiece in political spin. It was though rather a kick in the teeth for Councillor Peters. It was almost as if she had become persona non grata. When your own party starts to promote your sacking as 'good news to kick off the New Year', then you know that you have become a non-person.

Fortunately. Joan Peter's colleagues in the Administration value her rather more than her fellow Conservatives and it is likely that she will remain in the Cabinet for the time being.

Update: The following e-mail has been received which we are happy to reproduce in full so as to clarify events:

I note from your website that you allege Nick Bourne AM travelled to Swansea to attend a Conservative Group meeting at which Joan Peters was replaced as Leader by Rene Kinzett.

This is not true. Nick Bourne was abroad on Assembly Business when the meeting was held so I would be grateful if you would make this clear. Nick has played no part in this matter at all.

Paul Morris
Group Administrator
Welsh Conservative Group

Perhaps we can now establish the whereabouts of Alun Cairns and Welsh Conservative officials during this meeting.

Further Update: Paul Morris has now confirmed that Alun Cairns was not present, however the Chairman of the Welsh Conservative Party was. No wonder Joan Peters was so aggrieved to find the Welsh Conservative establishment lined up to facilitate the coup d'grace that was instituted against her.