#bbcqt live chat 8/10/10

Tonight on Question time David Dimbleby is joined in Birmingham by Baroness Warsi, Charles Clarke(Sorry, had to be done), Susan Kramer, Max Mosley and Rageh Omaar

Join us below from 10:30.

#BBCQT Live Chat - 30 September 2010

Tonight's panellists are:
Grant Shapps MP for Welwyn Hatfield
Simon Hughes MP for Southwark and Bermonsey, Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems
Diane Abbott @DianeforLeader MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington
David Starkey Historian and TV presenter
Brian Cox Actor specialising in bad guys (assuming it's that Brian Cox - they did tweet "actor Brian Cox")

Join us from 10.30.

Welsh Assembly press ahead with Badger cull

Here we go again: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/20/welsh-assembly-badger-cull

Don't let the fact culling badgers doesn't work get in the way of placating rural voters...

Plaid lend their dodgy dictionary to their Labour coalition partners

Spare a thought for poor Edwina Hart, Health Minister in the Welsh Assembly.

Not only are her coalition partners unhappy with her performance - Wrecsam Plaid noting that:

There is increasing concern across Wales about the inefficiencies and waste within NHS Wales, it's seven Health Boards and their multi billion pound budgets. The concern also extends to a perceived lack of accountability of a dictatorial Minister of Health and an inability to scrutinise and challenge decisions of Health Boards on a local level because there are no elected members on the Health Boards. 

but it seems that she has a bit of a blind spot where unfavourable reports are concerned.

Having stated quite clearly (on 30 March) that

'The McKinsey commission has resulted in a process not a publication and therefore there is no formal document for scrutiny'

and on 15 June

'there is no McKinsey report'

it turns out that not only is there a McKinsey report but it makes a number of criticisms of the way the NHS in Wales has been run. 

Strategies are 'financially unaffordable', lack accountability' and there is 'a lack of capacity to deliver them.'

The report also states that " strategic objectives are too numerous and not prioritised, so none or the wrong ones are implemented."

Oh, and Kirsty Williams, the Leader of the Welsh Lib Dems, has got hold of a copy.  Believe it or not she is not about to let it lie...

Kirsty has written to the First Minister making a complaint that Edwina Hart has broken the Ministerial Code, specifically

It is of paramount importance that Ministers give accurate and truthful information to the Assembly, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity. Ministers who knowingly mislead the Assembly will be expected to offer their resignation to the First Minister;

Ministers should be as open as possible with the Assembly and the public, refusing to provide information only when disclosure would not be in the public interest

A direct denial that the report exists would appear to be fairly inaccurate information.  Given that Edwina Hart commissioned the report it seems unlikely that she was unaware of it.  This suggests that she did "knowingly mislead the Assembly".

A slightly odd rule in the Assembly is that the First Minister is responsible for determining whether one of his Ministers broke the code.  I'm sure that Carwyn Jones (or indeed future First Ministers) won't let the fact that it is his Health Minister that is being accused influence his decision at all.  This rule needs to change.  A decision like this should be taken by someone impartial.

When is an increase not an increase?

According to page 16 of the One Wales agreement:

"Working together, we will create new tools to ensure that housing is affordable in the areas of most severe housing pressure. We will also ensure that the supply of affordable housing increases by at least 6,500 over the next four years."

4,235 houses have been built. According to Plaid this shows that they are on course to meet the commitment.

Over the same period 1,900 houses have been sold or demolished.  This gives a net increase of 2,335.  This is the figure the Welsh Lib Dems are using.

Who is right?

While I am not entirely impartial here, I would say the net increase is the more reasonable interpretation.

"increases by at least 6,500" suggests "will be 6,500 higher", not "will be 3-4,000 higher".

Of course, we know that Plaid use some interesting definitions.  During the Badger Cull case they tried to claim that "substantial" meant "more than merely minor or trivial" while suggesting the rather more accurate meaning of "of considerable importance" in press releases about the judgement.

Having said that, there point could be valid in that the stock is on track to be 6,500 higher than it would have been without the building program. However, that is not the outcome the One Wales agreement suggests and I cannot believe that they would accept it were the roles reversed. 


Of course, this does mean that they cannot now point out that the VAT increase etc will affect anyone's financial position.  Obviously they could not complain if we were to say "We have made [number of people] people £X better off" and ignore any extra costs...

BBC Question Time Live Chat 23 September 2010 #bbcqt

It's almost that time of the week when otherwise sane people actually choose to watch politicians and low ranking celebrities argue.

This week it's being recorded in Liverpool, scene of the recent Lib Dem conference..

On the panel this week are:
Vince Cable @vincecable MP for Twickenham, Business Secretary, ballroom dancer extraordinaire, sage of Yoda-like renown and national treasure
Caroline Flint MP for Don Valley
John Redwood@johnredwood MP for Wokingham, Vulcan

Ian Hislop Editor of Private Eye
Mehdi Hasan (@ns_mehdihasan) Senior Editor (Politics) at the New Statesman magazine

Having Ian Hislop and Mehdi Hasan together on the panel should be interesting...

Join us from 10.30pm

#BBCQT Live Chat - 16 September 2010

Since that slacker Mark has hung up his keyboard I thought I'd give it a go.  Live chat for Question Time, (nearly) all welcome.

It's the Labour leadership contenders this week.  Hmm. The chat will start at 10.30.

Andy Burnham
Diane Abbott
David Miliband (Did they go out of their way to find a profile pic that unflattering?)
Ed Balls
Ed Miliband

Depending on how well tonight goes, this could become a regular feature.

Edit: Ah, Dazmando has beaten me to it. Go to his one instead tonight. I'll start next week.