Nick Bourne AM

I see, reading some of the Sunday papers, that it is alleged that government Ministers and others are unhappy with the Toyota Prius as part of the Ministerial fleet because they are nothing more than glorified milk floats.

I am very pleased with my green car, although it is fair to say that when I picked it up from the dealers in Harlech I was told to be very aware that since it is very quiet and some pedestrians rely (dangerously) on hearing a car rather than seeing the car, that people were likely to step straight in front of the car.

This happened the very next day in Aberystwyth and I slammed on all the anchors to avoid hitting a student in Terrace Road. I assume a student because of the student scarf!

Toyota Prius drivers be warned – and, indeed, pedestrians.

Over the weekend I was in Pembrokeshire as well as Powys and Ceredigion. In Knighton at surgery I met up with Mr & Mrs Tate who run the Spaceguard Centre, i.e. the observatory on the outskirts of Knighton. This centre does not receive any public money by way of grant. It is a marvellous facility. When I visited it I remember being captivated by the possibilities of space, and can well understand why this is so popular for school visits.

The Spaceguard Centre has now had the opportunity to acquire a large telescope from Cambridge University, which Cambridge no longer has any use for. There is nil cost associated with the acquisition and, indeed, a local businessman has agreed to finance the carriage of the telescope and to store it while alterations are made at the Spaceguard Centre to accommodate the new telescope. Yes, here is ‘the rub’, £62,500 is needed to make the necessary alterations to accommodate the telescope. The Science Minister at Westminster has said no, and so far so has the Assembly. I am now asking Rhodri Glyn Thomas, our Tourism Minister, to see what possibilities exist for funding this capital sum because the Spaceguard Centre is a unique facility in the United Kingdom, and has massive tourism and educational potential in a town like Knighton for tourism opportunities and the income that this could bring into the area are certainly not to be ignored.

 
In Powys many patients use both Shrewsbury and Hereford Hospitals.  There is currently a review of cancer services in the three counties – Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, with a possibility of siting cancer care treatment at either Worcester, Cheltenham or Hereford.  This will have considerable implications for patients in the area I represent, and I have been lobbying hard to ensure that cancer care is retained at Hereford Hospital. 
 

I raised it in the Chamber this week with Rhodri Morgan in what became a very heated exchange.  It seemed obvious to me that he had little or no idea of the position, and had he said that undertaken to offer a full response later I would have understood and accepted that. Sadly he did not opt to do this.
The next day I raised the matter with the Health Minister who had received my correspondence, and was, as always, accommodating and adopted an approach of trying to ensure that some sensible outcome could be reached. 
I remain hopeful that this will happen, and I have been in touch with politicians in England to put the case for Powys and Wales. 
 

18 years ago in Ystradgynlais a young schoolboy, Robbie Powell, died.  He was suffering from Addison’s Disease, a relatively rare disease but one that is treatable.  This was not diagnosed by the medics involved.
 

Since Robbie’s death, his parents, Will and Diane, and especially Will, have campaigned relentlessly for a full independent public inquiry.  Negligence is established and that isn’t now the issue. What remains an important issue the possibility of an attempted cover up of the facts by the medical profession.  This, of course, is much more concerning than negligence.  It is regrettable that the GMC is taking an inordinate amount of time to look at this issue.  The suspicion will understandably be that they are hampering the proper process of the calling of the full and independent inquiry.

 
Rhodri Morgan, First Minister, when he was an MP at Westminster, called it one of the first cases of maladministration or possible cover up that he had ever seen, and I agree with him.

 
That is why I have raised it yet again with the GMC, and why I raised it in the Chamber this week, and that is why I will continue to raise this matter until justice is done, not just for Robbie’s family but for the broader community and for all of us.

More evidence of the dysfunctional nature of the Labour government at Westminster from Hazel Blears’ Department for Communities and Local Government.
A £2.7 million grant that was destined for Newcastle on Tyne has been sent in error to Newcastle under Lyme in Staffordshire – some 3.29 hours away by car. A Spokeswoman from the Department said that it was a regrettable error. 

 
Suddenly I see massive possibilities opening up, perhaps in some non-devolved area of government Newcastle Emlyn could receive money destined for Newcastle on Tyne, or, indeed, Newcastle under Lyme.  It would help the community immensely.

 
I also wonder about campaigning for a change of name for Newbridge on Wye to become Newcastle on Wye, and Newtown to become Newcastle (Powys).  All sorts of exciting possibilities open up while we have such a dysfunctional government at Westminster.

 
Actually this has a much more serious side to it, money that is destined for communities that really need it is going elsewhere and all the government does is call it regrettable. It really is time for a change!

This week I have been focussing attention on visiting in the constituency as we are in recess. 

