The Blue Print

Hopefully by the end of this evening I will have been re-selected as the Cardiff North Conservative candidate for the 2011 Assembly election, thankfully sitting members have a somewhat simpler process to go through!

I mention 2011 without specifying the date because no-one seems to know whether the poll will be in May or June.

We have spent a lot of time recently debating when the people of Wales should be expected to make some really big decisions, on the Assembly’s powers and also when a referendum on changing the voting system for electing the House of Commons should take place.

Now that March seems to be the likely month for the powers vote we had all assumed that it would be full steam ahead for the Assembly election to take place as expected on Thursday May 5, 2011, but of course that would be too simple. Now that May 5 is being talked up as the UK referendum on whether we should have AV to elect our MPs, May 5 is now being talked down as the Assembly elections day. As the Secretary of State can alter the date of the Assembly elections it is being suggested that June could be the date.

I have a few issues with this.

Firstly and most importantly the UK poll on AV should not force us to shift the Assembly election day. The people of this country are more than capable of answering a question on changing the voting whilst also deciding on who their AM should be. The two issues are also separate, unlike the referendum on more powers which is understandably (hopefully) not going to be on the same day.

Secondly if the three polls go ahead in this way then we could see voter fatigue by June. In fact 3 polls within 3 months could really annoy people who would rightly question the cost of completely separating the three events. We also run the risk of getting too caught up in the mechanics of when and how, instead of focusing our efforts on what these polls mean for the public.

This Saturday is an important day for Wales and the UK.

It is our chance to celebrate the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women who serve in our armed forces.

Armed Forces Day 2010 is is being celebrated in Cardiff so that the country will be able to honour the men and women who make up the Armed Forces community: from currently serving troops to Service families, and from veterans to recruits. The day is meant to be a celebration, in contrast with the more sombre Remembrance Sunday Parades and Armistice Day observances.

On Saturday civilian men and women will show our appreciation of those members of the armed forces that put their lives on the line every day for this country.

It will allow us the opportunity to give a heartfelt thanks for all those families who support fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters to serve their country on the frontline. It’s also an opportunity to show our solidarity with those families who have suffered losses in recent operations.

The families of our service men and women are the backbone of the British Armed Forces, it is right that we should remember them and their contribution in particular on this day.

Moving house or leaving a job can be stressful; leaving active service in the military for civilian life can be traumatic, chaotic and often unsupported.

Last week I met with a constituent who has left the army having served as an officer who faced the happy prospect of a long and productive career. This individual left because of an alleged period of bullying which caused a sustained deterioration in mental well being, leading to a family difficulties, inability to work and pay the mortgage. Poor mental health amongst ex service men and women is common, so too is homelessness. With all the evidence it is a national disgrace that so little is done to help our ex service men and women.

All too often it is merely left to the voluntary sector to pick up the pieces. Financial support provided by the Royal Legion and the Officers Association to those out of work and facing hardship goes some way to helping at times of crisis, their efforts should be applauded. The Big Lottery has also announced (March 8th) support for those leaving the forces with a funding boost of £35 million.

All of this is great but there is a question of the sustainability of just relying on the third sector who cannot guarantee the long term future of their work. Individuals need help not just to resettle but to cope with the biggest challenges of mortgage payments.

There is also the question of why the Government is happy to abandon its duty to help those who have served our country.

Earlier today I raised an ongoing concern I have, that since 1999 the Assembly Government in all the reorganising and restructuring of the NHS has failed to take a strategic look at what’s needed to improve public health.

When you compare Wales to the rest of the UK and most of the EU we are in a poor state of health. On the big health indicators, whether its rates of cancer and survival, cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, obesity or diabetes, we are in a bad way. I passionately believe that unless we start tackling the causes of ill health we will be consigning generations of young people to a bleak future.

The former Health Minister and GP, Brian Gibbons, said that free prescriptions were part of improving public health. This shows the lack of ambition on the part of government supporters, the health of the nation won’t improve by tackling the symptoms of ill health, we need to tackle the causes. At present there are growing numbers of young people who are too fat and are at risk of diabetes, there are too many people binge drinking and are at risk of liver cancer, and we are seeing our country develop in a way which does not promote healthier lifestyles.

In my view the Assembly Government needs to focus on long term public health planning, we need to see the National Public Health Service having a stronger role in delivering improvements and Ministers need to take this issue seriously.

Longevity in life can never be assured, regardless of the fact that on average people are living longer. Because of our lifestyles we risk witnessing a generation of children who are unable to live as long as their parents.

