Friday 3 June 2016

Riding two horses at once.

 If anyone doubted the return to front-line politics pf Adam Price  was not going to be a boost not only for Plaid but the Assembly as a whole then they should read this article on Wales on line 

In it he writes

 May the 5th did not deliver the political earthquake for which some of us were hoping. But a few weeks on it’s hard to deny the fact that those tectonic plates have begun to rumble.
He points out that the stalemate that resulted in Leanne Wood tying with Labour's Carwyn Jones in the vote for first Minister  may well turn out to be me than symbolic. 
A vote for First Minister held for only the second time in seventeen years is itself a symbol of a political culture in which challenge has been not so much unusual as unthinkable.
We have been present at the noisy birth of a new ‘high-energy’ democracy, crackling with unpredictability, which at times will mean more fractiousness but also contains within it the seeds of new possibilities.
 He then tries to explain what being in opposition means
Before considering the new potential this watershed moment represents, it’s worth for a moment reminding ourselves, given the torrent of misinformation that surrounded it, what it’s not.
t is not a coalition, rag-tag or any other variety, between Plaid Cymru and UKIP. Such an arrangement is completely inconceivable, for either party quite frankly, given the ideological gulf.
 We will as Opposition parties, together with the Conservatives, from time to time, end up voting on the same side, often for different reasons, to defeat the Government.That will not make it a coalition either – which will not prevent our increasingly desperate opponents in Labour and what’s left of the Liberal Democrats from flaming us on social media.
Nor will it stop the Welsh broadcast media from presenting a lost vote for the ruling party – as with the Public Health Bill before the Election – uniquely in the democratic world, as an embarrassment for the Opposition.

He then tries to explain what the deal negotiated with Labour means 

The Compact which ended the impasse is not a “progressive alliance” between Labour and Plaid. We are not Labour’s conscience, we are Labour’s competitor.This mean that while we are both progressive parties, we are rivals not allies, with different visions of the future. Fundamentally we believe that a change in leadership is necessary to solve our country’s deepest problems.
And why Plaid are reluctant to enter into a formal coalition with Labour  something which he played a major part in encouraging 
The “historic compromise” of 2007 was the exception not the rule, and we will never make the same mistake as the ILP, the Cooperative or Communist Parties whose reward for being part of Labour’s broad progressive front was political oblivion – as will now most likely also be the fate of the Welsh Liberal Democrats.
It may  well be  Future  Historians  will  point to The Labour-led Welsh government  suffering  hugely embarrassing defeat over a landmark plan to introduce a ban on e-cigarettes from many enclosed spaces as a turning point in Welsh Poltics.
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Labour ministers were poised to introduce a wide-ranging ban on vaping in places where children are likely to be present, making the argument that the practice normalised smoking.
But the public health (Wales) bill – a key element of the government’s legislative programme – failed at the last hurdle in farcical circumstances after a Labour minister “belittled” political opponents who were set to help it on to the statute book.
Shortly before the vote, Leighton Andrews, the public services minister, who was dramatically defeated by Plaid leader Leane Wood last May  described the Welsh nationalists, Plaid Cymru, as a “cheap date”. The Plaid group met and decided to vote against the bill, which therefore failed because Labour does not have a majority on the assembly.
Adam Price did not refer to this but it may be along time before Plaid consider propping up a Labour Government in Wales and we can only wonder on what the consequences  will be .
Labour will when Plaid vote against them accuse the latter of collaborating with the Tories  and Ukip which may be damaging.
But if Plaid back the government deal or no deal , they will be accused pf propping up a discredited government.
It will be difficult at time but then if you can't ride two horses at once you shouldn't be in the circus.

 

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