Leanne Wood

A Tiny Tax Whose Time Has Come

2012-01-30T13:25:00.000Z

How we can defend people’s livelihoods and futures against the savage cuts to public services the UK coalition is inflicting?

How we can fund all the development Wales needs?

How we can pay for the projects that will build a green and caring society, one that also does its bit to make our world a better place for its poorest communities wherever they are?

A Robin Hood Tax or Tobin Tax would be a good place to start. The Robin Hood tax is a tiny tax on financial transactions. It could raise billions to create jobs, to fight poverty and to combat climate change. A tax with the added advantage of reining in the kind of speculative trading – gambling, really – that plunged large chunks of the world economy into its current crisis.

Last year I was one of 1,000 parliamentarians in 30 countries who signed a declaration calling for early implement of a Robin Hood Tax, to make the financial sector – which caused the current crisis - pay a greater contribution towards safeguarding livelihoods and saving lives. In other words, making them help to turn the global crisis they caused into a global opportunity.

Since then, the support for a Robin Hood Tax has soared, bringing together some strange bedfellows.

Not too surprisingly, the TUC and many trade unions - Unison, Unite and the GMB, the NUJ, the teachers’ unions and more - see its potential to help hold the line against spiralling poverty, as do charities like Barnardo’s, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams and many churches.

Overseas development charities like Oxfam want part of the proceeds to go towards fighting climate change in the world’s poorest countries.

Global supporters include UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Bill Gates, George Soros, Desmond Tutu.

Even the Pope is onside: the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace recommended that funds raised from it be used to help low income countries suffering the effects of the financial crisis.

There’s strong support across Europe. As you might expect, Plaid MEP Jill Evans backs it, but so does the European Parliament. Right wing leaders like French President Sarkozy and German leader Angela Merkel have been pushing it hard. The new Spanish Prime minister Mariano Rajoy has just joined them.

Amongst European leaders, the most strident opponent is David Cameron – once again on the side of the greediest bankers against the wellbeing of millions. Ed Milliband and Ed Balls once said they supported it, but have backpedalled; while many individual Labour and Lib Dem politicians and members believe a Robin Hood Tax is right, their leaders are failing to stand up to Cameron, Osborne and the banking lobby.

In a letter to the G20, 1,000 economists - including Nobel Prize winners and our own Dr Calvin Jones – argued that the financial crisis “has shown us the dangers of unregulated finance” and that it’s time “for the financial sector to give something back to society”. They went on to say:

“Even at very low rates of 0.05% or less, this tax could raise hundreds of billions of dollars annually and calm excessive speculation. The UK already levies a tax on share transactions of 0.5%, or ten times this rate, without unduly impacting on the competitiveness of the City of London. This money is urgently needed to raise revenue for global and domestic public goods such as health, education and water, and to tackle the challenge of climate change. Given the automation of payments, this tax is technically feasible. It is morally right.”

I agree with them. I’d like to see Wales come out loud and proud in favour of a Robin Hood Tax on banks, hedge funds and the rest of the financial sector to make them pay their fair share to clear up the mess they created.

Let’s have a “Coalition of the willing” in Wales, to help push for this fair and useful tax - and to show Cameron and the other Westminster politicians that defending the interests of banking’s greediest is totally unacceptable to us. That it’s simply not fair for poor people to pay the price of mistakes made by rich bankers, to die for lack of medicines or for their children to be forced out of school because of an economic crisis they did nothing to cause.

Standing for Plaid Leadership

2011-12-15T16:28:00.000Z

I have decided to put my name forward for the leadership of Plaid Cymru. The next few years will present a great opportunity for Plaid to fulfil our long term ambitions and I would like to be at the helm as we enter a new chapter in our history.

Now, more than ever, a strong Plaid Cymru is needed to put the transformation of our economy at the fore of the political agenda. I have the vision, ambition and determination to do that.

More information about my campaign and platform can be found on my campaign website www.leanewood2012.com or by following me on Twitter and Facebook.

Whose side are you on?

2011-12-09T17:25:00.001Z

This week presented a rare opportunity for opposition politicians to come together in the House of Commons to oppose the deeply unfair reforms of the public sector pensions. By supporting a motion laid by the SNP and Plaid Cymru which called for the UK Government to reverse unfair changes to public sector pensions, the Labour Party could have sent a clear message that this issue was more important that party politics. Labour MPs could also have sent a message to the two million or so people who stood on picket lines and marched on rallies last Wednesday that their fight was their fight and their number one priority.

Instead, Labour politicians showed that tribalism is more important than the protection of the public sector pension scheme. They took the side of the Con/Dems on Wednesday. The motion was defeated 242 to 11.

This debate was the first one to be heard in the Commons in the last year-and-a-half since pension changes were first mooted. In this time, there have been 36 opposition debates held by Labour where public sector workers and their pensions have been ignored. A significant number of Labour MPs also crossed picket lines at Westminster last week even though some vowed not to.

I was proud to visit a number of picket lines last week and march with my fellow Plaid Cymru members, including our leader Ieuan Wyn Jones, during the Cardiff rally. Labour politicians were conspicuous by their absence; a fact that did not go unnoticed by many of the people taking part in the rally. This non-committal position reflects the deep malaise their leader Ed Miliband now finds himself in by refusing to back the strikers and going as far as condemning the withdrawal of labour.

If Labour politicians cannot back the public sector workers on an issue as clear cut as the unjustified degradation of hard-earned pension rights then surely they should be asking themselves whose side are they on?

Plaid supports strikers

2011-11-29T18:50:00.000Z

Tomorrow, one of the biggest days of industrial action will take place in the UK in living memory. I will stand with the many ordinary men and women who are calling for the pension schemes they signed up to and paid in to, to be honoured. It is not too much to ask for a retirement without poverty after a lifetime of work but that is exactly what is at stake if the Westminster coalition has their way with the public sector pension scheme.

This is precisely why this issue has garnered such wide-spread support, particularly from trades unions which have never previously taken part in industrial action. Refuse workers, teachers, nurses, civil servants, meals on wheels providers will all be screwed by this Westminster cabinet of millionaires. Yet if you swallowed the rhetoric, you would be forgiven for thinking that tomorrow’s strikers are greedy, self-serving and not living in the real world.

Education Secretary of State Michael Gove this week described some of the union leaders as “militants itching for a fight”; a statement rendered even more farcical by the emergence of pictures of him kneeling proudly on an NUJ picket line in the 1980s.

The Government’s lead negotiator with the trade unions is Francis Maude MP. This privileged son of a Tory MP has been hopelessly inept throughout the whole proceedings and shown an ignorance of Government policy that mystifies his appointment as the government's liaison person with the trade union movement. I'd say that it's the Westminster Coalition Government that is actually ‘itching for a fight’ with the public sector. After all, they have form when it comes to cracking down on the public sector in their brief, but incredibly destructive, 18 months in office.

In Plaid Cymru, we know whose side we are on. We recognise that public sector workers deserve to retire without facing grinding poverty after a lifetime of dedication. Most importantly, we are not afraid to declare our support for such a just cause….are you listening Ed Miliband? As a Unison member and chair of the cross-party PCS group in the Assembly, I will proudly take my place on the picket line tomorrow.

I have no doubt that moral argument is on our side. With solidarity and determination, victory will be ours too.

More for the bankers

2011-11-21T16:36:00.001Z

The Westminster coalition has revealed plans today to “assist” the flagging housing market by underwriting mortgages with £400 million of tax-payers’ money. While the finer details of the plan and whether it applies to Wales are yet to be revealed, the stated aim of the 'Get Britain Building' initiative is to reduce deposits for newly built homes.

No one can deny that the construction industry is in need of a boost. That message came loud and clear last week with the launch of the Wales Construction Federation Alliance in Cardiff Bay. Housing building is undoubtedly one of the best ways to stimulate an economy. The housing charity Shelter, amongst others, has shown that for every £1 of public money spent on house-building, the economy gets £3.50 back. There is a strong imperative to provide affordable housing in Wales where social housing is more scarce than in England.

However, the latest gimmick from the Con/Dems is an ill-thought out response to these challenges. The banks, propped up with tax-payers cash have carried on their 'business as usual' with the culture of excessive pay and bonuses persisting unhindered by the mistakes of the past. With a 100% guarantee applied to their lending decisions, isn't there a big risk of mistakes repeating themselves? It was irresponsible lending in the US sub-prime mortgage market that lit the touch paper for the casino capitalism bonfire of 2008 that is still raging today. How do we know that George Osborne won't sanction even more reckless borrowing with a cast-iron guarantee to mortgage lenders? As Mervyn King said in August 2008:

"We don’t guarantee lending to other forms of borrowing; we don’t guarantee lending to manufacturing borrowing...it would be a very dangerous move to move to a situation where the government saw its major role as guaranteeing lending...why should the taxpayer take on the risk of borrowing by individual borrowers some of whom are risky it’s the lenders who should take the risk. And what we saw in the first half of 2007 was that not enough attention was paid to monitoring the riskiness of that lending.”

Furthermore, wrapped up in today’s announcement is an offer of a heavy discount on council houses – worth up to 50 per cent – in a bid to persuade people to buy their homes. This will further exacerbate the scarcity of social housing and increase waiting lists. When little or no social housing building is taking place, this is an irresponsible and ideological move by the Con/Dem coalition. Thatcher’s right-to-buy scheme of the 1980s may have had its supporters but the heavy discounts, allied with a failure to replenish housing stock, laid the seeds for the shortage of social housing we have today.

We need a major social housing programme to provide the much-needed shot in the arm for the construction industry and to shorten the creaking housing waiting lists of local authorities across the UK. This would provide an asset for the public who will own the housing at the end of the investment. Under today's announced plans there will no tangible pay-back to the tax-payer. Mortgage lenders, bankers and private house builders will be the main beneficiaries.

The Westminster Coalition is keen to trumpet at every opportunity how their interest rates on borrowing are very low because of its austerity programme (or socially regressive and ideological war on the public sector and people on the lowest incomes, depending on how you look at it). Why not use these low borrowing rates to carry out a bold and ambitious social housing programme that will give people homes, jobs and help to build up the public asset base? The answer is ideological.

End all wars

2011-11-13T18:14:00.001Z

This week in the Senedd the Conservatives held a debate calling on the government to plan a commemoration of the start of world war one in 2014. This was my contribution to the debate, from the Assembly's Record of Proceedings:

Leanne Wood: This debate is timely, given that there will be many families remembering past and present wars, and the loss of their loved ones at remembrance services throughout the country this coming Sunday. Those who have lost their lives in the conflicts of the twentieth century, and the more recent ones this century, will all be remembered. As they are remembered, I hope that there will also be time for reflection on the war that sparked remembrance Sunday. That war, which ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, started almost 100 years ago. Let us not forget that that was meant to be the war to end all wars.

The last known survivor of that war was the late Harry Patch. I will take some time to remember Harry’s words; words that, in my view, powerfully sum up the dark reality of what war is all about. When he was 107, Harry Patch said

'We’ve had 87 years to think what war is. To me, it is a licence to go out and murder. Why should the British government call me up and take me out to a battlefield to shoot a man I never knew, whose language I couldn’t speak. All those lives lost for a war finished over a table. Where’s the sense in that?’

Later, he said

'Too many died, war isn’t worth one life’

He said that war was 'calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings’. I know from my involvement in the recently formed Justice Unions all-party group, which I have helped to set up, that the wars ongoing today are creating big problems that are impacting on families and communities up and down our country. Physical injuries are visible, but mental problems and, in particular, post-traumatic stress disorder, is all too often not dealt with. In many cases, it is not even diagnosed. Work carried out by the corresponding Justice Union group in Westminster and research carried out by my Plaid Cymru colleauge Elfyn Llwyd has uncovered the vast numbers of ex-service personnel with post-traumatic stress disorder in the prison system or living on the streets. Elfyn Llwyd has led the way in campaigning for better services for mentally and physically injured service personnel. We are hoping that the Wales all-party group can do something similar at a Welsh level. For everyone who has contributed to this debate today, and who is interested in being involved in that all party group, please let me know.

In remebering the first world war, and all other wars, I hope that we can also remember all people affected: soldiers and civilians on both sides. We must learn the lessons from the past wars? Will we heed the words of Harry Patch?

To conclude, I support the amendment put forward in the name of Jocelyn Davies, which calls for an exploration of the idea of setting up a peace institute. I ask people to look at what peace institutes do in other countries: in Norway, Finland, Catalunya, Ireland and Germany. We have the powers to do this here. A peace institute could be an important educational resource and a vehicle for bringing together peace-related research; for example, on conflict resolution and arms conversion. The majority of peace institutes elsewhere in the world are self-financing, so it need not be something that requires any major financial commitment. All of the existing peace institutes enjoy academic independence. The setting up of a Welsh peace institute, working with other peace institutes around the world, would be a good way for Wales to commemorate the first world war, by making a contribution to a project that aims, finally, to end all wars.

Occupy Cardiff

2011-11-11T11:46:00.001Z

Today, the Occupy movement comes to Wales. From 2pm today, protestors will gather at the Aneurin Bevan Staute in Queen Street in Cardiff to be the voice of the 99%.

In her book Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein shows how the world's rich and powerful, the 1%, love a crisis.

"When people are panicked and desperate and no one seems to know what to do, that is the ideal time to push through their wish list of pro-corporate policies: privatizing education and social security, slashing public services, getting rid of the last constraints on corporate power. Amidst the economic crisis, this is happening the world over."

Speaking at Occupy Wall Street, Naomi said:

"today everyone can see that the system is deeply unjust and careening out of control. Unfettered greed has trashed the global economy. And it is trashing the natural world as well. We are overfishing our oceans, polluting our water with fracking and deepwater drilling, turning to the dirtiest forms of energy on the planet...The new normal is serial disasters: economic and ecological...

The task of our time is to turn this around: to challenge this false scarcity. To insist that we can afford to build a decent, inclusive society—while at the same time, respect the real limits to what the earth can take...

I am talking about changing the underlying values that govern our society. That is hard to fit into a single media-friendly demand, and it’s also hard to figure out how to do it. But it is no less urgent for being difficult."

Thanks Naomi. That covers it.

Fiddling While Rome Burns

2011-11-10T17:13:00.002Z

From the Assembly's Record of Proceedings: 9th November 2011.
Plaid Cymru debate on the economic crisis:

"I am sure that everyone listening to this debate is familiar with the effects of the economic crisis and, as Assembly Members, I am sure that we are all well-versed, not just with the fast-moving news events, but also with the way in which the crisis is impacting upon people’s lives, by the very nature of the cases that are coming to our attention.

In Plaid Cymru, we are deeply disappointed with the lack of ambition and visible action from this Government on the economy. Our economy needs urgent, vast and long-term intervention. No longer can we sit back and cross our fingers, hoping that circumstances are going to change, because all indications are that things are not going to change, and that, if anything, things are going to get a lot worse.

The First Minister tells us that his door is open and that he is willing to listen to ideas. I have some ideas that I hope that the Government will now start to take seriously. We have no need whatsoever to reinvent the wheel. In a paper that went to the former Enterprise and Learning Committee on 15 July 2010 from the Co-operatives and Mutuals Wales, two international examples were given, which, if we could do the same in Wales, could transform our economy, particularly the worst performing areas of our economy. Clearly, all businesses need finance and we all know that, despite two rounds of quantitative easing, businesses are struggling to access finance.

The Enterprise and Learning Committee paper refers to the Capital régional et coopératif Desjardins in Quebec, which is an investment fund that was started in 2001. This fund raises development capital for co-operatives to invest in the 'resource’, or the less-developed regions of Quebec. In the first five years, the fund grew from $79 million to $587 million. By 2010, $905 million, raised from individuals and the private sector, was supporting, through loans, 225 co-operative enterprises. What is stopping us from setting up a dedicated fund, along the Quebec lines, to support the expansion of co-operatives and social enterprises in Wales?

The second international example cited in that paper, which could be considered in Wales, is the vast network of manufacturing co-operatives in the Basque Country. The Mondragon Corporation was formed with a technical training college in 1956 by a Catholic priest. It now employs over 90,000 people in 256 co-operatives. Within its structure, there are now two banks and a university, and its supermarket chain is the third largest in the Spanish state. It operates a maximum-wage policy, with a ratio of 5:1, so that the highest earner cannot earn more than five times the lowest-paid worker, which then assists with equality.

If our current precarious economic situation does not warrant bold and ambitious action on this scale, then what will it take? The Government has financially supported co-operatives, but where do they sit in the overall economic strategy? What outcomes does the Government hope to see as a result of that support? Why do we not make the growth of co-operatives a strategic economic objective? Why not pull together all the various interested parties to set up a co-operative growth fund, along the lines of the Quebec model, and why not pay a visit to the Basque Country to meet the people there and to discuss how we could set up something similar to their manufacturing co-operative network in Wales?

The First Minister has asked for ideas. It is a real shame that he is not here to listen to them this afternoon, but they are on the record and, hopefully, we will see some action on the co-operative front in Wales soon."

Benefits cuts to hit Wales harder

2011-11-08T14:43:00.000Z

A new study by Sheffield Hallam University has shown that the UK government's incapacity benefit reforms will hit Wales harder than any other part of the UK. It has been estimated that up to75,000 people will no longer be eligible for incapacity benefit by 2014.

This is proof, if any further was needed, that we are not all in this together as David Cameron would have us believe. The Con/Dem coalition has no compassion for the very people for whom the welfare state was set up – how else would they be able to push through these punitive policies that will hit the former coalfield communities in Wales harder than any other part of the UK?

This will mean that more people in Wales will have to choose between heating and eating. More children will be pushed into poverty. More local businesses will go to the wall because the disposable income of their customers has been taken away by the UK government.

David Cameron and his cabinet of millionaires are deliberately and ideologically shrinking the public sector by launching a full-scale attack on our hard-won welfare system. It is a futile exercise to tell people to go and find a job when none exist. Too many people in Wales live in communities where the market has failed to provide jobs and that are yet to recover from the Thatcher policies of the 1980s. Some of those policies involved encouraging people to claim particular benefits to avoid the appearance of inflated unemployment figures. How will benefit reductions on this scale, with no jobs, help to turn these communities around?

These cuts have been designed to hit the worst off while the multi-millionaire tax evaders and avoiders get off scot-free. Will the Welsh government do or say anything about it?

Rhondda health services

2011-10-26T12:51:00.000+01:00

Plaid Cymru in the Rhondda last night (25th October) held an open meeting to discuss local health services. The long term future of the Minor Injuries Unit (MIU) is under threat at the new hospital in Llwynypia, having been closed on a 'temporary' basis. The out-of-hours GP service is also under threat.

The meeting was well attended with representatives from Rhondda over-50s forums as well as councillors of both political shades and health service workers, including trades union representatives. There was agreement that a strong and united campaign was needed to protect our local health services and to stop further centralisation. We agreed to ask for the Chief Executive of the Health Authority to attend a public meeting to outline the plans for health services in the Rhondda as part of a campaign to save our local services.

Permanent closure of the MIU at Ysbyty Cwm Rhondda would have drastic knock-on effects. In the meeting we were told by a paramedic how local ambulance services are struggling now, regularly having to get back-up from Cardiff and elsewhere due to low cover in the Rhondda. A&E at the Royal Glamorgan will see longer waits. Nurses told us how other departments will be run-down in Ysbyty Cwm Rhondda as many currently serve the MIU and will have their work diverted to the Royal Glamorgan. Their feeling was that the MIU had been allowed to run down over time - firstly by closing over Christmas periods, then closing on Saturdays, then reducing opening hours during the week and closing at 4pm instead of 5pm.

Concerns have been expressed to me about the MIU for well over a year. I have raised the issue on numerous occasions in the Assembly and with officials from the Health Authority. I have been told that there have been recruitment problems but that there are 'no plans' to close the MIU at Llwynypia Hospital.

When the First Minister opened Ysbyty Cwm Rhondda just last October, he vowed to protect from any potential cuts, telling Rhondda Plaid Cymru protestors who were calling for guarantees for the future of the MIU - “It is a fairly new facility and we want to make sure that facilities intended to be here are kept here”.

