Apparently there was a Welsh Government Cabinet reshuffle yesterday.
BREAKING: First Minister Carwyn Jones has announced he is reshuffling his ministerial team More follows pic.twitter.com/FxugqOvdI7
— BBC Wales News (@BBCWalesNews) September 11, 2014
SO WHAT!… we hear you cry.
It takes a ‘reshuffle’ to jog a memory or two on just how disproportionate the south v north Cabinet Member ratio split is.
Looking at the locations of AM’s in the ‘new’ Cabinet on the map below, its easy to see why many (ok the odd few that care) ‘up norf’ dismiss the WG as something administered in South Wales, by people from South Wales, for the people of South Wales – Actually the last couldn’t be further from the truth.
As we all know, our much maligned education system, crumbling (so the media tell us) health service, and a host of other vitally important ‘bits’ are administered from the Cardiff powerbase.
Yet, given Deeside’s geography to Cardiff one feels as far removed from that part of Wales as we are from Westminster, in fact the later is much more accessible and far cheaper to travel to for starters.
Anyway, we’ve made a map to demonstrate the point…
(you may need to click on the map or over you mousy thing green circles are Deputy Ministers)
Here’s is a quick summary of the reshuffle:
Two ministers departed,
One came back
One didn’t get a senior position, though perhaps should have.
As for for the FM, he still has the overseas promotional piece!
Our very own Deeside Assembly Member Carl Sargeant moved to the ‘Natural Resources’ brief following a successful stint in housing.
You can’t help but think all those lovely pictures of the River Dee Mr Sargeant shared on twitter somehow influenced the decision.
There could well be a tricky dilemma just around the corner with the (politically unpopular) Deeside incinerator – though due to Councillors being ‘LED’ into a near as damn it unbreakable PFI contract, it will happen regardless!
Natural resources and incinerators don’t perhaps sit well on the same line, but then nor does filling the land full of waste.
Meanwhile, somebody else noticed the North/South AM ratio and decided to have a ‘pop’ at the top man.
Another reshuffle over. Always an awful task to have to tell people they’re leaving government. — Carwyn Jones AM/AC (@AMCarwyn) September 11, 2014
.@AMCarwyn given you claim to speak for all of Wales, why are only 20% of your cabinet from NorthWales but 80% from South?
— Gareth Baines (@GABaines) September 11, 2014
@GABaines how many from N Wales are in the Uk Cabinet? — Carwyn Jones AM/AC (@AMCarwyn) September 11, 2014
.@AMCarwyn Mr Jones, this sort of attitude is why those of us in North Wales are getting fed up with a government only focused on SWales
— Gareth Baines (@GABaines) September 11, 2014
Can’t please everyone as they say…
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