Plaid must act as an honest opposition.

 I imagine Plaid Cymru has ended its "compact" co-operation agreement with Labour. 

As Plaid Leader Leanne Wood she told BBC Wales that

"some people might have been confused around where we stand in terms of opposition".

"This way now, it will be much clearer and cleaner for people to understand what Plaid Cymru's job of work is,"

It comes just days after the two parties agreed a deal to ensure Labour's budgets for this year and next would be passed by the assembly.

In a letter to Plaid members, leader Leanne Wood said the budget deal "represents a natural conclusion to the Compact".

First Minister Carwyn Jones said both sides were "amicable" and had agreed to "keep open lines of communication". 

The compact had allowed Mr Jones to return to power after the 2016 assembly election. 

Referring to the budget, Ms Wood said in her letter:

 "The two-year deal takes us to a position where we can produce a clear alternative in advance of the next Assembly elections. 

"The commitments we have secured represent the green shoots of our programme for government. We must all work towards the goal of government if we are to see these foundations built upon."

In response, Mr Jones said:

 "Our conversation was amicable and we agreed that it was important to keep open lines of communication."

"From our viewpoint we believe the compact gave Wales some welcome stability at a time of great uncertainty caused by ongoing Tory cuts and the Brexit chaos in Westminster,"

In a tweet , Plaid Cymru AM Adam Price said the decision to end the compact had been made "before the summer". 

Clearly  Plaid feel they need to act more like an opposition party but I hope they are constructive in their opposition simply opposing Labour  or coning up with calls for more spending .

Take the latest call from the Tories give free bus travel to all 16-24 year olds in Wales, and have urged Labour ministers to do the same.

The Green Card - which the Tories said could cost up to £25m a year - would also give a third off rail tickets.

Education spokesman Darren Millar said young people suffered high car insurance and the lowest wages. 

Yes you read it right the Tories are worried about the plight of young people!

 

The Tories opened last weeks annual conference in Manchester with a string of new policies aimed at wooing younger voters who backed Jeremy Corbyn at the election.

 

However, some figures in the party warned that Theresa May’s policies were not bold enough, after Labour’s manifesto promising to scrap tuition fees entirely and impose rent controls.
Michael Heseltine, the former deputy prime minister, told Sky:

“I understand well the motivation for the student grant regime change, but I can tell you what’ll happen. The Labour party will simply outbid us. No question about that. They’ll look at our figures and they will offer more attractive figures to the younger generation.”

So far from having  developed a Social conscious that recognises the plight of Welsh youth the Tories in the Assembly have come up with a publicity gimmick

Not that its a bad idea and I hope Plaid  and the Welsh Government  back it .

But  if Parties  are going to woo young voters they may well remember  the fate of the Liberal Democrats who before the 2010 General Election signed
pre-election pledge to oppose a rise in tuition fees. Only as part of the Tory-Lib Dem coalition too do just that.

Many of the Lib Dem seats relied on University students in these Constituencies for their majorities.

Over night they lost this support  and have never recovered it.

In the last election it is clear that many students voted for Corbyn and Labour.

Whether they will be betrayed again by the Parties wooing their vote  remains to be seen.


 

Did the Welsh Government always intend to scrap Circuit of Wales?

This Blog has always been  sceptical  about the   the cancelled Circuit of Wales  project  a £433m motor-racing track, hotel and business park in Blaenau Gwent  and  that it was another  "Potemkin village"  that was s  was originally used to describe a fake portable village, built only to impress. According to the story, Grigory Potemkin erected the fake portable settlement along the banks of the Dnieper River in order to fool Empress Catherine II during her journey to Crimea in 1787.

 The phrase is now used, typically in politics and economics, to describe any construction (literal or figurative) built solely to deceive others into thinking that some situation is better than it really is.

I wonder when the Welsh  Labour Government always believed that the project was doomed but for electoral purposes kept it going.?.

It is claimed that up to 3,300 jobs could have been created by aif the cancelled project had gone ahead as planned, consultants said.

