Rhodri's "Clear Red Water " now turned a dirty blue.

It was  St Augustine’s  prayed.

‘Lord make me pure but not yet!’

  it seems Labour leaders have adapted this to

‘Lord let's have nationalisation but not in Wales!’

In the section Upgrading Our Economy: Labour’s Industrial Strategy, of the  its 1917 election Manifesto they it states that a Labour Government would ensure that “60 per cent of the UK’s energy comes from zero-carbon or renewable sources by 2030.” Under Widening Ownership of Our Economy, the document outlines how privatisation has led to higher prices and less democratic control for services working people depend on:

Many basic goods and services have been taken out of democratic control through privatisation. This has often led to higher prices and poorer quality, as prices are raised to pay out dividends. For example, water bills have increased 40 per cent since privatisation, and our private energy providers overcharged customers by £2 billion in 2015.
(…)
Across the world, countries are taking public utilities back into public ownership. Labour will learn from these experiences and bring key utilities back into public ownership to deliver lower prices, more accountability and a more sustainable economy. We will:

• Bring private rail companies back into public ownership as their franchises expire.
• Regain control of energy supply networks through the alteration of operator license conditions, and transition to a publicly owned, decentralised energy system.
• Replace our dysfunctional water system with a network of regional publicly-owned water companies.

 Clear enough  but only this week  Plaid Cymru motion to establish a publicly owned energy company falls tonight in  after Labour in Wales vote against - despite the above manifesto pledge 
 

This together with the news that  the Labour Welsh Government has awarded the 15-year contract for Wales's rail franchise to KeyolisAmey,  suggest that if the only legislature in these Islands that Labour run is anything to go by their claims to be promoting a new socialist  agenda.


 Plaid Cymru's Shadow Cabinet Secretary for the Economy and Transport, Adam Price AM said:

"The Labour Welsh Government's rail franchise contract sees them breaking a key 2016 election promise.
"The bidding process has been flawed from start to finish. This extends to the nature of the announcement - a one-page written statement for a £5bn project just before recess is inexcusable.
"The government hasn't even published its Invitation to Tender which it must do today so we know exactly what they asked for.

"Now that the bid winners have been announced, the Labour Government must explain why it has appointed two international mega-companies to run our railways for the next 15 years.

"It's time for transformative action to make Wales's rail network fit for the 21st century. Our railways must be brought into public hands and the Labour Government must put passengers before profit."

Writing in 2002 John  Osmond wrote.

It can be claimed, I think rightly, that in the more than a decade of devolution in Wales, only one really distinctive political philosophy has really stuck in the public mind. This was Rhodri Morgan’s so-called ‘Clear Red Water’ speech, delivered at Swansea University on 11 December 2002.
It was a classic exposition of the claims of social democracy and one that still finds a good deal of agreement across the political spectrum in Wales. Indeed, the present coalition government between Labour and Plaid Cymru is very much built on this approach, what the One Wales coalition deal specifically calls a “progressive consensus”.
In terms of cohabitation between the Taff and the Thames, and at a time of pressure on the public finances, ‘clear red water’ has quite a bit of potential in creating tensions and divisions between Cardiff Bay and Westminster. The reason there hasn’t been much of this so far is not because there has been the same party in charge at both levels of government, but because of a lack of ambition.
‘Clear Red Water’ has been long on rhetoric, but short on policies that would really make a big difference to Welsh society and really differentiate Welsh policies from those being driven from Whitehall.

Of course this was  as we saw the  end of the Blair-Brown government many in Labour and not only in Wales were hoping for the end of the Red-Tories policies of Blairism, though what we got was the right wing austerity of Caneron and Clegg,

It would be hypocritical of me to suggest that "Welsh" Labour  obey its London masters.

Although  it seems odd that Rhodri's  "Clear Red Water " now that the Party has seemingly  moved to the left that the water in Cardiff Bay has now turned a dirty blue.