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Assembly Bwletin Cynulliad Assembly Bwletin Cynulliad August 2012 Assembly Bwletin Cynulliad is a joint initiative between Grayling and the Institute of Welsh Affairs. Every month we aim to bring you the ABC of Welsh politics. For information on ABC, please con- On the agenda this tact: [email protected] or [email protected] month: David Jones takes up the reins at Gwydyr House Clwyd West MP David Jones has replaced Cheryl Gillan MP as Secretary of State for Wales as David Cameron MP reshuffled Articles his cabinet team mid-way through the Parliamentary term. Mrs Gillan’s exit from Government came as little surprise to many, David Jones takes up the after her vocal opposition to the route of the High Speed 2 rail reins at Gwydyr House line which will pass through her Buckinghamshire constituency. Mr Jones’ appointment comes after a number of Welsh Results down, appeals up; Conservatives successfully lobbied for an MP representing a the GCSE fall out Welsh constituency to take over at the Wales Office, with Mr Jones becoming the first Welsh Conservative MP to do so Doubts over Lords reform since Nicholas Edwards in 1987. place Assembly electoral changes in question Mr Jones inherits a Cabinet portfolio where the electoral arrangements of the National Assembly for Wales and the deliberations of the Silk Commission dominate the constitutional Sport as important as agenda. However, with two years’ junior ministerial experience reading and writing in the Wales Office under his belt in addition to a brief spell as Assembly Member for North Wales between 2002 and 2003, Mr Jones may find the transition to his new portfolio easier than many of his new Cabinet colleagues. As for his reception in Wales, opinion amongst Welsh Conservative AMs appears to be Events divided. BBC Wales political editor Betsan Powys has reported concerns amongst some that relations between Westminster and Cardiff Bay will deteriorate, with one source claiming Mr Jones has shown “contempt for the Assembly”. Yet in a statement issued by IWA 25th Anniversary the Wales Office following his appointment, Mr Jones stressed the need to work Exhibition and Dinner constructively with politicians in Cardiff: “I intend to offer to the Welsh Government my Department’s fullest co-operation in working to improve the lives of people in Wales”. David Jones MP was quick to outline that his priority will be boosting Wales’ economy Join us for Breakfast during “probably the most difficult economic time that we've ever faced.” Shadow Secretary of State for Wales Owen Smith MP wished Mr Jones well in his new position, but challenged him to be a voice for Wales around the Cabinet table which would tell David Cameron that “enough is enough.” The Pontypridd MP added, that whilst David Jones is a Welshman he is “one from the right-wing of the Conservative Party” who is “likely to support George Osborne and those whose failing policies are at the root of our current crisis.” Results down, appeals up; the GCSE fall out There has been an unexpected decline in GCSE grades across Wales, as results were published this month. Whilst nervous pupils opened the dreaded envelope, a political fall out was emerging which has resulted in mass objection to GCSE results this year, particularly in GCSE English. In addition to grades falling for the first time since the introduction of the examinations in the late 1980s, the gap between the pro- portion of Welsh candidates achieving five A* to C grades compared with England and Northern Ireland widened to four per cent. Minister for Education and Skills Leighton Andrews AM has accused UK Education Secretary Michael Gove MP of pressurising exam boards to mark exams harshly, commenting that “when Michael Gove says jump, the head of Ofqual says 'how high'“. Professor of Education at Southampton University, and Welsh Government adviser David Reynolds added: "It's difficult to avoid the assumption that there's an orches- trated campaign going on somewhere, and the issue is where is that being orchestrated from. Is it public opinion, is it the right-wing press or a Tory minister of education? We don't know, but there's clearly something going on.” Mr Gove immediately refuted any allegations of out- side influence, insisting that “the decision about where to set grade boundaries is made by exam boards [...] that is the result of the independ- ent judgements made by exam boards entirely free from any political pressure." Since the results were published, Welsh qualifications provider WJEC had received over 1,500 complaints over the results, with 1,000 ap- peals specifically made in regards to GCSE English. The Welsh Government has already confirmed it will review GCSE English results after the particularly poor showing in this subject. The complaints follow a report by UK qualifications regulator Ofqual that acknowledged grade boundaries had changed part way through the year. Ofqual’s chief