The estimate is lower than that of the Circuit of Wales developers, but higher than figures cited by ministers when they walked away from the scheme.

Plaid Cymru has accused the Welsh Government of downplaying the benefits.

Ministers said it was misleading of Plaid to "cherry pick" draft data.

A leaked report by consultants Regeneris, commissioned by the Welsh Government, says building work could have created another 4,630 jobs during the construction phase - far fewer than the 11,773 estimated by the developers.

Although the project would have been built with private cash, the developers wanted the Welsh Government to guarantee half the cost of phase one of the Circuit of Wales, which included the racing track itself.

However, Plaid Cymru economy spokesman Adam Price said: 

"It's clear to me that the government used the lowest figures in the report in order to spare its blushes at pulling the plug on a project with significant potential in which it had invested millions."

Despite eventually rejecting it, the Welsh Government had given the Circuit of Wales backers more than £9m to develop the plans.

In April the auditor general criticised "significant shortcomings" in the way that money was handed over.

Acording to the Wasting Mule

The proposal for the Circuit led to immense hope in one of Wales’ most deprived areas and political figures like former Labour leader Lord Kinnock lobbied hard for the Circuit to be granted the loan guarantee.
But, partly on the basis of the due diligence reports, Economy Minister Ken Skates refused the guarantee the project had asked for in June this year.
Reports from specialists also looked into the Circuit’s claims about the number of jobs that would be created, the demand for attending live motorsport events and construction costs.
Consultants Chandler KBS warned that the 25-month plan to build the circuit was “optimistic” and queried the process by which a Catalan firm called FCC won the contract to build it.

It said: 

“The process leading to the emergence of [FCC] as preferred bidders is to an extent obscure insofar as it lacks the application of a formal evaluation methodology applied to the tender submissions and is not fully documented.
“...It cannot be concluded that best practice was employed in the selection of [FCC] due to the lack, in particular, of a formal tender evaluation process.”

You can see  "The 26 risks of the Circuit of Wales plan that led to it being turned down"  here and it is hard to concur with the decision to cancel the project.

But I wonder whether Welsh Government Minister had long decided that this was not viable  and that they should seek to cancel the project before the Assembly elections last yea?

It would explain why lower Jobs estimate was used making it easier to cancel a project they never thought would get of the ground anyway.

Was the plan all along to dangle the idea of the Circuit  of Wales before the Welsh electorate  especially that of Blaneau Gwent up to election time  knowing full well it was never going to be approved?

I as I said the start that I was sceptical of the project but shame on those who obviously shared it, but were prepared to offer false hope to one of our most deprived  areas.

Could the claim  that the the South Wales Metro is being 'set up to fail' according to  Labour Assembly Member Lee Waters be an Indication thet the Welsh government  are preparing to cancel another Potmekin Village that is being put to one side.

Irish Taoiseach turns his back on Catalonia.

Prehaps one of the saddest responses to the Referendum in Catalonia is the response from the Irish Taoiseach  who says Ireland will not recognise result of Catalonia's independence referendum.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

"The Spanish government needs to realise that violence against its citizens leads to further disunity “before anybody gets seriously injured or killed”, 

Responding to the violent scenes in the Catalonia region over the weekend, Mr Varadkar said his government does not accept the legitimacy of the independence referendum. he said

“The Irish government respects the constitution of Spain and the territorial unity of Spain.
“But I’d also like to say that violence is never justified. We know from history all over the world that when State actors, State police and the army, use violence against civilians that doesn’t work. It causes further division, further disunity and also causes radicalisation,”

 He said the less than half of the population of Catalonia participated in the vote “although admittedly it wasn’t easy for people to participate”.

Mr Varadkar said Spain is a “friend and ally” but “violence is never the solution”.

“I was distressed to see the scenes on television last night. To see this was happening in a European country.
“We know from history all over the world that when governments use violence against unarmed civilians it doesn’t work. It leads to radicalisation, it leads to further disunity and I sincerely hope the Spanish government will bear that in mind before anybody gets serious injured or killed,” .

