Listless In Wales?

Sections of the Labour Left, who I suppose ought technically to be expelled for this, are so impressed with Plaid Cymru's manifesto that they are urging Labour people to cast their second votes, for the party list rather than for the constituency member, in the Plaid Cymru interest. But I am not so sure.

Plaid Cymru is an important vehicle for the rural Radicalism that was such a feature of the nineteenth century, but which was allowed to die of neglect in most of Scotland and almost all of England after the First World War. It is the principal voice of the great Welsh peace tradition. But it is also the party of separatism and of a fascistic hostility towards the language of eighty per cent of the Welsh. And it disappointed bitterly when it failed to oppose the war in Libya.

Rumour has it that the Old Labour people behind True Wales may be sufficiently organised to field a candidate at the next European Election. That sounds much more promising. In the meantime, Plaid Cymru is encouraging its supporters to seek appointment to the House of Lords, and I suggest that True Wales ought to do the same. The more voices of rural Radicalism and of the Welsh peace tradition in the parliamentary process, the better. But preferably not those whose witness is compromised by separatism, by language-fascism, or by a failure to oppose the war in Libya.