Plaid helps first-time home buyers

I was very please last week that both "Nelson" in the County Times and Glyn Davies AM welcomed Plaid Cymru's analysis of the affordable homes crisis in Powys and, to lesser extent in Glyn Davies' case, Plaid's proposal to give first-time buyers a grant of £5,000.

I was most disappointed, however, to read the response of Mick Bates AM in the local paper. I have not spoken to any young people struggling to find a £15,000 deposit on a "starter home" of £150,000 who think that Plaid's proposal is a "simplistic and expensive gimmick".

Plaid Cymru takes the needs of young people in Montgomeryshire seriously and that is why we are proposing to help them in a positive and practical way by giving them a lift onto the first rung of the housing ladder. This crisis is causing serious concern to very many first-time buyers and I am astonished that the Liberals are so dismissive of their problems.

LibDems' massive tax hike for farmers


While I welcome the Liberal Democrats' attempts to tackle climate change their new green tax shows once again that they have completely forgotten about the realities of life in rural Montgomeryshire.

The Liberal Democrats want car tax to rise from £175 for the basic model Landrover, for example, to £1500 and anything more powerful to £2000! Their proposed 2% reduction in income tax which is meant to compensate for this increase would still leave farmers having to find between £1300 and £1500 extra per year per vehicle even after tax relief.

This anti-rural policy, along with the LibDems' proposed land tax, will drive a stake through the heart of farming in Montgomeryshire. The Liberal Democrats say they want to "discourage marginal journeys" so it is fuel consumption not the annual excise duty which they should tax.

To equate a Landrover (a farmer's essential tool for the job) with a Chelsea Tractor used for the suburban school run betrays a woeful indifference to our way of life.

PETER HAIN -MIDDLE WALES OR MIDDLE EARTH?


What on earth was Peter Hain on about when he told the Labour Party they had to attract the voters of Middle Wales?! The place - and the concept - just does not exist!

Virtually all of us are only two generations at most removed from a family of tenant farmers, coalminers, steelworkers or dockers. Wales simply does not share that tradition of the English middle class of inherited wealth and property, routine private education and health care and a whole lifestyle devoid of any concerns about money.

Some of us may be better educated and some may be better paid but we're all gwerin - peasant folk - at heart and so much the better for it.

When he made this comment and when Rhodri Morgam called for for more middle class (not just middle income) people in Wales they showed more clearly than ever where the Labour now feels its real home is. What a betrayal of its roots and of the true Socialists who gave their lives for it!

Peter Hain has clearly spent too much time mixing with the wrong class of people. His idea of Middle Wales is a fantasy land and belongs in Middle Earth!

TRUE OR FALSE?

5 REASONS WHY YOU CAN’T VOTE FOR PLAID CYMRU!




1 “I can’t speak Welsh”

False – it doesn’t matter what language you speak or don’t speak you can vote for Plaid Cymru if you think the interests of Wales should come first in Wales. It doesn’t matter if you speak only English or if you speak French, German, Swahili or Welsh as well. Plaid Cymru is a political party not an evening class for Welsh learners. Lots of our candidates don’t speak Welsh and even Gwynfor Evans, our first MP, learned Welsh as an adult. All of Plaid’s literature is in English as well as Welsh so there is no problem whatsoever if you don’t speak the language.


2 “I’m not from Wales”

False – it doesn’t matter where you’re from – Welshpool, Wolverhampton or Warsaw - if you live in Wales you can vote for Plaid Cymru. Plaid Cymru means The Party of Wales i.e. the party for everybody who lives in Wales not just the people who were born here and we are the party for you because we are the only party which is run in Wales for the benefit of the people of Wales. We don’t have a London HQ like all the other parties so we don’t have to worry about what our masters are thinking – we are out own masters and our priority is not a Party but the people who live in Wales.

Two of our Presidents – Dafydd Wigley and Saunders Lewis – were not born in Wales. Where you come from, what colour your skin is, what religion you are, what language you speak, what clothes you wear – none of these things matter to Plaid Cymru. If you live in Wales you can vote for us because we have your interests at heart.


