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Pleidiol wyf i'm beth?
2007-05-31 12:11:00 Ydy Cymru'n gwlad yntai'n genedl? Dyna dw i'n gofyn yn fy ngholofn yn Golwg yr wythnos hon.Ymhlith yr holl drafodaethau clymbleidio rhwng y pleidiau wedi'r etholiad, mae'n debyg fod y mater hwn wedi dod i'r brig. Yn ol pob son, roedd yna gwrthwynebiad egwyddorol yn y Blaid Lafur ac ymysg y Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol i'r gair 'cenedl' yn nogfen Plaid Cymru. Yn wir, newidiodd y Blaid Lafur yr is-deitl 'Adeiladu Cenedl' yn nogfen Plaid Cymru i 'Gymru Cryfach' yn ei ddogfen ei hun.Ond beth ar wyneb y ddaear sy?n bod â?r gair 'cenedl'? Wedi?r cyfan, mae?n syniad sydd wedi codi mewn nifer o areithiau amlycaf Gordon Brown.Dwn i ddim. I fi mae Cymru yn gwlad ac yn genedl. Mae Prydain yn wladwriaeth ac mae Ewrop (ar hyn o bryd) yn gawlach llwyr. *******************************-***********************A topic pinched from my column in Golwg this week...One of the sticking points in the post-election coalition negotiations was over the alleged nationalist rhetoric in Plaid Cymru's ...
The deal Plaid left behind
2007-05-23 10:49:00 More details are emerging of the deal Plaid turned down to concentrate solely on forming a rainbow coalition. It is thought Labour were offering a referendum on a Scottish-style parliament, a review of the Barnett formula AND a new Welsh Language Act (in some form). I also understand that at the time Plaid voted to sever talks with Labour, Rhodri Morgan's team were perusing the very same document on health reconfiguration which had been submitted to the Lib Dems and the Tories. Even though Labour had earlier rejected the idea of a moratorium on the reconfiguration programme, the four AMs who voted against suspending negotiations clearly thought there was still hope of reaching an agreement on this and other key issues.Nevertheless, the other Plaid AMs decided that talks were not progressing at a sufficient pace. And yet, had this offer been on the table on May 4th, surely they would have snapped it up?
101 ways to prop up a 'failed Labour administration'*
2007-05-05 13:53:00 Peter Black, newly re-elected Lib Dem AM for South Wales West, knows exactly what he is doing.Yesterday's blog post got the ball rolling. 'It is clear that we now need a fresh approach and a radical re-think,' he wrote. For 'radical re-think' read 'leadership contest,' I responded. He had opportunities to deny this both on my blog and on Radio Wales. He chose not to do so.And today, he's at it again: 'My instincts are that the Welsh Liberal Democrats do not have to be the deal-makers in this process. We have our own issues to sort out first around where we are going as a party and what sort of image we project to the Welsh public.'It's now acknowledged that the leaders of Lib Dem councils are not keen on a Lab-Lib pact. Their long-term strategy is based on undermining Labour, not propping it up. In addition, one third of the Lib Dem assembly group have now spoken out against a Labour coalition. OK, so that only adds Eleanor Burnham to the mix (so far), but that's the Lib...
Four days to go and...
2007-04-30 11:48:00 Lib Dem leader Mike German is in Aberystwyth again. He might as well buy a second home there. That'll please Elin Jones. Still, he might need somewhere to lie low on election night. Can you really see Plaid making the same mistake twice?Labour say it's all about partnership. Peter Hain and Rhodri Morgan are going to comb each other's hair for the press sometime this afternoon. Activists will be choking on their clear red water.Plaid Cymru have finally persuaded some chap called Eurfyl ap Gwilym to come down from London to take the flak over their finance programme. Expect Labour and the Tories to sling the mud with venom. I fear for poor Eurfyl it's going to be like trying to volley it away with a tennis racket - much of it is going to splatter over the brave little soldier's face. And why do Plaid need to 'call in' an expert anyway? Can't any of their AMs do sums?And the Tories have brought in a notorious vote winner to help them with the final push. Unfortunately, he wasn...
Plaid Cymru split over nuclear power?
2007-04-27 13:50:00 Yes, it seems they are.....ELIN JONES this week dismissed a Plaid Cymru split over nuclear power. The Ceredigion candidate insisted it was of no significance that the party was anti-nuclear while its leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones, backed a nuclear replacement within the next 10 years for the Wylfa power plant on Anglesey. Successive Plaid manifestos rule out new nuclear power stations, but Mr Jones said he would support the development because he had a “re-sponsibility to defend jobs”, subject to assurances concerning the level of investment, the number of jobs that would be created and proposals for dealing with nuclear waste.Rival candidates - apart from the Liberal Democrats - back a new power station and accused Mr Jones of fudging the issue. But Elin Jones said she defended the right of any AM, including a party leader, to disagree with official policy.Aberystwyth Today 26th April 2007 Plaid should dump this Mr Jones. Either you are for or against nuclear power! This is too serio...