Mr  Varadkar  is also of Indian heritage so should have  more than one experiance of the struggle against Imperialism  and the rights of Nations to Independence.

According to the Irish Times.

"There was a major row during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting over the Government response to the violent events surrounding the Catalonian independence referendum.
Independent Minister of State Finian McGrath demanded that the Government call in the Spanish ambassador to Ireland to convey condemnation of violence by Spanish police that left an estimated 900 people injured, according to the Catalan government.
It is understood Mr McGrath challenged Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney to intervene directly with the ambassador. Both the Taoiseach and Mr Coveney refused to do so.
There were heated exchanges between Mr McGrath and other Ministers. His argument about the violence was strongly supported by his Independent colleague Shane Ross and by Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty.
All Ministers agreed that the violence of the Guardia Civil was inappropriate and excessive. The police had tried to prevent Catalans from voting at schools and other buildings that had been designated as voting centres.

 Mr McGrath brought up the issue at the meeting after being asked to do so by Minister of State John Halligan. In an impassioned contribution he is understood to have said he had supported Catalonian independence for more than 20 years. He is said to have described the behaviour of the Spanish government as “appalling",

 The issue was also raised in the Dáil by Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, who pointed to a close connection between Fine Gael and Mr Rajoy’s ruling party. He asked Mr Varadkar to use his influence and connections with Mr Rajoy to get him to accept a mediation process. He also reiterated his support for Catalan independence.

As Catalonia looks for friends in what could see the "Heirs of Franco" posing even more draconian rule over them to stop Independence, it is sad that the leader of  of one of the Nations of Europe who have undergone a similar  struggle for Independence ,should turn his back on Catalonia in its hour of need.

It will be Interesting  how many leaders outside Spain will recognise   the expected deceleration of Catalonian Independence .

The Scottish and Flanders  parliament  may well do so alas Ireland will probably not join them as indeed our own Welsh Assembly will fail to do so.

Plaid-Labour agree on how to spend UK Pocket Money.

One wonders  how should Plaid Cymru should have or could have  have approached the deal with the ruling  the weekend, the Labour-run administration  over a two-year deal with Plaid Cymru, covering £210m of spending commitments.

Plaid will abstain on budget votes, ensuring they will clear the Senedd.

The Welsh Conservatives said the deal was a "missed opportunity to tackle deep-seated issues like NHS underfunding".

Finance spokesman Nick Ramsay said: 

"This is the latest in a long line of sadly predictable backroom deals between the nationalists and the Labour Party, and further evidence that a vote for Plaid is a vote for Labour.
"Both parties have broken a number of election pledges to make this happen," .

But a quick glance at the BBC helpful table below  shows that  the NHS is already one of the few areas that spending has increased


In nearly every area spending will fall is it not about time if Parties call for increased NHS spending they tel us who would lose out in other areas?

If you take into consideration that  Northern Ireland will receive an extra £1bn over the next two years from the UK government ( so the same period as the Lab-Plaod agreement) as part of the deal that will see the Democratic Unionist Party's 10 MPs back Theresa May's minority government in Commons votes.

The heart of the financial package is infrastructure spending - £400m of it over two years.

That is a significant sum given that Northern Ireland's annual infrastructure budget is about £1bn.

The deal specifically mentions the York Street Interchange, a project to ease congestion where three major roads meet in Belfast.

It is expected to cost about £150m, so there should be plenty left over for other major projects.

They could include a planned transport hub in the centre of Belfast and other major roads schemes like the completion of the A5 or A6

Finance Minister Mark  Drakeford told AMs:

We can only speculate what such a sum would do to the Welsh budger but a quick glance  sees that it would not even cover cuts in  the Education Budget.

"We have worked hard to protect our valued public services from the worst effects of austerity, and this year is no exception.
"Our spending plans, together with our progressive tax plans, demonstrate our commitment to Taking Wales Forward and delivering prosperity for all during these difficult times."
The minister outlined plans to borrow £375m over three years - the first time the Welsh Government has borrowed cash.

He also announced a short-list for a new Welsh levy - a tourism tax, a disposable plastics tax, a vacant land tax and a levy to support social care.