3 “I don’t believe in the Assembly”

False – None of the parties in the National Assembly for Wales wants it abolished so it is definitely here to stay and at the moment it stands right at the centre of our politics with Community/Town Councils and County Councils on the one hand and Westminster and the European Parliament on the other. The Assembly is getting more powers in 2007 so even if you didn’t vote for it in 1998 it will play an increasingly important part in your life from next year onwards. Best therefore to vote for a party which has your interests as its sole concern - Plaid Cymru.


4 “I don’t think Wales can go it alone”

False – neither does Plaid Cymru. There is scarcely a country in the world that could be considered genuinely “independent” these days. Certainly in Europe 25 countries, including the UK, have given up part of their independence or sovereignty because they see the benefits of a union of nation states. Many of those 25, including a number of the newest members, are smaller (some much smaller) than Wales but are storming ahead in economic development taking a lead from Ireland which, although with about the same population as Wales, has received 30 times more aid from Europe because it is a sovereign state.

We believe the next step for Wales should be Parity with Scotland so that things like the organisation of our police forces, how we control foxes, whether we have new nuclear power stations, what happens to our water, whether we can smoke in public, what happens to our council houses and a host of other issues can be decided by Welsh politicians in Wales not, as they are at the moment, in Westminster where English MPs have an overwhelming majority of votes.



5 “I don’t live in Wales”

True! If you don’t live in Wales you can’t vote for us – or for any other party for that matter. If you haven’t got your main home in our lovely country then you won’t be registered to vote in the National Assembly elections on 3 May 2007 but if you like what you’ve read and you’d like to support Plaid Cymru in any way we’d be very pleased to hear from you. Please go to www.plaidcymru.org for details about the party nationally or, to help out in Montgomeryshire, contact David Thomas, Plaid Assembly Candidate for Montgomeryshire, on 01691 870642 or david_thomas6@talk21.com or www. plaid4maldwyn.blogspot.com.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Another blow to rural life!

From 31 July it has no longer been possible to buy TV saving stamps from the Post Office. A savings card has been introduced which can be topped up at Paypoint outlets only and not the Post Office.

Now yet another service previously available in rural Post Offices has been relocated to larger villages if not towns.

Electricity companies who are changing domestic meters to swipe cards are making savings cards redundant and obliging customers to obtain key cards which, it seems, cannot be topped up in Post Offices. Residents of Llanwddyn, for example, were assured that top up facilities would be available within 3½ miles of their Post Office but in fact a journey of 9 miles is required to the nearest point.

It is well known that many rural Post Offices located in shops indirectly help the shops to remain viable by attracting customers to make purchases while also undertaking essential business in the Post Office. Any reduction of services offered by the Post Office can have only a detrimental effect on the villages which make up such a proportion of the communities in Montgomeryshire.

Some joined-up thinking between the various agencies involved is urgently required.

Powys Health Board Owes Us An Explanation.

On 6 June I attended a meeting with Mr Andy Willams, Chief Executive of the Powys Local Health Board, in Llanfyllin and was pleased with the categorical reassurance he gave during his presentation of the Board’s Consultation Document “Doing More, Doing Better” that there would be no changes in the Board’s commissioning policy regarding Powys residents who are normally referred for treatment to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital or the Orthopaedic Hospital in Gobowen. Indeed Mr Williams was clear that neither of those English Hospital Trusts would be solvent without the contribution made by the Powys Local Health Board (approximately 10% in each case).

It came as a surprise therefore to see that Mr Chris Mann, Chairman of the Board, is already proposing changes to the service in the model set out in “Doing More, Doing Better” even before it has been adopted! John Howard, Chief Executive of the Montgomeryshire Community Health Council has spoken of “a huge degree of faith [required] from the people of Powys” towards these plans. He can say that again! Surely what is needed now is for the Local Health Board to come back to the public with definitive long-term plans so that Montgomeryshire residents can see where they stand.

One of the unfortunate consequences of the current uncertainty is that some hardworking fundraisers are finding it difficult to continue their work because of suspicion regarding the Health Board’s plans. Sadly throughout the country there are a number hospitals under threat of downgrading or even of closure which were built with funds raised from public subscriptions alone and the contribution of Welsh people to raising funds for the Royal Shrewsbury and Orthopaedic Hospitals should not be forgotten. The Health Board owes it to us all - patients, prospective patients and fundraisers - to clear up this confusion as soon as possible.