We all understand that budgets have been cut and that public services need to change. However, the health service belongs to the people. Changes should not be made in secret. The Health Authority should publish their plans for any changes to services to allow people to have a say on those plans. Front-line services must be protected and that includes services in our new local hospital. Otherwise, it'll be people with already pressed incomes who will have to fork out more on travel, paying the price for a financial crisis that was caused by a bunch of bankers and their friends, who continue to live the life of Riley.

There are numerous petitions circulating in the Rhondda calling for our local health services to remain. We will shortly be announcing details of a public meeting and a march through the Rhondda. If you value you local health services, please get involved in our campaign.

Leanne Wood

Plaid Cymru Assembly Member

South Wales Central

Independence

2011-10-24T12:35:00.000+01:00

Scotland is going places. That was the over-riding mood at this weekend's SNP conference in Inverness.

Alex Salmond has every reason to be confident and optimistic. His speech reflected the confidence and optimism that will be needed on the part Scotland's people if the referendum on independence is to be successful.

It's hard to work out where the No campaign will come from. The Tories are in a terrible mess. Will they rely on their party bosses in London to put the case against?

Long time Labour supporters are starting to see independence as inevitable.

In her fraternal address from Plaid Cymru to the conference, Elin Jones AM said that we should now be thinking about the implications of all of this for Wales.

“As you, in the SNP and in Scotland, consider the real possibility of creating an independent Scotland, we are left to consider what would be left. A UK Government governing all English matters, and only some Welsh matters and even less Northern Irish matters. It is now time for a serious debate on the future constitutional relationship of the countries of the British islands. It is time to debate equality, not subservience and dependence. To us, the UK is currently a pretence of a country. After a Yes vote in your referendum, it could no longer pretend to anyone, not even itself.”

Can we in Wales emulate the enthusiasm, confidence and determination which was on show in abundance in Inverness this weekend? A glimpse of what is possible was seen in the build up to the rugby world cup semi-final. The nation was united in wanting success then. If that same drive could be dedicated to building and equalising Wales, there'd be 'nae limits' to what we could achieve.

Save Remploy

2011-10-15T15:09:00.000+01:00

The network of government-subsidised supported employment factories operating under the Remploy banner are under threat of closure. The consultation on the Sayce Review comes to an end on Monday. The workers and their trades unions have been collecting signatures on a petition as part of their campaign to save the factories. (You can 'like' their facebook page here).

I paid a visit to the Porth factory yesterday. Many of the workers there would love to work in mainstream employment. However, they know the jobs climate isn't good in the valleys and they know plenty of former colleagues who lost their jobs in the Trefforest factory three years ago who are now on benefits. If their Remploy factory closes, they know they are unlikely to get another job.

There is a need for supported employment. There is also a need for services to help people with disabilities get in to and stay in mainstream employment. In some places, there are very few jobs.

With job losses in Wales rising fast, Welsh government action should be taken to protect the 400 plus jobs in the Welsh Remploy factories. I have put the case for the devolution of the Remploy budget, asking the First Minister to make respresentations to Westminster and for a commitment to saving the jobs should the devolution request be granted.

With political will and creativity, for example, by looking at how public procurement contracts could be granted by using article 19 of the EU directive, not only to protect existing Remploy jobs but to expand supported employment opportunities in Wales. I was told yesterday that the Porth factory would be a viable business if they had just one local authority's IT contracts. Remploy has a future in Wales if our government wants it.

Debate in the Senedd on the Welsh economy

2011-09-25T17:33:00.004+01:00

Speech delivered in the Senedd on Wednesday 21st September during a Plaid Cymru debate on the funding cuts and the Welsh economy.

Leanne Wood: I would like to focus on public procurement and its potential for stimulating local economies and helping to create jobs. The amount spent by the public sector in Wales is estimated to be £4.3 billion every year. In my view, and that of Plaid Cymru, that money should be working for the Welsh economy, and at the moment so much of it is not. Too much money leaks out of Wales and that is contributing to the ongoing weakness of the Welsh economy. A new mindset is required if we are to turn this around. I accept that some good progress has been made, but to take that next leap a new mindset is required.

In questions earlier, the excellent examples that can be seen in housing were mentioned. Efforts to include social clauses in contracts that enable the sourcing and training of labour locally have been a great success, providing a model of good practice that could be rolled out throughout the public sector. If a local firm gets a contract for work, the money earned by the workers in that firm is more likely to be spent locally, close to where they work, stimulating local business activity. Conversely, people who work far away from where they live are more likely to spend their money elsewhere. Of course, people who are not in work at all are unable to spend money locally, which is why areas with high levels of unemployment often have dying, or dead, town centres. Supermarket, internet and out-of-town shopping has taken a heavy toll on our town centres and there is a limit to what the Government can do to change people’s shopping habits. However, the Government can change its own shopping habits. Every pound that leaks out of Wales is a pound that is not working for Wales. By resolving to try to plug these gaps and keep Welsh expenditure in Wales, that money could contribute towards sustainable jobs growth. If I were to make an optimistic assumption that the Government does not intend to water down the previous Government’s carbon reduction ambitions, measures geared towards supporting public bodies to purchase their food and renewable energy from local sources wherever possible would provide numerous desirable outcomes.

What is stopping the local procurement of food and renewable energy? First, we have competition rules. They may be challenging, but those challenges have been overcome in the social housing sector and in other European Union countries. More work would need to be done to upskill people and to ensure the business capacity to provide food and renewable energy to the public sector. More would also need to be done to train those responsible for procuring on behalf of the public sector—an issue that will be expanded upon later.

Most of all, this would require the political will to set about utilising public sector expenditure to create jobs. Regrettably, without such will and commitment, the cuts will inevitably drive the movement the other way. Bigger, more centralised contracts may well be cheaper, but a failure to decentralise and make money work for the good of the Welsh economy risks us missing a great opportunity.

The creation of a home or internal market was suggested by Leopold Kohr in his 1971 book Is Wales Viable? Kohr’s thinking has been further developed in 'A Greenprint for the Valleys’. Although it offers solutions for the market failures in the Valleys, its principles can be applied anywhere, and I recommend that Members read both—I would, would I not? Commitment, effort and political will from the Government to plug these gaps and stop money leaking out of Wales, coupled with a commitment to decentralise, unbundle and make public contracts smaller, could provide a much-needed boost to the Welsh economy. Surely this is an opportunity that we cannot afford to miss.

Letter to Welsh MPs on S4C

2011-09-14T15:43:00.006+01:00

To all Welsh MPs

I am writing to you to ask you to support the campaign to safeguard the future of the only Welsh-language broadcasting channel in the world. A lot is at stake for the Welsh language and I hope you will agree with me that this issue transcends party politics.

A strong, independent S4C is of vital importance to the survival of the Welsh language. This is especially the case in those areas where there has been resurgence in the language, as evidenced by the surge in demand for Welsh medium education. In many of these households S4C provides, through its excellent children’s service Cyw, the only opportunity to hear Welsh spoken outside of the classroom.

There is every reason to be alarmed about the future of Welsh language broadcasting. Firstly, S4C faces a cut of 40% in real terms to its budget. There is not a single television channel in existence that would find it easy to cope with such a devastating financial hit. With S4C due to be absorbed by the BBC under the clandestine funding arrangements thrashed out between the corporation and the Westminster coalition, there is also a real threat to the autonomy of the channel.

Furthermore, the Westminster coalition is planning to give ministers the powers to shut down the channel. There is simply no guaranteed provision for S4C beyond 2015.

Anyone with a desire to preserve and encourage the Welsh language will, I hope, support the campaign to secure:

(1) Complete management and editorial independence for S4C without any interference by the BBC or the Government enshrined in statute.

(2) An independent funding formula for the Welsh language channel based on inflation and enshrined in statute.

(3) A levy on private broadcasters drawing on best practice in other countries in order to add to the resources available to the channel.

(4) Close collaboration between S4C and the Welsh Government to ensure, where possible, synergies in their investment in the media, such as the Welsh Government's investment in Golwg 360, education resources, and local radio.

The ‘Save S4C’ campaign is not about calling for the status quo to remain. There is an almost universal recognition that changes need to be made in a wide range of areas to improve S4C. Scrutiny, management structures, its digital platform, quality of programming and the best use of Welsh creative talent are particularly pressing. S4C’s future should, in my view, be the subject of a public review undertaken by the Welsh Government, given that the Westminster coalition has refused to be held to account for the changes they have pushed through. Until that review comes, we must do all we can to make sure that we still have a Welsh broadcasting channel to protect.

In addition to lobbying the Westminster Coalition Government, I have decided to withhold payment for my television licence. While this form of protest and the potential consequences may not be to your liking, I hope you can appreciate the strength of feeling on this issue. I hope therefore you will contribute to the campaign to protect Welsh language broadcasting by working to take S4C out of Schedules 3 and 4 of the Public Bodies Bill currently under scrutiny. Please consider – and ask your colleagues on the Public Bodies Bill Scrutiny Committee to also consider - supporting Amendments 10 and 38 and to vote against New Clause 2 at the Committee’s meeting tomorrow (Thursday 15 September).

Yours sincerely

Leanne Wood AM.

Follow the money

2011-09-10T18:55:00.000+01:00

Speech delivered to the Plaid Cyrmu conference on a motion about the Welsh economy.

The world has become a very different place since the global banking crash. 2008 saw catastrophic system failure and unsurprisingly, it's those who can least afford it who are now being asked to pay. It's clear that we can't go on in the old way. Capitalism is broke. The market has failed spectactularly and new thinking is needed if we are to get out of what is a very big mess.

It's not as though we haven't been here before. The depression of the 1930s only ended in the US with Roosevelt's New Deal and it took years. The Tories answer is for drastic and savage spending cuts and they plough ahead despite the warnings. Their strategy is for the market to provide private sector jobs to replace those lost in the public sector. We all know that strategy won't work in Wales - the market failed to provide jobs in too many places in the boom years. It'd be naive to believe it's going to deliver now.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

The Greenprint was put together to offer propsals to turn around those economies where the market has failed. But the basic principles can be applied to any community. I doubt whether there is a single community in Wales that isn't feeling the after-effects of 2008.

In 1971, Leopold Kohr wrote a book called "Is Wales Viable", which tackles the economics of an independent Wales - the "can we afford it" question. Kohr proposes the creation of a home market - where people consume products from Wales, or the home community. Of course it couldn't be done for everything, but if a home market can be created for the basics - renewable energy and food, then we could not only improve our economic position, but we could build up resilience as well - to food and energy price hikes, which are pretty much inevitable.

You may have heard the phrase "follow the money". So much money is leaking out of the Welsh economy. Kohr would argue that we should plug those gaps, stop those leaks and take steps to keep the money within the local community. Local authorities are in a good position to take a lead on this. Procuring locally, supporting budding co-operatives, making attractive loan finance available, prioritising job creation and taking steps to keep money local would make a good start.

Co-operation is part of Plaid Cymru's DNA. In the early 1930s, DJ Davies and Noelle Ffrench championed co-operation not only as a way to overcome economic disadvantage, but also as a route to Welsh freedom. Many party members have set up and been involved in running co-ops over the years - co-operation and collectivism are a key part of what Plaid is about.

In the Basque Country during economically difficult times during the 1980s, the Mondragon Corporation was formed and is still going strong today employing thousands in manufacturing. One of the most successful post-2008 UK companies has been the John Lewis Partnership - a co-operative.

This new, post crash world needs new and different thinking.

The motion asks that Plaid Cymru prioritises job creation and the economy, and that we use our strength and influence at the local authority level to contribute to that aim. We can show that by building sustainable and self-sufficient communities and delivering real improvements, we can at the same time as contribute towards the building of a sustainable and self-sufficient Wales. Our nation is, after all, a community of communities. Please give your support to this motion.

A message from Plaid Cymru to Cardiff Mardi Gras

2011-09-03T19:54:00.006+01:00

My speech to the Mardi Gras this afternoon:

Prynhawn da Mardi Gras Cymru.

I bring you greetings and solidarity from Plaid Cymru.

Today is a day for celebration. A day to party. But it is also a day to remember.

In days gone past, being openly gay was militant. We should always remember and be thankful to those older gay activists who refused to hide who they were, who refused to kow-tow to a homophobic society. They have given us what we have today and we have come a long way in a relatively short time.

But we can't afford to be complacent. The economic climate will threaten some of the progressive gains we have made in recent times. We are in increasingly intolerant times. Hate talk is on the up.

We hear benefits claimants called scroungers, young people called scum. As gay people you should understand where hate talk can lead.

Whoever is being picked on, hate talk is a danger to us all. We cannot allow it into the mainstream.

I ask you to take one small moment today to make a big decision. Will you commit to challenging intolerance or hate talk wherever you hear it? If you hear people being put down because they are gay, on benefits, immigrants, gypsies, young - and we've recently been subject to such intolerance for being Welsh...

Decide to stand up to it. Challenge it.

Don't let hate and intolerance become a normal part of Welsh political and civic life.

Today is about celebrating and remembering. It could also be about being determined to fight to keep the gains we have made and to make our society better. If everyone here today makes a personal commitment to stamp out hate in Wales, you can make a fantastic contribution towards creating that equal society we all want.

I hope you all have a great party today. Let's celebrate, but lets also strive to keep what we've got - and more. Diolch am gwrando.

What price war?

2011-08-30T21:14:00.000+01:00

I recently obtained figures which go some way to shedding some more light on the true horrors of war. The death toll in Afghanistan has become a familiar story in the news. At the time of writing, 379 UK soldiers have died during operations since the invasion of 2001. The death toll for UK soldiers in Afghanistan has long since passed that of the Falklands war which is remarkable given that the early years were relatively quiet – it was 2004 before the first UK soldier died following hostile action from the Taleban and it was another year-and-a-half before the next soldier died. Given the disproportionate number of soldiers Wales contributes to the UK Army, the bloodiness of the war in Afghanistan is a particular concern here. There are countless examples of civilians dying in their droves as well.

The death toll, as shocking as it is for civilians and combatants alike, only tells part of the story. For every death, there are many, many others being seriously injured or maimed. Here are figures showing how this has been the case for UK armed service personnel or civilians working for UK armed forces in Afghanistan. The information, obtained through the Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA), shows the number of ‘very seriously injured or seriously injured’ on operations in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2009 surpassed 300. This was nearly double the amount of the casualties sustained during the eight previous years combined. In 2001, when Afghanistan was first invaded by coalition forces, no military personnel or civilians from the UK were recorded as being very seriously or seriously wounded on operation there that year.

Figures from the same source on the number of amputations carried out on members of the armed forces reinforce the previous statistics. Between 2009 and 2010, the number of “surviving UK Service personnel” having a “traumatic or surgical amputation, partial or complete, for either upper or lower limbs” rose by 40% from 55 in 2009 to 79 last year. Of the 79 people undergoing amputations last year, 39 were identified as “significant multiple amputees.” The figures show that in 2006 the amputations numbered seven.

Last year alone there were three people every week, on average, working for the armed forces sustaining a serious or very serious injury in Afghanistan. The number of serious or very serious injured service personnel between January and the end of July is 47 which actually represents a decline in the rate at which soldiers are being seriously injured when compared to the previous two years. However, not many would argue this figure is acceptable.

From the very beginning Plaid Cymru has opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have also campaigned for better support to be given to ex-soldiers suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health disorders. Not only have the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq proved to be very costly to human life but also to the public finances. Will the mainstream political parties in the UK now accept they were wrong to support interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan and that those mistakes have been compounded by not having any clear exit strategy in either case?

Take a holiday in Wales

2011-08-22T09:10:00.002+01:00

It's back to work today after a fantastic holiday in Wales.

The coast of south Ceredigion is unspoit, not commercialised, natural and peaceful.

We camped on a working farm which had fields bordering onto the sea between Mwnt and Gwbert. Nant Y Croi Farm is great for children - there are baby donkeys to feed and small ponies to ride around the campsite, tractor rides as well as having plenty of space to play. A cut through two fields takes you to a rocky walk to the sea where dolphins and seals can regularly be seen and the fresh food sold out of the farm-house guarantees delicious breakfasts.

Food is one of the reasons to holiday here. One of my faviurite restaurants in Wales is the Harbourmaster, just up the road. Unfortunely, I didn't make it there this time, but I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for somewhere to celebrate a special occasion. The food and drink is all local to the area. It'd delicious. They serve great beer too. We did manage to have a meal and watch an amazing sunset from the terrace of the Gwbert Hotel and get plenty of treats from the Llwynhelyg Farm Shop just up the road in Sarnau. The locally-made Tregroes chocolate waffles are out of this world. If you haven't tried them yet you really should. And the local cheeses...outstanding. Not cheap, but it is holidays! We also managed to sample some good ale with views at Y Llong, Tresaith and in Aberporth.

As well as enjoying some great weather on Mwnt beach which was a 20 minute walk along the coast from the campsite and shopping in Aberteifi, we found plenty to do when the sun wasn't shining. My six-year-old was entranced during an afternoon at the Butterfly Rainforest in Felinwynt. We went on a boat trip in Cei Newydd where we spotted half a dozen dolphins and another trekking horses through the beautiful countryside.

With no mobile phone signal on the farm, it was the perfect switch-off break. The overflowing inbox on my return is a price well worth paying.

Labour should now rule out PFI

2011-08-20T07:45:00.000+01:00

A Treasury select committee has concluded that the Private Finance Initiative is poor value for money. With stories like this, this and this, it would have been difficult for them to arrive any other conclusion.

Wales has been shielded from the worst impact of PFI. This foolish form of finance was ended in the Welsh health service when Plaid Cymru formed the One Wales Government with Labour in 2007. I hope that the Labour minority government won't ditch this committment and that they will extend a ban on the use of PFI throughout all sectors. PFI will saddle our children and grandchildren with an unsustainable level of debt and will set us back in attempts to improve economically.

Due to the slashing of the Welsh capital budget by the Westminster Government, Labour could be tempted to turn once again to PFI. Despite the wealth of evidence out there to show how pernicious PFI can be, various Labour Ministers have evaded direct questions on their plans for PFI that I and other Plaid colleagues have asked of them.

While Labour in Wales are unlikely to pursue PFI with the same vigour as Blair and Brown did from 1997 onwards, the commissioning of just one PFI project would be one too many. Its time to rule out PFI in Wales.

Community Revolutions

2011-07-22T16:57:00.005+01:00

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to visit the largest time bank in the whole of the United Kingdom. Located just a stone’s throw from the Fawr, this timebank in Blaengarw, at the top of the Garw valley, has revolutionised this small community since it was established in 2004. Community owned and managed, the timebank project has succeeded in reducing crime, increasing employment levels, providing vocational training, reclaiming colliery land for community use as well as breathing life into abandoned shops by re-opening them as viable businesses. Throughout the project, the local youth have been engaged and made to feel part of the movement.

What has been achieved in Blaengarw in a few short years is incredible and very inspiring. If this can be done so successfully in Blaengarw, why not elsewhere in the valleys? Blaengarw, like many communities in the Rhondda, is isolated and miles from the hustle and bustle of a major conurbation. The people of Blaengarw have turned this to their advantage by uniting the community to provide the kind of services and opportunities that the market has failed to.

Of course, none of the many achievements of the Blaengarw Timecentre would have been possible without community spirit; a quality that is endemic throughout our valleys. This same community spirit can clearly be seen in the people of Maerdy with their determination to save one of the community’s last remaining heritage buildings. Plaid Cymru councillor Gerwyn Evans together with the rest of the ‘Friends of All Saints’ have occupied the church since its last official service at the beginning of the month.

They have shown remarkable resilience in their campaign to save the building before it is sold on the open market or demolished. They are asking for the opportunity and time to raise the money needed to renovate and maintain the building so it can be retained for community use for future generations to come. I have been in touch with the Friends of All Saints from the beginning of their campaign and have corresponded with the Welsh Government and the Church in Wales on their behalf.

Time will tell whether the campaign will be successful or not; I can only hope all the hard work and determination to find a way to retain one of the last old buildings left in Maerdy comes to fruition.

