Egg on their faces

Are the brothers and sisters of New Swansea Labour going to end up with egg on their faces? Having kicked up a huge fuss about the six pound charge for Swansea residents to swim in the new LC, David Phillips may be in for a shock when he sits down and does his sums. It appears that the before it closed, residents wanting to spend two hours in the old pool would have had to pay nine pounds. So far from 'penalising the worse off' as suggested by the Labour leader, the Swansea Administration has actually cut the cost by 50%. Oops!

Ms Whiplash Is Back In Town

After a long absence, Ms Whiplash has returned to our democracy. After an absence of 20 years from the polls she has returned to bolster up support with Lord Lucan after a similar disappearance for Castle 2008. Her reincarnation is pictured here waking up amongst the fag butts left behind after a boozy night out. What's more she is now blaming others for the mess.

A rose by any other name

A copy of Labour's latest leaflet 'Swansea West Welsh Labour Rose' drops through the letterbox. It is dripping with the sort of propaganda all too prevalent in today's politics.

First up is an article demanding that residents stop the 'Liberal Democrat Council' building on the St. Helen's Recreation ground. The basis for this accusation is the Swansea Bay Strategy, currently out to consultation. Alas, not only has no such proposal been made by the Council, but its leadership has hinted that they will not accept this particular idea.

Why though is there no mention of the role played by Labour Minister and local AM, Andrew Davies in all of this. The Swansea Bay Strategy was jointly commissioned with the Labour Assembly Government and was launched by Mr. Davies. Surely, his association with the idea of developing the rec is as strong as the Councils. Like them he does not like the idea but that does not stop his party drawing its own conclusions.

Putting aside the deliberate error on the back page of the leaflet in which Social Services Cabinet Member, Wendy Fitzgerald, is described as a Liberal Democrat, Labour's prescription for mending social services is full of holes. Their spokesperson, Andrew Connell thinks that recruiting agency staff to cover unfilled vacancies is a waste of taxpayers' money.

This is not a view taken by Labour Councillors on Swansea Council, who recognise that there is a nationwide shortage of Social Workers and that in the short term it is better to cover vacancies rather than put more children at risk by not doing so. It is also not a view taken by other Labour-run Councils who have taken exactly the same course of action as Swansea.

It is true that allocating money 'directly to improving Social Services, giving assistance to children and families where it is most needed' sounds good but what does it actually mean and how precisely does it help the most vulnerable in our society? Once more Labour seem to be floundering in the dark.

The most audacious piece however comes at the end with Ian Ross accusing Liberal Democrats of allowing 'our school buildings to fall into horrendous conditions. As a result of the Lib Dems incompetence,' he says, 'our schools now have a £150 millions backlog of repairs.' Really? You can tell that nobody ever checks this stuff.

Let us be clear, Labour are now alleging that when they lost power in 2004 all of our school buildings were in an immaculate condition but that over the last three and a half years the Liberal Democrat administration has allowed them to collapse into near-ruin. That is quite a rate of deterioration. Do they really believe that voters will buy this nonsense.

The fact is that as with the Leisure Centre, the Central Libary, County Hall itself, Swansea Council housing and the Guildhall, there has been a dearth of investment in schools over decades of Labour rule. One hundred and fifty million pounds worth of repairs do not materialise overnight. The blame for this under-investment lies squarely in Labour's lap and it has been left to the present administration to put things right.

Cavalier with the facts

In their latest posting on Inside Out Swansea Labour demonstrate once more how relieved they are that they did not lose Lawrence Bailey's safe seat. In time-honoured tradition, they remain as cavalier with the facts as ever.

Checking back through previously published Councillor allowance statements it is quite clear that Peter Black never claimed a Special Responsibility Allowance, even though he was entitled to one, whilst he was chair of a Cabinet Advisory Committee. It looks too as though he has never claimed any travelling expenses.

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.

City continues to benefit from Administration policies

More good news over the last two days with further investment in the City from top-notch retailers.

Yesterday, the La Senza lingerie chain announced that it is to give the city centre a big vote of confidence by announcing it is setting up shop here. Today, Laura Ashley said it is to open a home furnishings store in the Pontarddulais Retail Park.

Naturally, it would have been preferable if Laura Ashley had decided to set up in the City Centre, but there is no escaping the fact that things are looking better than for some time for Swansea.

As the Chairman of the Swansea Business Improvement District, Peter Birch, said:

"It's brilliant news.

"Every week there's somebody announcing they are coming to Swansea."Companies are seeing investment is being poured into Swansea.

"We have a Business Improvement District here which is a first in Wales.

"People can recognise that it's the place they want to be."

He said companies which had pulled out of the city centre could live to regret their decision.

"They might find the error of their ways and realise Swansea is a much sought-after place to come."

What a contrast with the barren years of Labour control.

Labour flushed away

The only thing going down the pan around here is the Labour Party's spinning around Swansea website. All the evidence is that not only are they listening at the wrong doors but they are having difficulties reading.

When they claim that this Evening Post article on the state of the City's toilets shows that the Administration are not getting the basics right, they overlooked one small fact. Council-operated toilets were not looked at as part of the Halo Wipes' investigation.

In fact Swansea Council has award winning public toilet provision including the 2006 Loo of the Year Awards for Caer Street, Oystermouth, Quadrant, and Rhossili. Of course that inconvenient fact does not stop Labour who use every excuse to rub down Swansea now that they no longer run it.