PLAID SUPPORTS FIGHT FOR MACHYNLLETH OUTPATIENT CLINIC

Ceredigion and Mid Wales NHS Trust's review may regard Machynlleth as ‘peripheral’ and that may be true geographically but for patients in and around Machynlleth it is very much at the centre of their preventive care and post-operative treatment.

It’s not good enough to say that Machynlleth is only 15 miles from Aberystwyth. The road is not good and that sort of thinking doesn’t take account of the distance people have to travel from deeper in Powys or Gwynedd before they get to Machynlleth in the first place. And with the Dyfi bridge closing more frequently each year this review could put many patients at risk.

Plaid Cymru Noson Lawen Llanerfyl 19 January 2007

Plaid Cymru held a very successful evening of entertainment in Llanerfyl on 19 January when the guest artists included Plaid President Dafydd Iwan, local celebrity Sian James and the new band Gwiber from the Llanfair Caereinion area (see photo). The evening was expertly compered by Arwyn Groe and, together with a quiz, competitions and donations, raised nearly £1000.

We were delighted to be able to present such a varied evening showcasing the established talents of Dafydd and Sian and the new but very accomplished sound of the rock band Gwiber. Arwyn supplied us with some original and amusing poetry so a great time was had by all.

LibDems finally catch up with Plaid!

Plaid Cymru in Montgomeryshire welcomes Mr Opik's conversion to the cause of reason and common sense concerning the present situation in Iraq. He is wrong, however, to claim that his party is the first to call for a troop withdrawal. Plaid Cymru did not support the war, voted consistently against it and has been calling for British troops to withdraw for over 3 years.

Plaid Cymru has sponsored a number of debates about Iraq in Parliament and it is only because of the amazing courage of Adam Price and other Plaid MPs in the face of open hostility from Labour and indifference from the LibDems that the issue has received the prominence it deserves.

MORE HELP URGENTLY NEEDED FOR CHILDREN TO LEARN ENGLISH

More funding is desperately needed for pupils in Powys who speak neither English nor Welsh.

In the past 2 years the number of pupils requiring EAL (English as an Additional Language) support in Powys has risen by over 150% from 82 in January 2005 to over 200 in January 2007. In addition these pupils are spread through 46 schools in the county so it is difficult to concentrate the help which they need.

I am calling on the Labour Assembly Government to not only increase the funding for EAL to Powys but to do so now, not a year later as is the usual custom, as the money needs to be spent straightaway to help these children integrate into our excellent school in Powys. It seems unfair that Powys has to raid other budgets for 12 months to meet what is a current pressing need and has to wait for a year to be reimbursed by the Assembly.

Plaid Calls for Independent Milk and Supermarket Ombudsman

While one mainstay of Montgomeryshire farming, rearing livestock, has seen its market pick up in recent years the same cannot be said of that other mainstay, dairy farming.

Since the abolition of the Milk Marketing Board the price paid to farmers for their milk has fallen by 26% while its price in the shops has continued to rise. Of the 55p per litre paid in the shops only 16p goes to the farmer who produced it. In the past year alone 1,000 dairy farms have finished production in Wales and England and the situation can only get worse if the profit margin is squeezed even further.

Plaid Cymru has recognised the seriousness of the situation in Montgomeryshire and is backing the current campaign "Low milk prices have a high cost". It is also calling for the establishment of an Independent Milk and Supermarket Ombudsman who will be responsible for pricing and other aspects of the industry and would also make sure that the current voluntary supermarket code of conduct was made legally binding.

Westminster Wastes Welsh Wealth

The revelation today that the Royal Navy has committed itself to £12bn expenditure over its budget in the next 10 years should shock all those who think that our money is safe in their (Westminster's) hands. Scarcely a week goes by when some defence contract is not found to be massively over budget (and often years late) yet we allow our taxes to be wasted like this with barely a murmur.

Wales' share of the £12bn overspend (some of it on aircraft carriers which experts deem technically deficient) would be at least £600m or £60m a year - enough to buy a laptop for every man, woman and child in the country! We pay enough taxes and the money is there if only we could get hold of it to spend it on what we think best.

Why is Balkanisation Good but Balticisation Bad?


When Peter Hain raises the spectre of Balkanisation are we to assume that he would have preferred the continuation of a one-party state, dominated by one of its constituent groups which supressed the cultures and aspirations of its minorities?