Save S4C

2011-07-07T11:57:00.000+01:00

S4C is the only Welsh language television channel in the world. The ConDem coalition government in London is slashing the S4C budget and removing its independence by absorbing it into the BBC. No guarantees have been given about public funding beyond 2015 and very little information has come out from the BBC as to their plans for the channel.

Claims of low viewing figures and questionable practices in the running of the channel have helped those who would quietly like to see the end of an independent Welsh language TV channel. Many of those campaigning to save the channel are fiercly critical of the channel's failings and so are not demanding that it continues in its current form.

S4C is not just for Welsh speakers. Many non-Welsh speaking parents with children in Welsh medium schools recognise the fantastic worth of Cyw, S4C's children's programming. For many parents who don't speak Welsh, S4C provides one of the few ways children can hear Welsh outside school, something vital to their language acquisition, especially over long time periods like the summer holidays. It's also vital in the process of normalising the Welsh language within our communities.

The principle of a Welsh language channel is an important one to uphold. It's not just a broadcasting issue. It is a language issue.

In support of the campaign to save S4C, I have stopped paying my TV licence.

Speaking ahead of a rally being held today in Cardiff, Cymdeithas Yr Iaith Chair Bethan Williams said:

“The channel faces cuts to its budget of over 40% in real terms, being swallowed by the BBC and seeing powers to get rid of the channel completely in the hands of Westminster Ministers. The Government is saving 94% of the money that they used to pay S4C, cuts that are wholly unfair. It will be impossible to secure the independence of S4C under the joint-proposals of the Government to fund S4C through the BBC. We now know that if the BBC had refused this idea there would be no threat to the independence of the channel. The unfortunate truth is that the heads of the BBC in London don’t care one bit about S4C, and that is why we are in a critical situation at this time.”

S4C was set up after a difficult battle. This campaign is about making sure it doesn't disappear without a similar fight.

Ymlaen a'r ymgyrch.

Supporting the Strike

2011-06-30T10:37:00.009+01:00

After weeks of lies and condemnation of industrial action by senior figures in the Conservative and Labour Party alike, union members have stayed the course and stood up to this unjustified assault on their pension schemes.

It was clear from the picket lines at Welsh Government buildings in Cathays Park and the Bay that there is a great deal of anger at the way public sector workers are being treated by the Con/Dem Coalition Government. What also stood out was the resolve of union members; a resolve to ensure that the public sector does not become the scapegoat for the casino capitalism that brought the UK finances to the brink.

There has been much condemnation of the public sector in the media in recent weeks as well as attempts to pit private sector workers against public sector workers. It should not be forgotten that it was not teachers, civil servants or any other public sector worker who frittered away billions of pounds on risky investments before having to be bailed out by the tax payer. Why should they accept a substantial hit to their retirement because of the folly of a greedy few in Westminster's square mile and the failure of the UK Labour Government to reign them in?

I am particularly concerned at how these proposed changes will impact upon women. We already know that many women face poverty in retirement for a variety of reasons and are generally being paid less than men for doing the same job. Given the high proportion of women that work in the public sector, this inequity will only be exacerbated if the Tories and Lib Dems in London get their way. This is yet another contradiction of Cameron's mantra that 'we are all in this together.' He says that public sector workers are provided with 'gold-plated' pensions: another fallacy perpetuated to drive a wedge between private sector and public sector workers.

Some teachers entered their profession in acceptance of low-pay and tough conditions in the knowledge their pensions would prevent them from a life of poverty in retirement. Now this is being placed under threat by the UK Government's determination to rip up their terms and conditions. It is theft.

The right to withdraw labour has been a democratic right for a long time and it is staggering to see Labour MPs like Andy Burnham and leader Ed Miliband condemn this strike action. I am pleased to say that Plaid Cymru politicians will not be crossing the picket lines today; not in Cardiff Bay nor Westminster.

I salute the workers that have taken a stand today. Stand united and you should get what you deserve.

Questions for Carwyn

2011-06-23T06:41:00.000+01:00

Why has it taken the actions of an anti-wind farm protest group from Powys for you to start publicly asking Westminster for powers over energy projects generating more than 50MW of electricity on land? This unfair restraint on Welsh autonomy – which does not apply in Scotland – has been the case for several years as you know, since you once held the Environment portfolio.

Do you base your demands at the various recent meetings of the four nations on what your counterparts in Scotland and the Six Counties are asking for? Do you have a clear idea as to what powers you want devolved from Westminster to Wales?

Why did your party colleagues rubbish Plaid Cymru’s ambitious plans to make finance available for capital projects, which would provide a buffer against the ConDem cuts and create thousands of jobs with our Build for Wales proposal when your cabinet colleagues are now refusing point blank to rule out seeking funding through the socially destructive Private Finance Initiative? And if the proposal was rubbish, why did Jane Hutt say yesterday that our Build4Wales idea is now being considered by your government as an option?

Why is it that the Welsh Government has yet to outline its position on the public sector services strike planned for next Thursday? I attempted to find out on two separate occasions in plenary this week what will happen but your Finance Minister, Jane Hutt, refused to answer the question both times. Are you afraid of upsetting your party colleagues in Westminster, particularly Ed Balls who shamefully called for the trade unions not to strike in defence of an unparalleled assault on their pensions? As a UNISON member yourself, you really need to make you and your Government’s position clear. This is an issue that is not going to go away anytime soon.

Carwyn, it's ‘time to lead.’

Hungry Nation

2011-06-21T14:13:00.007+01:00

Earlier this month I spent the day volunteering with the Rhondda Foodbank at their depot in Ynyshir. This small lock-up garage just off the main road and its contents of food has been instrumental in preventing around 800 people in the Fach and the Fawr from going hungry in less than two years.

The contribution of the foodbank in helping those who are struggling to make ends meet cannot be underestimated. It is unacceptable that adults and children are going hungry in 21st century Wales. I was only too glad to donate my time to pack food parcels during my republican boycott of the royal visit to the Senedd.

The foodbank network relies on volunteers giving up their free time and the generosity of the public at their monthly supermarket food collections. Around half a tonne of non-perishable food is collected on any given day during these collections and this has been enough to sustain the charity’s work to date.

However, due to a combination of word getting around and increased need due to the policies of the Con/Dem Government, more and more demand is being placed on the Rhondda Foodbank. At the beginning of the year in the Rhondda alone they distributed around 300kg of food every month in their parcels designed to last recipients three days. However, this has now jumped to 500kg of food distributed each and every month which means that almost every can collected outside a supermarket is being sent out soon afterwards. It is heartening that so many people who can’t afford to feed themselves are receiving help, but it is clear that more needs to be done to help the foodbank network in the Rhondda.

I saw first-hand the difference this charity is making to people’s lives when a package was delivered to a couple who had experienced a benefit delay. However long it takes the Department of Work and Pensions take to determine their case, the couple will receive no money. Presumably they are expected to live on fresh air?

I therefore urge anyone who can to give as generously as posible if they come across Foodbank volunteers on their collection days. Forthcoming collections will be held on July 9th at Asda in Tonypandy, September 10th at Morrisons in Porth and on October 22nd at Asda in Tonypandy.

For more details you can contact the organisers of the Rhondda Foodbank by visiting their website www.actscommunitychurch.co.uk, by emailing admin@actscommunitychurch.co.uk or by calling 07928 451374.

Let's get cracking

2011-06-11T14:49:00.000+01:00

It didn't take Scotland's First Minister long to set out a basic list of expectations to the UK government following national elections at the beginning of May. This week he's managed to secure £2.7 billion worth of borrowing powers while continuing to bang the drum for control over other taxes and the Scottish land and marine holdings of the Crown Estates.

Contrast this energy and dynamism with Wales's First Minister. We've had a few weeks of farcical First Minister's questions with no programme to scrutinise. Question Time has been little more than an opportunity for the First Minister to opposition-bash. A good from of entertainment, no doubt, but isn't it all really a bit pointless? No doubt, the best form of defence is attack when nothing is happening. There have been no committees. There have been no list of demands to Cameron, but it'll all be ok because says he's written a letter about the crisis in Welsh broadcasting, although he's against devolving it, indicating his belief the Welsh media is safer in Cameron/Hunt's hands.

We all know the Welsh economy is weak. Job creation through the creation of new, home-based markets as proposed in the Valleys Greenprint is what is urgently needed and is something we could be getting on with now. Some of the ideas would need legislation, others could be helped by the Assembly having borrowing and other powers. Instead, as Eurfyl ap Gwylim pointed out in the Guardian more than a year ago:

"Because the Welsh government has no taxation or borrowing powers, it will have to take the cuts imposed on them and decide where the axe will fall."

Instead of creating jobs, Wales is losing them fast in the public sector. Instead of planning to stimulate the Welsh economy and standing up for Wales in talks with the UK government, Wales's First Minister seems to be on go-slow.

The deflection strategy can work for only a limited amount of time. I hope in next week's Assembly questions we'll get a clearer picture as to how the Welsh government intends to handle the problems facing Wales over the coming five years, that we'll have a programme to scrutinise. I hope that members get some answers to our fair questions about the government programme, the economy and how Wales's case is being pushed forward with the UK government. I'm not holding too much of my breath.

Boycotting Mrs Windsor

2011-06-02T23:05:00.001+01:00

For the third time now, I will not be attending the official opening of the Senedd by the English monarch which is due to take place on Tuesday.

I am a republican. I am a Welsh republican, but as a socialist I support the calls of republicans in other parts of the UK for the abolition of the 'British' monarchy.

Writing shortly after the coronation of the present monarch, DJ Davies wrote:

"We should bear in mind that the Queen is not a symbol as is often claimed, but the personification and incarnation of the English state, its history, its tradition, even its religion...Note how the Queen is surrounded by military pomp, how she is represented as the owner of the armed forces and how she is required to inspect them on all occasions of national or imperial importance."

DJ goes on to argue for a Welsh monarchy - his 1953 article is entitled 'Wales must have a king'. This is where DJ Davies and I part company.

In the modern Wales people should not be subjects, we should be citizens. The monarchy represents a hereditary class system which perpetuates inequality. The royals are an unaccountable, privileged elite allowed and encouraged by government to expand its wealth through the patronage of the civil list, the honours system and the land assets their ancestors pillaged from common people. The income they can expect to make from the Crown Estates land in Wales in future years is money that could be well used by the cash-strapped Welsh government.

Unlike all other spenders of taxpayers money, the royals are under no obligation to hand their accounts over for scrutiny to the National Audit Office and are they are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

Deference and sycophancy are expected (what is that bowing all about?) and happily given by most media outlets, while a huge numbers of people are employed in a PR team to promote the 'brand'. After quite a few years of limited success, they seem to have achieved quite a turn around in more recent times.

We like to think we live in a meritocracy. We don't. If we did, all children would be able to aspire to be head of state. Under a monarchal system, they can't. You can only be born into the monarchy. It's random. The democratic argument in favour of republicanism is best summed up by Imran Khan, Human Rights lawyer on the Republic website who says:

"One of the notions of a democracy is that you elect those in power and you can remove them if they abuse it. Fundamentally, it's about accountability."

Since I want her gone, I'll be elsewhere when she comes to open our Senedd.

The legacies of DJ Davies & Raymond Williams, Plaid Cymru Summer School 2010

2011-05-28T06:41:00.001+01:00

This is a video of a lecture I gave at Plaid Cymru's Summer School, July 2010. DJ Davies, his wife Noelle Ffrench and Raymond Williams' ideas feature heavily in A Greenprint for the Valleys - a link to the PDF version can be found here.

Warning: the video is 39 minutes long.

Protective shield?

2011-05-24T09:00:00.004+01:00

On the same day that the Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond was meeting senior members of the UK government to put the case for more financial powers to safeguard jobs, Wales gets confirmation that 150 jobs are to be lost at the Newport Passport Office.

Unemployment in Wales is higher than the UK average. In difficult economic times, Wales fairs worse. Higher than average unemployment levels in the late 1960s led to a "regional policy" which devolved civil service jobs out of London. The Passport Office, the DVLA in Swansea and the Mint in Llantrisant were set up in Wales as part of this regional policy, creating hundreds of jobs. And now, because of the ConDem's public spending cuts, many of those jobs are at risk.

Every single job in Wales is worth fighting for, especially jobs which pay more than the minimum wage. Every job lost means less money circulating in our already weak economy, leading to job losses in the private sector too. As the PCS Union have argued, it makes no sense during a recession to enforce more people to take benefits from the public purse instead of paying in to the taxation pot.

Dependence on a Westminster government to either give or take away jobs is unsustainable for Scotland and for Wales. With his demands for more fiscal autonomy, the Scottish First Minister aims to ensure a long term income stream. Cuts to the Scottish budget from Westminster will continue to be savage. More fiscal autonomy will provide an element of resilience, a buffer to Westminster's cuts. Income from excise duties, energy revenues and more borrowing powers will come in handy over the next few years.

Meanwhile, Wales's First Minister was yesterday reported to be open minded about the Assembly gaining financial powers, having been decidedly lukewarm before the election. The cuts in Wales are savage too, and Labour have just won an election on the back of a promise to protect people in Wales from the Tories cuts, to act as a shield against them. Without powers over finance, they can't.

No Excuses

2011-05-11T07:55:00.000+01:00

Since the referendum in March, many party members and commentators have asked the question 'what is Plaid Cymru for?' We had very little time to consider our answer. Two months before the election, Plaid Cymru contributed vast staff and volunteer resources to the 'Yes for Wales' campaign. We had comfortably secured a strong YES vote in the referendum on the Assembly's law making powers, which, we must remember, had only come about because of Ieuan Wyn Jones's insistence and persistence.

By then, Plaid had met all of its short term goals. As part of the One Wales agreement, the Holtham Commission managed to finally persuade the other parties of the need for reform of the way the Assembly is funded. The other major gain for Plaid had been to secure legislation to protect the future of the Welsh language, granting its' official status for the first time. A key question was asked: what is Plaid's Unique Selling Point was now that all of that has been achieved?

Comparisons with Scotland's election results can't be avoided. Some will argue that a more independent broadcast and print media would have helped to ensure that the election there was fought on Scottish issues. That the election in Wales was dominated by the UK coalition government's cuts and Labour's claim to 'stand up for Wales' went unscrutinised. How, exactly, are they going to stand up against the Tory cuts? The political context has changed beyond all recognition since the last UK general election. The SNP (and Labour in Wales) have managed to work out their response to the new context quickly. Has Plaid? The SNP's UK-wide known, strong, tub-thumping leader is only part of the SNP's success story. Salmond was able to push a clear message with a clear Unique Selling Point – uncompromising promotion of independence and a means to fund it (through controlling Scotland's natural resources and fiscal autonomy). No-one is in any doubt what the SNP is for.

At the first Plaid Cymru Assembly group meeting, it was decided to recommend to the party's National Executive Committee that a root and branch review of all aspects of Plaid's structures, communication, messages and organisation takes place so that we can work out what needs to change. The plan is to look at everything. But before we work out the processes, we must first address the 'what is Plaid for' question. As members, we all know why we do the work we do, but can we explain it to people in simple, understandable terms? In answering this question, we will have to show what makes Plaid unique. There should be no ambiguity. People should be left in no doubt as to what Plaid Cymru is for.

Last summer, I presented a lecture at Plaid Cymru's Summer School outlining the decentralist/co-operative ideas of DJ Davies and his wife Noelle Ffrench who emphasised the power of 'community' to create an alternative, viable economy for Wales. DJ and Noelle were part of the first group of people who came together to form Plaid Cymru in 1925. The pair spent years during the financial crash of the 1930s carrying out detailed work which provided a basis for Plaid to offer a vision of a different, better, economically-functioning post-imperial Wales. They provided the economic case for self-government in very difficult financial times and it is inspriring. Can their work be applied to the cuts context we are in now? The Davies/Ffrench programme offered practical solutions to tackle unemployment, limited state welfare and the lack of control over our natural resources. Community, co-operation and self-sufficiency have been the basic principles underlying Plaid's economic philosophy since the party was formed. They are principles which can be re-applied today to offer a vision for a better, economically and environmentally sustainable and more equal Wales which would be radically different to the same-old management approach to Wales favoured by the British parties. Wales faces a range of challenges which can not be met with more managerialism. Plaid Cymru now has the time to work on this and to make sure our message is radical and bold. Why not? And if not now, when?

Come on Labour - stand up for Wales

2011-04-30T08:38:00.000+01:00

Back in 2008 I published a pamphlet called Making Our Communities Safer, which argued for the devolution of the criminal justice system. I'd drawn on the previous four years as a member of the Assembly's Social Justice and Regeneration Committee and Plaid Cymru's Assembly spokeperson as well as my previous work as a Probation Officer.

Following the bungled failed attempt in 2006 by the then Home Office to restructure the police forces, devolution of policing to the Assembly was a call supported by Assembly Members from a range of parties. On his blog in March 2007, Paul Flynn said this:

"Rosemary Butler raised the possibility of Wales running our own police forces. The idea has had the enthusiastic backing of the North Wales Police Chief and other top cops in the past. Peter Hain poured cold water on the idea. It's not up to Peter or anyone else to issue a fatwa on proposals that could benefit Wales. It's no secret that many Welsh MPs see any new devolution from London to Cardiff as a threat to their jobs. Devolution means that Scotland lost MPs, Wales did not. The fear is that providing Wales with a full Scottish style parliament would cut the total of Welsh members. It's all about hanging on to power. Issues should be judged on their merits not on the vested interests of politicians. Had the police been run from Wales, we would have avoided the waste and futility of the aborted reorganisation of the police last year. The case for continuing with the present rule from a dysfunctional Home Office is a weak one."

In the One Wales coalition agreement jointly signed between Plaid Cymru and Labour in 2007, it says:

"We want to see a fair system of youth and criminal justice, in which the people of Wales have every confidence."

and

"We will also consider the potential for devolution of some or all of the criminal justice system."

and

"We will consider the evidence for the devolution of the criminal justice system within the contexts of (a) devolution of funding and (b) moves towards the establishment of a single administration of justice in Wales."

Labour candidates must have had the same e mails as I have from serving police officers concerned about the effects of the Tory/Lib Dem cuts on their ability to provide a frontline service. They would have read things like "There is great uncertainty and resentment towards the government within the organisation" and "I could go on and on about how furious I am and how let down I feel" and "the force...is being destroyed by the non elected Con Lib Democrat government at Westminster. Authorising all these changes and cuts, job loses and redundancies to save money rather than to provide a better service..."

So this outburst from Carl Sargent as part of Labour's election campaign was odd to say the least.

Are Welsh police forces and other public services that operate within the criminal justice system safer in David Cameron's hands?

Unless of course, Paul Flynn's analysis was right. If he was, then it's safe to assume that this attack was initiated in London.

Come on Carl and the rest of you in Welsh Labour seeking re-election: stand up for Wales.

Labour voters: help stop the Tories - give your 2nd vote to Plaid

2011-04-26T06:00:00.001+01:00

This is a message to Labour voters.

Since the the first Assembly elections in 1999, Labour has never won a seat in South Wales Central, the regional list on which I am seeking re-election.

The regional lists are Wales's version of proportional representation, providing an element of political balance. The aim is to ensure that if a party gets, say, one third of the votes in a region, it should get one third of the seats.

In South Wales Central there are 12 Assembly seats - eight constituency seats and four regional seats. In 2007, Labour held six of the eight constituency seats; and this time round they are challenging strongly in both Cardiff North and Cardiff Central. Because Labour dominates the constituency seats they cannot win regional seats here - they already have at least half of all seats in the region so already have their fair share of seats, and more. In every election since the establishment of the Assembly its been Plaid versus the Tories for the regional seats. In 2007, in South Wales Central, 70,000 Labour votes counted for nothing. In 2007, Plaid won two of the four regional seats and the Tories won the other two.

If the Tories narrowly lose the seat they hold (Cardiff North), they could increase their representation on the regional list.