Repeal the Government of Wales Act!


The Government of Wales Act, passed on 25 July, far from settling the democratic process in Wales “for generations at least if not for ever” (as Peter Hain hopes) should be repealed as soon as possible as it makes us 4th class citizens in our own land.

Both the Northern Ireland Assembly (when it meets) and the Scottish Parliament have far more control over their own affairs than the Welsh Assembly and, given that Westminster, with an in-built majority of 529 English MPs out of a total of 646, virtually functions as an English Parliament that means we in Wales have less responsibility than any legislature in the UK over even the handful of matters which have been devolved to any degree at all.

Take, for example, the building of new nuclear power stations. Both the NI and Scotland Assemblies could refuse planning permission but not we in Wales. In fact the UK government could force one on us and the minister who would currently take the decision on our behalf could be a Scottish MP! Even laws proposed unanimously by the Welsh Assembly can be blocked in five different ways by Westminster. What sort of democracy is that!

As a matter of natural justice and of human rights we in Wales should have the same legislative powers as NI and Scotland. We deserve to be treated as 1st class not 4th class citizens.

Make the 1st Law for 1000 Years!

The challenge has gone out to the people of Wales to suggest which laws should be the first to be proposed by the National Assembly - the first time for 1000 years that an Assembly representing only the people of Wales has been able to propose "primary legislation".

The Government of Wales Bill became an Act on 25 July and, in spite of its pitiful nod in the direction of genuinely devolved democracy, it does at least give the National Assembly a chance to propose laws to Westminster (where they have to clear 5 hurdles before they become law). Dafydd Elis Thomas, the Presiding Officer of the Assembly and a past President of Plaid Cymru, has challenged the public to come up with suggestions for the first law they wish to be passed and Plaid Cymru in Montgomeryshire is making a bold attempt to canvass the people's views.

On four evenings in the autumn Plaid candidates David Thomas, Nerys Evans and David Senior and a Plaid elected member will be holding open, public meetings in informal settings where the public will be encouraged to suggest new legislation and question the candidates on their own opinions. It is unheard of these days to hold public political meetings inbetween election campaigns and many parties only admit their own members anyway but Plaid is convinced that people are interested in politics if they think their views can really make a difference. With current concerns about health, energy and farming high on the agenda the meetings promise to be lively affairs.

Everyone is welcome to attend one or more of these public meetings for all or even part of the evening. They will all start at 7.30 p.m and will be on Tuesday 19 September in the Hand Inn Llanrhaeadr with Elfyn Llwyd MP (Plaid Leader in the House of Commons), Thursday 28 September in the Raven Inn, Welshpool with Ieuan Wyn Jones AM (Plaid Leader in the National Assembly), Thursday 9 November in Plas Dolerw, Milford Road, Newtown with Jill Evans MEP and Thursday 16 November in Plas Dolguog, Machynlleth with Dafydd Elis Thomas AM.

Blaenau Gwent - a not-so-silent earthquake

Congratulations to the people of Blaenau Gwent who gave in neither to the perceived threats nor bribes of Peter Hain.

Let us hope their brave stand will encourage others in next May's Assembly elections to believe that the sky won't fall on their heads just because they don't vote Labour and that principles are more important than a voting tradition which goes back generations.

Ambulance Crisis in Montgomeryshire

It would be easy to forget, amidst all the furore over the NHS Welsh Ambulance Trust, that the men and women who staff our ambulance stations are doing a sterling job and that they themselves are as much concerned about the conditions they are having to work in as we, the general public, are.

Since May I have visited one of the ambulance stations (Llanfyllin) which was highlighted last weekend on three separate occasions to talk to the crew and on each occasion was struck by their expertise and by their commitment to their job. However they are being asked to work under conditions which both the NHS Welsh Ambulance Trust and the Powys Local Health Board deem unacceptable.

The station is closed completely between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. each morning during which time the local on-call firemen, who have been trained as First Responders, provide First Aid though not paramedic cover. However, if at any time the ambulance from Welshpool is called out the Llanfyllin ambulance crew has to take their vehicle to Welshpool leaving the whole of north east Montgomeryshire, including the accident blackspot of Pistyll Rhaeadr, without any emergency vehicle cover at all.

