The Final Grandstanding Of Carwyn Jones?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well it's Labour Party Conference time. Something I didn't feel I would be chatting about until this morning. When two separate events happened which needed a chat.

A quick note to the Labour delegate from Aberconwy who said that if education taught children correctly then they wouldn't grow up to be Tories? Well leaving aside the fact that I don't have any love for the Tories either AND the disturbing issues of thought control the statement suggested (the guy according to the TV is actually a teacher) he seemed oblivious to that fact that Aberconwy is in Wales.

And what that means is that in Wales Labour run education. A job they've been so bad at that the current education minister is a LibDem.

Facts, Mr teacher delegate. Sometimes they can spoil a soundbite.

Anyway time to chat about soon to be ex fat controller the First Minister Carwyn Jones who has made his final speech in the conference. A man so comfortable and demob happy he's started sporting fuzz on his face making him look like a shifty Santa Claus.

And like Santa he's been spreading gifts. Such as telling leadership candidate Eluned Morgan that he'll nominate her to be his replacement as a point of principle for feminism when he was silent beforehand. How he's offering £6m in grants to Ford,Toyota and Airbus who have major presence in Wales to help them with Brexit and how he's setting up a £50m EU transition fund for the rest of Wales to deal with the exact same issue.

The thing is though those grants and the fund is a typical Welsh Labour smoke and mirrors action. For I'm sure in a parallel universe the reaction to his speech was follows:

"Oh Carwyn we love you!"

"Why are you leaving us?"

"I love him. I'm going to throw my knickers on the stage"

In the real world however the question needs to be asked is why announce it now? Not the grants or the fund but the amounts involved. After all if the Westminster government does not know whether we're going to have a soft Brexit, a hard Brexit or a long dark Brexit of the soul (or even, though unlikely remaining).

In view of that how does Carwyn and his crew know that £6million / £50 million is going to be enough? It might be too much, or too little or pointless because the companies have decided to leave anyway. On the face of it the £50 million fund in particular for a whole nation appears to be rather small. But then again who knows? No one truly does. But here's Welsh Labour saying it anyway.

And let me stress again. I'm not saying that the grants or the fund is a bad thing. Nor am I saying that all consequences of Brexit should not be planned for. But the announcement of the actual figure seems premature given no one knows at the moment what Brexit will bring.

So why announce it? Well I would suggest to give the image of Welsh Labour fighting for Wales. To give Carwyn Jones a final conference hurrah as he slowly moves into becoming a question on a Welsh game show.

But Welsh Labour are not fighting for Wales. What they have done, as another Welsh candidate Vaughan Gething appeared to imply, is to manage decline.....and they couldn't even do that right.

Until the next time.