Inexperienced politicans & Rhodri Morgan

Inexperienced politicians and the messes they make By Matthew Sinclair She counts among her "achievements" Railtrack's renationalisation, the selling of Qinetiq for a fraction of its true value, and the disastrous creation of Metronet. This one-woman disaster zone has cost the taxpayer several hundred ...The TaxPayers' Alliance - Better... - http://tpa.typepad.com/bettergovernment/

Best quote ever from House of Commons questioning of civil servants involved in Quinetiq sale. MP Richard Bacon: "MR WOOLEY ARE YOU A CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT ?
"Woolley: "I AM NOT"
Bacon: "ARE YOU A QUALIFIED FINANCIAL PERSON OF ANY KIND ? DO YOU HAVE ANY FINANCIAL QUALIFICATIONS ?"
Woolley: "I DO NOT HAVE ANY FINANCIAL QUALIFICATIONS"
Bacon: "WHAT IS YOUR JOB ?"
Woolley: "I AM THE FINANCE DIRECTOR OF THE MOD"

Rhodri Morgan - Don’t worry about Plaid Daily Post, UK - 18 Feb 2008
He criticised Plaid vice president and MEP Jill Evans for attacking the proposed multi-million pounds Defence Training Academy in St Athan, south Wales, ...So who is Rhodri listening to?

massive privatisation of military training -

Bloglith Jill Evans / Jill Evans' Blog
By Cangen Bontnewydd Branch, Plaid Cymru(Cangen Bontnewydd Branch, Plaid Cymru)
Justice Group. The subject was the proposed military training academy at St Athan. This is a massive privatisation of military training - putting it into the hands of private companies. You can read about the issue in more detail in the ...
Plaid Cymru, Cangen Bontnewydd Branch - http://plaidcymrubont.blogspot.com/

Paul Murphy St Athan project nothing to do with him!

Q. Did the 'Wales Office' not have to approve the St Athan PFI?

Paul Murphy : Written Answers - Wales: Departmental Private Finance Initiative (3 Mar 2008)
The Wales Office has not initiated or approved any private finance initiative projects in the last threeyears.

A. Its not a Welsh PFI. Remember that MC3 package 1 solution was based around Bordon and Cosford and Portsmouth. It was instigated by Mod with Ministerial backing. However the Welsh politicians did help Metrix win the bid by hard lobbying and the WDA provided human resources to METRIX.

Not in our NAME!

BBC NEWS | Wales | Wales bid for UK military academy
Politicians have been in London to make the case for St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan as the location for a new pan-forces military academy. ...not in my name!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4825632.stm

Same old lies....5,500 jobs ...no way

Speaking at the launch of the bid by Metrix in London on Monday, economic development minister Andrew Davies said the Welsh Assembly Government was "fully supportive".
The creation of 5,500 jobs and with 10,000 trainees being based at the site are estimated to be worth around £58m per year to the area

Even John Smith of pork barel fame and Metrix lacky doesn't agree with those figures.

John Smith MP in the House of commons on Thursday 28th Feb

Metrix has used the most conservative calculations to show that it will create at least 1,500 jobs in the wider community of my constituency of Vale of Glamorgan and south Wales generally.

Not so many jobs then...John Smith?

I notice that the job figures are going down.. ...down...down...John Smith MP paid for 4 newspaper pages to be published (funded by his parliamentary communications allowance) in the Glamorgan Gem on the 31st Jan 2008 proclaiming that there was to be 5,500 jobs....and has been saying this time and time again since or before Jan 2007. Now it is 3,000 jobs ...maybe ...and we are to believe Metrix???
Will he now apologise for misleading the people of Wales and in his constituency? Will he pay to publish a new more accurate account of the number of jobs available?? Now John Smith MP says we must be careful?....a little late for that noww that the welsh people have been repeatedly told that there will be 5,000 + jobs and that is the basis for ALL the politicians backing it. Time to ask some questions ...the people of Wales deserve better.

John Smith MP in the House of commons on Thursday 28th Feb says there are only 3,000 jobs...

"However, I shall give the revised figures. There will be roughly just over 1,000 trainers' jobs—in training design and general training provision—just over 1,000 support jobs for training on the site; and 1,000 full-time military jobs on the site. That is approximately—we must be careful—3,000 jobs.

Metrix has used the most conservative calculations to show that it will create at least 1,500 jobs in the wider community of my constituency of Vale of Glamorgan and south Wales generally. Metrix uses a multiplier of 0.5. That means that every new military job—uniform or civilian—that comes to St. Athan will create half a job in the community. The company therefore estimates 1,500 jobs and a total of 4,500. That is down from the original total of 5,500 but I stress that the estimate is conservative. The usual multiplier for military bases that move into an area and provide work is between one and a half and three times the number of military jobs.

The number of jobs that we get in Wales depends on us, not Metrix or anybody else. It depends on our preparedness to take up the jobs and the opportunities that come our way as a result of the process. If one read the BBC website on the day of the announcement, one would have believed that we had lost out. The calculation that I explained does not include the training of at least 6,500 military engineers every year at St. Athan. The jobs that that will create are not even factored in. It is a huge opportunity."

Note that Raytheon armsdealers is a key partner of the Metrix consortium - They mislead people in Northern Ireland ....
Raytheon managers have been in collusion with Invest Northern Ireland officials to evade and ignore the policies of Derry City. Representatives of the SDLP and Sinn Fein, have repeatedly said that Raytheon gave them explicit assurances that there would be no arms-related production at the Derry plant. The two parties have explained that it was on the basis of these assurances that they welcomed Raytheon to the north west. It is now clear that Raytheon wasn't telling the truth.

Are we sure they are telling the truth here to the Welsh people???

Contact John Smith MP smithj@parliament.uk