Thursday 12 September 2019

Are Plaid going to "Crazy Eddie" solution to internal divisions ?

Not being a Plaid member it is not for me to sat who should win the contest influential position of Chair of the Party , but it is  certainly proving to be an intresting one.


Over at Nation Cymru Dewi Evans, candidate for the position of Plaid Cymru Chair
I remember the absolutely electric feeling of Gwynfor Evans defeating Labour in my home town in Carmarthen in 1966, when the shockwaves from that win were felt across Wales and beyond.
That win came just a year after Capel Celyn was flooded to provide water to Liverpool, with Welsh MPs powerless to stop it. That was the wake up call when we stood up as a nation and made it clear we weren’t going to be pushed around.
We are doing it again now. That feeling of excitement is back. Cofiwch Dryweryn murals and Independence Marches are taking place across the country. Once again we are standing up for ourselves.
But this time we’re not looking to win our first seat for Plaid Cymru. We are on the verge of winning a National Election to our Welsh Parliament – the Senedd.
I want Adam Price elected as First Minister of Wales in May 2021. I supported his nomination and canvassed on his behalf.
Recent election results have been encouraging. In this year’s European Elections, for the first time ever, Plaid Cymru achieved more votes than the Labour Party and the other mainstream political parties.
But this is no time to be complacent. There are some issues in Plaid that must be addressed to give us the best chance of winning that 2021 election.
Under the surface Plaid has experienced numerous operational problems, all of which could have been avoided. In 2017, scores of members left Plaid in Llanelli. Some were expelled. Plaid’s candidate in Blaenau Gwent, who came within 650 votes of winning Aneurin Bevan’s old seat, has left the party.
I’m not happy with the public things he’s said since. But we can’t lose candidates in winnable marginal seats.
Conflict managementCardiff West has also been a running sore. Despite Neil McEvoy turning the Labour First Minister’s seat into a Plaid – Labour marginal at the last Assembly Election he has been expelled from the party. The current Chair, who I’m standing against, was the main complainant!
Conflict is ‘resolved’ through divisive expulsions and personal arguments. That is not the way that the Chair of the party should behave. The role of the Chair is to bring people together, not tear them apart.
Can we afford more expulsions, more resignations, more conflict? I don’t believe we can. It’s why we need another Chair, someone who can ‘do listening’ not ‘do dictating’, a Chair who values the contributions of all members of our Party. (read more here)

The problem I see as an outsider  is that Dr Evans seems to be caling for a reversal of the current disciplinary  procedure. which in itself diversive  and if n Neil McEvoy expulsion was reversed then perhaps more senior members will not only be opposed to it , but coulf leave the party.


Dr Evans's statement on the candidate for Blaneau Gwent  (Nigel Copner) is interesting  since  Dr Copner  stated than heis decision to leave Plaid was because he "Didn't believe in Independence".

Now I accept that a National Movement has a place for those who whilst  not going all the way certainly they should support an increased devolution settlement.

I don't  know about Nigel Copner but it does seem that Plaid has in the past run candidates whose reason for joining was that they are mainly Anti-Labour rather supporting the policies of Plaid and  that surely is not a reason to join?.

Anyway Plaid seem to only a few months before an expected General election to go for a"Crazy Eddie "solution.


The Mote in God's Eye  a Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's novel   is about humanity's first encounter with another intelligent species, the Moties. As the book's human characters get to know the Moties, they repeatedly hear about a legendary fellow called "Crazy Eddie." Crazy Eddie seems to be very important to the Moties, since the aliens mention him when they talk about almost all important historical events.
As it turns out, Crazy Eddie is as much a concept as a character. To understand Crazy Eddie, it is necessary to know a little about Motie biology. A Motie must reproduce regularly if it is to continue living. Obviously, this double incentive--genetic offspring plus extended life--is so compelling that very few Moties will ever choose abstinence. Since there aren't sufficient environmental pressures to balance out all the new offspring, the Motie population keeps increasing at an exponential rate.This population pattern creates a truly vicious cycle. Moties breed and breed, all the while creating cultural solutions to support the burgeoning population. You can't fight mathematics, though, especially when there's an exponent involved. Eventually, the Motie population just gets too big to support. War, famine, and all hell in general breaks loose, most Moties die, and civilization is wiped out. The surviving Moties start to breed and build and innovate again, and the cycle begins anew. The Moties have been around a lot longer than humans, but their population biology puts them in a more primitive state. To make matters worse, the Moties are confined to a single solar system, increasing the pressure.Sometimes, though, a Motie will try to break out of the cycle. Usually a sterile mediator, this individual will come up with some grandiose plan to change biology or escape the solar system or institute population controls. Invariably, though, the scheme fails, usually making matters worse, and sometimes prompting the collapse of Motie civilization. The individuals who try these schemes are said "to have gone Crazy Eddie." Crazy Eddie is the one who has a well-intentioned but misguided plan to cheat fate, which is a very real thing for Moties.Crazy Eddie may be the most important character in the novel. The humans discover the Moties because of the "Crazy Eddie probe" sent out from the Motie system. A deadly "Crazy Eddie point" in space is what keeps the Moties bottled up, without hope of interstellar travel. Each section of the book is named after Crazy Eddie. And perhaps most importantly, Crazy Eddie provides almost all the dramatic conflict in the novel, with both humans and Moties constantly arguing over whether to pursue Crazy Eddie schemes or to hold to a grimmer, more pragmatic course of action.

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