It is no wonder that the rural target time of 18 minutes for emergency response by ambulances is being missed so often but it is no fault of our dedicated crews. Brian Gibbons, the Labour Assembly Health Minister, needs to get to grips with this situation and stop treating those of us who choose to live in the countryside as second-class citizens.

Plaid’s Montgomeryshire Team Gets Grilled!


Labour has made a mess of the Assembly and shouldn’t be trusted with the new powers it will receive in 2007. That is the message that three of us - all Plaid candidates in the 2007 Assembly elections - will be taking around Montgomeryshire in the next few months.

Nerys Evans and David Senior (first and second on the list for Mid and West Wales) and I (Montgomeryshire candidate) will be holding a series of “Grill the Candidates” sessions in the coming months which will be open to members of the public.

Labour has made the Assembly a talking shop. They haven’t used their existing powers responsibly and have been content by and large to follow the party line dictated by London. Plaid aims to change all that by using the new powers from 2007 in a responsible and sensible way for the benefit of all the people in all parts of Wales.

Plaid has chosen a great team to represent Montgomeryshire. David Senior is a Welshpool Town Councillor and Nerys Evans, a political officer in the National Assembly, at 26 really does represent the up-and-coming generation of Welsh people who have confidence that the Assembly, in the right hands, can deliver for the people of Wales. If people wish to vote for another party in the constituency they can put Plaid as their first choice on the Regional List in the certain knowledge that we have a team which is dedicated to improving schools, hospitals and roads as well as stimulating private enterprise in Montgomeryshire.

The “Grill the Candidates” meetings start in the Railway Inn Penybontfawr on 19 September and continue in the Raven, Welshpool on 28 September, Plas Dolerw Newtown on 9 November and Plas Dolguog on 18 November all starting at 7.30 p.m. There is a warm welcome to the public of all political persuasions and none.

Another English solution to an English problem!

The Labour Party really needs to get its energy policy sorted out.

While Labour at Westminster wants Wales to build more nuclear power stations Labour in Cardiff is pressing for more and bigger wind farms but not, it would seem, in their own back yard as the Labour AM for Conwy, Denise Jones, apparently opposes the 300 turbine off-shore Gwynt-y-Mor project.

How simpler it would be if we in Wales could decide ourselves what to do with our own natural resources. Currently Wales generates about 36,000 GWH per year (about 10% of the UK total) but consumes only about 21,000 GWH. The Labour government in London wants us to increase production to about 45,000 GWH. There might be a case for this if the wealth generated stayed in Wales and was used by those communities where the natural resources were found in the first place as happens in Norway where remote communities often have first class school and recreational facilities because they receive the profits generated by the sale of hydro-electricity in their region.

Far from sensitive community-based alternative means of energy production, however, Labour in both London and Cardiff want to foist either nuclear power stations or massive wind farms onto the landscape or seashores of Wales.

This is an English solution to an English problem. Energy production should be totally devolved to the National Assembly and the many sensitive, community-based schemes such as the wood fuel heating project for the school, Community Centre and 29 homes in Llanwddyn should be the template for the future.

Hands off our water!

After 2 weeks' unseasonally heavy rain in Montgomeryshire we may be forgiven for thinking that the drought orders in the South-East of England have nothing to do with us.

The Government of Wales Bill, however, currently going through Westminster specifically forbids any future Assembly government from making use of Welsh water in any way which affects the "water resources, supply or quality of water in England".

Indeed not only will the Assembly Government not be able to profit from one of Wales' natural resources (and an increasingly valuable one) but there will be nothing to stop water companies in England from obtaining compulsory access to water sources in Wales since the required legislation will go through Westminster and not Cardiff. Another Lake Vrynwy or Llyn Tryweryn cannot be ruled out so watch out Dolanog and Cwm Nant-yr-Eira - they could get you yet!

British Values? Don't make me laugh!

When English schools come to the chapter on Fair Play in their textbook on British Values I hope that there will be room for an alternative point of view, in the interests of fair play, you understand.

If there is then maybe it will include reference to the fact that the Government of Wales Bill currently going through Westminster specifically excludes any future Assembly Government from profiting from the sale of Welsh water, one of our natural and increasingly valuable resources, to England. English companies, though, could obtain compulsory orders from the Westminster government to gain access to Welsh water sources.

