STANDING UP FOR WALES

Wales benefits greatly from its membership of the European Union, nowhere is this more obvious than in our agricultural sector. Our farmer’s directly benefit from Wales’ membership of the EU, without this essential funding our farmers, our rural communities, our small businesses and our small towns would suffer. The Conservative leader in the National Assembly has said that he will campaign for Britain to leave the EU. This directly threatens the futures of Wales’ 16,000 farms, and shows that the Conservative party is turning its back on Wales’ rural communities simply to be in step with the next Conservative leader at Westminster. Plaid Cymru will stand up for Wales’ rural communities. It is clear that Westminster is incapable of standing up for our farmers and indifferent to our needs and interests. Party of Wales wants what is best for Wales, this means fighting to keep essential funding for our farms and rural communities. It is vital therefore that Wales is at the heart of the EU and for a strong Plaid Cymru government to be making the case for Wales to the EU. 

NO AMBITION AND NO VISION!

Politicians and governments are often condemned for their lack of ambition or their lack of the vision thing, but, somewhat more rarely are they condemned for lacking both the vision and the ambition. Yet both the Welsh and UK Governments have displayed a craven lack of ambition and pretty much a complete lack of vision when it comes to developing Wales' railway network.

Both Westminster and Cardiff have failed to take advantage of existing and new EU funding programmes which are available to improve and develop our railways. So rather than seizing the initiative to invest in and improve our railway infrastructure both Governments have sat on their hands and allowed potential funding opportunities to pass them by.

Almost by accident rather than by design, one might think, some of the powers needed to develop and develop our railway system are already possessed by the National Assembly. The Transport (Wales) Act came into effect in February 2006 and gave the National Assembly powers to plan and co-ordinate an integrated transport system, so how much longer do we have to wait to see some vision?”

We need to develop the long term view and invest in our rail services; we need to further develop rail freight and co-ordinate rail and bus services across the whole of Wales and we need to have full control of its transport policy, transport budget and the related planning regulations. There is considerable room for improvement when it comes to the provision and development of our railway services here in Wales.

When the franchise is renewed in 2018 the railways in Wales should be run on a not for dividend profit basis, with all profits accrued being ring fenced and reinvested into our railways. The healthy profits run up during the period when the East Coast mainline serve has been run by the Westminster Government after the collapse of the private franchise shows what could and should be achieved here in Wales.  

AMBITION IS CRITICAL

Plaid's spring conference was interesting, with a real air of ambition and aspiration for this nation, as opposed to party political self interest. I caught a number of key-note speakers including Nerys Evans, Helen Mary Jones, Leanne Wood and Ieuan Wyn Jones, but, it was Ron Davies, Plaid's Caerphilly Assembly candidate who, in my opinion hit the nail on the head, when he said:

"The limits to our ambitions should only be set by the people of Wales. This process of building our democracy and a better Wales which goes with it should both challenge us and reassure us. We in Plaid speak for an increasing majority who want a greater degree of self government. After all, we as a party have done so much to get us where we are today."

He rightly laid into Shadow Secretary of State Peter Hain.

"It was so kind and generous of Peter Hain to remind us right at the start of the campaign that we wouldn't be having a referendum at all if it were not for Plaid.

"I am not entirely convinced his intervention was intended to foster inter-party unity in the driver for a 'Yes' vote. In fact, I am not all convinced.

"If ever there was a case of getting your retaliation in first that was one. As far as the Labour Party is concerned when it is a choice between party interest or national interest there is only one winner.

"Peter Hain knew full well how de-stabilising his comments could have been but the calculation was 'so what, there's a party game to be played'. Ill-judged and mistimed maybe, but you were right, Peter. Without Plaid there would have been no referendum on 3rd March."

The former Welsh Secretary said that Labour had failed to stand up for Wales during its years in office.

"Pity they didn't stand up for Wales for the last 10 years and help rebuild our economy or get fair funding for public services. They couldn't even stand up to their own backbenchers and get us a proper Parliament. Now Labour is adrift. Values abandoned, no direction, no strategy, no plan. They won't even  acknowledge how deep our economic and social crisis is. Just spin and excuses."

Leanne Wood AM, was also spot on when she said that its time for Wales to control its own resources. One of the key themes of this weekend's Plaid Cymru conference was the economy. Our economy is in a poor state and not getting better despite billions of euro-cash being poured in.

We cannot allow or afford for the Welsh economy to continue to decline over the next five - this is not an acceptable option. We need fresh ideas and need to make best use of the new legislative powers (such as they are) to make sure that the next National Assembly punches well above its weight and begins to really deliver for all parts of Wales following the Welsh Election on May 5th.

HITTING THE NAIL ON THE HEAD

Sometimes people hit the nail on the head first-time, Plaid AM Nerys Evans call for Communities First anti-poverty programme to be scrapped unless it clearly demonstrates its value to the Welsh economy (Western Mail 5th July) is one of those moments. Now she is absolutely correct to question the value and contribution of this programme, which promised much and yet may well have delivered significantly less in some of our most vulnerable communities.

I believe that there is a pressing need for a full and public scrutiny of the way the £214 million's worth of funding (from the National Assembly) between 2001 and 2009 has been spent. This call is particularly timely, especially as the Wales Audit Office report (back in 2009) said that of the £214 million, £140 million had gone to partnership mainly to pay staff and administrative costs rather than on outcomes. 

Certainly locally in Newport the impression that was created as a result of working with and talking to community activists in Pill over a number of years between 2001 and 2007 that funding was allocated to community groups that were favoured by (or under the control of) the Newport Labour Party rather than representative of community groups or concerned local residents.

With all areas of Government funding are going to face severe cuts it is vitally important that we all get real value for money, community based and EU funded projects, schemes and initiatives should make a real difference not merely provide a state of near permanent employment for project staff.