Plaid policies have a lot in common with the values close to the hearts of Labour voters - for example our opposition to privatisation, support for workers' rights and working to ensure those on the lowest incomes do not pay for the debts caused by the casino-capitalist driven economic crash. Plaid is a progressive party on the left.

Labour voters can help reduce the risk of getting more Tories by voting Plaid with their second vote.

Help stop the Tories. Keep left. Vote Plaid.

PCS Union - 5 pledges

2011-04-24T06:07:00.005+01:00

The PCS Union in Wales have asked all Welsh election candidates to respond to five pledges as part of their 'Make Your Vote Count' campaign. This is my response.

1. I pledge to oppose all job cuts and proposals to close offices - such as Newport Passport Office and the Driving Standards Agency in Cardiff - and to support the PCS ‘There is an Alternative’ campaign, which prioritises closing the annual £120 billion tax gap, along with investment in jobs & public services.

As chair of the all-party PCS group in the last Assembly, I have actively supported the PCS union in its' campaigns against job losses and office closures. Many of the office closures to date have been from non-devolved departments, carried out by a government in Westminster which places little value in strong public services with a well-treated workforce. Plaid seeks further devolution so that the people of Wales, who value public services highly, have a greater say about public services in Wales. So far in Wales, any job losses at Welsh Assembly Government level have been with the agreement of the relevant unions. I will continue to support this way of doing things and I will continue to condemn those public bodies acting without trades union support, like, for example, the situation in Rhondda Cynon Taf. I fully support the PCS 'There is an Alternative' campaign to close the tax gap. I also support the work of UKUncut.

2. I pledge to support the principle of universal entitlement to welfare services paid for through general taxation and to oppose the UK government’s cuts in welfare and housing, which target the sick and disabled, families with children, those on low incomes, and pensioners.

It is wrong that those who can least afford it, will end up paying for the the problems caused by financiers. The Westminster government works to protect the financial interests of their friends, while pushing through ideological cuts to public expenditure in the name of balancing the books. The political right are setting about reducing the welfare state, Shock Doctrine style. I support comprehensive, universal public services and I believe they should be paid for by progressive taxation.

3. I pledge to address the disproportionate impact of spending cuts on:
• groups who already suffer from entrenched inequalities – such as those covered by the Equality Act 2010;
• economically deprived areas such as Wales, especially its rural and valleys communities, and on the Welsh language.
I will support efforts to overcome the long-term underfunding of Welsh public services - £300 million annually - identified by the Holtham Commission.

I support this statement. Plaid Cymru has called for the full implementation of the Holtham Commission proposals to overcome the funding disparity brought about by the Barnett Formula. We are already seeing the cuts fall disproportionately in Wales's economically deprived areas with faster job losses, fast depreciation of wages and cuts to the benefits on which a greater percentage of the population rely. I have recently published a consultation document which proposes a green jobs creation plan for the valleys. A PDF version can be found here

4. I pledge to support the PCS campaign to protect public sector pensions as affordable and sustainable, including calling on the UK government not to increase pension contributions or make cuts in the value of pension payments.

Agree.

5. I pledge to protect public services and work alongside PCS, other trade unions and community organisations in fighting to ensure that no further services are outsourced or privatised.

If re-elected to the Senedd, I will continue to support Plaid Cymru policy and trade union campaigns against privatisation and outsourcing. I have argued on many occasions that the introduction of a profit margin into public services that previously had no shareholders to pacify, makes no sense economically. Quality or workers' terms or more ususally, both have to be reduced to plug the gap and over time and the lack of investment results in a failed service. I have opposed PFI for similar reasons. I will continue to makes these points whenever I get the opportunity.

For a Better Wales

2011-04-16T07:37:00.001+01:00

Ambition is Critical*

2011-04-15T08:45:00.002+01:00

Blaenllechau is beautiful. Nestled at the top of the Rhondda Fach, it is surrounded by mountains and forestry, a rural idyll with no through road. If it was in south Dorset, where I recently spent a weekend with an old friend, the houses would be worth at least half a million each. But this is the valleys, where good quality former chapel buildings, with planning permission for conversion to a residential property are on the market for offers of around £30,000.

In the last five years, tiny Blaenlleachau has lost its post office, shop, primary school and its community centre has closed. They used to have a polling station on election day, but the council has taken that away now too.

Just outside Blaenllechau, a social enterprise called Rhondda Life has rebuilt the local rugby club and have plans to promote the area to tourists as well as activities for local people.

And on the mountain just above Blaenllechau is one of the valleys hidden gems, my personal favourite of the Valleys Essentials - the Brynffynon in Llanwonno.

And Vic Doyle is linking up with the Bryncynon Strategy to turn the land at Ffaldau Farm into a permaculture food production business, training local young people in horticultural and business skills.

All of these give Blaenllechau hope. But ambition is critical.

Vic is backing the Greenprint for the Valleys because he sees the proposals as one way to stop the decline in places like Blaenllechau, a chance to turn things around, because he has ambition for Blaenllechau. And he'll have the chance to tell Wales's Minister for Economic Development all about it next week.

* with thanks to David Hughes, Swansea poet, 'Ambition is critical'.

Vote Plaid for your children

2011-04-08T12:43:00.000+01:00

What future for our youth?

2011-04-05T13:50:00.001+01:00

Youth unemployment rates are shocking. UK-wide, 18-24 year olds make up one fifth of all unemployed. However, in the valleys of South Wales, they make up a third of all job seekers' claimants.

According to the ONS, there are a total of 2470 people claiming out-of-work benefits in the Rhondda, 960 of whom are under 24, as of April 5th 2011. The youth unemployment levels as a percentage of the total figure for the Rhondda is 38.8%, while in the Cynon Valley it is 37.4%, Neath 36.3% and Caerffili, 35.7%. The number of job vacancies in those constituencies varies from 151 in the Rhondda to 264 in Caerffili.

The chances of current incapacity claimants finding work in the valleys are not high.

In remarks reminicient of 'unemployment is a price worth paying', Tory Energy Minister Greg Barker gives the ideological game away by telling a US audience that his government is "making cuts which I think that Margaret Thatcher back in the 1980s could only have dreamt of.”

This is not a new problem - youth unemployment rates for the valleys were shocking under the Labour UK government too.

It is safe to assume that these areas in Wales which have deep, structural and long-term economic problems are unlikely to receive any special attention from London. As the late DJ Davies, one of the founders of Plaid Cymru said in 1931, "Let us cease looking to others, or to Westminster either for help. It is Wales alone that can lift Wales from the dust."

The aim of the Valleys Greenprint is to put DJ's words into action. It is the beginnings of what I hope will be an action-based plan to create jobs, opportunities and an economic future for the valleys, by doing things for ourselves.

A willing Welsh government could help by making sure public sector purchasing power is used to help create local jobs and train people. It could bring together the various players to make finance available for people to take out no-up-front-cost loans to maximise their home energy efficiency and invest in micro-generation which would significantly reduce home heating bills and help to create more work. Government could make public land available and it could provide practical support for people to set up and run the businesses to undertake the work that needs doing. And it could make sure that the training courses are available to ensure that people have the right skills.

But a plan like this can only work if people want it to. Can we rekindle the famous community spirit and the self-belief, self-confidence and self-determination of our mining forefathers who built the institutions that were the backbone of the valleys before the days of the welfare state? Welfare halls, schools, libraries, hospitals were all built using collective resources. In previous recessions, the miners could not afford to hope that Westminster would bail them out. And neither can we.

I have already received expressions of interest from business people interested in the ideas and I have set up a facebook group for anyone who is interested in registering to help develop the job creation ideas in the Valleys Greenprint. Do you want to help turn around the economy, fortunes and future of our valleys? Why not sign up?

Time to control our own resources

2011-03-27T10:27:00.002+01:00

One of the themes of this weekend's Plaid Cymru conference was the economy. Wales's economy is in a poor state and not getting better despite billions of euro-cash.

With public sector cuts resulting in job losses and cuts to workers' wages hitting at the same time as big rises in the costs of living, allowing the Welsh economy to continue to decline is not an option.

As Dr Calvin Jones pointed out in a Stop Climate Chaos Cymru fringe meeting, Wales will need three nuclear power stations to replace oil, which is fast increasing in price as world reserves run out. Calvin presented a chilling picture of what can be expected: he asked how Mrs Jones living at the top of the valleys will be able to get to hospital when there are no buses, taxi's are unaffordable and the NHS can't afford to put fuel in its ambulances. This is the sort of consequence we can expect from peak oil, if we continue to live the way we do.

It's important to understand our history if we are to avoid making the same mistakes. One of the reasons that Wales's economy is in the state it is, is that we failed to control our own natural resources in the past. Those areas which produced the coal which fuelled the Britsh Empire should today be wealthy. Instead the land and the people of those areas were exploited, colonial-style, as the profits from coal lined the pockets of those elsewhere. It is those former coalfield areas, the valleys, which are among the most deprived part of Wales, the UK, even Europe - which is why we still qualify for EU structural funds. If Wales is to host another energy revolution, control over and the ability to realise the profits from those energy sources is going to be vital.

The valleys and parts of our coasts are due to see a vast expansion of wind power. Wind turbines being contructed already. Opposition continues, with one of the chief objections being that local communities will see little benefit. Electricity will not be cheaper and any benefits from compensatory 'wind-falls' to local councils are likely to be swallowed up by the cuts. In future, all renewable energy developments should have an element of community ownership and tangible benefits for the local communities before they are allowed to go ahead.

Decisions about large energy projects should be made in Wales, by devolving the power for energy consents for power generation of more than 50 MegaWatts. And the land owned by the Crown Estates in Wales should be owned by the people of Wales, with the profits being invested back into green infrastructure instead of into the coffers of the Windsors.

And there are more proposals in the Valleys Greenprint to make sure small communities in Wales see the benefits from controlling and owning the renewable energy we have to produce.

A green revolution has the potential to provide a vital boost to the Welsh economy. If we can make sure people have the right skills - green construction, co-operative and business skills and access to finance, co-operatively-based, where possible, and we can implementing some of the other proposals contained in the greenprint and those put forward in the conference fringe by Stop Climate Change Chaos and recently by Friends of the Earth Cymru, we have the potential to create thousand of jobs and prepare Wales for a future less reliant on carbon emitting fossil fuels AND save people money on their home energy bills. No brainer? What are we waiting for?

Greenprint

2011-03-21T09:05:00.005Z

A PDF of the Greenprint for the Valleys - a green jobs creation plan can be found on the Plaid Cymru site.

There are more reports here and here. An introduction can be listened to here.

Copies of the Greenprint will be available tonight at a public meeting in Cwmaman Institute, Cynon Valley, 7pm. Another will be held in the Rhondda next Monday.

A Greenprint for the Valleys

2011-03-18T07:50:00.006Z

Next Monday, I am launching 'A Greenprint for the Valleys'. The launch meeting will be held on 21st March at 7pm in Cwmaman Institute in the Cynon Valley, with Plaid Cymru’s Cynon Valley candidate, Dafydd Trystan Davies.

The Greenprint is an attempt to offer ideas which will provide solutions to the varied problems we face in the valleys from public sector cuts, high levels of unemployment, especially among young people, low skills levels as well as potential future problems like fuel and food price rises, benefit and pension cuts and the weather-related effects of climate change.

Proposals include establishing a Green Construction Skills College, implementing an integrated transport plan for the valleys, providing financial support for home energy efficiency measures and for the setting up of green co-operatives, as well as creating a land bank for renewable energy and food production and a programme to renovate heritage buildings.

Can we wake up the community spirit that was strong in the valleys during the 80s miners' strike? Can we recreate the ethos of our forefathers who built the miners’ welfare halls, the libraries, the hospitals and the workingmen's clubs in the days before the welfare state existed?

With the ConDem government in London intent upon tearing apart our hard-fought-for welfare safety-net, I hope that this consultation document will at least help to start a debate among people in the valleys about how we can use our own skills and resources to build protection against these attacks and to make sure the area has a future.

A second public meeting will be held at 7.30pm on Monday March 28th in the Soar Ffrwdamos Centre, Penygraig, Rhondda, with Plaid’s Assembly candidate Sêra Evans-Fear.

Copies of the Greenprint will be available at the public meetings and in the form of a PDF on the Plaid Cymru site from next Monday.

Looming Dangers to Our Public Services

2011-03-17T20:00:00.000Z

It is often said that where America leads, the rest of the world follows. This statement is, sadly, particularly the case as far the United Kingdom is concerned and as far as foreign policy is concerned. However, while we keep a watchful eye on the soundings of the Obama administration on the so-called “axis of evil” and their next target, it is recent anti-trade union legislation that we also need to be mindful of.

In Wisconsin, the Republican governor Scott Walker has successfully passed a bill, despite the best efforts of 14 Democrat Senators, which restricts the collective bargaining rights of workers. The issue has caused a political storm and workers are rightly outraged at being punished in this unjust way. The powers-that-be are making the workers pick up the tab for the nation’s budget deficit, which of course, was not of their making. Sound familiar?

This issue was brought up during the Noam Chomsky talk in Cardiff. Chomsky spoke of the messages of support that had been sent by the labour movement in Egypt to Wisconsin workers who were reciprocating the goodwill they had received themselves from Wisconsin during the successful ousting of their crooked dictator Mubarak. The spirit of solidarity extends across the world during tough times.

It is clear we need to be on guard against the introduction of similar, anti-union laws being passed in the UK. We already have some of the most restrictive union laws in the Western world yet the appetite of the likes of David Cameron and Boris Johnson to crack down on hard-won workers’ rights seems to know no bounds. The Tories, aided by the Liberal Democrats, are lining up their ducks-in-a-row before pushing through the type of cuts that will devastate the livelihoods of tens of thousands of working people throughout the UK. We have already seen plenty of evidence that shows that here in Wales, we will be hit particularly hard by swingeing cuts because of the numbers of people working in the public sector.

The recent and resounding ‘Yes’ vote has crucially extended Wales's protection from the socially destructive policies of the Con/Dems but there are still limitations. I am very worried about the plans Cameron has announced for opening up public sector contracts to private firms. We will know the potential impact on Wales when the detail is revealed in a forthcoming White Paper.

This week I chaired a meeting of the cross-party Assembly PCS union group. A reoccurring theme of the meeting was that in all sectors, our public service workers are facing the type of attack not seen since the days of Thatcher. This is not just at the hands of the Westminster coalition in areas such as Companies House and the Driving Standards Agency but also at the Labour-controlled RCT council who have used ‘gunboat diplomacy’ to force through a 40% cut in wages for some of their lowest-paid workers. This was all achieved while the council sat on a £2 million surplus they told no-one about. It goes without saying that the Plaid Cymru group at the council has vehemently opposed these measures from the very outset.

Next Monday, I will unveil a discussion paper called ‘Greenprint for the Valleys’ that puts forward some proposals for the future of the former coalfield communities and encourage debate about what we need to do to secure our future. There will be public meetings on the ‘Greenprint for the Valleys’ at the Cwmaman Institute on the evening of March 21st and Soar in Penygraig on the evening of March 28th.

The viability of our valleys' communities are at stake and we need to act now if we are to ensure a future for our children. But we also need to protect what we have or our work will be severely undermined.

Less than one week to go

2011-02-25T15:50:00.000Z

We are less than one week away from the referendum on Assembly powers; just seven days away from people in Wales deciding whether or not our country should have a stronger voice.

This poll is crucial to the prospects of our country and there can be no room for complacency as we make one last push to convince voters that a ‘yes’ vote is a vote for common sense.

It is an argument that we are winning in the media, in public debates and through canvassing in the streets and over the phones. No campaigners have conducted a dirty tricks campaign based upon rubbishing the Welsh Assembly, its record and perpetuating myths about the implications of delivering a more accountable and democratic law-making system to the people of Wales. It is tantamount to saying that, here in Wales, we do not deserve the same legislative responsibility conferred to the people of Northern Ireland and Scotland because we are somehow inferior and need the approval of Westminster whenever we want to do something. This line of argument is insulting to peoples' intelligence.

Even for those who take a dim view of the Assembly’s performance, it should make sense to support moving to a system that would result in more accountablily. I am of the view that devolution has delivered many benefits, particularly for working people in Wales, but the referendum is not about these success stories. It is about process and whether the people of Wales want to stick with the expensive and convoluted status quo or move to a simpler, leaner and more efficient means of passing legislation.

In light of who has the keys to Number 10 Downing Street and who holds the purse strings at the Treasury, a strong Yes vote takes on even more importance. The stronger the Yes vote, the stronger is Wales's voice.

We have a chance to be waking up in a country with brighter prospects and a stronger voice by the end of next week. Let's hope the vote of confidence in the principle of devolution and in our country is a big one.

Cuts in RCT - Demo today

2011-02-19T09:09:00.008Z

At 11.30 today, Ynysangharad Park in Pontypridd will be host to a demonstration against the cuts.

"The Demonstration has been called by RCT UNISON Branch & is supported by PCS, UNITE, GMB, Pontypridd Trades Council, Right To Work South Wales and many more.

Contrary to what some Labour councillors have told local people, Plaid Cymru has not supported any of the moves to downgrade workers' terms and condidtions. We opposed the original motion which handed decision-making to council officers and we have opposed their heavy-handed tactics since.

In response to feedback that we have received from people who have been told that Plaid supported these decisions we have issued the following statement and we will be aupporting the demonstration today.

Sera Evans-Fear, Treorci councillor and Plaid Assembly candidate in the Rhondda said:

“Ed Milliband and Carwyn Jones will be at the Welsh Labour annual conference while workers in RCT are demonstrating against decisions taken by their party members. They must be asked whether they agree with the downgrading of workers' terms and conditions in RCT? Are they really happy with a Labour council initiating lockouts of unions; forcing workers to take a pay cut in an area which is blighted by low pay? What would they have to say if this was being done by a Tory council? My guess is that they would be outraged.

I know from speaking to council workers that they are very angry about this issue. They feel badly let down by their Labour councillors and have had nothing but a wall of silence from their Labour AM and Labour MP.

The Labour conference is taking place as far away from this rally as possible. Whatever the geographical distance, as party leaders, Ed Milliband and Carwyn Jones have to be held accountable for the actions of this Labour council in bullying their hard-working staff.”

Leanne Wood AM said:

“Workers and their trades unions are sending a very clear statement today. The cuts should not be paid for by those on the lowest incomes who had no hand in the cause of this financial crisis. The cuts that are being imposed by this Labour-run council are unacceptable. Other councils in Wales have managed to balance their books without bulldozing through slashed pay and conditions. Elsewhere in Wales, councils have managed to keep council tax rises low, at 0% in some cases, while Labour in RCT have increased council tax by 3%. How are council workers who are forced to take a £3,000 year pay cut meant to afford a council tax increase like this as well as the general rise in prices brought about by inflation and the rise in VAT? I have spoken to many workers who are not prepared to take this attack lying down and I fully support them."

And Justice For All?

2011-02-14T16:50:00.010Z

The consultation ends today on plans by the UK Government to slash £350 million a year from the legal aid bill. This has been sold by Tory Justice Minister Ken Clarke as a common sense way of reducing the UK’s budget deficit as it will only hurt those with an interest in perpetuating the legal aid ‘gravy train.’ Closer scrutiny shows it will result in a legal system whereby only those with means will be able to pursue justice through the civil courts.

Advice groups, who have no political axe to grind and are solely concerned with giving advice to their clients, have warned the changes will be “devastating.”

Legal aid will still be available if the cut-backs are pushed through but there will be a dramatic reduction in the number of instances when it will become accessible. Got a problem with housing? Tough luck….unless you’re literally being thrown out of your front door that is.

It is estimated that more than half of the proposed cuts are expected in family cases like child access, non-violent domestic disputes, divorce cases and welfare. The cuts will clearly hit those who need help the most.

As Plaid Cymru MP Elfyn Llwyd said, it is “bitingly ironic” that the consultation paper on these reforms actually says that “access to justice is a hallmark of any civilised society.” What deceit.

