Yes, I know that that is not the root of the word.
But Plaid Cymru's decision to vote with the Conservatives against today's emergency Welsh Assembly legislation to protect agricultural workers means that, in this age of the Coalition nationally, North, Mid and West Wales ought to back to the straight Labour-Tory fight that North Wales, in particular, used to be.
Consider that both main parties had manifesto commitments in 1979 to the creation of a Welsh language television channel. North Wales was electorally as important as that. As of today, it ought to be again. Watch out for the Ynys Môn Assembly by-election on 1st August.
Plaid Cymru at Westminster also voted with the Government against a real-terms reduction in the British contribution to the EU Budget. That, from a party which campaigned for a No vote in the 1975 referendum.
Blairism is over, right when, among similar trends around the country, the rural Radicalism and the peace tradition of Wales in general, and the Welsh-speaking countryside in particular, is once again up for grabs. Labour must not fail to take this chance.
Except you've been completely misled. Plaid didn't "vote with the Tories". They abstained so that it would still pass, and said they agreed with setting up a new AWB but didn't agree with using the emergency procedure because it doesn't allow time for parliamentary scrutiny by the Assembly.
ReplyDeleteSeeing as I live in the rural Wales you're getting so misty eyed over, I suggest you look at how we fared under Blair and Brown, and also that you don't take what you hear about Assembly votes at face value.
Diolch.
Blair and Brown are long gone.
ReplyDeleteThat is true, but Plaid Cymru has outlasted them as has the tradition they represent.
ReplyDeleteThe Assembly will vote on a new AWB in the committee and plenary sessions next week (or soon after) now that the vote passed. That is when the actual Board will be decided, and Plaid has said they will vote with Labour.
What has happened here is that you have seen on social media, Labour-affiliated accounts spreading stories before the vote had taken place. If you study Welsh politics you see that Plaid hasn't betrayed their tradition at all, but they and Labour continually make claims and counter-claims against each other, but then sometimes work together as well. It's complicated and not suited to the really vague analysis you've made in your post.
It is not as complicated as it used to be.
ReplyDeletePlaid has sold out, and it has gone more than a little funny in the head. The 1979 Confidence Motion would not happen now, and not only because it no longer can procedurally.
The rural Radical and peace traditions in Wales have lasted, of course. But Plaid has less and less connection to them. The Lib Dems can never have any again after the Coalition.
Leaving Labour. If it grasps the nettle. The signs are encouraging. Look out for that by-election.
David, I have no idea what you mean by saying that Plaid has "sold out". Plaid has more and more connection with the radical rural traditions, not less! I live where the by-election was held, on Anglesey! Plaid Cymru's candidate, who lives on the island, romped home with the largest by-election majority a Plaid candidate has ever achieved. The Labour candidate actually lost votes! Labour has nothing to offer in rural Wales and the AWB issue was dishonestly spun, and you sadly fell for it without investigating the fact that Plaid took a more progressive stance than Labour on the AWB bill.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with some of this One Nation writing from the Labour party is that it doesn't understand Welsh Labour. Plaid Cymru would actually be your preferred ideological point of reference in Wales if you understood more about them.