And will Mr Hain please explain why Balkanisation - the fulfilment of national hopes by the dissolution of a large and centralised state - is a bad thing, but Balticisation - the fulfilment of national hopes etc - is a good thing? Both the Balkans and the Baltics now contain states smaller than Wales (Slovenia and Montenegro in the former and Estonia and Latvia in the latter) and I don't hear any of them begging to be reincorporated into their fomer empires.

What's Powys done to derserve this?

Yet again Powys has received an inadequate settlement to fund its services across the county and things could have been even worse had not Plaid Cymru secured extra monies both for central services and local expenditure such as school heating bills.

It is clearly unacceptable however that Powys, which has one of the lowest average wages in the UK, one of the worst differentials between wages and house prices and one of the highest instances of people holding a second job just to make ends meet, should receive 15% less in its revenue increase from central government than even the average settlement in Wales. Powys has slipped from being the best supported county in Wales to 12th or average position but its needs have not changed. Sadly this is only to be expected from a Labour Assembly Government whose cabinet is composed, except for one, exclusively of AMs from the former South Wales coalfield.

Only Plaid Cymru can challenge Labour's stranglehold on politics in Wales at the Assembly elections on 3 May. The Conservatives hold ten out of twenty regional seats so any constituency gains will be offset by regional seat losses. The LibDems will only ever be bit-players in Welsh politics - the spare wheel to keep Labour's car on the road. After all, voting LibDem and Tories in Powys in 1999 and 2003 didn't help did it?

Thinking of buying a house in Powys? Read this first!

The news that Powys now has the fourth highest percentage of houses in Wales valued in the top band of £223,001 or over might come as a relief to the County Council as it calculates the revenues due from their Council Tax but for pensioners on a fixed income it offers a daunting prospect. Escalating property prices do not provide an income and Plaid Cymru, which has already secured transitional relief for those who were rebranded severely, has recognised the problem by proposing to replace the Council Tax with a local income tax which takes account of people's ability to pay, not the value of their house!

A further shock came last week for those trying to get on the property ladder in Powys when statistics showed that house prices in the county had increased by no less than 110% in just 5 years. Powys remains one of the counties with the worst differentials between average house prices and average wages and Plaid Cymru has recognised this problem by proposing grants for first time buyers so that our young people can continue to live and work in the county. Added to Plaid's policy of helping students who live and work in Wales for 5 years after graduating to repay their loans these plans offer the most concerted attempt of any party in Wales to tackle the problem of affordable homes for all.

Spilt the Home Office - and devolve it too!

John Reid's intention to split the Home Office has confirmed what we devolutionists have been saying for a long time and also supports the claims made last week by the Presiding Officer, Dafydd Elis-Thomas, that we in Wales could do at least as good a job on our own (it would be difficult to do worse!) if not better.

Terrorism and Immigration are rightly areas which are best dealt with on a UK level and could be terms of reference for a UK Parliament. The other sections however, including domestic policing, are those which are much better dealt with on as local a level as possible and should be the remit of the Welsh Assembly or an expanded Welsh Parliament, as they are already in Scotland.

It is plainly stupid that education (or parts of it at least) is devolved to Cardiff but that the Probation Service, as part of the Home Office, is remote-controlled from London. It is difficult to have "joined-up thinking" if we are unable to have joined -up policies. It's like knitting a jumper in Cardiff only for the sleeves to be attached in London, when neither knitters are looking at the same pattern!

Socialism or Britishness - you can't have both!

It is flattering of Jeff Jones to compliment all us "talented people in Plaid" (Plea for Labour Autonomy, Western Mail, 18 Jan) but his article illustrates all that is wrong with Labour - basically that as a British-based party, dependent on English votes, it will never, ever implement anything even approximate to a traditional Labour/Socialist agenda.

When Blair won his landslide in 1997 and actually, for the first time, won the majority of seats in England, he did things to education and the health service which even Maggie Thatcher shyed away from and led us into 5 wars. Middle England is implacably opposed to the sort of classless, cooperative society which Old Labour espouses. The sort of socialist programme which Jeff Jones identifies with will only ever be delivered in Wales when we are able to set our own agenda and decide our own priorities which has no chance of happening until we have at least a Scottish-style Parliament.

