PLAID CYMRU SPRING CONFERENCE SPEECH

Being a Plaid member opens your eyes to the fact that we are indisputably one nation, undivided, north; south; east and west are simply compass bearings.

The map simply goes up and down... even if the A470 can feel like it goes on forever.

Plaid Cymru – The Party of Wales, is the only party that puts Wales first all the time, we are not answerable to any Westminster based political masters, we are not running a branch office.

"Labour are indifferent to the interest of the people in Newport and the nation. It's time for Plaid."

Our communities face similar problems, the loss of green space, over development, a shortage of affordable housing and sustainable long-term jobs and opportunities.

In Newport we have a self-serving ruling clique that locally mirrors the Welsh Labour government’s indifference to our national and local interests...

Save for public opinion, the Newport ship would be matchwood, the transporter bridge scrap iron, Tredegar House a ruin, and there would be an inner city ring road.

We need to make politics work again, and that starts with making people’s day-to-day lives better. 

Plaid does not, cannot and never will write people and communities off, we can think and act for all of Cymru / Wales, all of the time.

We have always wanted our country back, we have not lost our way or an Empire, nor struggled to find a role.

Our focus has always been Wales and the people who live here.

Most of us do not wish to live in some nostalgia drenched fantasy island bedecked with ermine, baubles, gongs and trinkets.

We look forwards to living in a prosperous outward looking nation, one that has much to offer the world.

We recognize that we have to start from the bottom up and that it will be hard work, even the work of years…

Our communities are the literal fabric of our nation - they are the safety net that supports our most vulnerable and give us a sense of place and belonging.

Our planning system and our local government, remains largely nineteenth century in structure and outlook, it does not recognise for our national interests, and with a few exceptions does not recognise the realities of devolution.

Here in SE Gwent, much of the proposed housing in various UDPs (in Newport, Torfaen and Monmouthshire) remains focused on the projected housing shortfall in Bristol.

No offence intended, but that is not our problem.

The Severn Bridge tolls, remain a tax on jobs, on businesses and long suffering commuters.

The failure to invest in infrastructure, stalling over the metro, and the often-dreadful rolling stock used by ArrivaTrainsWales can make the M4 the longest linear car park in Western Europe.

The problems of the M4 are actually a symptom of economic weakness!

Successive Welsh governments (and the Welsh office) been content to live with a Welsh economy that is so weak that many thousands of our compatriots make daily treks across the Severn Bridges to earn their daily bread - and pay for the privilege.

Our focus should be on developing small to medium size local enterprises. SMEs create wealth, employment opportunities and trade with each other. They are unlikely to leave for fresh development grants elsewhere.

If we are serious about changing our country for the better, it starts at a local level. Simply replacing the Labour Party with some sort of Labour Party lite is not acceptable.

We have to show people we are different, we will listen, we will be accountable; we will deliver on our commitments. Only then can change our communities and our nation for the better.

-->

If not now? Then when? If not us? Then who?

A FINAL WORD…

It was a strange election, the first time that I have not been a candidate at county level since 1999, not that I was not kept busy behind the scenes canvassing and dropping in different wards across the city. Results wise, it could have been much worse, but, it wasn't – the Plaid vote held up in many parts of the country and we retained (despite the losses) a healthy 158 county councillors, I have been around long enough to remember that not that long ago we held barely 50.  

Clearly things have changed; we are the second party in Wales at local government level. It is disappointing to lose some hard working community focused activists, many of whom have genuinely dedicated many years of service to their communities, their country and the party. Yes, Plaid took a hit in an election that was largely dominated by Westminster focused issues. The other parties took a much harder hit, which may in some areas of Wales have done lasting damage to their party machines and their activist base.

Labour set out to turn the election into a referendum on the UK government's austerity measures. This was much easier than having to deal with local issues on which they were decidedly more vulnerable, it was much less of a gamble to play the old and trusted 'keep the Tories out / send a message’ card and it worked, particularly well in some areas.  

In Newport and elsewhere, Plaid has much work to do to gain more councillors but we have a good base to work from and the hard work began today. I mean it's not like any resident of Newport will actually see or here form their newly elected / re-elected Labour city councillors out and about very much in the next few years.