Cultural issues are vitally important at the moment because of threats to funding and withdrawal of funds by the Arts Council of Wales.  This is a serious issue and I can’t help recalling when we were told by Plaid Cymru’s Minister that the extra funding for the Wales Millennium Centre, which I backed, would not have an adverse affect on the arts outside of Cardiff.  Yet here we are with a withdrawal of funding for Celf o Gwmpas, which provides high quality arts experiences primarily for people with learning disabilities and is based in Llandrindod Wells, and a withdrawal of funding too for the Centre for Performance Research based in Aberystwyth. 

These organisations will not survive without the funding, and both provide unique and vital cultural services to the people of Wales.   The Centre for Performance Research is based in Aberystwyth and I visited them yesterday.  Their premises are based on the Penglais Campus of the University and some of the staff related to teaching at the University are paid for by the University, but others responsible for theatre production are, of course, funded out of monies provided by the Arts Council of Wales.  The Centre has an international reputation and has built up a considerable collection of research materials provided by people by bequest or by gift.  It is an organisation that is certainly worth preserving and, indeed, enhancing. 

I also visited the Brecon Beacons National Park Headquarters to deliver a letter to Chris Gledhill about the dysfunctional problems that they have on planning issues.  These problems have been highlighted by the Gilestone Caravan Park decision and the audit that was carried out into the Park’s planning in relation to that.  It highlighted many process problems and these must now be addressed.  I hope that the Park can put together a recovery plan to put things back on track.  They are certainly serious issues, although to be fair to the Park they have accepted the recommendations and are, I believe, moving to implement them. 

Another major issue I have taken great interest in in the constituency is road safety.  Uniquely in Wales, Powys casualty figures have shown no signs of improvements over the years and there are some junctions that need to be made safer.  I can’t understand why the filter lanes have been removed where the A438 meets the A470 at the Pontybat junction.   Other junctions are not properly signposted. 

Then there are other areas which need lower speed limits such as the stretch through Howey on the A483 and the 40 mile limit coming out of Rhayader on the road to Llangurig, which should be lowered to 30.   I do hope that we can get some action on these points before there is a serious accident which then will force the Minister’s hand 

The saying “Will it play in Peoria” used, apparently, to be said of Vaudeville acts.  It was a given that if it didn’t go down well in Peoria, Illinois, it wouldn’t go down in middle or main street America.It came to be used of any product or any political party or candidate.  Perhaps not too much can be read from the result of the Democratic Primary ( solid Obama win ) in Illinois, it is, after all, Barack Obama’s home state, but the quintessentially bellwether state for US Presidentials is not Illinois but Missouri.  On Tuesday night, or more correctly Wednesday morning , I got up early to watch CNN as the results came in from the various States (22 of them) that were voting on ‘Super Tuesday’.  Missouri was on a knife-edge, but most pollsters and CNN were calling it for Clinton in the early hours of the morning. Hillary Clinton was well ahead in the rural areas and most agencies and pollsters took that as an indication that she was going to win the State.
More seasoned observers who knew the State said that Barack Obama would fight back in Kansas City (paradoxically it is in Missouri) and St Louis (pronounced as in Lewis Hamilton rather than in Louis Armstrong).  That indeed proved to be the case but not before Hillary Clinton and her team had gone on record as saying how significant it was that she had won in Missouri because that was the State that historically picked the next US President in whichever of the primaries, with one exception in 1956.  The Clinton camp must have regretted that move as votes piled up from the urban areas and Barack Obama overtook Clinton to win Missouri by a small margin.
I believe the momentum is still with Barack Obama and I would be surprised if he does not emerge as the Democrat candidate now against McCain, and although both seem to me to be worthy candidates, I believe that Obama is the person with the attributes and qualities that are needed to meet the challenges that America and, indeed, the world face at the start of the 21^st Century.
I stayed up for far longer than I had intended to watch the results coming in, just as in general elections.  Only political anoraks will understand this, somehow the results from Preston or North Tayside take on a significance that is hard to explain to those who have not been bitten by the political bug.
I sat there in front of the screen captivated by the way delegates were voting in Alaska and Utah, luxuriating as precinct by precinct and county by county the results were analysed beyond most humans’ endurance.

We have been enjoying some fantastic spring like weather, and today in the Bay it is more like mid April than mid February.  I have been reading a report of development of tidal energy around the coast of Wales and Britain.  This is good news.  This seems to be a far more sensible way of developing renewables than ‘all the eggs in one basket’ approach that we have had up to now on wind energy.  We will certainly back this as a Group as our approach has been encouraging a diverse range of renewable sources for energy.
 