Deal or no deal?
2007-04-24 20:01:00 Right, that?s the day over. Time to reflect. (For background see HERE)My initial reaction to this story was that we could nit pick our way out of it. What?s the difference between a deal and a coalition, I wondered. Isn't this just a story about semantics? Some blogs and news bulletins evidently wondered this too, because that's also the line they took.But if we go back to Labour?s denial, what they say is that ?this story is rubbish from start to finish?. So, is it? Is it rubbish that senior labour politicians (note that the report calls them politicians and not sources) are understood by the BBC to be ?prepared to make major policy concessions in return for the party's support in votes of confidence and on issues such as the assembly budget??Is it rubbish that ?prominent Labour figures have said they are considering a deal with Plaid?? Is it? Is it? Eh?If it is rubbish, then someone has made it up. Surely Labour aren?t accusing the BBC of that?But let?s imagine it isn?t rubbis...
Kick Labour into touch?
2007-04-24 09:57:00 Plaid Cymru are going to need some new posters.1230 UPDATE: This is fast turning into a game of semantics. Just the sort of thing that will turn ordinary people off as much as it turns us anoraks on.Labour rule out a coalition with Plaid, who in turn rule out 'propping up' Labour. But that doesn't rule out an 'agreement'. Which is just what Labour are accusing Plaid of patching together with the Tories. At least nobody now has the moral high ground on making amorous advances. They're all at it.1245 UPDATE: Have talks, official or otherwise, already taken place?1345 UPDATE: Leighton Andrews insists the source is not a senior figure: "The BBC may have found someone in the Labour Party to say what the BBC is reporting - but they are certainly not anyone with any authority to say anything about Welsh Labour strategy pre- or post-election." But the BBC's Vaughan Roderick claims it is someone 'high up in the party'. It's hardly surprising that Labour's unionist wing are issuing...
Honest John: Wood fires off final answers
2007-04-21 17:17:00 Here it is, the last Honest John post. Jonathan Morgan, Mick Bates and Huw Lewis have been and gone. After this I'll have to start writing this blog myself again, which frankly sounds a lot more trouble than getting you lot to ask the questions and persuading some gullible politicians to answer them.Last up is Leanne Wood, Plaid Cymru AM for South Wales Central. Leanne has hit the headlines for her role in the anti-Trident protests in Faslane Naval base, in which she was arrested. She is one of those politicians whom we lazily tend to prefix 'outspoken'. Let's see if it's justified...Are alcoholism and drug dependency offences that should be punishable orillnesses that should be cured? (Sion Gwilym)Before I was elected I worked as a probation officer. I take the view that substance dependency is an illness, often triggered by traumatic events - undealt with childhood abuse and bereavement being commontriggers. It depends on the offence and the circumstances - a drug dependent ...
Only in my backyard
2007-04-20 17:39:00 I blogged recently on the fact that for the first time in well over decade, Plaid Cymru currently have no policy on nuclear energy.But there are two things we know for certain. One is that Plaid's leader Ieuan Wyn Jones backs a new nuclear power station in his own backyard, the other is that Plaid's pre-manifesto (released in March this year) categorically states: "Plaid Cymru does not support nuclear power."There's an obvious tension between these two positions. You can't be for and against something at the same time. The solution? Pretend you were never against it.At a local level, at least, Ieuan Wyn Jones now appears to be using the absence of a policy on nuclear energy in Plaid's manifesto to justify his support for the replacement of the Wylfa plant in Ynys Mon.The Bangor & Anglesey Mail reports that during a recent hustings on the island, Conservative candidate James Roach accused Plaid Cymru of double standards. He said: "It's interesting that within their manifest...
It's a landslide for Plaid Cymru
2007-03-31 10:50:00 If elections were won and lost on takeup of the social networking website Facebook, then Plaid would be the clear leaders. There are so far 144 members in the Plaid Cymru group and 38 members in its unofficial sister club. The Welsh Liberal Democrats muster only 28 members. But that's still 28 members more than Labour and the Conservatives, who don't seem to have joined the revolution yet.And it's probably a good thing too. Facebook is for writing crap banter on your mates' walls. It's for stalking attractive women in American colleges. And it's for posting embarrassing photos of drunken misdemeanours.Why is it that politicians have to come along with their fake hobbies and youth oriented soundbites to spoil it all? |
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