30/09/2010

Who wants Sodexo in Wales?

Sodeo is a lead member of the Metrix consortium - Welsh MPs are lobbying for them to come to Wales in a £14bnt PFI

Email Sodexo - Tell Them to Respect Workers in the Dominican Republic and ...
SEIU (blog) From school cafeterias in the US to mines in Latin America, Sodexo aggressively fights workers who organize to get a better life. Today, workers and their ...
Sodexo leading St AthanPFI Email them Tell Them to Respect Workers in the Dominican Republic and around the World http://bit.ly/9BMNRm

Jobs promised at St Athan
Most of the 3000 claimed are for transferees. The breakdown given at the public inquiry last January shows 1200 military staff (including 500 non-project staff) and just 1800 civilian jobs. These include 1200 managers, contractor personnel and trainer staff transferring from existing English bases

Politicians have ignored the many job-seeking spouses and family members arriving with the 2400 transferees. These job-seekers (estimated at 1200 to1900) far outnumber the few hundred available jobs in cleaning, maintenance, transport and catering (up to 600).
That why we say the promise of jobs was not just exaggerated, but is illusory.

News from cosford

News - A Welcome Boost for Cosford
Today’s edition of the Shropshire Star reports that plans to move defence training to South Wales could now be axed. Union officials have welcomed the news and the boost it gives to RAF Cosford’s chances of survival as a military base:
A Government source has said the £14 billion private finance initiative project, awarded by the Labour administration, is unlikely to be given the green light by the present Conservative/Lib Dem coalition because of the huge costs.
It opens up the possibility of studies for a much lower cost replacement which could mean a reprieve for RAF Cosford and secure its future. Mr O’Harney said they believed the programme for the new facility at St Athan had been flawed since its inception.
He said the cost of the facility had soared from £11bn to £14bn in the space of three years.

The source said: “The logic for something on that site remains compelling. The model does not. It’s not impossible that something will go ahead – but it won’t be a gargantuan PFI.”
St Athan has been viewed as vulnerable as the coalition is keen to axe £20bn of defence contracts structured as PFIs – and the St Athan project is not yet under contract.
The full article can be viewed here

21/09/2010

Kirsty Williams St Athan dinner for Metrix

Kirsty Williams - enjoying power
Kirsty as leader of the Welsh LibDems enjoyed the Conference limelight.

Taking up the message "let's enjoy power", Kirsty sponsored a dinner for Metrix (alias Sodexo-Qinetiq) to introduce them to key LibDems.   Danny Alexander and Nick Harvey were on the initial invitation list, just the Ministers who are to take a decision on the £14 billion project.  The dinner list that Metrix wanted was amazingly brazen:

But the list leaked out, none of the people in government were allowed to attend.  Can we hope the nosh was enjoyed, courtesy of Metrix, though by lesser politicians

What sort of values has Kirsty Williams who is enjoying the Conference limelight? But sponsoring a dinner for Metrix (alias Sodexo-Qinetiq) to give them access to Danny Alexander and Nick Harvey, just the Ministers who are to take a decision on the St Athan Metrix PFI for military training @ £14 billion.Isn't Kirsty coy about her dinner invitees, replete with Lib-Dems enjoying power:
# Danny Alexander MP + Julia Goldsworthy (Spad)
# Nick Harvey MP
# Jenny Willott MP
# James McGrory and Polly MacKenzie (No 10 Policy Unit)
# Chris Saunders (Spad to Nick Clegg).
Kirsty Williams should have listened to Vince Cable now silenced.
Kirsty Williams spech to Lib Dem conf "I will always speak up for Wales and I will always speak up for my beliefs and my values. Now, he may be a saint, but when Vince Cable, before the election, decided to commit our party to cutting the proposed military college at St Athan in South Wales, he soon learnt of my determination to fight for the best deal for Wales and the best defence for the UK .
For that project has been identified by the MoD’s strategic defence review as critical to our military capability. And when we know that money is tight, we Liberal Democrats understand that it is the cancelation of Trident that will make projects like St Athan possible. That is an argument that I know we are winning in the country and it is one we must win in Government. "

Has Kirsty read that Peter Luff, minister for defence support and technology, said it was ‘clear that mistakes in defence procurement have been made in the past’ but the current government would ensure future contracts were better managed and provided better value for money. They must take another look at the finances and flawed business for the St athan PFI where costs have soared to £14bn. Yes - MoD ‘did not understand costs of PFI deal’ Ministry of Defence officials did not understand the costs involved when they launched their largest Private Finance Initiative project, a damning report by the Public Accounts Committee has found. Have we the same officals working on St Athan and the Metrix deal?
They also used a defective comparison with public funding for the £10.5bn future strategic tanker aircraft (FSTA) project – which provides in-air refuelling for military aircraft. The deal took nine years to negotiate and failed to provide value for money. The 27-year contract was signed in 2008 with the Air Tanker consortium, which owns the refuelling aircraft and makes them available as needed.

When will you meet us Kirsty?

Private Eye has more news of the Metrix PR assault  this week and we say hello to Citigate another PR firm joining the offensive who have worked with lead partner Qinitiq who ripped off the taxpayer. See also

The truth from Vince Cable before he was silenced!
BBC NEWS Cable says scrap defence .15 Sep 2009 ... Vince Cable said the £13bn project was too costly ... thousands of jobs in south Wales should be scrapped, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman has said. Dr Vince Cable MP said the £13bn to set up the St Athan project ...
 Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable has identified the Training College, due to open in St Athan in 2014, as one project that should be ...

15/09/2010

Kirsty Williams hosts Bell Pottinger dinner for access

we don't have anything like the resources that Bell Pottinger for Metrix has Lib Dems and cash for access and St Athan Metrix PFI military training college. The Welsh Lib-Dems first supported this PFI project on the narrow grounds of "jobs" in Wales, but now Kirsty Williams is hosting a dinner at the Lib-Dem conference next week for Metrix to give this private company access to the Ministers, Dennis Anderson and Nick Harvey.
probable attendees at the Lib-Dem dinner on 19th Sept.
# Danny Alexander MP and Julia Goldsworthy (Special Adv)
# Nick Harvey MP
# Jenny Willott MP for Cardiff Central
# James McGrory and Polly MacKenzie (No. 10 Policy Unit)
# Chris Saunders (Special Advisor to Nick Clegg)
The two Ministers are engaged in the review of this £14 billion project, so dining with Metrix should surely be out.There’s every reason to avoid a 30-year long PFI. This one has inflated £3billion (up from £14 billion) in price during negotiation and shrunk in size from 6000 to 2700 trainee places. It’s clearly a case for fundamental review against alternative integration of training on existing MoD bases (the PCS union says it could be accommodated on two bases, or even one if the Defence Review cuts standing forces by 20 or 25%). Nick Harvey’s answer in the Commons 5th July “to change course now would undo a great deal of investment… and add considerably to the final cost” sounded like Metrix’s case and gives no confidence of a genuine review.

Private Eye piece disclosing the lobbying campaign targeted at Welsh Lib-Dems as a route through to the Defence Minister - which appears to have succeeded.