The savings are peanuts when compared to what could be recouped by making a few UK billionaires pay their taxes instead of evading or avoiding their obligations to the Treasury through the cleverest accounting that money can buy. Tax evasion and avoidance is a big problem and swift action to tackle it would make inroads into reducing the budget deficit but so far, the Tories have remained strangely (or perhaps not given their motley crew of donors) silent on the matter.

Are you concerned? Why not make you views heard before the consultation on this regressive policy closes at midnight today.

Reasons to be positive. Vote YES March 3rd.

2011-02-13T07:32:00.006Z

Speaking at a Yes for Wales meeting. Chapter Arts Centre, Canton, Cardiff.
February 10th 2011.

With thanks to Cardiffian News.

Celyn

2011-02-02T08:59:00.005Z

A special Yes For Wales issue of Celyn is out now, featuring former First Minister of Wales, Rhodri Morgan, former leader of Plaid Cymru, Dafydd Wigley, authors Rachel Trezise and Mike Parker, Jeff Evans, David Llewellyn Davies, Katie Dalton, Ian Ross, Joy Kent and Gordon James from Friends of the Earth Cymru.

To subscribe for a year, send a cheque for £15 with your name and address to Celyn, 21 Hafod Street, Grangetown, Cardiff, CF11 6RB.

Or pick up a copy for £2 when you next see me.

slippery slope

2011-01-31T06:06:00.005Z

This week, the Electoral Commission took a decision which will almost inevitably lead to a low turnout on March 3rd. The rules governing referendums mean that two sides have to be designated by the Electoral Commission to be the official Yes and No campaigns.

True Wales, the group which have been campaigning for a No vote for at least two years and who were the only people likely to get official designation, chose not to apply. Under the rules, if there is no official 'No' campaign, there cannot be an official 'Yes' campaign.

With designation, both sides would have been able to send a leaflet to every house explaining the case, with free delivery by the Royal Mail. They would have had free TV and radio time to put the arguments across. Not so now.

The latest polls, while positive for the 'Yes' side, show a very high number of people who are still undecided. My experience on the streets so far is that levels of knowledge and understanding are low.

The question is far from straightforward. We will be asked if we want the Assembly's law-making process to change so that laws can be made in the 20 devolved areas, without first having to ask Westminster for the powers. There will be no radical transformation with a 'yes' vote, but a 'no' vote could have devastating consequences, beginning the slippery slope which will lead to the end of Welsh devolution. A low turn out with those currently undecided persuaded to vote 'No' could make for a close result. On a low turnout, anything could happen.

Those who ultimately want to abolish the Assembly are using simple messages about the Assembly being a 'waste' with 'incapable politicians' presiding over an under-performing economy. These messages will undoubtedly hit home with people who have every right to be cynical about mainstream politics. However, these points could be equally made about Westminster. Politicians there have been shown to be corrupt money-wasters, who presided over a catastrophic economic failure which will have a long and lasting impact on health, education and other public services used by 60 million people. Yet do we conclude that it's the fault of the system, that the solution lies in the abolition of both Houses of the UK Parliament? No, we call for a change in the politicians or the party in power if we don't like thier policies. So why is it different in Wales?

Wales loses out to the tune of £300 million every year because of the inbuilt unfairness of the outdated Barnett Formula, is it any wonder Wales's economy is under-performing? Although this referendum is not about funding arrangements, no-one seriously thinks there is any chance of positive reform unless there is a strong 'Yes' vote in the powers referendum. And as for saving money, so far the system whereby Wales has to persuade London to pass over the powers to make laws has cost 3,000 hours and £2 million in civil servants and legal experts.

And claims that people in Wales don't have the ability to make laws should be treated as a joke.

It now falls to the Yes campaign to make sure the real issues are explained to as many people as possible over the next month. We have hundreds of committed volunteers in every part of the country and so we should be able to reach hundreds of thousands of people. If you've not signed up to the yes campaign yet, you can do so here.

Surveillance Society

2011-01-18T17:20:00.001Z

Protestors in Cardiff and around have been left shocked and bewildered to hear that a Cardiff Anarchist group was infiltrated by an undercover police officer for four years.

'Marco' was the third infiltrator to be uncovered. The first, Mark Kennedy was outed after the trial of six environmententalists collapsed.

Kennedy, selling his story to the Mail on Sunday, claims he knows of another 15 undercover police officers among protest groups. At an estimated cost to the public purse of £250,000 per undercover officer, per year, I find it very difficult to see how this expenditure can be justifed, particularly when the groups covertly investigated are hardly, by their own admission, public enemy number one.

Kennedy and Marco slept with women activists, gaining their trust in the most intimate of ways, for information. All those who trusted these men must feel betrayed and violated, but the women activists who were close to them will no doubt be feeling it the hardest. Who sanctioned such a tactic? Were the government of the time happy for this abuse of women's rights to take place? These questions deserve to be answered.

I have had concerns about the way protestors in Wales are policed for some time. These latest revelations only strengthen calls for policing to be devolved to Wales, where policy decisions like this would be able to be scutinised more closely.

Old rivals join forces for Wales

2011-01-10T06:23:00.003Z

Assembly Members Leighton Andrews and Leanne Wood joined forces this morning to hand out leaflets for the Yes campaign in Tonypandy Market in the Rhondda.

It is the first time that Mr Andrews, the Labour Minister for Education and Rhondda AM, and Ms Wood, Plaid Cymru AM for South Wales Central since 2003, have ever campaigned together.

Mr Andrews said: “The cross-party Yes for Wales campaign is now up and running and taking the message to the people of the Rhondda. We had a great reception in Tonypandy today despite the weather.”

Ms Wood added: “Over the years Leighton and I have not always seen eye-to-eye on a range of political issues so I wouldn’t be surprised if our presence on the streets together in Tonypandy surprised a few people.

“Although we have our differences, when it comes to securing a stronger voice for Wales, we are in full agreement. We had a positive response from the shoppers and I hope the message is getting across to people that this is a positive step.”

From the Yes for Wales website (IeDros Gymru yn Gymraeg).
Rhondda Says Yes is now on Facebook here.

Food prices on the rise

2011-01-08T07:56:00.000Z

December saw world food prices increase. The cost of food is now higher than it was in 2008, when price rises sparked riots in some countries.

A loaf of bread in my home town of Penygraig in the Rhondda has gone up 10% from 90p to 99p.

Meanwhile, demand for Foodbanks: the modern day equivalent of the soup kitechen, continues to grow.

We continue to waste staggering amounts of food.

It doesn't have to be this way. In Fife, Scotland, 'One Planet Fife' are working to ensure Fife's communities are resilient to food price increases. A co-ordinated plan helps community food groups co-operate with producers to source local and low input food, organising local deliveries, as well as community growing projects. Public bodies work together to agree 'sustainable food procurement' policies, enabling groups of local farmers to develop the capacity to supply what's needed, creating new jobs and reducing transport and packaging. Communities and businesses work together to reduce avoidable food waste and to use unavoidable food waste to generate energy and fertiliser. Agricultural advisors help farmers and growers to reduce the environmental impact of their businesses through changes in land management, better use of the fertiliser and renewable energy production. At national and international level, developing a food sovereignty approach which gives people and communities more control over local and regional food production and distribution and leads to a fairer and more sustainable global food system.

There's no reason why we can't do the same here in Wales.

Wales wins praise for waste law

2011-01-02T19:49:00.005Z

"We bin 10 Wembleys full of food a year – what a waste of energy" says the headline in today's Independent on Sunday in an article by Kate Youde. "Wales has shown the way by collecting and reusing kitchen rubbish, but most UK councils lag behind"

Its not mentioned in the article, but Wales's success on this front is down to the Environment and Waste measure which set Welsh waste targets. The measure came about after a wait of almost three years for the Environment Legislative Competence Order which had to be granted by Westminster before the Assembly was free to legislate.

The referendum on the Assembly's law-making powers which takes place on March 3rd will get rid of the costly and cumbersome LCO system, which requires us to ask Westminster's permission before laws which only affect Wales can be made. Why not make it your new year's resolution to vote YES for Wales in March?

2011 - the year for a revolution in co-operation?

2010-12-31T11:18:00.000Z

Over the last two years, Plaid Cymru has issued a number of papers and carried out a series of events aimed at consulting people in Wales in preparation for our manifesto for next year's Assembly elections. Hundreds of people have participated in one-day conferences focussing on climate change, security, communities, town centres and more. I participated in many of these events where there were often lively, informative and stimulating discussions.

Some common themes have emerged. Energy and food security must be planned for. Jobs are essential, particularly in those areas which have suffered from economic decline since the devastation of Wales's heavy industry. Difficult economic conditions coupled with public sector cuts means that long term planning is needed if the parts of the Welsh economy are to avoid becoming depressed.

Over the coming weeks, I will be publishing a 'greenprint for the valleys', a specific set of proposals which aims to pull together the themes from the consultation days into a long-term plan to create jobs which prepare us for the future. By aiming for self-sufficiency, can we create our own markets and capacity to start a revolution in renewable energy, home energy efficiency, public transport and food production? Can we utilise existing government initiatives like feed-in tariffs and youth training schemes as well as public sector procurement and encourage the formation of co-operatives to create jobs to do work that will benefit our communities in the long term?

With responsibility for the plan laying with someone with a seat at the Welsh government table, the plan should be implemented in a pilot area covering the most economically deprived communities within the EU Assisted area known as West Wales and the Valleys. In the run-up to the Assembly elections I will be taking the proposal to the different valley communities to hear to peoples' views. In the longer term, I hope that successful aspects of the plan could be rolled out throughout Wales.

Can people be motivated to get involved in a plan to turn-around local economies and communities? Are people up for thinking about an alterative to Cameron's 'Big Society' here in Wales?

If you would like an advance copy of the consultation 'greenprint', or you would like to be kept informed about the meetings planned for the valleys, or you would like more information about Plaid Cymru, please send an e mail to leanne.wood1@virgin.net.

What's this referendum all about?

2010-12-27T07:02:00.005Z

On 3rd March, people in Wales will go to the polls to decide the future of Wales's law-making system. This explanation is taken from an interview for Celyn magazine issue#3 - Autumn 2009

What’s wrong with the current legislative system, given that it has been in place for a relatively short amount of time?

There are two stages to our legislative system in the Assembly. The first stage involves getting the competence to make the laws drawn down from Westminster and the second stage is making the law itself. The first stage is the issue that has caused the problems. It has been slow and due to a limit on UK Parliamentary time there has been a limit on the number of competence orders we can ask for. There have been opportunities for those who are not positively disposed to devolution to interfere in the system and to water down the demands of the Assembly. If we get a ‘yes’ vote in the referendum we will be able to move straight to the second stage of the process. We won’t have to ask for competence from Westminster and will be able to get on and make those laws in the areas where competence is devolved to the Assembly.

What difference would it make to Wales if the Assembly took powers directly in the 20 areas it currently has responsibility for rather than having to go to Westminster initially?

The main difference is that we could make measures and legislation much more quickly than we can at the moment. We would have more capacity for making measures in the Assembly and there would be fewer opportunities to those who are not disposed to devolution to interfere in the process. Although holding a referendum implies there would be a big change, it is, in reality, little more than an administrative tidying up exercise.

The Assembly has had problems trying to acquire the power to suspend the right-to-buy in areas of high housing pressure. The Right to Buy, brought in by Thatcher, is responsible for taking more than 135,000 council houses out of the public sector in Wales. In order to stop the leaching of houses from the public sector we need to stop the sale of those houses. The Assembly wanted to make that law but the MPs in Westminster have prevented that happening so far. The Deputy Minister for Housing, Jocelyn Davies had to make a fresh attempt to draw down the powers after her first application was blocked. Hopefully, we will be able to suspend the right-to-buy at the end of this Assembly term but only when I see the legislative competence order before the Assembly will I believe it. [update: the LCO has now been granted and the affordable housing measure is going through the Assembly – after three and a half years.]

Would making those decisions in Cardiff really make any difference to the lives of the people of Wales and, if so, how?

People can now have a much greater input into the laws that affect their lives. Many organisations, if you ask them, would support a yes vote in a referendum for that reason. People will not be getting up the morning after a yes vote people declaring ‘my life is a whole lot better’ because the Assembly has the power to make laws.

It will be difficult to see any immediate change but in the long term, I think we will gain more confidence in our ability to do things for ourselves and people in Wales will take a much more active role in contributing to the legislation that affects their lives.

A yes vote will not be earth-shattering, but a no vote would indicate a lack of confidence in devolution as a project and in Wales as a nation. From what I see, most people are proud of what Wales has become. They will have a chance to register that pride on March 3rd.

How to stop the tax cheats

2010-12-26T08:14:00.009Z

The Tax Justice Network and Tax Research UK have produced a eight point manifesto to stop tax dodgers. Tax expert Richard Murphy says

"Britain has a particular problem with tax cheating. London lies at the centre of a global tax haven empire and tax cheating has become the norm at boardroom level and among rich people. It is not helpful that so many politicians are themselves users of tax havens."

The ConDem government in London want to cut the deficit, but are unlikely to do anything about tax dodgers as many of them are engaged in the practice themselves. 2010 saw the birth of UKUncut. With protests organised and information shared on twitter, UKUncut are exposing tax dodgers, showing how we are not all in this together. Does tax-dodging enrage you? Why not make a pledge to yourself to do something about it in 2011?

Don't Do As I Do, Do As I Say.

2010-12-17T12:22:00.006Z

Rarely do I read the People newspaper but I did for a review of the Sunday papers on Vaughan Roderick’s politics show on BBC Radio Wales recently. The paper caught my eye because of its coverage of a growing movement which has received scant attention from much of the mainstream media.

In response to the huge amounts of tax evasion and avoidance the UK's super-rich are getting away with, people have begun to join together under the banner of UK Uncut, targeting the businesses associated with tax-dodging. The flagship Top Shop store on Oxford Street, London, was closed down a few weeks ago by people chanting and blowing whistles in protest. Demonstrations were simultaneously held in Top Shop and other Arcadia Group stores in 20 other towns and cities. The boss of Top Shop and the Arcadia empire, Sir Philip Green, has irked the protestors by avoiding paying tax on more than £1 billion. He achieved this by giving his wife Tina, a resident of Monaco, a tax-free £1.2 billion dividend in 2005. The clever accounting that permitted this may have been legal, but it was far from ethical in my mind, or clearly in the minds of the protestors who flooded into the Oxford Street store in their droves.

Vodafone has also found itself on the receiving end of UK Uncut’s campaigning after it was alleged they were let off a £6bn tax bill by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) – allegations both organisations deny. Nevertheless, the finger of suspicion remain as similar protests to the one visited upon Top Shop stores have taken place at Vodafone outlets throughout the UK this year.

Tax evasion is a practice that has been going on for decades but it seems to be increasing with every year. Now it seems people are waking up to it at a time when the mantra of David Cameron that ‘we are all in this together’ becomes more hollow by the minute.

The Westminster’s inactivity when it come to tackling tax evasion or avoidance by the super-rich runs parallel to their crack-down on the welfare state, which provides a safety net against destitution for those who are unable to work. Rarely has there ever been a purer distillation of the maxim there is one rule for the rich and another for the poor.

In a paper produced by the PCS union,tax evasion is cited as being not less than £70 billion and possibly as high as £120 billion, per annum in the UK. Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee claims £70 billion a year is being criminally evaded in tax, £25 billion avoided and £25 billion simply not paid at a time when tax inspectors are being made redundant in their droves at HMRC.

To put this astronomical sum into context, it has been estimated that benefit fraud costs the state £1.6 billion. You’d think the Government would set their sights on targeting the larger of the two sums if they were genuine about tackling the UK’s debt before giving way to other considerations. Are we really expected to believe Con/Dems are not driven by political ideology? Is it really a coincidence that the Tory party has always strived to protect the interests of the wealthy few? Their efforts to close off higher education to all but the wealthiest, helps to understand why people are beginning to get very, very angry.

When it comes to the millionaire-stuffed Con/Dem cabinet’s preaching about the need to balance the books and be in this together, they should really take a closer look at their own affairs. Chancellor George Osborne, along with other family beneficiaries, will neatly side-step an estimated £1.6 million in inheritance tax thanks to the trust fund, now believed to be worth more than £4 million, that his father set-up. He is not the only UK Government Cabinet figure the finger of blame has been pointed at. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond and International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell, whose remit is to alleviate world poverty ironically, have also found to be engaging in some clever accounting to the detriment of UK tax revenues. As for Lord Ashcroft, the less said the better.

As history has shown with the Tories, it is a case of ‘don’t do as I do, do as I say.’ I hope more and more people join the peaceful protests being organised by UK Uncut because the Con/Dem Government and the large corporations they protect need to be embarrassed into doing the right thing.

Weather permitting, a demonstration is taking place at 10am tomorrow (Saturday) outside Top Shop in Queen Street, Cardiff. Protestors are urged to bring their own banners if possible. I hope to be there. There are rumoured to be similar events taking place in Swansea, Aberystwyth and Wrexham this Saturday for what is traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year for large corporations like Top Shop. Let’s hit them where it hurts – in the pocket.

Eating Humble Pie

2010-12-06T08:48:00.000Z

The powers-that-be on RCT council have finally had a dose of reality and ditched their controversial plans to overhaul post-16 education. Although the plans have been put on the back-burner rather than shelved outright, this may be more about trying to save face. It would be astounding if this deeply unpopular, expensive scheme ever saw the light of day again.

The council’s post-16 education proposals would have spelt the end of sixth forms and the creation of three new bilingual colleges taking their place. The plans provoked widespread concern among staff and their trade union representatives, as well as parents and students, because of the implications the move would have had on Welsh medium education, faith schools and special needs provision. Costing millions, the council said they would have borrowed through the Private Finance Initiative if the finance was not forthcoming from the Assembly. I would support moves to improve the education provided to teenagers and an expansion in the range of subjects available, but this proposal was not the best way to achieve those aims.

This embarrassment for RCT chiefs came shortly after news that thousands of loyal, hardworking staff were threatened with a ‘lock-out’ unless they were prepared to accept worse terms and conditions. Just like the Con/Dems in Westminster, the council justified their bully-boy tactics because of the pressures on their budget but this reprehensible behaviour came before they knew the terms of their financial settlement from the Welsh Assembly Government.

Now the worst case scenario the council were working on has failed to materialise, will RCT chiefs re-think their plans to impose a non-negotiable downgrade to the workers' contracts? The staff running vital frontline services in RCT deserve better treatment and a lot more respect than they have been shown by their Labour-run employer in recent weeks.

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

2010-11-10T21:13:00.002Z

Even though a fortnight has passed since news broke of the ‘lock-out’ at Rhondda Cynon Taf county borough council, the news is yet to truly sink in.

For those who haven’t heard, the Labour-run council has threatened 10,000 workers in Rhondda Cynon Taf with a ‘lock-out’ unless they accept lower terms and conditions of employment without any negotiations, by-passing the trades unions and refusing to rule out compulsory redundancies.

In the Rhondda, we have just commemorated the 100 years since the Tonypandy riots broke out. How ironic is the timing of this anniversary?

In terms of shafting their core supporters, this "gun-boat diplomacy" is up there with the abolition of the 10p tax rate.

In fact, Labour is the only party to have threatened staff with a lock-out in Wales – first in Neath and now in Rhondda Cynon Taf. The Tories have taken similar action in England but not even they have dared to try the same in Wales. The Plaid group on RCT council have battled to prevent this non-negotiable down-grade of workers' terms and conditions, but the ruling Labour group voted to hand over responsibility for decisions about staff over to the Chief Executive just before the threatened lock-out. Do those Labour councillors really believe that keeps their hands clean?

RCT council is prepared to ride rough-shod over the workers’ terms and conditions before knowing the level of finance they will receive from the Assembly Government. The Assembly's draft budget is not due to be published until the 17th of November. Councils will know their financial settlement after that.

RCT's non-negotiable plan includes cutting the overtime payments of some of the lowest paid staff. I want to know much of a pay cut the top brass are taking. And the cabinet members? How 'all-in-this-together' are we in RCT?

In the valleys before the last election, Labour told people that only they could stop the Tories. How hollow these claims must sound to their voters now that they are behaving exactly like them.

