The Wardman Wire

I’ve joined the Witanagemot Club.

Although I’m basically a Unionist, I think that there is an absurd inequality in the devolution system we have seen implemented by the current government - and that it is a dog’s dinner that needs to be given some semblance of equality.

Instead we have a system which has facilitated - to take just one example - explicit discrimination against Welsh, English and Northern Irish students within the Scottish Higher Education system at the hands of the Scottish Executive permitted by the the UK Government.

And that is leaving aside such small matters as the West Lothian question, that still need to be addressed.

The answer which I find most attractive would involving reducing the current national politican-bloat, which I support as a general principle, and having one set of representatives who sit in the UK Parliament in London for UK matters, and in the Regional Parliaments (including London) for part of the time on devolved matters.

You can find the Witanagemot Aggregator here. The Blogroll will be added to the home page when I decide how.

Note - these are my views and no indicator that other writers here agree.

The Independent is remembering the first 100 days of Boris. Meanwhile, Boriswatch is on a repeat cycle with the same post four times running. To be fair, the first three occasions included the same set of links twice, and the last only once. A computer run amok, I suspect.

I’ll commemorate it with a quote from Ministry of Truth:

“I have to admit that, even as a Tory, I have quite a lot of time and no small degree of respect for Boris.

Do I agree with him? Not that often - having watched him operate its clear that it would be very unwise indeed to be taken in by the bumbling ‘upper class twit of the year’ routine that most people will associate with him from his appearances on ‘Have I Got News For You’. Look past the Bunter-ish public schoolboy act and watch him at work in a more serious political arena and it quick becomes apparent that he’s no fool and, pound for pound, possibly the sharpest political operator in the current Tory party. Certainly not an opponent to be taken lightly.”

In the meantime, the reason for Boris’s alleged U-Turn on the Sir Keith Park statue (which should be outside St Clement Danes anyway) is clear: the Fourth Plinth is for the Queen.

The SNP has pulled off a sensational by-election victory.

Someone is going to be absolutely insufferable.

Oh ‘Eck.

I’m going to wrap my head in a wet towel as a preemptive defence against headache I’m going to get listening to the waves of smugness emanating from the Radio tomorrow morning.

“Welsh Culture Minister Rhodri Glyn Thomas has resigned after claims he walked in to a pub holding a lit cigar.”

There’s been a bit of discussion about Welsh Political Bloggers who have previously been sacked, mentioning “four cases”, following on from the current conversation about the author of the Christopher Glamorganshire blog.

I’m only aware of three, and among those the Christopher Glamorganshire case is unique because it involves a Civil Servant employed under the Civil Service code.

The other two are Dave Collins and Marcus Warner, both researchers employed by Labour AMs. I think that both of these basically came down to the positions of the individuals being untenable due to their boss’s political embarrassment.

But we are now in a position where there is an opportunity for the “rules” for Civil Service Bloggers in Wales to be made clear, following on from recent clarification spearheaded by Tom Watson.

I think it is quite important to get that clarification in place in case more of the political blogosphere in Wales dissolves into the ether.

Miss Wagstaff is reporting that the Welsh blogger, and Welsh Assembly Government employee, Christopher Glamorganshire is going to an Industrial Tribunal after being sacked for blogging during the autumn of 2007. The tribunal is today. I do not have a date for the tribunal.

The greatest value that I can add to this is an English perspective, and one from involvement in the debate that lead to the development of a set of Principles for Online Participation for Civil Servants.

These are my initial thoughts about a significant cultural divide between “us” and “them”.