One of the ideas will be forwarded to the UK government and parliament for approval.

Short of joining the Tories and UKIP in voting against the Labour budget which could lead to fresh Elections it is hard to see what Plaid can do  but the hypocrisy  of the Tories  who are under funding  Wales is staggering .

But it does not stop there Jeremy Corbyn  has accused the SNP of standing up for the establishment rather than Scotland by "passing the buck" on austerity and handing down Conservative spending cuts. Whilst his own party is doing just that.

Lets face  even if there was an administration in Cardiff Bay pledged to fight austerity it is hard to see how on the "Pocket Money" we get from Westminster could they could achieve it.

As long as we carry on being "Poor West Britons" it is hard to see how we can do anything but constantly to Rob Peter to pay Paul. 

I do not criticise Plaid for working under the current devolution settlement even if it means propping  up a Labour government  but surely it is time they  started pushing the idea that the real alternative is for Wales to join a hopefully Independent Catalonia and began to run our own affairs for the benefit of the people of Wales whatever their origin.

Labour for Independece how far to they want to go?

Its nearly seven years  since in one of my first Blogs I compared Devolution to the  Old Traws Cambria  Bus routes

I wrote 

The first part of the journey Cardiff-Swansea was long and frustrating clearly my attention was to go North bur the Bus seemed to be making no progress in that direction.

This can be seen as the period from the election of the Plaid MP’s to the second Devolution referendum. The journey had begun (Though the bus had broken down in 1979) and it had become clear that we could go further.

The Second part Swansea-Carmarthen. . Was a sign of real progress and you could feel the passengers spirits lift as they began to feel they were finally heading for they destination.

This can be seen the election of the first Assembly (Ironic that this would be Carmarthen after the referendum). Some felt the journey was over but others were now used to the difficulties of along journey and wished to go on.

The Third part Carmarthen-Lampeter was seen as some as unnecessary as they wished to go strait on to Aber. Buy some of the passengers wanted to stop there.

This is where we are at the moment some progress made but clearly this was not the end.

The forth part Lampeter- Aberystwyth was a real spurt for those heading to Aber there was a clear anticipation that their long journey would soon be over.

This will be the result if the 2010 referendum is successful. For many it will seem unnecessary to travel any further.

For many the Fifth part Aberystwyth-Portmadog was in reality be a new journey bur Portmadog has many attractions and give you access to a Wales they had longed to see.

This will be the creation of a Welsh Parliament with full law making and Tax raising powers the final stage for some.

The final part of the journey Portmadog-Bangor would have been taken by hardy soles some of who may have already broken their journey in Aberystwyth say. But you can imagine the joy they will feel when they see the outskirts of Bangor and realise the long journey.

This will see an independent Wales taking its place in Europe and the rest of the World the destination of a minority but perhaps some would like to do so when they realise it is achievable.

I was reminded of this when  reading  the article on Yes Cymru  on Wales Online

 One fact that’s immediately apparent is that the organisers are not dewy-eyed dreamers who have allowed their hearts to rule their heads. They are intelligent, articulate and quite prepared to debate the economic challenges an independent Wales would face.Another is that while many are, or have been, members of Plaid Cymru, many are not. One of the three co-founders, Iestyn ap Rhobert, points out that it’s a cross-party group which may actually contain more Labour supporters than Plaid supporters. Others attracted by the group’s optimistic message have never been affiliated to any party at all.
Iestyn ap Rhobert said: “What we find is that while many people are interested in local politics and national politics, they are not so keen on the way party politics works.
“Yes Cymru is a bottom-up organisation rather than a top-down one. We don’t have a lot of policies we expect members to subscribe to. Instead we want to discuss the practicalities of Wales as an independent country – what that would mean.”

This coincides with Nation Cymru reporting on the news that

 A group calling themselves Labour for an Independent Wales will be holding their first event this Friday.Mike Hedges AM, Lord Elystan Morgan, and Dr Sophie Williams will be joining the event at Caffi’r Atom, Carmarthen at 3pm.The group has been formed by members of the party who wish to debate and campaign for the idea of an independent Wales.One of the group’s founder members, Ben Gwalchmai, said that there were many Labour supporters who were coming around to the idea of Welsh independence.