This week we have supported an injection of additional money into the National Botanic Garden of Wales (£1.9 million plus an increase in revenue support). This is a truly iconic institution and one that I have reason to visit frequently as it is in my area and I have supported it as, in fairness, the Minister (whose constituency it is in) has from its inception. That doesn’t mean that the previous administration and the previous Minister, Alun Pugh, should escape the blame for letting debts pile up without doing anything about it. This is another case to be added to the even more atrocious mess that the government let build up at the Wales Millennium Centre before taking any action (£13.5 million debts)
Both are fantastic, iconic and terrifically worthwhile national projects that demand our support, but that doesn’t mean that the government should escape Scot free from ignoring problems in the run up to Assembly elections. 
Two interpretations are possible. The more charitable one is that the government hoped that somehow mysteriously these financial problems would rectify themselves (scarcely likely); alternatively, the second explanation is that the government was seeking to bury bad news in the run up to Assembly elections where they correctly anticipated a dire haemorrhaging of the Labour vote, which would be made far worse by these disclosures (far more likely). 
We have also turned the heat on the government this week on the network closure programme in the Post Office.  A further 250 Post Offices are due to close in Wales on top of the 300+ that have already closed on Labour’s watch.  This is a massive swathe of the Post Office network which provides a very valuable social function as well as being a business.  I cannot understand after meeting with Alan Cook, the Managing Director of Post Office Ltd, this week, and questions to the Minister, what the government’s postponement of the closure programme in parts of Wales during the local election campaign can possibly be for other than to stop similarly a loss of Labour seats (see above).  It is an extraordinary manoeuvre and, of course, confirms that the government is calling the tune in terms of the closures.  It is, after all, the holder of all the shares in Post Office Ltd, and if it can dictate to the Post Office when a closure is announced, it can similarly stop a closure or precipitate one. The government is, of course, precipitating the closure of Post Offices which hits the most vulnerable in our communities.
This week is the 8^th Anniversary of Rhodri Morgan becoming First Minister in the aftermath of the fall of Alun Michael.  Rhodri is a decent enough cove and, on a personal basis, I get on rather well with him, but politically, I think, the direction he has set for Wales is wrong. Rhodri’s politics are rooted in the state socialism of the 1950s and do not represent the way that society has changed in the 50 years since then and does not take account of how aspirations and lifestyles have changed nor how generally incomes have  gone up. I fear that Wales will fall further behind what is happening elsewhere in Europe, not least in England where direct comparisons are most easily made. That would be disastrous and I think that the bureaucracy and the reliance solely on public sector solutions is wrong for Wales.  People now expect a choice and diversity in public services. In partnership with the public sector without people having to pay for the service, the private sector can certainly help with delivery. The Labour government has, in fairness, done that in relation to the improvements on the waiting list and the government did make use of it there but it doesn’t seem to have learnt that lesson more widely. Even if it wished to be more pragmatic, Helen Mary  Jones and Leanne Wood are there in the shadows  for Plaid Cymru to urge a statist approach that would make Rhodri look modern by comparison.
At lunch today I took the office staff out to the Brazz in the WMC next door, and I should probably do this more. We had a very pleasant lunch looking out across the Bay. Jane Hutt was on the next table and we had some light hearted banter across from our table to hers. Bryn Terfel has just walked by and is no doubt going to the rugby tomorrow, and it looks as if we are well set for a victory against Scotland.
On the next table in the other direction is somebody who is wearing a Welsh top and a Scottish kilt and we talk to him and he says that he is half Scottish and half Welsh and so whatever happens tomorrow he is going to be happy!
It should be a good game, but I believe that we will win.

The Wilson doctrine established by edict of Harold Wilson in 1966 that Members of Parliament should not have their communications intercepted by intelligence agencies or the Police may or may not be a sensible convention of the constitution.  However, it was re-stated by Tony Blair in a written statement in November 2006, and confirmed by Gordon Brown on becoming Prime Minister in July 2007.  What does seem clear is that if the convention is due to end that that should be the subject of a statement to Parliament and a debate in Parliament.  Clearly, allegations of the bugging of Sadiq Khan MP, if substantiated, will seriously undermine community relations in Britain.  It may well be that the doctrine should be ended, but it should be ended by proper pronouncement in Parliament. 

 Also disturbing is the letter from David Davis MP, the Shadow Home Secretary, which seems to have gone astray.  He raised the issue with the Prime Minister in December and had received no reply from the Prime Minister.

 Whilst the Police and security services play a vital role in keeping us all safe, there must be proper accountability and there must be transparency in the way that these things are handled.

 If the alleged breach of the doctrine has occurred, then this is serious both in view of the nature of the relationship between the Executive and Parliament and also inter-community relations.