Hands Off Welsh Language Broadcasting

2010-11-05T08:18:00.002Z

I am hoping for a good turn-out in Cardiff tomorrow for a rally in support of S4C. Since the Con/Dem coalition government in Westminster announced plans to transfer the purse strings from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to the BBC, concerns have been raised about the future of S4C and indeed, the language itself.

This decision, which is set to come into effect from 2014, was a complete stitch-up between the Con/Dems and BBC bosses in London with no consultation with anyone in Wales. That in itself is reason enough to protest. It makes a complete mockery of the ‘respect’ agenda between Westminster and the Wales that Cameron was keen to trumpet upon entering number 10.

Saturday's rally is not about maintaining the status quo. It has been widely recognised that governance issues at the channel should be looked into and the best way of doing this is in the form of an inquiry. Questions regarding the proposed arrangements remain answered; chief among them is the issue of the channel’s independence. We must avoid an “annual review and an annual bust-up” over the S4C budget as warned by Plaid Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones.

The BBC is set to come under increasing pressure over the coming years to cut back on its budget, as today's strike shows. These are not the best circumstances under which to take control of S4C. Will we see Welsh-language broadcasting become yet another target for the Murdoch media empire and other BBC critics to aim their vitriol at? We have already had a taste of the xenophobic, ignorant, and quite frankly, juvenile attacks that we can expect to be lobbed at S4C with depressing regularity under the proposed arrangements.

Another question. Will S4C be allowed to commission its own programmes under the new arrangements? The removal of autonomy must be opposed vociferously. Plurality in the Welsh media is already a major concern with question marks still lingering over the future of ITV Wales. Any moves that neuter S4C as an independent channel, capable of commissioning its own programmes and forging its own direction, will be a further nail in the coffin of plurality in the Welsh media.

S4C is not only a vital plank for the creative industries of Wales and an important provider of good quality jobs, it is also a cultural institution. With the demand for Welsh medium education increasing in many parts of the country – particularly in areas where the language was almost wiped out a century ago by draconian limits on its use – the children’s programmes on S4C are a vital learning resource. For many children learning through the medium of Welsh in school, S4C provides the only opportunity to hear the language outside of the classroom.

It is for all these reasons that I hope people will turn up and show their support at the rally, arranged by Welsh language pressure group Cymdeithas yr Iaith, at Cathays Park tomorrow. (Meet at 11am).

Let's send a strong message to Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt and his cronies that they can’t get away with treating the Welsh nation and our language like this.

A Message to Westminster

2010-10-18T20:56:00.001+01:00

The Con/Dem coalition government was left in no doubt what Newport and the rest of Wales thought about the proposed closure of the city’s Identity and Passport Office.

Around 1000 protestors turned up to march from the historic Westgate Hotel to John Frost Square for a rally. I was joined on the march by Bethan Jenkins, AM for South Wales West (pictured), as well as many other Plaid activists.

The rally's strong support showed that people of Wales are prepared to stand up and fight for the future of their communities.

Here are some of the reports.

BBC Online.

Wales on Sunday.

South Wales Argus.

BBC Cymru

Condemn the Con/Dems

2010-10-13T13:52:00.007+01:00

Countless times we have been warned here in Wales that the Comprehensive Spending Review will affect us disproportionately when compared to the rest of the UK. The latest warning comes from the PricewaterhouseCoopers who estimate that 52,000 jobs could be lost in Wales by 2015. That would be devastating.

While we brace ourselves for the details of deep cuts to our frontline services, the Con/Dem coalition government in Westminster has underlined what they think of Wales and its people with the proposal to close the Identity and Passport Office in Newport.

This news is a bitter blow. We will be the only European country without a proper passport office. It will also see the loss of 300 jobs in an area that can not afford it and will mean a poorer service for the majority of people in Wales. It also raises question marks over the ability of the passport office to provide a service in Welsh.

Given we are in a consultation process on this closure, it is vital that a campaign is orchestrated that underlines the worth of the passport office in Newport and informs those in their ivory towers at Westminster that Wales is not happy with this decision. We also need to bring local companies on board as cuts of this magnitude cannot help but impact on the private sector.

The mooted closure of the passport office has overshadowed news this week of the likely privatisation of the Royal Mint. The Treasury-owned mint in Llantrisant employs 868 people according to the latest annual report produced by the Royal Mint Trading Fund Group. Privatisation invariably means jobs losses, excused in the name of efficiency savings.

Even when their MPs are combined, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats do not have a mandate in Wales. Are we an easy target for the cuts as most of the core support for both parties couldn’t give a damn what happened this side of Offa’s Dyke?

People in Wales must consistently make our voices heard, sending a message to David Cameron and his band of millionaires that they cannot keep treating us with impunity. A good place to start would be the march and rally taking place this Saturday in Newport to protest at the axing of the city’s Identity and Passport office. The march begins at 11am outside the historic Westgate hotel and finishes in John Frost square where the rally will be held.

Please join us if you can.

Plaid members choose candidates - diolch pawb!

2010-10-03T08:04:00.006+01:00

Plaid Cymru members have selected it's team of candidates for the south Wales Central regional list to contest next year's Assembly elections.

1. Leanne Wood
2. Chris Franks
3. Delme Bowen
4. Richard Grigg

I'm very pleased that members maintained their confidence in me as the top-of-the-list candidate and I'm looking forward to the months of hard work we have ahead in the run-up to the Assembly powers referendum next March and the 2011 Assembly elections.

A big thanks to Plaid members (and those supporters who are not members) for their strong support. Ymlaen!

Hunger and Hypocrisy

2010-09-22T20:50:00.002+01:00

So the United Nations' eight Millennium Development Goals are not on track.

The eight aims of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development now look unlikely to be achieved by the target year of 2015.

With the amount of wealth on this planet, there should not be millions of children in the world today dying of malnutrition. Those lucky enough to survive a childhood, face a bleak life without opportunity and education.

Conditions need to be changed so that developing countries have the opportunity to carve out their own future and generate their own wealth, otherwise talk of equality at the UN headquarters will be nothing more than rhetoric. The vicious circle of debt that sees a significant proportion of dependent countries’ GDP going on interest payments has to end, as must the external pressure to concentrate the economy’s fate on one or two cash crops that are vulnerable to volatile market forces. The demand to clamp down on the business elites in poor countries who hold their money in off-shore accounts also has to be taken seriously. The world's wealth has to be shared more equitably.

One of the more interesting stories from the New York meeting to discuss the Millennium Development Goals has centred on the views of Gordon Brown. The former Prime Minister expressed “anger” at the failure of rich nations to honour their pledges.

Is this the same Gordon Brown that as Chancellor and then, Prime Minister, protected the business elite in the city of London and failed to take action to restrain the casino capitalism that almost brought the UK's financial system to its knees? The money that has been found to prop up the institutions headed by greed-fuelled fat cats would have made a significant difference towards meeting the Millenium Development Goals.

This is the same Gordon Brown who presided over a widening of the gap between rich and poor in the UK in the 13 years New Labour had to correct the ills of a Tory Government.

He failed to lift a finger to prevent an illegal war in Iraq that saw endemic poverty increase throughout much of the country and essential services decimated.

The next time he gets onto his high horse, it may be wise for Mr Brown to consider the legacy he has left during the years he had power to implement real change.

Campaigning for a Better Wales

2010-09-08T13:22:00.007+01:00

The annual Plaid Cymru conference kicks off tomorrow in Aberystwyth. I’m looking to catching up with fellow-travellers and discussing politics. The next 12 months, with key elections and, hopefully, the referendum on Assembly powers, taking place, will shape Welsh politics for a generation. This conference is Plaid's chance to make sure we are ready.

Plaid leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones has nominated me as the party’s representative on the all-party steering group to campaign for a ‘Yes’ vote. Meetings have been held over the summer and strategies are being drawn up to make sure we can run a campaign we can win. A NO vote in this referendum would be a devastating blow to our confidence as a nation and to the devolution project, which most people see as a positive development in Wales.

We simply have to win this vote.

It's crucial that the Assembly has the tools it needs to do the job. With public spending cuts likely to have a bigger impact in Wales it's vital that our Assembly is strong enough to help Wales withstand the coming storm.

At the moment, the Assembly has to obtain permission from Westminster to make laws in devolved areas. It's a bureaucratic nightmare worthy of a political satire. The debacle over the Housing Legislative Competence Order (LCO), which was left on the back burner for three years before finally being rubber stamped recently, is a case in point.

This is why UNDEB (Plaid's Trades Union arm) has decided to concentrate on the referendum at this year's Plaid Cymru conference. We have teamed up with Cymru Yfory to officially kick start Plaid’s campaign for a ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum. UNDEB’S Ian Titherington will provide the arguments as to why workers and the trade union movement should support the ‘Yes’ campaign and former Ceredigion MP, Cynog Dafis, will provide practical information about setting up campaign groups, messages and communications on behalf of Tomorrow's Wales.

A NO vote will severely weaken the Assembly's ability to act as a shield to protect those people in our communities who will be most vulnerable to cuts and high levels of unemployment, which are on their way.

Everyone who believes the destiny of this country should be in the hands of this country, should get involved in the ‘Yes’ campaign. I’m hoping there will a good attendance and lively discussion at the fringe event tomorrow.

Pethau Bychain

2010-09-03T21:18:00.002+01:00

Dim blog go iawn heddiw, ond dwi jyst eisau dweud i pawb dwi'n cefnogi Dydd Pethau Bychain . Mae'n dydd i dweud rhywbeth yn Gymraeg ar lein. Dwi'n meddwl mae'n syniad da, ac yn y dyfodol byddaf yn trio'n galetach! (Diwrnod hir, sori!)

For those who don't understand Welsh here's an explanation.

See here for more information about learning Welsh for free.

PFI Timebomb

2010-09-01T07:46:00.003+01:00

It has recently emerged that the NHS in England faces a total bill of £65 billion for Private Finance Initiative (PFI) hospitals. PFI was invented by the Tories and promoted by New Labour as a means of pumping private money into public institutions. PFI is not dissimilar to borrowing huge sums of money over 25 or 30 years on a credit card with a punitive APR.

For some English NHS Trusts, repayments on these debts amounted to 10% of turnover. When the NHS is being squeezed and pressured into making savings, inevitably at the expense of jobs and services, paying back the the PFI debt will be prioritised. The GMB union have warned this is just the tip of the iceberg with the total cost of all PFI projects - around 650 in number - coming to an astonishing £230 billion. They said this equated to £9,300 per taxpayer and predicted it would not be paid off until 2048.

In Wales, because we have an Assembly, we've been able to do things differently. Welsh NHS Trusts do not have the same PFI debt as some of their English counterparts. PFI may have been attractive financially in the early days, it has been largely shunned here in Wales, in recognition of the long term problems it can cause for the public sector. When Plaid entered into coalition government in 2007, the rejection of PFI in the NHS was a crucial component of the One Wales agreement.

Now it has emerged that the cost of the MOD-promoted, PFI-funded, Armed Forces Training college planned for St Athan, has increased by £3 billion since 2008 to £14 billion. Doesn't this show that schemes like this are unaffordable in the long term and serve only to risk mortgaging the future of our children?

Speaking Welsh at the National Eisteddfod

2010-08-11T14:49:00.006+01:00

It was great to be able to pop across to the National Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale this month. It was billed as an Eisteddfod for the whole of the Heads of the Valley area so I hope people from the Rhondda were able to go along and sample some unique Welsh culture. The week seemed to be a great success with record attendance numbers recorded on the Sunday, weather that was more good than bad and a significant shot in the arm for the local economy.

There were many highlights for me over the days that I visited but the stand-out moment has to be meeting the granddaughter of the legendary singer and political activist, Paul Robeson. I was introduced to Susan Robeson (pictured above) following an excellent lecture that focused on the meeting that took place between her grandfather and Aneurin Bevan at the National Eisteddfod of 1958; which was the last time the event was held in Ebbw Vale.

Mr Robeson, an internationally renowned singer and actor from New Jersey, was also a beacon of light for working class people and the oppressed the world over. A special place in his heart was reserved for the miners of South Wales and the welcome received by Susan Robeson at the Maes is testament to her grandfather’s lasting legacy.

Although I have been to the Eisteddfod many times before, this was the first time I have had the confidence to properly use my Welsh language skills in conversation. What made this Eisteddfod different was a week I recently spent at a Welsh language learners’ ‘bootcamp’ in the glorious Ceredigion seaside village of Tresaith. Over the course of seven days, spoken English was prohibited and we were only allowed to communicate in Welsh. Tutors from the ‘Say Something in Welsh’ course, who organised the ‘bootcamp’, were on hand to help overcome any difficulties. I managed to survive the week and was surprised how much Welsh was in my head, I just needed the confidence to use it. I would wholeheartedly recommend the course, and the internet podcasts from Say Something in Welsh, to any learner.

Another Burberry Own Goal

2010-07-26T15:45:00.003+01:00

I found it hard to contain my anger earlier this month when I learned of the obscene pay package that has been awarded to Burberry boss Angela Ahrendts.

Following their immoral decision to cast aside decades of hard work and loyalty from their 300-strong Treorci workforce by moving production to China in 2007, I had hoped we wouldn’t be hearing from these supposed bastions of Britishness again.

The dust has barely settled on the monumental PR disaster in Treorci, but the company has been at it again this week. In a move that is sure to reinforce many people’s disdain for Burberry, Ms Ahrendts received salary, bonus and benefits – including an unspecified clothing allowance – of £3.2m for the year to the end of March. In addition she received matching share and option payouts worth £2.9m.

This cash windfall, worth more than £6 million, could have been used to keep production in South Wales. Instead, the profits from selling out a dedicated workforce, that stuck by the company through thick and thin, have been ‘trousered’ by one person.

I can't imagine how the former Troerci workers, some of who have devoted all of their working life to Burberry, are feeling now. This is yet another example of the greed of the fat cats being placed before the very people that allowed them to make a profit in the first place.

The cutlure of excessive bonuses was an obvious factor in the cause of the recent banking collapse. It handsomely rewarded banking executives for playing a high-risk, high reward strategy. It has been referred to as casino capitalism. That it is still being tolerated, beggars belief.

It is interesting that the companies that are taking a more principled attitude to the way they treat their workforce; John Lewis and Admiral Insurance are two names that spring to mind, are the ones that seem to be doing very well despite the difficult economic situation.

Perhaps Ms Ahrendts and the rest of the overpaid fat cats, from whatever sector of industry they work in, should take heed.

Higher Equality Something to be Proud Of

2010-07-14T07:14:00.001+01:00

‘Ageing, health and wealth – the differences across the UK,’ produced by The Office for National Statistics (ONS) recently gave several reasons to be cheerful for those of us living and working in Wales. Levels of inequality are lower here than anywhere else in the UK. Not only has Wales the lowest variation in household income in the UK, but it has seen the greatest increase in average income; rising 16% over the three-year period between 2004/05.

Some other facets of the report show there is more work to be done; for example, far too many children that are brought up in jobless households.

Good news overall? Not for the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). David Rosser, the director of the CBI in Wales, said that this report provides evidence that Wales needs to attract more entrepreneurs and people with higher salaries. Mr Rosser was joined by along with JoJo Maman Bébé founder Laura Tenison in using the report as evidence that Wales needs more super rich people.

Living in a country where equality is greater than anywhere else in the UK should not be derided. Do families struggling to make ends meet in inner city areas such as Bethnal Green or Canning Town feel blessed that the region in which they live has such a high concentration of high earners? Its doubtful.

I'm not sure why the thoughts of the CBI were given such prominence in the Western Mail’s front page story on the ONS report with the headline 'Lack of Top Earners Holding Wales Back.' As the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggested much further down in the report, Wales does have bigger worries than a dearth of super-rich business men and women.

Common Sense Cuts

2010-06-24T21:44:00.003+01:00

It was refreshing to hear the Howard League for Penal Reform and the probation officers’ union, Napo, bring a bit of common sense to the public debate this week on how best to cut the budget deficit. Both suggested abolishing short prison sentences on the basis that they serve no purpose whatsoever.

As unpalatable as it may be to some not to impose custodial sentences for offences such as ABH, theft and motoring, the hard facts bear this out as a win-win policy. Napo's figures show that 74% of prisoners serving terms of less than 12 months were reconvicted within two years. On the other hand, the chances of reconviction are lowered significantly if the offender is given an intensive supervision order in the community, allied with any programme to tackle underlying problems such as problematic substance use, anger or violence.

The Prison Governors' Association also waded into the debate by backing the abolition of short sentences. Eoin McLennan-Murray, the Association’s president, said small jail terms were ill-judged and stemmed from Britain’s "love affair with custody." We can only hope that this government will be an improvement on the last, which saw the prison population almost double in a decade, despite falling crime. But its not possible to forget Michael Howard’s tenure as Home Secretary.

The cost savings of such a change in sentencing guidelines may be just enough to get George Osborne’s ears to prick up. The difference between jailing offenders for 12 months or less and imposing community rehabilitation programmes is huge – anything up to £300 million per year. If the new government really wanted to find ways to save money that do not affect the most vulnerable people, they should have been prepared to take seriously proposals like the abolition of short prison sentences, as advocated by the people working in the field.

I'll declare an interest in this debate because I worked as a probation officer before my election to the Assembly and I've retained associate membership of Napo. As a probation officers in the valleys, we saw too often the same faces - usually young men who had been jailed briefly for petty offences and not had any form of rehabilitation whilst inside because there simply was not enough time. Prisons hardens many young people. It certainly makes them more likely to re-offend. We regularly saw many first-time offenders jailed for less than 12 months lose everything sometimes for just a few weeks inside; their home, their job and, in some cases, their relationship and kids. Has society improved for having punished this person with a short prison sentence? I would argue the reverse is the case.

In the old days, the Lib Dems stood for fairer and evidence-based criminal justice. They are now in government and committed to making huge cuts. This is a saving that could be made with very little pain. It should be a no-brainer. Somehow, I don't think it'll be as simple as that.

Robin Hood in reverse

2010-06-23T10:56:00.008+01:00

Plenty of people knew that the Tories would be devastating for Wales if they gained power at the UK general election and so it proved with George Gideon Osborne’s ‘reverse Robin Hood’ budget on Tuesday. He has taken from the poorest while leaving the richest relatively untouched.

Mr Osborne prefaced his bombshell by saying his budget was “tough, but fair.” This old Etonian millionaire should ask himself if it is fair on pensioners who cannot afford to heat their homes as well as eat properly through the winter to increase the most regressive of all taxes, VAT, to 20%. Is it fair that child benefit, housing benefit, and family tax credits have all been targeted in measures that will see £11 billion taken out of the welfare system?

Is it fair that so many public sector workers will inevitably lose their jobs with Osborne’s vow to cut Government departments, with a few exceptions, by 25% over four years? Plaid believes this will signal 60,000 job losses in Wales alone. What will this do to our economy?

Yet the bankers, who by-and-large caused the financial meltdown, appear to have got off scot-free. There is to be no curbing of the bonus culture that rewards short-term risk at the expense of long-term stability. At the end of last year, the National Audit Office calculated that the cost of bailing out the banks had, so far, reached a staggering £850 billion. Now that tax-payers money is being used to prop up so many of these institutions, why isn’t the UK Government being firmer and more punitive towards them and their obscene profits? The reason is that the Tory party has always existed, and always will, to preserve the wealth of the few while paying nothing more than lip-service to the needs of the many.

But what of the Liberal Democrats, the sheepish collaborators in this coalition? Millions of people voted for their promise of fairer politics. Those voters must feel utterly betrayed now. Clegg and his cronies have allowed their mouths to be stuffed with gold.

The Con/Dem Government have now set out their stall and given us a taste of what we can expect over the course of their parliament. It is up to us now to make sure their plans to rob the poor and give to the rich are not allowed to get through with ease.

The cuts are on their way

2010-06-16T06:21:00.001+01:00

In the last few weeks it has become clear that big cuts are coming our way. The new coalition Government in Westminster has laid out its plans to reduce the spending deficit by £6.2 billion this year alone. By their own admission, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Public sector pensions, which have historically balanced out the lower wages of workers when compared to their counterparts in the private sector, are now in the firing line.