The confirmation of a Papal visit to Britain later this year has already sparked controversy, less than 24 hours after the Pope officially announced it to the 35 Catholic bishops of England and Wales in Rome.

He certainly has been forthright in his comments, which some have seen as an unprecedented attack on the UK Government’s Equalities Bill. However, it should also be said that he did preface those comments by stating the UK’s firm commitment to the equality of opportunity for all members of society is well know across the world.

Whilst I do not completely agree with what he went on to say regarding the ‘violation of natural law’, I do have some empathy with the thrust of Pope Benedict’s argument.

What he is saying that pursuing the objective of giving people absolute equality to all has unintended consequences of unjustly limiting peoples’ religious beliefs.

I thought the Archbishop of Cardiff’s conveyed the Pope’s view even more cogently in today’s Telegraph. He said:

“The Church of course upholds absolutely the equal dignity of every person, irrespective of their faith, age and ability. But I think there is a misunderstanding because sometimes in government legislation, government equality seems to be that we are all absolutely equal, which we are not. We are equal in dignity but beyond that, each one of us is unique.”

Therefore, we should strive for individual dignity and individual responsibility but not individual or absolute equality because doing that we will always encroach on someone’s personal beliefs.

Whilst not a Catholic I am a Christian and currently a governor at a Church-in-Wales Secondary School in Cardiff. In my view faith schools for example should have the option to employ someone of that faith to lead the direction and ethos of the school with personal conviction. Otherwise the whole basis on which that school exists is undermined.

Whether you agree or disagree with the Pope’s comments, I think we should look forward to his visit. I have today called upon the Assembly Government to tell the Welsh public what discussions and actions it has taken to bring the Pope to Wales in September.

I am sure many Christians in Wales remember Pope John Paul’s very prestigious and successful visit to Cardiff in the very hot summer of 1982. This visit will only be the second visit of a reigning pontiff to Britain in over 470 years and as we have seen, they only come along once in a generation. So for Wales to miss out on this significant and high profile visit would not just be a huge disappointment to the Catholic and wider Christian community, it would be a huge disappointment to the whole of Wales

The news that Cardiff Airport is to revamp its terminal http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8474283.stm is very welcome, and for those of us in public life who have criticised the appearance of and services at the airport this is to be celebrated.

I hope that the planners and the Assembly Government prioritise these changes so that we can start a renaissance at Cardiff Airport. Unlike some of my colleagues in the Senedd I am a fan of air travel and the contribution it makes to the economy and the potential it has here in Wales. Having travelled quite a lot from Bristol in the past year and having seen the quality of the airports elsewhere in the UK, such as Newcastle (seriously…it is a fantastic airport!) it is time for Cardiff to seize the opportunity.

The big issue beyond redevelopment though is being able to attract more airlines to use the airport. If we want people to flood to Cardiff then the shiniest building in the world will not do it, they need airlines that take them to where they want to go and at prices which compare well with Bristol and Birmingham. We need the management at the airport and the Welsh Assembly Government to start attracting new airlines to Cardiff because at the moment a lot of business is simply going elsewhere.

For many of my own constituents being well placed near the M4, getting to Bristol and Birmingham is not a big problem and although slightly more inconvenient than Cardiff the financial savings make it worthwhile. Hurrah to a new terminal but where are the airlines?

An excellent article in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph on faith schools caused me to think about the future of those schools in Wales, especially in light of Edwina Hart’s comments during the Welsh Labour leadership campaign that they “should be left to wither on the vine.”

I attended the Bishop of Llandaff Church-in-Wales secondary school in Cardiff. It was the natural choice for my family where church played an important part in our lives. The decision wasn’t part of some middle class trend, I doubt at the time if my parents considered themselves to be in this category, it was a choice about the type of schooling based on their and my beliefs.

Church schools in Cardiff like Welsh medium schools are fewer in number than other maintained schools, and as a result their catchment areas therefore are usually wider. We had a good cross section of pupils from most of Cardiff, Barry and the Vale attending what is still an excellent school. The political left have traditionally seen faith schools as elitist and the comments by the Health Minister show a worrying lack of understanding.

I firmly believe in an expansion of faith schools, they provide excellent standards and are usually found in several slots in the top ten of schools. As opposed to being the preserve of the middle classes they can provide huge opportunities for pupils in areas who otherwise would have to settle for the local Comp. An education through the Christian ethos can be of tremendous benefit, where an understanding and appreciation of faith in our education system is capable of breaking down barriers in a society where we are becoming increasingly suspicious of others.

