Consistent inconsistency

I knew that Jonathan Morgan, the Tory MP for Cardiff North, was unhappy with the decision to reorganize schools in the Whitchurch area of Cardiff from Twitter:

I am shocked that Labour ministers have deserted the people of Whitchurch with their support of schools reorganisation plan.

WAG decision to back school changes in Whitchurch no benefit to English or Welsh medium schools. Labour don't deserve to govern after May.

Wondering if WAG open to judicial review on Whitchurch schools - inconsistent with Canton decision. One rule for them another for Whitchurch.

Following on from that, there is a rather garbled story in today's South Wales Echo, which somehow manages to claim that four primary schools will be closed by the decision.

But Jonathan Morgan is just going off on one without giving much thought to what he's saying. He claims that:

The issues there reflect the issues facing Whitchurch yet the minister has taken a decision which is inconsistent with his decision in the west of Cardiff.

In fact education minister Leighton Andrews refused to make the decision not to allow Treganna to move to the Lansdowne building: he transferred the decision to Carwyn Jones. Yet that detail aside, the problem is not that the Whitchurch decision is inconsistent with the Canton decision, but that the Canton decision was inconsistent with the Welsh Government's stated policies. Mr Morgan simply wants one wrong decision to become a precedent for another wrong decision.

As for his idea that the Whitchurch decision had:

completely deserted local families

He is rather ignoring the fact that there simply isn't enough demand from local families to support both Eglwys Wen and Eglwys Newydd at their current size. A large number of children going to these schools are not from local families, but from families outside their catchment areas. As we can see from the figures here, only 205 out of 326 at Eglwys Newydd and 158 out of 280 at Eglwys Wen were from the two catchment areas combined. This means that 237 children going to these schools were not from local families at all.
 

 
Update, 5 February 2011

I can't find a direct link to the decision letter, but I've embedded the Guardian's version from this page.

 

A one-sided Blue Print

I noticed yesterday that Jonathan Morgan had tweeted about the decision to phase out Cefn Onn School, calling it "a sad day for families in Cardiff North". Fair enough, I thought. Every school is more than just a building. Each school has its own ethos—spirit even—which is built particularly by the teaching staff, but also by parents and governors, not to mention the children themselves. So it is always sad when a school closes.

I would not have commented on that, but he has gone very much further than that in his blog today.

     Anger as Minister says yes to Cefn Onn School closure

In it he talks about "closing a school which serves an area with few community facilities" and the closure having "the potential to fragment the community" ... all prefixed by the highly emotive word "anger".

Well let's look at the issue in more detail. Cefn Onn is closing because of the number of surplus spaces in Cardiff schools. There is more than enough space in the other nearby schools for those parents who might have intended to send their children to Cefn Onn. Jonathan himself describes the four surrounding schools as "excellent". There will also be transitional arrangements for children already at Cefn Onn. Only new admissions will stop, and it will be a few more years yet before the school closes altogether.

So, all in all, Cardiff appear to have gone out of their way to make the closure as seamless as possible. And Jane Hutt, as Minister for Education in the Welsh Government, agrees.

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So much for the story as presented by Jonathan. Now let's include what he hasn't said.

     

This is a picture of the Cefn Onn site (click it for a larger version). What the picture doesn't tell us is that the buildings are shared between Cefn Onn School and Ysgol Y Wern. As is the case nearly everywhere else in Cardiff, the large numbers of surplus spaces are in English-medium schools, while at the same time there is immense pressure on space in Welsh-medium schools.

The demand for WM education has increased year on year, and the way this was handled here was for more and more temporary classrooms to be put up in the grounds. (Though as we can see from the picture, the permanent buildings on the site are in a pretty sad state, so the standard of accommodation might in fact be better ... but that's another issue.) The reason admissions to Cefn Onn are being phased out is to enable Ysgol Y Wern to expand to help meet the growing demand for WM places in the area.

So how on earth does that equate with Jonathan's claim that this decision will, "close a school which serves an area with few community facilities"? It doesn't. The building isn't being closed. There will still be a school on the site, and its facilities will be every bit as available to the local community as they were before.

That's one ridiculous claim easily dealt with. But in what light does this put his claims about "fragmenting the community"? Where does he think the growing number of parents who want their children to have a WM education come from? They are, of course, gernerally parents from that very same local community. This decision makes it easier for parents in the area to exercise a choice about what sort of education they want their children to have. It simply evens up the playing field so that four school sites are not embarrassed by having so much surplus space while another is being squeezed for space.

And, should anyone think this is a unique case, the overcrowding situation is almost exactly the same just a couple of miles south. Here is a picture of the site currently shared by Ysgol Melin Gruffudd and Eglwys Wen Primary. Count the number of temporary classrooms.

     

I imagine Jonathan will reply by saying, "How can you question my attitude on this? I speak Welsh myself." True. But people who speak Welsh can be just as unfair, provocative, one-sided and selective with the truth as people who speak any other language.

Jonathan Morgan on borrowing powers

 
     

I've just read Jonathan Morgan's speech to his local Conservative Association. Most of it wasn't so surprising: he can hardly fail to mention expenses, nor fail to attack Labour in Westminster for such bad management of the economy that UK borrowing has gone through the roof.

And, as I'd would also expect, he's still hurt quite badly about Nick Bourne shuffling him out of the shadow cabinet.

But what particularly struck me was this paragraph:

We should also open our minds to Wales raising its own money in the future, as an addition to the Barnett grant. There would have to be a number of caveats on additional borrowing but if a local authority is allowed to borrow money, then why not the Assembly Government.

But what on earth does "open our minds" actually mean? This appears to me to be typical political doublespeak. It's very easy to say that you will think about doing something. It makes you look good, but it gives you the opportunity to say, "Yes, we did think about it, as we said we would, but we decided it wasn't such a good idea in the end" ... even if you never had the slightest intention of doing it in the first place.

Come on JM, don't hide behind such cheap words. This issue has been on the political agenda for some time now. It is one of the things the Holtham Commission was set up to consider. Surely you must have worked out your position by now!

Please let's have some clear statements on what you think:

• On borrowing, what are these "caveats" you mention?

• As the vast majority of the block grant is revenue rather than capital spending, do you envisage Wales "raising its own money in the future" by assigning some taxes raised in Wales directly to the Assembly in place of some of the block grant?

• To you want to see the Assembly have tax setting powers?

There's no chance that I'm ever going to vote Tory. But if you want others in Wales to vote for you—or indeed if you have any hopes of being part of a future coalition Welsh Government—then surely you need to think these things through and make your position clear.

If you can offer a better position on increased fiscal responsibility for Wales you might just find all the support you need in your quest to be Tory leader without having to snipe at Nick Bourne over iPods.