Following Chancellor George Gideon Osbourne’s initial announcement of cuts, it has been calculated that £162.5m will be slashed from the Welsh budget. We have ‘generously’ been given the option of deferring the cuts from this year only to store up double budgetary pain next year. Some choice.

There is no doubt that in Wales, where a high proportion of workers are employed in the public sector, these austerity measures are going to bite hard. Plaid Cymru has maintained that it is wrong to force those on the lowest incomes and those who depend on public services to pay the price for the deficit, which has largely been caused by the tax-payer funded bail-out of the banks. What is more, it does not make economic sense in the long run.

We have recently heard how the cuts will be affecting Companies’ House which employs hundreds of people at locations in Cardiff and Nantgarw in Rhondda Cynon Taf. This UK Government department has been told that it must find savings of 11% in this financial year. We all hope that the workers there can avoid compulsory redundancies. The proposed pay freeze, which will hopefully stave off enforced job losses, will nevertheless hurt hundreds of employees living in South Wales. The closure of the site in Nantgarw, where 250 people are currently based, will also be a bitter blow for the local economy of the valleys. Surrounding businesses will no doubt be hit hard by the loss of the spending power of so many staff.

The Con/Dem Coalition has set its course and seems to have made up its mind to target us all. Public bodies and institutions should be looking to achieve savings in the upper echelons of their organisations, involving their workforce in the process of identifying where savings can be made. I'm sure the lower paid workers in Rhondda Cynon Taf would have a view as to whether the Jaguar car used to transport the mayor to Stansted airport or to Brighton for an awards ceremony and fish supper was money well spent.

Universities are also going to feel the squeeze. Will we see admin workers made redundant or courses scrapped while the bill for consultancy fees and Vice Chancellors pay keeps rising? Investigations by my office revealed that Cardiff University’s bill for consultants topped £3m in just three years. This was on top of a £1.5m bill for agency workers at a university where the Vice Chancellor collects £275,000 per annum.

The next few years are going to be painful enough without frittering money away on extortionate salaries, consultants and expensive cars.

The True Cost of Oil

2010-06-10T21:21:00.004+01:00

The world is watching with collective dismay the environmental nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20.

Eleven workers were killed outright in the disaster which led to the rig sinking. In the longer term, the lasting consequences are sure to reach far and wide. The immediate concern is how to stop oil spewing out from the burst pipeline at an estimated 24,000 barrels every single day. BP has managed to capture some of the oil with a containment cap but thousands of litres are escaping in any 24 hour period. This has been going on, unabated until recently, for the best part of two months.

The oil spill is already the USA’s biggest ever environmental disaster with the slick having spread towards the Louisiana, Alabama and Florida coastlines. This will have ramifications for the ecology, wildlife, the fishing industry and tourism of such a large strip of America. Some beaches in Florida are already beginning to display warning signs to would-be bathers. It is extremely worrying that the oil may reach Cuba where the economy is so reliant on foreign visitors. If the oil reaches the Cuban shoreline, it could be the tipping point for a country struggling to survive as a result of the damaging trade embargoes America has placed upon it.

This is not the first time BP has suffered an explosion in the United States. The company was fined $87 million last October for failing to correct safety problems at one of their refineries in Texas in 2005 following a blast which killed 15 workers. This hugely wealthy company continues to prioritise their profits above the safety of their employees and the environment.

Now BP is facing a huge clean-up operation which they must surely foot the bill for. The cost of the clean-up has been estimated to date as £1 billion – less than one month’s profit for the company. However, much more damaging has been the £55 billion that has been wiped off BP’s value since the spill began. This will have huge consequences for the pension market in the UK since so many portfolios are invested in the company. Is it not time for the UK Government to start regulating pension funds so that they are invested in ethical companies? The Fair Pensions campaign, supported by trade unions and charities, has long called for the government to regulate pension funds so that people’s future livelihoods are protected from market failure and irresponsible corporate behaviour. The raising of the state pension, which Plaid Cymru has repeatedly called for, could compensate for any losses following on from the collapse in BP's market value.

In an illuminating article, Guardian columnist George Monbiot has argued whether BP actually delivers a profit. Despite pumping billions of pounds every year into the pockets of its shareholders, Monbiot argues this is money which should be set aside for future liabilities, much in the same way that Norway has treated its oil money. Is it ethical for BP to be making a net profit of £17 billion in 2009 without reinvesting those profits in the planet it is benefiting from, yet ulimately wrecking? Its not. Unless oil companies, and BP are by no means the only offender, begin to invest serious money in the environment and prepare for a future where our need for oil does not outstrip supply, then we are in serious trouble.

Despite the projections that the disaster will spell the end for BP, Monbiot also predicts that the company will ride out the storm and still be in business ten years from now. If that is the case, I hope they will have been forced to learn lessons from the Gulf of Mexico.

UPDATE, FRIDAY JUNE 11 - The US Geological Survey has this morning estimated that up to 40,000 barrels of oil could have been escaping from the ruptured pipeline every day before a cap was fitted at the beginning of the month. This is double the amount of oil previously thought to have been escaping.

Kicking Racism Into Touch

2010-06-09T06:19:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday I spoke at the anti-fascist rally held in Cardiff. The reason why I was there, along with hundreds of other like-minded people, was to protest against the presence of the racist English Defence League on our streets.

This divisive band of thugs want to drive a split between white people and anyone else who is not white. They encourage people to hate. Support for far-right racist politics grows during times of economic strife, and this is why they feel strong enough to march through our streets now. It was heartening to see that the anti-fascist protestors heavily outnumbered the EDL, showing that racism is an anathema to the vast majority of Welsh people.

The main message of my contribution to the anti-fascist rally was that Wales has rejected racism time and time again and as yet, the British National Party has not been able to win an election in this country above community council level. These racist hate-mongers, whether they are BNP, EDL or National Front, are not welcome in Wales and I called for solidarity with our “Muslim brothers and sisters,” who have been specifically targetted by these groups.

I also mentioned the Rhondda’s unequivocal response to Oswald Mosley and his black shirts in the 1930s after the area had been identified as a fertile breeding ground for his despicable policies because of the high rates of unemployment. I am proud to say the black shirts were sent packing and were left in no doubt about the views of the South Wales valleys.

A special mention must be made of the Cardiff City supporters who turned up on Saturday to strengthen the anti-fascist gathering. They showed us all that most football supporters abhor racism and want all people in Cardiff to live side by side in harmony.

** Thanks to Plaid Cymru member Andrew Jinks for taking photos at the rally, including the one above. **

Foreign Intervention in Afghanistan

2010-05-25T14:43:00.020+01:00

The British Army is relying heavily upon foreign countries to supply troops to the frontline, recent figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show.

Ministry of Defence figures show that 1420 people from overseas joined up in 2008/09 compared to just 30 in 2001/02. This represents a 50 fold increase during the Iraq and Afghanistan years.

The dramatic rise in the number of foreign recruits; from 60 to 800 between 2005/06 and 2006/07, coincided with a period in which the British Army struggled to attract new soldiers from within the UK.

The relaxation of strict rules governing the Body Mass Index (a measure of somebody’s weight in relation to their height) of new applicants saw the threshold rise from 28 to 32. The previous limit was seen as a bar to many, naturally heavy, aspiring soldiers from former empire countries such as Fuji.

Latest figures show 950 people from overseas were recruited in 2009/10, showing there is still a heavy reliance on overseas applicants who must either have a dual British nationality, be a citizen of the Irish Republic or come from a Commonwealth country, to qualify for consideration for the British Army.

The British Army has always used more soldiers from former-empire countries in times of conflict, but the recent rate of increase in such a short space of time is stark. It paints a picture of an army being extended beyond its means with the war in Iraq initially, and then the conflict in Afghanistan which has escalated out of control in recent years.

Do these foreign fighters see the British Army as the only way out of poverty? And if so, is this desperation being exploited? The UK Government recently had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into providing fair treatment for Ghurkha soldiers. Historically, soldiers from abroad have tended to be cheaper to employ, cheaper to compensate and generally enjoying fewer rights than their counterparts with a British passport, even though the risks they face are no different. There is no justifiable reason to not treat all armed forces personel equally.

In 1921, when unveiling a memorial to Sikh and Hindu soldiers who had fought for the British Army, the Prince of Wales said ‘future generations should not forget that our Indian comrades gave their lives in ... a conflict of which the issues were to most of them strange and impersonal.’ Those words could equally apply today to those non-British recruits who find themselves in extremely dangerous situations in the unforgiving climate and terrain of the Afghanistan desert.

Plaid Cymru consistently opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from the very start and we continue to maintain that troops should be brought home. The forthcoming Strategic Defence Review of is an opportunity for a reassessment of the role of the UK in world affairs and an opportunity for the Westminster Government to cut its cloth to fit the army’s capabilities.

While in opposition, Nick Clegg questioned the strategy in Afghanistan and said ‘young men and women’s lives are being thrown away because our politicians won’t get their act together.’ Will he make such vocal representations post-election? Watching him easily ditch his party’s manifesto pledges on immigration and Trident, I am not confident he will put his head above the parapet on this.

Plaid Cymru has also campaigned for a network of support for serving soldiers, ex-soldiers and their families to be provided. Without such support, people risk falling out of society – as is borne out by the figures on the numbers of ex-service personnel in prison and living homeless on the streets.

Having seen fit to send their armed forces to Afghanistan, the UK Labour Government had a duty of care to ensure they were properly equipped and that they and their families were well cared for both while in service and afterwards. They failed on both counts.

Let's see if the ConDem coalition in Westminster is able to avoid making the same mistakes.

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

2010-05-21T08:40:00.004+01:00

Few can dispute that Labour’s negotiations with the Lib Dems were undermined at a very crucial stage by a succession of the party’s backbenchers and former big hitters. David Blunkett and John Reid did their utmost to strike a hammer blow to the coalition before it even had chance to take flight. Similarly, north of the English border there was an outright rebellion to any notion that Labour MPs could be part of any alliance featuring representatives of the Scottish Nationalist Party.

The Parliamentary Labour Party failed those of us who are against having a Tory government. They failed to protect ordinary people against the wave of big cuts that are on their way. Yes, a Labour-led government would have had to cut too, but people in Wales remember what Tory cuts feel like, and that's why 74% of people voted against them.

After seeing Tuesday's Newsnight, I hear that the negotiating team from the Labour Party only went through the motions in their meetings with the Liberal Democrats and failed to engage in any meaningful way that was ever going to result in success. Take a look at the Jeremy Paxman interview with Shirley Williams , about 33 minutes in. Labour refused to make concessions, but the Tories were prepared to compromise enough to satisfy the Liberal Democrats. The deal was done.

Labour never had the appetite to oppose the Tories.

May they hang their heads in shame.

Broken promises and the lust for power

2010-05-16T06:42:00.001+01:00

Plaid may not have increased our number of MPs at this election, but it was good to see significant gains made in the Rhondda and next door in Cynon. The two constituencies saw significant swings to Plaid and cuts to the Labour majority. We saw our vote improve in many other valleys seats too.

The results show that in Wales people did not embrace the Tories, despite the instructions from the London papers. UK-wide, they failed to secure the majority they needed to form a government. Despite this lack of public confidence, we have ended up with an old Etonian at number 10 due, in part, to the opportunism of the Liberal Democrats who ditched their principles in their lust for power.

All this will make for interesting Assembly elections next year. In the first post-election debate at the Senedd, Kirsty Williams and her party colleagues were noticeably squirming about the policies they’ve had to ditch for this deal. Despite warning of the dangers of Tory public sector cuts before May 6, Liberal Democrat AMs will now have to remain silent while we take slash and burn cuts which they will no doubt try to spin as 'efficiency savings'.

Plaid Cymru has calculated that cuts of £220 million will be made to the Assembly budget this year alone, despite previous assurances from Tories that the Welsh budget would be protected for 12 months under their government. If we don’t see those cuts this year, we expect them to be doubled next year.

Grass roots Liberal Democrats must be left wondering if selling out on cuts and PR for a handful of cabinet seats is worth it. Disgruntled left-leaning Liberal Democrats have been invited to switch their allegiance to Plaid.

As for Labour, their scaremongering tactics which aimed to get people to vote for Labour in order to keep the Tories out, turned out to be rubbish. When they had an opportunity to stop Cameron and his cronies by forming a 'progressive alliance', they blew it. They must therefore take a share of the blame for what happens over the next five years.

I only hope that people remember that the election promises of Labour and Liberal Democrats were broken so, so quickly.

Labour's missed opportunity

2010-05-14T09:05:00.006+01:00

New Plaid MP Jonathan Edwards has blogged on Labour's missed opportunity:

“This was a once in a lifetime opportunity that would not only have changed the face of politics as we know it in the UK but also allowed Welsh communities to have been protected from savage cuts. Instead, and totally against what they had promised during the election, Labour chose the easy option of going into hiding, sending David Cameron into power in the process."

and

"...Labour politicians, who on the doorstep said they were the only people who could keep the Tories out, chose instead to step aside and inflict these cuts on us.”

Expect to hear good things from Jonathan. Llongyfarchiadau brawd!

Vote Different, Vote Plaid

2010-05-06T11:21:00.006+01:00

After months of campaigning, the end is finally in sight. Today is decision day. Whether it has been pounding the steep streets of the Rhondda Fach and Fawr, phone canvassing voters in Aberconwy, or travelling across to Llanelli or Ceredigion to help my party colleagues there, a tangible appetite for change has been detectable.

It could be down to the expenses scandal, the continuing bloody war in Afghanistan that sees so many men, women and children killed every year or the fact that the gap between rich and poor has actually widened in the last 13 years under a Labour Government. Whatever the reason, people seem ready for change.

Can people bring themselves to break the habit, sometimes fostered over a lifetime of voting? Will they mark an ‘X’ in one of the other boxes. Will they think different this time? There is an alternative for people in Wales in Plaid Cymru MPs. Our three MPs built up a reputation in the last Parliament for punching well above their weight and were said by one political commentator to have achieved more than the entire Liberal Democrat party. He may have grabbed the headlines in the leadership debates with his casual, hands in the pocket approach, but Nick Clegg’s record as a Parliamentarian is not great. With Plaid Cymru, you can be assured to have someone who will answer to his constituents rather than his political masters in London. What other candidates in this election can say that?

TCeltic bloc we have formed with the Scottish Nationalist Party has a real chance of gaining for Wales and Scotland in the event of a hung Parliament, which is looking more and more likely as the polls nearer their close. Our combined tally of MPs could hold the crucial balance of power. In return for our support on an issue-by issue basis, we would gain concessions for from a coalition Government. Our manifesto pledges are wide and varying, but are linked by a common thread of ensuring the most vulnerable in society are not made to pick up the tab for the mistakes of the greedy bankers that have recklessly plunged the UK into a financial crisis. To do otherwise is neither fair nor moral, yet none of the other main UK political parties are pressing for this basic principle. For all their talk of fairness, none of the main UK political parties are walking the walk with their policies. All will slash and burn the public sector if they form the government.

So if you are sick of the same old politics and want genuine change, and not some party masquerading as an alternative simply because their leader’s tie is not blue or red, then please vote Plaid.

Home Truths

2010-05-02T08:26:00.004+01:00

We're finally in to the the last week of election campaigning, after a week of some interesting revelations. Cleverly disguised appearances have been stripped and exposed by the intense glare of scrutiny.

It was not just Gordon Brown who showed his disdain for voters and their opinions.
The Tories, who have somehow branded themselves as an all-inclusive, caring and sharing party while operating under the stewardship of these men have admitted public spending under their watch will be cut in the areas which need it the most.

Then we had a Tory candidate deviating from the official party line, saying what he really thought about gay people. Still not convinced? Then check out what this Tory idiot was saying earlier this month on Fox television in the USA. Are his views privately shared by a significant number of his party colleagues? It should at least make people question that pledge to protect health spending.

Then - Nick Clegg showed he didn’t have all the answers when under pressure. Will people see through the man who has seen his main profits coming from not being Cameron or Brown? There also remain questions to be asked about his party’s policies on restricting immigrants to certain regions and their anti-trade union attitudes.

Plaid Cymru policies have withstood scrutiny from the fiercest of television interviewers. We were denied the opportunity to show we could more than handle our own when it comes to debating the content of our manifesto pledges and their credibility on a primetime platform with the three stooges of Clegg, Cameron and Brown. This view is borne out by the reaction I am finding on the doorsteps when out knocking doors and talking people.

I only hope plaid campaigners everywhere can reach enough houses in time to bridge the gap left by the poor hand the broadcasters have dealt us.

Camer Chameleon

2010-04-28T23:00:00.001+01:00

Beneath the shiny exterior, honed and buffed up by the slickest PR machine money can buy, the true colours of the modern Tory party have been exposed. During the course of an interview by Jeremy Paxman, David Cameron let his guard slip by admitting he would make deeper cuts where public spending is higher, referring to Northern Ireland and the North East of England.

He said:

"In Northern Ireland it is quite clear – and almost every party accepts this –that the size of the state has got too big.

"We need a bigger private sector. There are other parts of the country, including in the north-east. The aim has got to be to get the private sector, to get the commercial sector going.”

We can only imagine what will happen to our public services should the Tories take power given they have signalled a crack-down in areas of need. Tens of thousands of jobs are likely to go, all in the name of ‘efficiency savings,’ with little regard for the social consequences.

What is frightening is that the Tory cuts are inevitably going to be even bigger than those implemented by Labour should they somehow cling onto power. Research carried out by Eurfyl ap Gwilym, and the prospective parliamentary candidate for Carmarthen East, Jonathan Edwards, suggests 45,000 public sector jobs will be lost in Wales based on the latest statements made by the Labour Party. This is the equivalent of 50 Bosch factories closing. Horrific.

Four independent reports have concluded that under the current funding system, Wales receives at least £300 million less every year than we should be getting. Without reform of this system - which is not on the agenda of the Tory, Liberal or Labour's agendas. A slash and burn approach to the public sector will be a double whammy for Wales.

Those of us of a certain age can't help remembering Thatcher and the swingeing cuts that devastated too may many communities, particularly here in the valleys. The only difference between now and then is that Thatcher didn't try and dress up her elitist brand of capitalism as something it wasn’t. Yes, she was heartless, but she did little to disguise it.

Cameron, on the other hand, could be argued to be a more dangerous beast. For all his talk of a ‘big society’ and ‘protecting the NHS,’ things will be very different should he gain power. George Osbourne, who has remained tight-lipped on his talk of an “age of austerity” after it proved to be unpalatable with the electorate last autumn, has already prepared the ground for an abrupt change of direction. In what is certain to be welcomed by his party’s non-dom paymasters, Osbourne has stated he would be calling an emergency budget 60 days after moving into number 11 Downing Street. This will allow him to sweep aside all the pre-election party promises with a simple ‘ah, but we didn’t know how bad the position was until we saw the books.’ It is so predictable.

I only hope those who value public services and believe jobs should be protected, can see the political chameleon that is the modern day Tory party, and are not blinded by the air-brush. Plaid Cymru has pledged to ensure that the most vulnerable do not bear the brunt of the cuts. If Wales had fairer funding we’d be getting at least £300million extra per year and that would safeguard up to 9,000 jobs in the public sector. It wouldn't be enough to close the gap, but it would help.

There is consensus between the big thee parties that cuts will be made to the welfare state. All will deliver severe cuts in health and education and to public sector jobs. Our MPs, in their Celtic bloc with the SNP, could hold the crucial balance of power in the event of a hung or balanced parliament, which is looking increasingly likely by the day. In this scenario, we would make sure the best possible deal for Wales is put on the table before reaching any agreement. What other political party can be trusted to do that?

Plaid Cymru 1 Paxman 0

2010-04-27T09:20:00.004+01:00

Ron Davies for Plaid

2010-04-26T04:14:00.005+01:00

This is the full text of Ron Davies’s speech in the Plaid election rally to support Penri James to be the next MP for Ceredigion, in Aberystwyth on Saturday. With thanks to Alun Williams.