ONE MORE THING...

As the scruffy mack wearing US TV Detective Columbo would say, one more thing? - before we cast our votes on Thursday. Newport is not in good shape, the current incumbents have tried their best, but perhaps the budgetary hand that they were dealt by the departing (and exceptionally bitter about it) former Labour administration in 2008 may have proved too much to deal with in a mere four years.

Just one more thing?

Now I pull no punches I grew up in the 1980’s in a politicised home in a town dominated by a self-serving arrogant Labour machine. Newport (and plenty of other places) suffered during the Thatcher years, with the rundown of the old heavy and manufacturing industries and jobs losses. Logically, from a Labour point of view I should be a Labour voter and supporter (and probably an active one at that) but having seen them in action in my formative years in various elections - I would sooner go the dentist for a filling with no anaesthetic rather than vote Labour under any circumstances.

Labour in Newport lost power in the last county council elections (in 2004) due to a combination of Blair, incompetence, arrogance, mismanagement and poor judgement. You would not have needed to be a detective to pick up on the quiet glee inside the civic centre on the part of ordinary hard working council workers at the prospect of the arrogant (in some cases bullying) Labour councillors getting a right tattering prior to polling day in May 2008. Even the particularly unobservant might have gleaned a clue or two as to how the Labour councillors had behaved towards the council staff.

Now let’s be honest Labour in Newport has not liked being out of power one bit, if nothing else Labour in Newport over the last thirty years has largely been about just being there and thoroughly enjoying the trimmings. They had previously lost power in 1979, having regained it they ran the shop from 1981 until 2008, presiding over a very visible decline of the town.

It is easy to forget, especially with a Conservative government in Westminster, from 1997 until 2010 Labour was in power, and they ran the show in Cardiff from 1999 until 2007 – so co-operating with their colleagues in Cardiff and London they should have been able to sort things out in Newport. Labour in Newport were either incapable of developing the vision or arrogant enough to think that they did not need to do anything to retain control.

They were in charge for so long that they thought that they had a god given right to be there. All sorts of people joined the Labour machine, some literally to get their snouts in the trough like so many elected gadarene swine. Periodically anyone who looked like they could pose a potential threat would get an invite to join ‘Plenty of room for nationalists in the Welsh Labour Party’ my mate was told after he ran a good campaign a few years ago – similar stories can no doubt be told across much of the south of Wales.

Opposition candidates who got elected (in the 1980’s) found that Labour prevented them from playing an active part on council committees, some slight revenge perhaps for getting elected in the first place. The Labour in Newport party machine itself could be pretty cynical when it wanted to, throwing an all women short list into a seat where they knew they were about to get electorally exterminated in 2008 being a prime example.

Politics aside, part of the problem in Newport has been the lack of any real coherent long term development plan (beyond the Council’s UDP)and the development of out of town shopping centres combined with (for much of the time) a chronic lack of parking has helped to hammer the hell out of the town centre over the years. City status, which owed more to internal Labour politics than anything else, including finding a safe seat (Newport East) for Conservative defector Alan Howarth, amongst other things, along with the much heralded Ryder Cup , have brought few lasting benefits economic or otherwise.

The impression often given is that people are almost entirely disinterested with local politics; they could not care less, etc. Personally I don’t buy this, people are disinterested in and disillusioned with the process of local politics – which for so many years in Newport was dominated by a cynical self serving Labour machine.

I have often wondered exactly what Labour has delivered for the people of Newport to engender such blind loyalty in the last thirty years? Not a lot as far as I can work out. In most seats in my home town we have reached the point where in all honesty there is no need for an election at all – the Labour block vote, enhanced by First Past the Post, will deliver the seats.

Perhaps if we eliminate the safe seats entirely then elected councillors regardless of party will be forced to actually go out and earn the votes of their constituents to get elected – the dead wood will get voted out. First Past the Post is fundamentally undemocratic and unrepresentative, if we change it and use Single Transferable Vote (as is used in Scotland and Ireland) then perhaps we may reinvigorate local politics, and people’s interest and sort out Newport’s problems as part of process...