So Ieuan Wyn Jones is standing down as leader of Plaid Cymru. Dafydd Elis Thomas wants to take over. Is anyone surprised? Will it make any difference? Does anyone care? The answer to all three questions is a resounding No.
From all the nonsense we've heard spouted since the elections it's clear that the only future Plaid sees for itself is as a junior partner to Labour. Forget all the 'Welsh party' nonsense, Plaid is just a left-of-centre party that's now as British as the others, it just happens to be based in Wales. Among the worst of this idiocy was Dafydd Elis Thomas's remark about not attacking Labour if you're appealling to Labour voters! How does that work exactly - 'Oh, you vote Labour, Mrs Hughes! Labour's a wonderful party . . . so I won't bother asking you to vote for Plaid.' What absolute bollocks!
And then saying that he has never understood the hostility to Labour that he finds with so many Plaid people from the Valleys. When you've grown up in a one-party state and you find a party that might just challenge the dictatorship then you don't hold back. On a purely practical and electoral level, doesn't DET realise that many - most? - Plaid votes in the south are anti-Labour votes. If people know before an election that voting Plaid means voting Labour then those votes are lost. While in the rural areas, where people tend to be anti-Labour anyway, and often vote tactically to keep Labour out, being too close to Labour is also a vote loser.
Being seen as Labour's Little Helper is a vote loser all over the country. It will not encourage a single Labour voter to switch. So where is the advantage to Plaid Cymru from not attacking Labour? And how does this snuggling up to Labour work when Labour's in power in London - pretend the party in Wales is a totally different entity? That it will not take orders from London?
If sucking up to Labour won't gain Plaid any new votes, how will it play with the party's traditional supporters in the west? Many of these vote Plaid on cultural and linguistic grounds. For a few decades these supporters have been hoping that Plaid would address the issue of colonisation and the resultant death of Welsh language culture and Welsh as a community language. Plaid has steadfastly refused to touch this thorny issue, and as a result many of its core supporters are ready to abandon Plaid, just as Plaid has abandoned them.
We Welsh need a new political party. A party prepared to fight the processes making us strangers in our own country. A party with the balls to demand things such as the Assembly having control over all our natural resources. A party with no time for 1960s student socialism and nonsense about popular fronts. A party that believes Wales can never achieve its potential without independence.
17 comments:
"Being seen as Labour's Little Helper is a vote loser all over the country. It will not encourage a single Labour voter to switch." I'm sure you're right. I heard Dafydd El on Radio Wales a few days ago, and I don't think he anticipates being in opposition to Labour or just as a "little helper". I think we are in for a situation where Plaid becomes a section of the Welsh Labour Party, operating within it. In that situation, every Plaid vote is a Labour vote and vice versa.
Sadly I must agree with this article,as many many people I know do.....
Oh gosh, and independent Wales for the Welsh ...
And just who is going to pay for it? England, no change here then but for how much longer? Europe, not likely, Europe doesn't agree with any European country belonging to any particular race, creed or religion.
Maybe Ireland ...
Jac
We had NEC yesterday, there will be changes and quickly. Don't agree you need new party. We should change from within, Plaid Cymru have name recognition and we should build on that. What we need is to recover our core vote from Llais Gwynedd in your hinterland and stop undermining the core vote with unpopular policies like school re-organisations. Plaid Cymru Council groups should work closely with AM's and MP's, it doesn't happen now but hopefully it will with Llyr representing us.
KP,
You're like a stuck record. As I pointed out to you before.....England cannot pay for itself let alone anybody else.
good blog Jac.
Plaid needs to be for Plaid and not worry about anyone else.
I agree with all of your sentiments, Royston, but we have tried the new party road in the IWP, and failed. Llais Gwynedd has not become a new national party; it seems to have become a refuge for some of the worse elements of incomers, opposed to Welsh Education, and in favour of geriatric colonisation!
If you want to register a new Nationalist Centre Right Party, with a strict membership policy I am willing to support it, but I'm not convinced that a new Party is the answer, because at the end of the day the "new nationalist party" will compromiser as much as Plaid has, given a sniff of power!
What we need in Wales is a Campaign for Independence , a non/pan part political organisation that campaigns for independence without the electoral system!
I agree, Alwyn. Grass root non-party campaigns can forge public opinion and galvanize support. Only one thing other than paychecks counts for Politicians - public opinion (well, the bit of public opinion that makes headlines).
If Plaid were to get the right leader, there would be many like me who would probably jojn as grass roots members.
Alwyn, you may be right. But it would need to be a dedicated national organisation, not just promoting independence but also demanding the changes now that will make Wales a better place for our people.
A serious, non-socialist, idiot-free group that produces practical suggestions for change rather than just moaning about the state of affairs today.
Just out of interest, what would be the advantage(s) of independence?
Would we become more prosperous as individuals, more prosperous as a nation, more culturally diverse, more welcoming, more welcomed, more geopolitically important, or what?
And where does the language fit into all this?
Jac - Where the fuck did you find kp? Is he the idiot that the village lost?
Advantages of independence for the answer go to Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Montenegro or Macedonia and look around for yourself.
Any country's language belongs to all and is part and parcel of a country's culture and tradition. Obviously kp belongs elsewhere!
Ah ha, I see what you mean ... we'd get more votes in the Euro-vision song contest.
kp's a strange yet curiously entertaining wee chappie who crops up on various blogs with his amazing insights into the state of Wales and the world generally.
For example, did you know that the Apollo 13 disaster, the economic collapse in Greece and the 16:45 from Holyhead running late can all be attributed to bilingualism in Wales?
In fact, no matter what subject I or anyone else blogs on you can guarantee that kp knows what to blame.
I'm interested in the idea of a national non and pan-party body dedicated to campaigning for independence (or even one campaigning for greater autonomy or independence). This would separate the campaign from all the other 'baggage' of a political party, and could focus on getting its message across without getting distracted by party politics or elections – this would have to be a long term campaign which would not fit into electoral cycles.
I suppose a precedent is the founding of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, which separated the campaign for the language from the broader objectives of Plaid Cymru and led to the 'main-streaming' of support for the language across the political parties.
I hope that such a campaign would be broader and more 'grass roots' that Tomorrow's Wales, which always came across as elitist. Incidentally what happened to Tomorrow's Wales? Their website seems to have vanished and the last entry on their Facebook group is a message in March telling people to vote no in the more powers referendum!
"A serious, non-socialist, idiot-free group that produces practical suggestions for change rather than just moaning about the state of affairs today."
Sounds good to me, but also a party standing on the regional list.
Llais Gwynedd took 15% of the vote against Dafydd El, and Sian Caiach took 2000 votes and lost HMJ the seat in Llanelli. Compare that with the pathetic votes that the Greens and the left of labour socialists get.
If Plaid Cymru can't stand up for Wales and its people instead of following the elite Guardianista/BBC agenda then to hell with it.
"Llais Gwynedd took 15% of the vote against Dafydd El, and Sian Caiach took 2000 votes and lost HMJ the seat in Llanelli. Compare that with the pathetic votes that the Greens and the left of labour socialists get."
Compare them and then what?
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