West of Centre

I have always been drawn to a good analogy. Recently, a very simple analogy was related to me which can be adapted to just about every walk of life. The analogy tells of a man standing on the banks of a river fishing dead bodies out as they float downstream. Another man comes along and instead walks upstream to try and find where they are coming from. Like all truly great analogies it is beautiful in its simplicity and easy to follow. I applied it in several contexts as I am sure you will already have done. In their wisdom (and if I was inclined to a mere slither of cynicism), the Welsh Government have once again sought to emulate their Scottish cousins by proposing a minimum pricing on alcohol. They claim that a minimum price of 50p per unit of alcohol might save the Welsh economy £1 billion annually. That is quite a claim. This is apparently based on research assessing crime, illness and workplace absence over the last 20 years. So why not just introduce this measure (no pun intend

Already, people on both sides of the pond are citing 2016 as a ground-breaking year. Thus far, we can still console ourselves of a few certainties regardless of how the outcomes compared with our own views. For one thing, election polls are just that - a straw poll of opinion. The reason why the EU Referendum poll and the recent American election both seemingly defied the expert pollsters is actually quite simple. The relationship between a member of the public and the ballot box is, rightly, a deeply personal and private affair. They are not (and nor should they be) obliged to divulge their true intention to anyone. It is entirely a matter for themselves and rightly so. Much has been made of the support for Donald Trump coming from the less educated members of American society. Perhaps so but their votes are worth just as much as anyone else's. In the end, a vote is one person's say and we are all entitled to our say. I have seldom witnessed such an avalanche of self-righteo

The concept of the column is quite varied. One of the varieties which is arguably going out of fashion is the newspaper column. As the beloved internet thrives, the hard copy of print on a sheet of paper seems to be losing appeal daily. Although readers can now access their favourite columnists in various online formats, there is still no substitute for the real thing. When I think of my favourite columnists, several names spring to mind. But what of iconic? Iconic is defined as being something very famous or popular, especially being considered to represent particular opinions at a particular time. Many famous writers cut their literary teeth as columnists before making a splash in fiction. Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene spring immediately to mind. Interestingly, both were overtly Catholic writers albeit in rather different styles. Greene was a genius. Of that there can be no doubt. But for my money, Waugh remains one of the most underrated writers of the twentieth century. Alt

Denbighshire County Council (DCC) have just published their Resident's Survey Report. And an interesting read it is too. But before scrutinising the content of that Report, it is interesting to note that the Local Government Data Unit has just announced that DCC was one of the top 5 performing Councils in Wales during 2015/16. But sadly, the Resident's Survey Report was not used to come to this conclusion. If it had been used, it would be difficult to believe that DCC is one of the best performing councils in Wales - unless the others are even worse. Although I'm not sure if DCC are legally required to conduct a Resident's Survey, I would have thought it to be an obvious thing to do. To quote the Local Government Authority, "Understanding the resident's views is a key element of assessing the effectiveness of an authority, alongside cost and performance information. Furthermore, understanding resident satisfaction and being able to make informed comparison