.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Planning for the future

Those members of the Plaid Cymru Assembly Group who keep falling back on the excuse that times are hard and the Barnett formula is unfair as an excuse for underfunding local government and education amongst others may well benefit from reading this article.

The writer suggests that an essential element in efffective leadership is being able to identify the icebergs ahead and take appropriate avoidance action. It goes on:

'Wales is not bankrupt. The question for politicians is where to invest the scarce and finite funds. Is it to be headline-grabbing projects or the baseline funding required to maintain the standards of public service?'

In other words it is about priorities and the Welsh Government has got them wrong.
Comments:
As much as I dislike what Russell Goodway stands for. It was something that he accused the WAG of doing years ago! people bemoan what Maggie Thatcher did to local government.sounds like they are back again! I did note that cut in education in the 2009 budget!
 
Look at Ron Davies's criticism of the Assembly's free goods policy on Betsan Powys'blog. Now that the party is over it will be interesting to see how the Assembly priotises its spending up to 2011.There could be melt down in local government if the settlements in the next few years cvontinue to be poor. Authorities can't keep using balances forever to keep council tax rises below 5%. With capping in place education in many authorities wil not escape the cuts that will have to be imposed to stay below the 5% headline figure.
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?