“The threat of Brexit, and the intransigence of the British state in face of austerity, insecurity and a lurch to the right has left us in a situation where we must consider all our options,” 

It will be Interesting  to see what exactly the above mean by "Independence"  

One of the Organisers  Huw Williams added that everything would be open to debate at the event.

“Even the concept of independence itself, of course, is a disputed one, and we need to be open to the idea that in the Welsh context this may mean something very different in comparison to other countries.“We will have to recognise the extent to which we share in historical structures and relations with our neighbours in certain areas.“As we are ultimately interested in pushing forward the cause of socialism in Wales, this should hopefully allow us to develop our own particular view of the issues.“What we are certain about is that we can no longer live in the hope that the British state will serve that cause; given where we are in Wales, and some of the severe, ingrained difficulties that our communities face, it is high time we asserted our autonomy and took our fate into our own hands.“Given the challenges we face and the extent to which we are hamstrung by our lack of power, it is our belief that the burden of proof for remaining in the UK now lies with British Unionists.”

Even among Plaid members there will be varied types of the Traws Cambria journey.

There is nothing wrong with that I want to go all the way (except I want to be part of the EU) but the journey has barley began and we should welcome allthose who  

 

When the first Baton fell Catalonia's Independence became inevitable.

Yesterdays extraordinary  in which I believe for the first time in history a State used its Police force to violently attack people for trying to vote reminded me of another imperial powers seeking to prevent people from carrying out the will of a Nation in the face of a legality that is plainly wrong

Yes the voet may have been illegal under the Spanish Constitution  something that is supported by Rhondda Labour MP Chris Bryant.

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Chris Bryant 

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I disagree. The referendum is illegal. And this is all about the rich abandoning the poor. Better solidarity is a united Spain rico y pobre https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/910511246138658818 …

7:21 PM - Sep 21, 2017

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But there are many cases when s State has claimed a legal right to suppress   the will of a people

The Salt March, which took place from March to April 1930 in India, was an act of civil disobedience led by Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) to protest British rule in India. During the march, thousands of Indians followed Gandhi from his religious retreat near Ahmedabad to the Arabian Sea coast, a distance of some 240 miles. The march resulted in the arrest of nearly 60,000 people, including Gandhi himself.

Britain’s Salt Acts prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt, a staple in the Indian diet. Citizens were forced to buy the vital mineral from the British, who, in addition to exercising a monopoly over the manufacture and sale of salt, also exerted a heavy salt tax. Although India’s poor suffered most under the tax, Indians required salt. Defying the Salt Acts, Mohandas Gandhireasoned, would be an ingeniously simple way for many Indians to break a British law nonviolently. (British rule of India began in 1858. After living for two decades in South Africa, where he fought for the civil rights of Indians residing there, Gandhi returned to his native country in 1915 and soon began working for India’s independence.) Gandhi declared resistance to British salt policies to be the unifying theme for his new campaign of “satyagraha,” or mass civil disobedience.

On March 12, 1930, Gandhi set out from his ashram, or religious retreat, at Sabermanti near Ahmedabad with several dozen followers on a trek of some 240 miles to the coastal town of Dandi on the Arabian Sea. There, Gandhi and his supporters were to defy British policy by making salt from seawater. All along the way, Gandhi addressed large crowds, and with each passing day an increasing number of people joined the salt satyagraha. By the time they reached Dandi on April 5, Gandhi was at the head of a crowd of tens of thousands. He spoke and led prayers and early the next morning walked down to the sea to make salt.

He had planned to work the salt flats on the beach, encrusted with crystallized sea salt at every high tide, but the police had forestalled him by crushing the salt deposits into the mud. Nevertheless, Gandhi reached down and picked up a small lump of natural salt out of the mud–and British law had been defied. At Dandi, thousands more followed his lead, and in the coastal cities of Bombay (now called Mumbai) and Karachi, Indian nationalists led crowds of citizens in making salt. Civil disobedience broke out all across India, soon involving millions of Indians, and British authorities arrested more than 60,000 people. Gandhi himself was arrested on May 5, but the satyagraha continued without him.