For those of us in Plaid, the good of the common people, those born without privilege or inherent advantage, call it "Socialism" if you like, is more important than being British. Socialism in one country, Wales, could be a reality, but never if we wait for British Labour to deliver it.

For some of us principles are still more important than electoral success. After all, if you sell your soul like Blair has, what's the point of winning elections?

Why are we so grateful when we get back our own money?

The news of the development at St Athan is to be welcomed indeed, particularly the number of jobs which it entails.

Before we get too euphoric, however, over "the largest investment by the UK government ever in Wales" let us remember a few things.

First, it's our money, our taxes which are being "invested" in Wales. It's not some kind of gift from Westminster. We pay enough taxes - direct, indirect and stealth - to jusitfy this many times over.

Secondly, although £58m a year is a large sum it represents only 3.8% of the total MoD budget which ought to be spent in Wales were we to receive our "fair share" of the defence budget based on population.

Thirdly, while this is a welcome investment it comes at a time when other public investment is being cut back particularly in the county councils of Wales who could easily identify £58m this year which they feel they deserve (after all it's only £2.6m per council and many of them were preparing to find this through 1% "efficiency" savings).

£58m is a lot of money and it sounds more simply because Wales has been so neglected by the UK government in the past but the Iraq War alone has so far cost 100 times that amount. The money is there when it's needed. What a pity that we sound so pathetically grateful when we simply get back what we have put in many times over.

Plaid increases pressure against Post Office closures

Plaid Cymru this week stepped up the campaign to save sub post offices in Wales. In Westminster they called to re-allocate contracts and to provide adequate funding for sub post offices and colleagues in Cardiff Bay put pressure on the Assembly Government to make representations to the UK Government opposing the planned closures.

In an Early Day Motion tabled in Parliament Plaid’s Westminster Leader Elfyn Llwyd MP, called on Members of Parliament to join him in condemning post office closure plans and to support the party’s campaign to save threatened rural post offices in Wales.

Also this week Plaid launched their online petition opposing sub post office closures: www.saveourpostoffices.plaidcymru.org. The petition will be presented to the DTI.

Although post offices are in the private sector they do provide a vital public service, especially in rural areas where they often double up as the only retail outlet for miles.

In taking away vital income streams such as television licence and the processing of benefits and pension entitlement, the Government has made it practically impossible for sub postmasters and mistresses to earn a living and is forcing them to close their businesses.

It is Plaid’s priority to put pressure on the DTI to re-allocate contracts and provide adequate funding to sub post offices to expand on the services they offer.

Plaid increases pressure against Post Office closures

Plaid Cymru this week stepped up the campaign to save sub post offices in Wales. In Westminster Plaid MPs called to re-allocate contracts and to provide adequate funding for sub post offices and colleagues in Cardiff Bay put pressure on the Assembly Government to make representations to the UK Government opposing the planned closures.

In an Early Day Motion tabled in Parliament Plaid’s Westminster Leader, Elfyn Llwyd MP, called on Members of Parliament to join him in condemning post office closure plans and to support the party’s campaign to save threatened rural post offices in Wales.

Also this week Plaid launched their online petition opposing sub post office closures: www.saveourpostoffices.plaidcymru.org. The petition will be presented to the DTI.

Although post offices are in the private sector they do provide a vital public service, especially in rural areas where they often double up as the only retail outlet for miles.

In taking away vital income streams such as television licence and the processing of benefits and pension entitlement, the Government has made it practically impossible for sub postmasters and mistresses to earn a living and is forcing them to close their businesses.

It is Plaid’s priority to put pressure on the DTI to re-allocate contracts and provide adequate funding to sub post offices to expand on the services they offer.

The Economic Case for Welsh Independence

With polls showing 52% of Scots in favour of independence and 58% of people living in England in favour of Scottish independence maybe it is time to think again about the economic scenario should Wales become “independent” of the rest of the UK. I say “independent” because no country is really independent these days and the term tends to conjure up images of complete separation and isolation. The UK, along with all the other countries in the EU, has ceded some of its legal independence to the European Commission and has ceded other rights to the UN. It is also a signatory to a number of international agreements and has binding terms of operation with the G8 group and the World Bank and IMF so not even the UK acts completely “independently” in all it tries to do. By “independent” I simply imply that Wales would be a full member of both the EU and the UN and would negotiate its position in any external concords. But crucially it means that wealth created and taxes raised here in Wales could be spent exclusively in Wales.