regulator, Glenys Stacey, said that students who sat exams in the sum- mer would be offered the opportunity to re-sit in November. The potential of many thousands of Welsh pupils re-sitting GCSE English has led to an angry reactions from Unions, with the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) threatening legal action. Brian Lightman, ASCL general secretary and a former head teacher in Wales, said it was not “acceptable or practicable” for students to re-sit the exam. The ASCL also added fuel to the fire by revealing that they have been contacted by more than 100 secondary school heads since the results who were so concerned that they are now demanding re-marks of all English papers. The results come in the midst of a wider political wrangle over the future of qualifications and pupils’ education across the UK. Leighton An- drews AM, Minister for Education and Skills, and John O’Dowd MLA, Northern Ireland’s Minister for Education, joined forces earlier in the month to publicly criticise the UK Secretary of State for Education’s decision to announce his plans for GCSE and A-Level reform without consulting their respective nations. Although Mr Gove’s announcements were England-specific, their open letter to him highlighted the need for earlier involvement of, and better communication and consultation with, devolved administrations over policy changes at Westminster. Mr Andrews added: "It is clear that we now need to consider whether our own system can be in hock to “Gove-it-alone” policies. These issues will be considered in relation to our current review of qualifications.” Doubts over Lords reform place Assembly electoral changes in question Uncertainty in the UK Government that has led to the shelving of the House of Lords Reform Bill threatens to derail previously announced plans to change electoral arrangements in Cardiff Bay. The Lords Reform Bill, which would cut the number of peers by almost half, struggled to gain the support from many backbench Conservative MPs. The decision by the Coalition Government to abandon the reforms has escalated tensions within the Cabinet, with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg MP with- drawing his party’s support for proposed boundary changes which were likely to reform Westminster constituencies in what some have claimed would be in the Conservatives’ favour. With the constituency boundaries for the National Assembly for Wales currently tied to those of the House of Commons, disruption to boundary reform at Westminster threatens to undermine parallel reforms to the Assembly’s electoral system published in May by former Secretary of State for Wales, Cheryl Gillan MP. The Green Paper proposes either 30 AMs occupying the same constituencies as Wales' new UK Parliamentary seats, or redrawing the 40 existing constituencies so they are of equal size. In either of these proposals, the remaining seats would be filled by Additional Members, main- taining the Assembly’s partly proportional composition. The proposed Westminster boundary chang- es would see a 25 per cent reduction in Welsh representation in the House of Commons, with Wales losing 10 of its 40 seats. Furthermore, the proposed reforms to the Assembly’s composition under which there would be an increase in Additional Members threaten to undermine Welsh Labour’s dominance of devolved elections, having the potential to drastically reshape the dynamics of de- volved government in Wales. Commenting on the proposals, Shadow Secretary of State for Wales ,Owen Smith MP, said that the Green Paper “was Cheryl Gillan’s attempt at rigging Wales’ electoral map in the same way that her Cabinet colleagues were trying to gerrymander the results of the next general elec- tion”, adding that “Cheryl Gillan should waste no time in dropping her own proposals to change the arrangements of Assembly constituencies, changes for which she has no mandate.” With the UK Coalition seeking to revive its standing with a wide-ranging reshuffle, in which Cheryl Gillan MP has been replaced as Secretary of State for Wales, it remains to be seen how the delicate balancing act of governing in coalition will be refracted within devolved Welsh politics. With the Prime Minister vowing to press ahead with boundary changes despite opposition from his Liberal Democrat coalition partners, however, the debate over electoral politics in both Wales and Westminster is, it seems, far from over. Sport as important as reading and writing Laura McAllister says Welsh Government and schools must work together to ensure Olympic Games have a lasting legacy We want the lasting legacy of the Olympic Games to be a generation of children and young people with the competence, confidence and motivation to participate in sport. This will not happen overnight, but through working together with our partners we believe that all children can reap the benefits that participating in sport brings.
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