The lack of ambition for a diverse education system is holding Wales back and not providing an educational experience which promotes choice and responds to our diversity as a nation.

New Year’s resolutions these days tend to disappear more quickly than the UK’s financial credibility. How much weight loss can we achieve how many new books to read or bottles of wine to cut down on, all form part of the annual ritual of self improvement.

Perhaps the resolution for the government needs to be financial fitness. The facts are truly terrifying; in the forthcoming financial year the UK annual debt will hit £179bn with our current debt position at 12% of our GDP.

In the disastrous years at the end of the 1970s when Britain’s economic position was seriously weakened our debt was 8% of GDP. Our financial situation is dreadful and has far reaching consequences, and one which cannot be blamed on the banks alone.

For more than a decade we saw healthy economic growth and the treasury’s bank account swelled, more money was spent by the UK and Welsh Assembly Government and little was saved for a rainy day. Our current economic position might improve, albeit very slowlyand to be honest no-one seriously expects the UK economy to grow very much at all in the next few years; our financial position as a result is even more worrying.

A fragile economy realises little income to close the enormous gap between our income and expenditure so our debt is not going to reduce without significant reductions in public expenditure, we can’t spend our way out of a recession and the continuing attempt by the Government is madness. We do need to radically examine where public spending can contract as part of a planned reduction in our deficit.

The UK has been warned that its financial state of affairs threatens the viability of the country as a safe investment bet, if we don’t look to achieve financial fitness then other countries may not bother lending to us in the future.

I ask this rather bleak question out of concern. I am sure that I am not the only person who finds airports such as Bristol and Birmingham a more pleasurable and cheaper alternative. During 2009 I did make good use of Cardiff but I made better use of Bristol.

There’s more places you can fly to from Bristol (more than 100 compared to Cardiff’s 50) and even where they have destinations in common, Cardiff is usually more expensive. This week I looked at booking flights to Spain for the summer and for the two of us it was £150 cheaper in total to fly from Bristol. The longer that prices remain this different between Cardiff and other airports within a reasonable travelling time then an increasing  number of people will choose to ignore Cardiff.

The quality of service at Cardiff compared to Bristol is significantly different. In addition to more destinations, more airlines, more shops, a bigger bar and restaurant, Bristol feels like an international airport. In fact it is similar to other successful regional airports such as Birmingham and Newcastle. On any comparison Cardiff does not sit in the same league.

The decision by BMI Baby to reduce their number of aircraft with a significant loss of staff was bad news for Cardiff Airport. Friends of mine working in the industry tell me that this airline is in trouble and has been for some time. Apart from BMI Baby, Fly Be, and some charter flights Cardiff has little else going for it, which is why I asked the Deputy First Minister in December whether the viability of Cardiff Airport would be called into question if BMI Baby collapsed. Naturally I didn’t get an answer.

These might be short term issues although I do not see what is being done to prevent them becoming long term problems which threaten the very existence of the airport.

The talks in Copenhagen have not been straightforward, with uncertainty as to whether the big players would attend, developing countries leaving the table and then returning, and the big question as to whether this summit will be a missed opportunity.

The financial pledge made at the end of last week by EU leaders who have negotiated a three-year deal to pay 7.2bn Euros to help poorer nations cope with climate change was described as ‘inadequate’. The target cut in emissions has not found favour either.

The draft deal envisaged emission cuts by rich countries of 25-40% from 1990 levels by 2020 – this has been viewed by developing nations as not going far enough. Small island states and poorer nations of Africa and Latin America have called for the document to endorse the target of keeping the temperature rise since pre-industrial times below 1.5C. This is below the figure of 2C, which was endorsed by the G8 and major developing economies in July, and implies the need for drastic emission cuts. The cuts promised so far come to 18%.

Our small nation needs to do its bit. Wales has provided the example to other nations – principally to sign up to 10% reduction in carbon pollution in 2010 across the Assembly Government estate; 3% a year total cut in carbon emissions in Wales (80% by 2050); all party support for 40% cut in green house gas emissions by 2020.

One of the problems though is the 2010 biodiversity target that the Assembly Government will miss this target. The fact that we have already got a 2026 target set in the Environment Strategy is quite a commitment but without clear lines of responsibility and funding it is hard to see how a future target will be met, and as biodiversity is an indicator of how sustainably we are living, we are clearly failing on the statutory sustainability duty.

What happens in Copenhagen is incredibly important, but we must get our house in order too.