Size Does Matter – Small is Good!

It is not the size of a country which determines its success. Eight of the ten richest countries in the world, including all 5 Nordic countries, have populations of less than 10m. Slovenia (pop 2m) is already richer than Wales and Luxembourg (450,000) enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the EU. In Ireland (pop 4m) in the 1960s living standards were two thirds lower than those in Britain, only 20% went to Higher Education and there was mass emigration because of poverty yet by the late 1990s Ireland enjoyed a higher standard of living than Britain because it maximised its potential and optimised its position as a small country. Small countries are more agile and can respond more quickly to global opportunities, small countries are more cohesive, information flows more quickly and they have more of what economists call social and network capital. Small countries can also clearly identify their interests and tend to guard them fiercely. In addition natural resources (though Wales has plenty of these) are no longer essential to a successful economy and distance is no longer a determining factor for profit making (at least in “information” industries).

The Legacy of Direct Rule

The 1536 Act of Union abolished Welsh laws and effectively created a single country of EnglandandWales (Scotland voluntarily joined the Union in a looser sense in 1707). From 1536 until 1999 Wales was basically under “direct rule” from Westminster where its MPs were hopelessly outnumbered when it came to voting on national interests. The Welsh Office was established in 1963 which introduced some decentralisation into Wales but it only administered the decisions already made in Westminster. The 1999 National Assembly for Wales brought about a small element of devolution but only some matters were devolved to Cardiff and the decision-making was confined to secondary legislation.

The net effect of centuries of “remote control” has been a scandalous under-investment in Welsh public services and a woeful neglect of its historic problems including the legacy of the extraction industries. The GVA (gross value added) per capita is now £3000 or 22% less than the UK average and still declining. Wales’ long-term growth from 1972 – 2002 was 16th, i.e. bottom, of the EU countries, with Ireland and Luxembourg, two of the smallest countries at the top and its projected growth to 2013 is the lowest of all the UK regions.

Will Things Ever Get Any Better?

Is it inevitable that Wales will continue indefinitely as the “poor man of Europe”? For the second time in 6 years the Valleys and West Wales have been considered so poor that they have been given Objective One money from Europe to try to lift them from the chronic cycle of unemployment and deprivation. On a crude level it is probably true to say that Wales has 5% of the UK population and generates about 4% but consumes about 6% of its wealth so on the surface it looks as if Wales is relying on “subsidies” from the rest of the UK to keep it afloat but there are a number of assumptions here which need to be challenged.

First it has to be said that while the current situation makes Wales look like a “debtor” nation (and, it should be remembered, most nations, except for China, are) historically Wales has generated vast amounts of wealth for the UK exchequer which have been spent outside Wales. One can only guess at the billions of pounds (on today’s levels) of tax which have been levied in Wales in the past when Coal was King. The first million-pound cheque was signed in the Coal Exchange in Cardiff in 1913 and, had Wales been able to spend the taxes raised here exclusively in Wales, we would have been like present-day Norway – a small country enjoying a very high standard of living on the basis of having natural resources which the whole world wanted.

Secondly, historically and still today, natural resources such as water, electricity and forestry are “exported” to England with no identifiable taxation returning to Wales.

Thirdly, it also has to be said that it doesn’t matter how much “subsidy” Wales appears to receive from the rest of the UK no amount of money will ever, ever compensate for the tragic and avoidable loss of innocent life on 21 October 1966 when 114 children and 28 adults were engulfed in a tide of coal waste in Aberfan.

Coming to the present, however, it is not inevitable that there be a perceived gap between what Wales puts into and what it gets out of the UK.

First, the government itself admits that there are “no meaningful statistics” about the tax collected in Wales apart from personal income tax – nobody has any idea how much corporate tax, VAT or other taxes such as vehicle licence is raised in Wales because it all goes to London before it is redistributed to Wales. Better figures exist for Scotland but even there it has recently been calculated that Scotland was in “credit” to the UK by £300m last year. This is particularly interesting as Scotland receives public spending per person of £7346 each year compared with Wales’ £6901, England’s £5940 and a massive £7945 for N Ireland. Wales is quite possibly “richer” than the figures on personal wages and income tax suggest.