From that moment British Rule in India which Chris Bryant would seem to believe was legitimate was doomed.

Yesterday's event in which   Catalan officials later said 90% of those who voted backed independence on a turnout 42.3%. was extraordinary.

Just imagine it 42, 03% of the electorate  turned up to face this

s

The Spanish Government failed to stop people voting and their heavy actions  will have pushed any waverers in to the Independence camp.

Where do the Unionist in the UK  like Chris Bryant now stand do they still stay with the "Heirs of Franco" whilst probably making mealy mouthed tweets over  Police excesses  or do they stand with the democratic will of the Catalonian People.

Yes to Catalonia Yes to Democracy.

As our friends in Catalonia face what must be one of the first time a government  has sought to physically disrupt a democratic poll I switch on my TV this morning and see the BBC cover a Pro Spanish  demonstration in Catalonia's Capitol Barcelona.



The numbers look small compared to the huge demonstration the Independencias have held and which the BBC and the rest of the  UK media have barley shown. 

Hardly surprising. Nearly every report has the Beeb referring to those seeking Independence as "Separatists"

Which results in this 

Overnight, thousands of separatist supporters occupied the schools that were to be used as voting centres.

Police say they will be evicted.

They do go on to say 

Referendum organisers had urged voters to turn up "to defend" the polling stations at 05:00 (03:00 GMT) and to wait for voting to start at 09:00. They called for peaceful resistance to any police action.

 "I have got up early because my country needs me," said Eulalia Espinal I Tarro, 65, who was outside a Barcelona school."We don't know what is going to happen but we have to be here."
Sunday would be an "important date for democracy", regional Vice-President Oriol Junqueras told TV3, the main Catalan public channel.
"We have overcome many obstacles, there's nothing that we cannot rise above," he added. "If we don't defend our own rights then who will?"

The ballot papers contain just one question: "Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a republic?" There are two boxes: Yes or No.

The referendum has been declared illegal by Spain's constitutional court and thousands of extra police have been sent to the region. Many of the extra officers are stationed in two ships in the port of Barcelona.

More than 160 of 2,315 schools earmarked as polling stations were occupied by independence protesters on Saturday in an attempt to prevent them being locked up to keep voters out. Police issued an ultimatum to the occupiers, many of them parents and children, instructing them to leave or face arrest. The Catalan national assembly has told people that if their polling station is shut they should form a queue at the door, holding their ballot papers in their hands.

The authorities have confiscated voting papers and ballot boxes, raided printers and newspapers accused of aiding the poll, shut down websites and blocked an app explaining how and where to vote. Police have occupied the Catalan data agency, blocked access to the census and are seeking to thwart communication between polling stations. The national data protection agency has warned anyone manning a polling station they face fines of up to €300,000 for breaking the data protection law.

I wonder if there are those in Madrid who believe that Spanish Prime Minister  Mariano Rajoy’s Madrid government heavy handed measures the poll does not take place has strengthened   the Independencias

Some may well considered that the referendum  should  have  been allowed especially as Opinion Polls showed that the majority was for a NO vote.

Rajoy however seems to have galvanised the people  and if they are allowed to vote it will be a large Yes vote on a high poll,

The Spanish authorities  even if this happens will no doubt question the legitimacy of the poll and claim that it has been rigged.

But what happens next in the other "democracies"  in Europe will they recognize  the result and the claims of Catalonia?

Will the UK government (leader T May)or Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition (leader J Corbyn) support the Catalan vote  or will  they back the "Heirs of Franco" in suppressing Independence.

You can guess the answer.

I have no doubt they will have in mind preserving their own "Precious Union"  and a declaration of Catalan Independence  will result in a Domino effect  with Scotland  following  within a year.

Just how far they will support Madrid's suppression of  an Independent Catalonia remains to be seen.