Humble Pie

Following the Evening Post's faux pas of printing unsubstantiated allegations regarding the relationship between Capgemin and the Council we understand that the newspaper are about to eat humble pie.

An e-mail has been circulated to all Councillors this evening to say that a meeting has taken place between Council Officers, Cap Gemini and Evening Post editor Spencer Feeney to discuss the article. 'The Post has agreed to print an apology/correction in tomorrows edition which we understand will be on page 3'.

No clue as yet as to what action if any will be taken against the perpetrator of these serious allegations.

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!!

Moving forward

Although the Insider Outers continue to talk down the City Centre, plans to enhance and develop it continue. In particular, their predicted demise of the new bus station project looks to be premature. The Administration will do everything it can to use the money available to it to deliver this scheme as soon as possible.

We believe that the Evening Post's editorial is also significant. They recognise that yesterday's announcement was not reheated pottage. but a genuine step forward:

The challenge, which the latest framework addresses, is to build upon that success and maintain that momentum. At the heart of the vision is a scheme to link the city centre with Swansea's fantastic waterfront, while at the same time providing desperately needed improvements to that centre.

The framework has correctly identified some of the City's most glaring weaknesses and turned them into development opportunities. This is not the time to let the cynics dominate the debate.

With dozens of property developers lining up to get involved, the future has never looked so bright for Swansea.

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.

Progress unlimited

The Inside Outers may well scoff but the City Centre Strategy launched this morning is far more than another off-the-shelf document. In fact it is the sort of document they have been asking us to produce for some time.

The importance of this strategy is that it is based on realistic aspirations following consultation with developers. It also draws on the new confidence in the City being shown by investors.

Having got the first City Centre shopping development for two decades off the ground we are anticipating more announcements in the next few months that will demonstrate the how effective our approach is.

A matter of law

For somebody who repeatedly refers to his chairmanship of the Council's e-government working party, Councillor Kinzett displays an incredible lack of knowledge as to what is going on in that programme. Not only does he constantly display a fundamental misunderstanding of the finances but he has now resorted to inventing events so as to get publicity.

The Upside Downers are speculating as to why the Evening Post article on this alleged scandal has been taken down from their website. Perhaps they will find the answer in the e-mail sent to all Councillors by the Cabinet Member for e-government this afternoon. Councillor Mary Jones writes:

You may have seen the article in today’s Evening Post on Page 2, which claims that the Council is being sued by Capgemini.

I would like to make it clear that the Council is NOT being sued by Capgemini. We are liaising with Capgemini to issue a joint statement firmly rebutting this allegation.

The idea that the relationship between an internationally respected company such as Capgemini and their client has broken down irreparably so that they must resort to legal action is clearly damaging to that company's reputation and may affect their ability to win contracts in the future. This is especially so when that allegation is untrue. It is likely that the enormity of their gaff has dawned on Evening Post and they are doing everything possible to limit the damage. It may be too late.

The Evening Post has consistently misrepresented the e-government programme in their articles. Even when their errors have been pointed out to them they have persisted as if they were facts. That stance has also been adopted by the opposition who have also consistently and deliberately distorted what is going on. Their opportunism on a programme that they started has been startling and outrageous.

Today's article is a good example of the Evening Post's campaign of misrepresentation. They start off by referring to the project as being worth £170 million even though it has been pointed out to them on numerous occasions that it is in fact worth £98 million. They then proceed to say that phase two will not have a call centre. That decision has not been taken and it is still the Council's intention to deliver that.

The most bizarre claim in the article is that the 'whole Service@Swansea saga has been an embarrassment to council officers who failed to heed warnings given by council staff when they took strike action against the plans in 2004.' The only embarrassment is the Evening Post's coverage. They obviously do not know what the strike action was about nor that the project is delivering what it was designed to do and officers are proud of the efforts they are putting into it and their achievements. Essentially, the journalist has made up that passage to gild the lily. It is appallingly bad journalism, even by the Evening Post's standards.

Finally, the reporter repeats once more the untruth that the second phase has been dropped. It has not. It is proceeding with a different contractor.

What is actually happening is that an enormously complex contract is being played out between the two parties. Failure to meet savings in the current year are likely to lead to claims by the Council for Capgemini to pay the penalties detailed in the contract. Capgemini are seeking to off-set those costs by counter-claiming for delays they allege are the Council's fault. In a contract of this size that is normal and healthy. It is not something that we would expect the Evening Post and their cub-journalists to understand. In running to the press in this way Councillor Kinzett has managed to place himself in dunces corner alongside them.

Bullshit @ Swansea

It is of course entirely up to the Inside Outers what they write on their blog, but it really might help if they stopped pretending that they know what is going on with the Administration group and the Liberal Democrats.

Their record in attributing motives and in understanding the various relationships within the Liberal Democrats in particular is dire to say the least. Of course that has never stopped them expressing an opinion but frankly they are just embarrassing themselves.

In future they should just try to remember one simple rule: the Labour Party is unique, no other party has anything like the same experience of back-biting, petty jealousies and conspiracies. In other words don't apply your standards to us.

In any case surely the Swansea Labour Group have their own problems. By all accounts they are split three ways, so much so that they were stymied into complete impotence and inaction at the recent Council budget meeting.