A Progressive Alliance in 2015?

The  idea that Plaid, Snp and Greens could form some sort of alliance and that they could win 44 seats  in the next General Election is growing 

The Wasting Mule  online reports that the latest calculation from the influential UK-Elect website based on polling figures shows Labour short of an overall majority by 34 seats – less than the 44 seats the website predicts will be won by the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party

 Plaid Treasury spokesman Jonathan Edwards said:#

“Together with the latest Lord Ashcroft poll, which shows the top two parties – Tory and Labour – getting less than 60% of the vote between them for the first time, this projection shows what a tremendous opportunity there is to make Westminster work for Wales in a way it never has before.“The message Plaid will be putting across during the general election campaign is that the people of Wales seize a once in a lifetime opportunity to change Westminster for the better.
Together with the SNP and the Greens, we would be proposing the end of the privatisation of public services and the end of self-defeating austerity.
“But we also need to see a rebalancing of wealth, both individually and geographically. The disparities in wealth between inner London, the wealthiest region in the EU, and areas like West Wales and the Valleys, which are amongst the poorest, need to be seriously addressed.

“At present there is an investment free-for-all, which means that a hugely disproportionate amount of money is ploughed into London and the south east of England, to the detriment of the rest of the UK.”Mr Edwards said lessons could be learned from Germany, which after reunification in 1990 took steps to ensure that extra investment was provided to the former Communist east of the country, to help its economy catch up.He said: “There are various fiscal measures that could be used to make sure the rebalancing works. If the UK Government isn’t prepared to devolve Corporation Tax, it could set lower rates of the tax itself in poorer regions to encourage investment.”Mr Edwards said Treasury rules should also be changed to stop England-only infrastructure projects being classified as UK-wide ones.He said: “It is totally wrong that Welsh taxpayers should be expected to part-pay for rail projects like HS2 when they are going to be to the detriment of the Welsh economy. Whenever projects like that are approved, Wales should automatically be awarded a proportion of the funding to improve its own infrastrucure.”The Plaid MP said that to underpin the new approach there should be a change in the law – first floated by his party leader Leanne Wood at last month’s Plaid conference – placing an obligation on the UK Government to pursue policies aimed at levelling up wealth.

Whether this should be a formal alliance before the General Election is a moot point  . The Green Dragon has looked into the difficulties from their  side 

Possibly Plaid could give the greens a free ride in 3 or 5 seats Cardiff Central with a large student population who are unlikely to be supporting the LibDem s could be one and similarly in one Swansea and Newport seats.


But maybe be the important thing would be for these parties and the Scottish Greens and Mebyon Kernow to work together in the build up to the General Election offering a joint platform on policies .

With four Unionist Tight wing parties given time to offer us nothing in the Leaders debate those of us who seek a progressive future what ever Nation in the UK we belong to desperately need a an alternative vision ,

Jonathen Edwards has made a very good start,