Secondly, it should be possible for Wales to increase its wealth by following Ireland’s example in its economic miracle and cutting corporation tax. This would attract firms and compensate somewhat for the physical remoteness of Wales from major markets and generate more corporation tax, jobs and, hence, income tax. An independent Wales would also probably join the Eurozone (as Ireland) which would give a further impetus to businesses.

Thirdly, Welsh tax payers’ money is currently being used to “subsidise” UK projects which Wales really has no interest in. Wales has no need of nuclear power and the Assembly has voted against any new power stations (though is powerless to stop them being build in Wales because the decision rests with Westminster). The UK government, however, is setting aside £75bn for decommission costs for the new generation of stations of which Wales’ share is nearly £4bn. It is inconceivable that an independent Wales would want to share in the new Trident nuclear deterrent so we would receive £1.75bn back from that. An independent Wales would probably also baulk at having to contribute 5% of the £32bn the UK spends on defence each year. The UK government is currently paying £161bn for PFI (Private Finance Initiative) schemes, almost all of which are in England. Wales should receive a rebate of £8bn. Given that the Welsh Assembly receives only £14bn from the UK in the first place this already amounts to virtually a year’s budget and some of it would recur each year.

Fourthly, it is true to say that the UK government does spend money in Wales of course. The DVLA in Swansea organises the collection of car tax for the whole country and there are UK armed forces stationed and training in Wales. The Patent Office for the UK is based in Newport and the government may shortly be sending a lot of jobs to St Athan – its biggest investment ever in Wales. Historically, though, the government has invested nothing like the money Wales should have received according to its population or its “need”. In Defence, for example, 85% of government money is spent in the south-east region of England.

“Wales Can’t Survive Outside The UK”

Of course nobody knows whether Wales would prosper economically as an independent country or wither on the vine but there is not one of England’s former colonies from the USA to India or Hong Kong which is banging on the door and begging to be ruled once again by the mandarins in Westminster. Wales has enough expertise to succeed and is just the right size to carve out a number of “niche” markets for itself. Even coal, of which there are millions of tons left to be extracted, could once again become a source of wealth for Wales with the development of “clean coal” power generation. Wealth could be increased and need could be decreased as the ill health legacy of heavy industries wanes and the workforce becomes better educated as Wales' curriculum and assessment policies are currently almost entirely dictated by Westminster.


Ymlaen at Cymru Newydd!

Plaid promises a laptop to every new secondary school pupil

Every child entering secondary school will receive a laptop if Plaid Cymru wins the National Assembly elections on 3 May – a promise which has been welcomed by teachers, parents, union leaders and, of course, pupils throughout Wales.

As a teacher myself I am acutely aware that pupils from poorer backgrounds do not have the same resources for learning as other pupils. This scheme will at least even out some of the disparity and help all pupils to gain access to the internet and to present their work in a more professional manner. I am especially pleased that the deal includes upgrades and repairs for as long as the pupil is in school so the price tag of £10m per year seems very reasonable indeed.

Plaid’s laptop for pupils scheme will not be available to pupils in private schools.

Where would we be without England?!

Lord Falconer's "Where would you be without England?" speech displays the sort of brazen arrogance and nauseating patronage we have sadly come to expect from those who look down on us Welsh from their lofty Anglo-British pedestals.

Without a doubt it is England which has gained most from the institution of the United Kingdom. We can only guess at what Wales would have become had the billions of pounds (by today's standards) of corporate and income tax raised in Wales from the coal extraction industry alone been spent exclusively in Wales. At the very least we would have been like modern-day Norway, a small country with one of the highest standards of living in the world because the rest of the world wanted what we had in abundance. And one can only guess at the standards of education we would have reached had the majority of our pupils not been taught in what was effectively a foreign language after 1847.

Wales is in the state it is today - most of it muddling along at 75% of UK average wealth - not by some inexpicable quirk of fate but because of generations of exploitation and mismanagement by "absentee landlords" in the shape of Westminster governments who have used the wealth generated from Wales for a grand "British" experiment. I don't hear any of its former colonies from the USA through to Ireland, India or Hong Kong clamouring to be ruled again by the UK.

The concept that Wales is somehow permanently dependent on the UK derives from an outdated notion of what the UK is for. If it is to be a Union for the 21st century it should be a union of equals not, as now, where one country dominates and exploits the others politically and economically. Wales has nothing to prove. It was grown up as a political state when England was still running around in short trousers and would benefit from much looser rather than closer ties with the UK