Thursday 19 July 2018

Where's the Independence vision in Plaid Leadership contest?

The BBC website has a somewhat misleading headline in

Plaid Cymru: Wood cannot be next first minister says rival Price.

The only  thing is this not what he appears to have said

They say,


In his first interview since announcing his bid, Mr Price said Plaid will lose the next Senedd election if it carries on the current track.

He said he can "create the momentum" the party needs.

Mr Price, AM for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, is competing against Ynys Mon AM Rhun ap Iorwerth and Rhondda's Ms Wood for the post.


Asked if he did not believe Leanne Wood could become first minister, he told BBC Wales:
"We are at a cross roads as a party.
"If we continue on the current track then we will lose the next election, and that will be a tragedy.
"There's a brief window of opportunity for us. The Labour party that has been a massive dominate force in Welsh politics is going to be vulnerable at the next election.
"In Mark Drakeford, a nice and very able man, he an hardly represent himself as a force for change in the country that is crying out for it".
Mr Price said he can "create the momentum that we need to get people believing again that this country can be different".

Prior to the announcement of his bid, Mr Price criticised what he described as Plaid's "plodding politics of the parsimonious press release, the tired tweet and the formulaic Facebook status".


He told BBC Wales: 

"There is an appetite out there for the kind of dynamic, great transformation that I want to see.
"Unfortunately we've not been able to tap into that.
"If we just continue the one more heave school of politics, just continue on the same track, woe betide us if we then find we get the same result in 2021.
"If we want to be the change in Wales we first have to show we can change ourselves.
"We have to convince people that we have the appetite, the hunger, the ambition to be the next government in Wales.
"I have that ambition. It was a difficult decision for me to make but now I'm determined to do it.
"We can win and we can restore the faith in the democracy of this country."
For some reason the BBC referred to Plaid as a pro-devolution party with Mr Price saying it has "adapted least to the pro-devolution environment".

"We've been historically a party of protest, which is essentially pointing out the horrible things done to Wales by London governments.
"But you know what, the conversation we need to be having is about our own government - and we haven't made that mental shift."

He is of course right here  but where is the I word, with Brexit looming and the very real possibility of Scottish succession , then the reality is that under both Tory and Westminster governments , then the Assembly will resemble nothing more than a glorified English County Council.

The Beeb tells us, 

Adam Price has been a member of Plaid Cymru since he was 13.
Days before the result is announced he'll reach the significant milestone of 50.
That's nearly 40 years to live and breath everything the party has done and crucially hasn't achieved.
Publicly he's the effervescent face of Plaid, always talking up electoral fortunes and sending the troops home happy at the end of conferences.
Privately Adam Price has aired concerns about the party's fortunes.
A failure to articulate what a change of government would mean is his primary criticism. Most damning of all is his view that for 20 years Plaid hasn't understood the requirements of devolution.
In the next two months a man who's never shy of an idea will be in overdrive.
Central to his campaign will be the word "change" - saying it loudly and often in a leadership battle could be enough to secure victory.
Changing the colour of government is another matter.
The son of a miner who went to Harvard has already proved an ability to change the natural course set out for many of his peers. Here comes the latest test

But the reality is that who ever leads Plaid even if he or she becomes the next First Minister then simply having ideas will not be enough if they can't gain the powers to implement them

The real challenge is not to lead Plaid in the Assembly or to lead the Assembly even if it was to change its to Welsh Parliament/Senedd Cymru  will  not be enough.

The SNP with its advanced powers have made a difference in Scotland but you can bet that after Brexit Unionists will seek to ensure that this will never happen here. 

Plaid needs to become and be seen as not a "a pro-devolution party" but a Independence Party, who put forward a clear case for leaving the Union .

If not the reverse will happen and even under something named Welsh Parliament/Senedd Cymru, Westminster will seek to make it irrelevant  prior to dissolve it.

Who among the Plaid leadership candidates is prepared to argue for Independence, rather than how as a Welsh Government we spend Westminster's pocket money?


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