Plaid's record in government so far

[lewislewis]

Interesting blog by Adam Price showing some of the small achievements resulting so far from Plaid's participation in the One Wales coalition government with Labour. Indeed this is a promising start considering how little money Wales has received this time around, but I feel Labour MP's at Westminster will do their best to frustrate our progress.
Time will tell whether it'll be worth it for Plaid.

http://www.adampriceblog.org.uk/the-record-so-far

[niclas]

Too early to make any conclusive assessments but I doubt Plaid will get much more out of the One Wales deal in terms of policy. The experience of ministerial responsibility is important for the next term (when hopefully they will be in a position to do a Salmond and make serious reforms of this rotten system).
Also being part of government ensures more democracy is coming our way in terms of a proper Parliament rather than the current toothless set-up. Without Plaid there, Labour would do sod all on this score.

Plaid's biggest challenge is not to get sucked into the bureaucracy of government and also to understand that, like Huw Lewis, it's OK to slag off bad decisions by ministers.

[llantwit]

To do a Salmond they'll need a Salmond, though, surely?
And that's not IWJ is it? Unless he gets a major personality transplant and a spine implant between now and then.

[Udo Erasmus]

It seems like business as usual.

You get a sense of the measure of the man from Adam Price's "key" "successes".
£130 million for childcare for the next three years?
A few million put into housing?
It almost sounds impressive, until you remember that Plaid back BILLIONS!! being spent on the military in Wales.

So Plaid say there is not enough funding from Wales but don't suggest that £14 billion being poured into St Athan's might be spent in Wales in a more responsible way.

And let's not remember that far from challenging the grip of neoliberalism in Wales, Plaid's economic strategy is based on taxbreaks to multinational corporations. On the question of taxing big business, Adam Price is actually too the right of Thatcher and Brown who radically cut corporation tax but not enough for Adam Price!

[lewislewis]

That's a bit of a partisan post though isn't it Udo?

You know full well my opposition to the military academy, but it is £14billion of private investment from private companies (and of course some UK Defence money as well) being spent on that particular project, a completely different issue to the Treasury funding for Wales or the Welsh Assembly Government.

To compare the two is just cheap and poor politics.

What you fail to recognise is that Plaid's 'economic strategy' is actually a radical measure to cut corporation tax in those areas of Wales that are amongst the most deprived parts of Europe. There are still jobs badly needed in those areas, to try and deliver that is a big challenge and a courageous policy from Plaid. There are countries to the left of the UK who have carried out that policy and it has worked, eventually giving back more in revenue than it did in the cut, which is the idea.

Taxing individuals and the rich etc is a totally different matter for which Plaid has separate policies.

Again, taxation is sadly not in the remit of the Welsh Assembly Government and this is all just talk! Let's remember that Plaid Cymru are participating as a junior partner in an Assembly Government coalition. That Government has certain limited responsibilites and certain limited monies to achieve those aims. It does not have any power to do with St.Athan/Defence, Iraq, taxation, immigration, power stations or any number of other issues.

There are all kinds of left-wing parties in Wales with ten members who posture about 'challenging neoliberalism', but we are actually popular and hundreds of thousands of people vote for us, and we can have a real influence such as keeping those hospitals open, getting more powers for the Assembly, more affordable housing etc etc.

[lewislewis]

To do a Salmond they'll need a Salmond, though, surely?
And that's not IWJ is it? Unless he gets a major personality transplant and a spine implant between now and then.

This is leadership. I know it's only school buildings but damn, Salmond kicks ass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pziartVnilk&feature=related