JMC, Programme for Government and beyond

If the First Minister’s attendance at the devolved head of governments meeting last week was mostly irrelevant and helped Wales little, then his attendance from Wales’s perspective at the Joint Ministerial Committee this week was pointless.

For starters he went to discuss finance matters and didn’t take Jane Hutt his Finance Minister with him, the UK and Scottish Finance Minster did attend which no doubt tilted the balance in their favour during any discussions of the Barnett formula review.

He got no more than a repeat of the promise from the PM about a ‘Calman style commission’ for Wales, no start date and how hard did he argue that the Holtham Commission report had done much of the heavy lifting on that front and in straightened financial times would save money.

And he was mistaken for UK Health Secretary Andrew Lansley as Betsan Powys highlighted, reinforcing the Australian journalists comments about his brand recognition being equal to beetroot lemonade.

It makes me wonder if Carwyn Jones and his staff realise that he doesn’t have to agree with or even like Alex Salmond, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, but to get what he wants from the UK Government in terms of Barnett Reform or borrowing powers he needs to work with them for Wales’s benefit, they are allies.

To be fair Carwyn had a temporary reprieve by rightly having a go at Plaid Cymru’s leader for his no shows at the Official Opening and first FMQ’s of the new Parliament and most of the Welsh media have duly fallen into line to change the subject, but his problems aren’t going away.

If his much vaunted Programme for Government to be published in the next few weeks is along the lines of more of the same with a few tweaks, as suggested when the new Business Minster Edwina Hart gave her first interviews this week, then Wales is in real trouble for the next 5 years as it has been for the last 12.

And as several commentators have said devolved matters are likely to dominate political discussion in Wales whether the First Minster, the Welsh Government and the Labour Party want talk about them it or not because of events elsewhere in the UK.

If that’s the case wouldn’t it be a good idea for them to agree some policy positions, so at the very least they sound credible and as if they belong when attending these meetings in the future, meetings that even if the First Minister doesn’t get anything at will have a direct effect on us here in Wales.Any source