According to reports on the Beeb the Chief Exec of Cardiff Council received a 33% increase in salary last year, which coincidentally was his last year in the role as he then quit his job rather unexpectedly.

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It’s also pretty amazing to note that all but one local authority Chief Exec is paid over £100,000 per annum. That’s before they get add ons such as £10k for being a returning officer (how demanding can that be?) so it’s a nice little package all in all.

But is it justified, or perhaps more fundamentally, do we need quite so many of them anyway?

22 Ch Execs/Finance Directors/Social Service Directors/HR Wizards and so on surely has to be overkill for a nation of 3 million or so people.

Add to that the inefficiency of our police/fire/ambulance/health services and we really have a need for some fundamental reorganisation and rationalisation.

Sadly I see little appetite to really address these issues, but any party that admitted there was a real need for change and was prepared to address it would certainly get my vote.

Like many I am pretty disappointed in the Gordon Brown  & Piers Morgan love in that will be broadcast tomorrow night.

The programme contains private revelations: so private in fact that they have been on every news programme for the last 36 hours.

It shows a significant lack of judgement for ITV to make such a shameless plug for a failing Prime Minister and it is an appalling error of judgement for Brown to open up on some issues as he does, with so little time before the election.

ITV, Morgan and Brown: a hapless trio.

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I stayed in a nice hotel in Swansea last night, city centre, 4 star, amazing old building done up to a very high standard etc etc. But when  you get into the experience it’s not all that it might be.

Yes of course; it looked great. But it was the small things that were irritating: the nice bathroom that had a modern toilet that was so low that my arthritic hips made it very difficult to get up and down on it. Looked pretty though.

A modern shower unit that could not be turned on without me getting soaked with cold water first, because the controls were in the wrong place.

A luxury double bed, made of two singles joined together with a dip in the centre so that I slept rolling down a hill.

The heating system was probably the best that money could buy – but I couldn’t work out how to use the controls. So we were cold. And when we did turn it on it laucnhed some jet engines that could have woken the dead.

So on the surface and onf first impression, it was great – indeed good enough to get its tourism awards. But would I really want to stay there again? No. Sorry, but the focus on modern minimalism at the expense of true utility and comfort showed that the designers were more taken with form rather than function. That for me is the wrong focus.

Have the lunatics taken over the Asylum Assembly? Well it certainly looks that way if Martin Shipton’s report in the Western Mail today is correct.

Civil Servants are going to be paid a one off grant of upto £2500 for moving to work in offices that could be closer to their home.

Just read that sentence again slowly and wonder if there really is an understanding in our bloated and out of touch public sector of a need to be a little bit tighter with the purse strings?

“Don’t worry darling, you can stay in bed, it’s a bit cold outside” – words I never heard from my parents yet words that have been spoken in many a home this week no doubt.

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What ever happened to the notion of “getting on with it”?

A little snow falls and we all come to a standstill. “It’s all about Health and Safety” some say. “Rubbish” I reply. It’s about risk avoidance: schools and/or councils don’t want to be liable for kids breaking their limbs in school yards whilst being supervised.

They prefer instead for the little darlings to break their limbs playing unsupervised in parks and pavements, whilst throwing snowballs at passing buses and cars.

The idea of closing schools when there is no serious risk is ridiculous. If the school in the highest village in Wales, with 18 inches of snow around can be open every day and be proud of the fact that the kids walk in as opposed to travel by car, then at least someone is setting an example of making the right effort.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The New Year’s Honours List raised the bi-annual moaning and groaning about how passé the whole idea of honours really is. I just don’t get this argument!

In recent years the notion of Celebrity has grown ridiculously and we’ve now got people who are famous for being famous, with that fame often gained through eating grubs in the outback of Australia for so-called reality TV.

Yet when some people who have made great efforts over many years are formally “recognised” there is a ground swell of moaning about the anachronism that is being extended. Utter tosh.

Many people honoured in the New Year’s list have given a life-time of effort. Of course there are some whose presence is questionable, and indeed there are the ongoing absentees who raise more confusion (think Brucie) but we must remember that at least those who were honoured were nominated by someone who could see that they’d done more than perform for a reality show.

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A man walks into a flying school and books some lessons, lots actually and is prescriptive about what he wants to learn: no take offs, no landings, just a bit of turning and “straight and level”.

A flying instructor thinks it strange and tells the authorities.

Another man buys a one way ticket and pays in cash for a transatlantic flight.

A father finds it strange and tells the authorities. The Authorities don’t seem to tell each other.

So lots of people employed to keep us safe and to detect terrorists fail to notice either of the men who tried and perpetrated attacks on airliners. It beggars belief.

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There’s a lady in Bournemouth that has 3 careers to look after her and in a gesture of thanks and seasonal jollity she wants to give the carers a pressie. Nice touch.

In an act of stoooopppdity the Council have told her not to give the pressies as it contravenes the rules of the Care Quality commission, whoever they are.
What sort of world are we living in?

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It was great to see in the budget speech this week that the Government is taking swift and stern action to resolve the financial crisis. In summary they announced:

• A 1 billion cut in the public sector pay bill. Public servants will face pay cuts, ranging from 5% on those earning 30,000 to 15% on those earning more than 200,000.
• 760 million cut from social welfare
• 980 million saved from day-to-day spending programmes
• 960 million cut from investment projects.

There’s no way you can call that sitting on your hands with your head in the sand. So well done to my local Government, that of course is the one in Dublin (110 miles from me today). For that is a summary of what they’ve announced to fix the Irish Economy.

The Government in London (179 miles away) focused on delaying implementing anything really important now, so that they could try to buy votes in the next election.

And today we hear that the Chancellor wanted to cut deeper, but Brown over-ruled him. There can be no doubt that the Unelected One will leave a brown legacy.

Bliar and wifey

You have to laugh at the arrogance of some people in thinking that this would make a good Christmas card.

But this is THEIR card for this year.

It makes my RNLI ones look a bit tame don’t you think?