“Thank you very much. I was tempted to say, “Good Morning. And it is a very good morning in Aberystwyth".

“I am not going to try to attempt to speak with the degree of hwyl and local conviction that we’ve just had from my very good friend Dafydd Iwan. But the message I bring to you is no less heartfelt. I’m here today to support Penri.

“I hope that people throughout the length and breadth of Wales will think very seriously about the way that they will cast their vote on May 6th. We have not been well served by our governments in Westminster. We have had 40 years of political consensus which has put the interests of London at the heart of all of our decision- making. And that political consensus is shared between those people that Dafydd described as 'those three men'.

“The Conservative Party, unfortunately the Labour Party, and the Lib Dems have shared that political consensus, that what matters in Britain is the future and prosperity of that square mile in the city of London. And when you have a political consensus without any real challenge to the priorities you have a country descending into the country that we see today.

“We’ve had the worst economic collapse that any of us have seen. Following from that we have political corruption on an appalling scale in London. We've seen a growth of inequality right throughout the length of Britain. And we’ve seen the British people led by a British government into overseas military adventures when we’re killing innocent men, women and children in the name of the British state and in the name of the Americans.

“Now that is the consequence of having a political consensus. Like me, you’ll have watched some of the debate on television. And they talk about change - “We are the party of change”. The only difference is the colour of their ties. They shouldn’t call themselves parties. They should say, “The Blue Tie Party”, or, “The Red Tie party”, or, “The Orange Tie Party”. They don’t offer any difference.

“This election offers us in Wales the chance to send a very clear message. Every vote which is cast in this election for Plaid Cymru is a vote cast on behalf of the people of Wales. Every vote cast for Plaid Cymru candidates will be noted in London. In terms of politics, in terms of what we offer, it is now only Plaid Cymru which can challenge that political consensus.

“If you want to affect those issues that are concerning us, if you want to change the structure of politics, if you want to change the quality of democracy, if you want to bring equality, if you want to make sure that communities know where they stand and have secure futures, there’s only one thing to do on May 6th. And that is to support your Plaid Cymru candidate.

“Penri, I’m delighted to be here. I wish you every success. I have no doubt at all that you and many, many other Plaid Cymru candidates are going to be successful on May 6th. And Wales will be better for it.

Happy St George's Day to friends in England

2010-04-23T12:18:00.007+01:00

The wider implications of Iceland's volcanic eruption

2010-04-22T07:14:00.005+01:00

The volcanic eruption in Iceland has caused travel chaos over the past week. The unprecedented disruption to flights has left many thousands of Welsh holiday makers stranded abroad, unable to return to their homes and jobs. Now, amid recrimination and blame, the restrictions on flights have been lifted. Lessons need to be learned, but its worth thinking about the wider implications of the flight ban.

The Guardian reported this week that farmers in Kenya had to throw away 50 to 60 tonnes of broccoli, sugar snap peas, runner beans and other fruit and vegetables because of the flights that would normally transport them to the UK were grounded. That huge amount of food was ditched by last Friday alone, at the beginning of the six-day period of disruption. Imagine the many hundreds of tonnes of food that will have been lost in Kenya by the time flights are running as normal.

As regular readers of this blog will know, I have raised concerns about future food security before. We do not grow enough of our own food and therefore rely on too many imports. It is wrong, from an environmental perspective, for Scotland to export potato seeds to Egypt, so that farmers can grow them there and then import the finished, grown product back to Scotland. Similarly, why do we buy large amounts of New Zealand lamb when we have fantastic, world-renowned lamb on our doorstep here in Wales?

The UK's reliance on food imports leaves these islands vulnerable and susceptible to a food crisis sometime in the future, which has been predicted by many with terrifying consequences. The notion and implications of peak oil have to be taken seriously.

Food prices are closely linked to fuel prices. The number of air and road miles most of our food has undertaken before it has reached the supermarket shelves means the price largely reflects fuel costs. With petrol prices looking likely to only increase in the coming years, it is crucial that food price-hikes and shortages are planned and prepared for.

People will need food growing skills we have lost from past generations. There are plenty of people keen and willing to learn and try food growing, and the growth in demand for allotments in recent years shows this. But provision does not meet this demand, as the Assembly's Environment and Sustainability Committee heard yesterday. Government at all levels must do all that can be done to provide greater access to allotments, as well as think about other ways in which we can plan to avoid a worse case peak-oil scenario.

Best of a bad bunch

2010-04-16T17:25:00.011+01:00

In last night's leadership debate the consensus is that Nick Clegg outperformed Brown and Cameron. If you want to judge a potential Prime Minister on their body language and presentation, then Clegg probably emerged as the winner. Being the party with the least to lose, it was predictable that the Lib Dems would gain from these debates, but I was not impressed by what Clegg had to say.

He implied that the Lib Dems would do away with Trident. Yet their manifesto says they will

'rule out the like-for-like replacement of the Trident nuclear weapons system. At a cost of £100 billion over a lifetime it's unaffordable and Britain's security would be better served by alternatives. We support multilateral nuclear disarmament and will ensure the UK plays a proactive role in the arms reduction talks starting later this year.'

Which means that they will continue with nuclear arms, and so won't save £100 billion. Clegg was playing the part of honest broker, yet their line on Trident is not honest.

Plaid says money should be spent on protecting the vulnerable and those on low incomes, rather than on weapons of mass destruction.

Furthermore, Clegg's views on monitoring immigration were, at best, complete nonsense and, at worst, sinister. Limiting immigrants to a certain region is not only impractical and impossible to administer but also abhorrent. He said it happens in other countries. Where? South Africa under apartheid?

Then we have the omission of any mention of Wales, Scotland or Ireland during the debate, let alone recognition of the changed political landscape outside Westminster. Brown, Cameron and Clegg had nothing to say about Wales and nothing to say to the people of Wales about devolved matters like health and education. We are of no concern to the Big Three. In Plaid we saw this coming and that's why we campaigned so hard, along with the SNP, to be included in these debates. The publicly-funded and publicly-obligated BBC chose to ignore our legitimate complaint, stifling the discussion and thereby potentially misleading voters.

So apart from Cameron showing himself to be lacking not only in substance, but also style without his baying Commons mob behind him, the other losers were all of the people living outside of England. Policies like health and education were discussed with the 'this doesn't apply in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland' disclaimer, but these three British politicians were answering to the people in the three and a half countries that make up Britan, without acknowledging that they were only talking about England.

In recent weeks, too many people have said of politicians 'they're all the same'. They all looked the same last night. I hope on May 6th people will 'think different'.

Plaid Manifesto 2010

2010-04-15T17:02:00.000+01:00

I attended the successful Plaid Cymru manifesto launch at the Wales Millennium Centre this week, where we outlined the principles our party stands for in our bid to re-elect a record number of MPs to Parliament.

The trio of Elfyn Llwyd, Adam Price and Hywel Williams has garnered a reputation among political commentators with no axe to grind for punching above their weight. The Celtic bloc with the SNP, could place Plaid Cymru in a position to secure major concessions for Wales if the election result is balanced, as many of the polls are predicting.

One of the core principles underpinning many of our seven priorities is our call to protect the most vulnerable in society against the coming cuts. Plaid believes that people on the lowest incomes should not be made to pay for the mistakes of the banking elite, who are largely to blame for putting the UK’s finances in the red by their greed for profits.

We have called for frontline health and education budgets to be protected and the unfair Barnett funding formula, which short changes Wales by over £300 million every single year, to be reformed.

We have also called for a living pension to be introduced so that pensioners are not forced to choose between heating and eating. Starting with the over 80s, we have costed the raising of a single person’s pension to £130 a week and a couple’s pension to £202 a week.

The Environmental Action Plan aims to tackle and prepare for the effects of climate change, an issue which must be at the fore for any responsible government. We want to stimulate a green revolution in our economy which will ensure much-needed investment in community-based farming and small scale manufacturing.

Having been unjustly sidelined by the BBC during the scheduling of the televised election debates, I was glad to see good attendance from the various media outlets, both national and UK-wide. Early signs are that the London-based media is devoting more time to political issues in Wales and while the coverage is not as extensive as it should be, it is a step in the right direction. With many people in Wales relying upon London-based papers or news bulletins for their election information, this enhanced coverage is crucial. Without it, people risk being misinformed. Debates about health or education policy at a UK level rarely have any relevance here in Wales, but people are given the impression that they can vote on those issues in this election, when in Wales and Scotland they can't.

There is an alternative to the cuts agenda of the three main UK political parties and Plaid’s parliamentary candidates are prepared to fight for the interests of the working class - even if it means taking on big business and greedy bankers.

The valleys and tunnels

2010-03-29T18:45:00.003+01:00

Great article in the Western Mail today about the abandoned tunnels that scatter the south Wales valleys. The legacy of heavy industry, these feats of engineering were used to transport coal and materials between areas that would have otherwise been separated by thousands of tonnes of rugged landscape.

Now Plaid's prospective General Election candidate for Cynon Valley, Dafydd Trystan, has proposed opening up these tunnels to link up communities that are very close geographically but miles away from each other due to the road network.
Speaking as a board member of the sustainable travel charity Sustrans about the tunnels between Abernant and Merthyr Tydfil and between Penrhiwceiber and Quakers Yard, Dafydd said:

“Both these tunnels could provide a fascinating walk or cycle ride, especially for anyone interested in our transport history, as well as a convenient inter-valley route. I very much hope studies can go ahead which could eventually lead to their reopening.”

I think this is a fantastic idea and should be seriously explored. There's a blocked up tunnel between Treherbert and Blaengwynfi in the Afan valley. If the tunnels in question are in a good state of repair it should cost a relatively small amount of money to reopen them and the benefits to all communities concerned would be felt instantly.

Travel time between the major town of Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil could be slashed, which would not only be beneficial to commuters and the economy, but also to the environment. We need to be doing all we can to reduce our green-house gas emissions, and car-travel, which is almost essential for travelling between valleys, is one of our greatest emitters. Cutting time spend on the road would reduce emissions from cars, but re-opening the railtrack, if it still runs under the mountains, would help to reduce car usage much more.

Many communities would, I'm sure, feel and be a lot less isolated if some of the old tunnels could be reopened. It is very difficult to place a value on the benefits it could deliver as I've never experienced life living in a community where the road runs out. The idea deserves wider consideration as it could provide good opportunities to people who would otherwise struggle to access employment.

9 out of 10 rapes go unreported

2010-03-17T14:48:00.012Z

Earlier this week a wide-ranging review was published into the way rape investigations are conducted and complainants are treated by police.

It made for shocking reading as Baroness Stern, the review’s author, found as many as nine out of ten rapes and attempted rapes go unreported.

One of the main reasons for this, the review found, was reluctance on the part of victims to reveal intimate details of their personal lives before going to court.

Having to re-live such a traumatic experience through various police interviews, and then again in court is something many people feel unable to do. If the detective handling the case is insensitive or unsympathetic, or judges a woman because of her clothes, or intoxicants she may take, or appears not to believe her, that ordeal is made even worse. Such insensitivity or judgementalism can be dangerous, as it means many perpetrators of sex crimes are getting away scot-free and rapists are being allowed to go on and rape again.

Baroness Stern argues that there is too much emphasis on achieving a conviction. After speaking to victims, she concluded what was really important: "...was really important was not in the end if they could get a conviction; what they said was, we still feel we want to be believed."

Stern wants the expansion of Sexual Abuse Referral Centres (SARCs) to every police force in England and Wales, forensic evidence to be gathered by the NHS rather than the police and a network of professional, independent advisors to support a victim through each stage of the criminal process.

If the recommendations of Baroness Stern are to be implemented, there is a chance that some of the embarrassment and emotional trauma of reporting a rape or sexual offence will be taken away. This can only be a good thing; not only for the well-being of complainants, but for justice and the safety of our communities too.

However, I would like to see reform go further. When I worked as probation officer, I worked with far too many people who had been raped or sexually abused, often as children, but who had never had any counselling or support often, but not always, because it had gone unreported. In such circumstances, some people find it impossible to come to terms with what has happened and can seek ways of blocking traumatic memories out with drink or drugs, which can then lead to falling foul of the law. There should be some sort of system to provide suppport for such people, should they need that support straight away or years after the abuse has taken place.

Dr Nicole Westmarland, a lecturer in criminology at Durham University and former chair of Rape Crisis (England and Wales), has identified a number of other improvements that could be made. A key element of Dr Westmarland’s recommendations is an improvement in evidence gathering to reduce the risk of rape cases being dismissed as one person’s word against another. Dr Westmarland's views deserve serious consideration - they could enhance the recommendations of Baroness Stern.

Such fundamental changes won’t happen overnight, but the authorities must ensure they are implemented as quickly as possible in the name of justice and decency.

Wales, 2010.

2010-03-12T16:16:00.006Z

If you were asked to guess when food banks were operating in Wales to distribute three days worth of emergency groceries to those who can’t afford the basics, you would be forgiven for thinking of another century.

Emergency food packages evokes memories of the depression of the 1930s or perhaps even the bitter year-long miners’ strike of 1984. That it exists right now, in 2010, is nothing short of an outrage. Plans to establish another ten food banks across Wales in response to growing demand, indicates the problem is not going to disappear soon. In the South Wales Central region, there is a food bank in Pontyclun and another in Tylorstown which recently ran an appeal for canned food to be donated.

Thanks to Thatcher, many parts of Wales have failed to recover from previous bad economic times. The Tory Governments of the 1980s and 90s presided over huge wealth disparities in the UK which was illustrated by the decimation of the coal industry at a time when yuppies were popping up all over London. And New Labour have also failed to address the burgeoning gap between rich and poor in 13 years’ of Government. Recent reports have shown inequalities to have increased under Blair and Brown.

In plenary at the Senedd this week, I asked for funding to be supplied to the Trussell Trust who operate the food bank network. They provide emergency food to people in crisis on a voluntary basis, thanks to people's good will in donating non-perishable food.

If, as expected, David Cameron becomes the next Prime Minister, we have cause for even more concern. The Tories' raison d’etre has been, and will always be, to protect the wealth of the privileged few. If they get elected and carry out their planned slash and burn of public services, the food bank network would no doubt expand, particularly in those parts of Wales where a high proportion of the working population is employed within that particular sector.

If things are bad now, we ain't seen nothing yet!

Strike ends

2010-03-10T19:40:00.001Z

The 48-hour stoppage by members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union has now drawn to a close. An estimated 200,000 PCS union members withdrew their labour during the strike and widespread disruption was caused to public services everywhere. Plenary at the Welsh Assembly was postponed and Plaid Cymru and Labour AMs refused to cross the picket line. The Tories showed their true colours by criticising the halting of Assembly business. Should we expect any different from a party that always has and always will represent the interests of the ruling elite? As chair of the all-party PCS group, I was more than happy to show my solidarity with members of the union and their quest to defend their redundancy rights during the two-day strike by joining picket lines and speaking at a rally in Cardiff.

PCS Members have not taken the decision to strike lightly. Losing two days of pay is not an easy sacrifice to make, but they have certainly demonstrated that they are serious about protecting their contractual rights. More industrial action is planned for next week and an overtime ban is also in place. This of course will all be called off if the powers-that-be in Westminster do the sensible thing and get round the negotiating table with ACAS and the union.

It does not take Sherlock Holmes to deduce where the UK Labour Government is going with this downgrading of the civil service compensation scheme. They seem hell bent on doing the Tories’ dirty work for them by making it cheap to sack civil servants ahead of the anticipated post-General Election cull of public services. As an example of a party losing touch with its core support, this is up there with the abolition of the lower rate of income tax.

I fear this dispute is just the start of brutal cuts to our public services. Apart from the misery huge job losses will bring to thousands of loyal civil servants, it also has some incredibly bright economists scratching their heads at the logic of reducing public spending in a recession. Making low-paid workers and users of public services pay the price for the mistakes of the banking elite in causing the UK’s huge spending deficit, is simply wrong. The PCSU are right to stand against that principle.

I hope that union members stay strong and stick together for the duration of this dispute. That's the only way they'll stop their contracts being ripped up by their employer, and the best way to stop the planned vicious cuts to our public services.

PCS strike

2010-03-04T12:00:00.004Z

Next week thousands of members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union are due to strike in defence of their redundancy terms. The UK Government is looking to make up to £500 million of savings by imposing new terms on public and civil servants that would see them lose a third of their redundancy entitlement. This means workers could lose up to £12,000 or a thrid of the value of their redundancy package if they are forced out of a job.

I recently shared a platform with the PCS union’s General Secretary, Mark Serwotka, and Jonathan Edwards, Plaid’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, during the Undeb fringe event at Plaid Cymru’s spring conference. Mark inspired delegates by speaking about the need to protect frontline services and resist the cuts agenda being pushed by the three UK political parties.

The main reason that our public finances are in such a mess is due to the tax-payer funded bank-bailouts that took place to avoid a complete collapse of the financial system. Casino capitalism and greed has led us to this position, yet it will be those who use public services who will be made to pay for the mistakes of the bankers yet again. The poor are being robbed to pay the rich - a reversal of the Robin Hood principle.

The PCS dispute is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to a sustained all-out attack on the public sector and the thousands of loyal workers that keep our services running smoothly and efficiently, often for little more that the minimum wage. As chair of the all party PCS group in the Assembly, I'm urging as many people as possible to support the PCS strike next week. Without civil and public servants, there can be no public services. The stakes are high.

Warning: cuts are bad for the economy

2010-02-12T08:03:00.000Z

This week a lone voice was heard in the mainstream media. He has different ideas as to the best way of tackling the UK's estimated £178 billion budget deficit. Up until now newspaper readers have been bombarded by pledges from the three main UK political parties about how they will butcher the public sector in order to balance the books.

The consensus is that big cuts are needed. The argument is about how wide and deep cuts should be. The Tories seem to be winning the PR battle by hinting at the type of cuts that will devastate the lives of millions but won't scare the wealthy and influential bankers who got us into this mess in the first place. A banking crisis has now become the problem of the public sector in one of the great conjuring tricks of recent years.

Anyone familiar with Compass, an independent left-wing think tank, will know they have produced a paper called ‘In Place of Cuts’ that stands as a compelling and coherent alternative to the cuts agenda. It promotes the scrapping of socially useless projects such as Trident and the watered down ID card system and introducing a fairer tax system that makes those who can afford it, pay more as a means of protecting jobs in the public sector. It has received little coverage in the media and the leaders of the main UK political parties have either ignored it or dismissed it. Are we living in a political climate where anyone opposing the cuts agenda is accused of living in ‘cloud cuckoo land?’

This consensus was delivered a mortal blow when a very cogent voice in the world of economics entered the debate this week. Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Laureate and former special advisor to Bill Clinton, warned against the dangers of “fiscal fetishism.” In an interview with The Independent newspaper, Mr Stiglitz explained: “Because cutting back means the economy goes into a downturn and the markets lose even more confidence, as it will trigger another recession or depression." What you’ll get then, he said, is a double-dip in the economy.

He also raged against the reverse Robin Hood distribution of wealth from the poor to the rich since the crash of the banking sector in 2008. On this he said: "The current crisis has seen the government assume a new role – the 'bearer of risk of last resort'. When the private markets were at the point of meltdown, all risk was shifted to the government. The safety net should focus on protecting individuals; but the safety net was extended to corporations, in the belief that the consequences of not doing so would be too horrific. Once extended, it will be difficult to withdraw. Firms will know that if they are sufficiently big and their failure represents a sufficient threat to the economy – or if they are sufficiently politically influential – the government will bear the risk of failure."

When we unveiled our plans to introduce a living pension so that pensioners would have enough money to heat their homes as well as eat (how unreasonable!), Plaid Cymru was attacked for being irresponsible by our political rivals. We proposed finding the money to fund the first phase of this policy by simplifying the pension system so that pension credits no longer go unclaimed and by the scrapping of Trident and the ID card system. Perhaps the guardians of fiscal responsibility will remember the words of Joseph Stiglitz before saying this is 'cloud cuckoo land' politics next time.