And when they come to the chapter on Democracy I hope they will be told about their Leader who, against the wishes of the natives, is forcing on them more nuclear power stations and a re-structuring of their police forces. They may also learn about the rules for electing representatives to the National Assembly which even their own Electoral Commission regards as undemocratic.

This "British Vales" book should be a scream!

And why do English schools have to learn about British values? Haven't they got any of their own?

Police Powers should be devolved to Cardiff

Dyfed-Powys Police has the best crime detection rate in the country. It recently seized a large haul of drugs in Pembrokeshire and in August 2001, the time of the BNP rally, coped with the largest threat to public order in Montgomeryshire since the Chartists Troubles of 1839 yet the Home Office and Peter Hain want to reform it on the basis that it cannot cope with drug-trafficking and terror threats. In addition the Westminster government wants us, the taxpayers, to pay for the £40m this pointless exercise will cost.

The wishes of the people of Mid and West Wales are being totally ignored in this matter. Responsibility for policing should be devolved to the National Assembly with the requisite level of funding so that the people of Wales alone decide the future of the police forces in Wales.

Labour is failing Montgomeryshire on Health and Transport

Health and Transport were the main issues raised at the latest meeting of the Plaid Montgomeryshire Constituency Committee.

Members were distressed to hear of Rhianwen Emberton and Jessica Regan, two local cases of patients who seem to have been discriminated against because they live in Wales.

Brian Gibbons, the Health Minister for Wales, has a lot to answer for. No patient in Wales should struggle to obtain a drug or wait longer than strictly necessary for treatment just because they live a mile or so this side of the border. Powys is unique in Wales in not having a District General Hospital and Brian Gibbons needs to make sure that money is available to treat those patients who have to travel to England for treatment.

Members also discussed a paper received from transport expert Angus Eikhoff concerning a direct rail link between Newtown and Cardiff. This may not be a flight of fancy as the Assembly is looking to develop new rail links and members decided to press the Assembly to fund a feasibility study into the project.

It may be some time away but we must look at ways of increasing sustainable energy consumption as well as increasing non-road traffic through the county. We have the highest proportion of second-car owners in Wales here, not because it’s a luxury but of necessity and any way in which we can encourage cheaper alternatives in the long run must be justified. In addition we desperately need better North-South links in Wales and this could provide a real solution to both passenger and light freight needs.

What is Peter Hain for?

What is Peter Hain for exactly?

It was reported in the media last weekend that Peter Hain had kept his two jobs in the cabinet because Tony Blair believed he "had done a good job in Northern Ireland". Exactly. No mention of how well or otherwise he was doing in Wales.

Why is it that we in Wales suffer such a man solely because of the quality of the job he is doing in another country? And why is it that Peter Hain is so keen to reconvene a NI Assembly which will have a huge range of devolved powers when he will not even offer them to us "for a generation at least"?

Closer inspection also reveals that his success in NI has been very limited. His failure to reconvene the Assembly even while the infrastructure of government has continued in place (including paying the members their salaries for doing nothing) has cost us, the taxpayers, millions of pounds.

Sooner or later Hain will have his promotion and will leave us behind. He ought now to pay more attention to the views of people such as Bishop Barry Morgan and Cymru Yfory/Wales Tomorrow who are here for the long run, who have a sympathy for the past which is not confined to petty politics and who have a real vision for the future of Wales, a country which is well able to determine its own affairs.

PLAID CANDIDATE CALLS FOR HELP ON FUEL

David Thomas, Plaid’s Montgomeryshire Assembly candidate, called today for help for Montgomeryshire businesses hit by the latest round of increases in fuel prices. Speaking in Llanwddyn on a visit to Glyn Roberts, a local haulage contractor, David Thomas said “Many of us have no option but to travel long distances to work and businesses have to spend a lot of money on fuel before they can start making a profit. Public transport in Montgomeryshire is not too good and many families have to run two cars as a necessity not a luxury. Although the present rise is caused by fears of a shortage the Chancellor could reduce the tax on fuel (currently about 63% and the highest in the EU) or give a rebate on, for example, road fund tax at least to all businesses registered in Montgomeryshire and he could do this without affecting any of his public spending plans.”

IS THE HEALTH SERVICE IN MONTGOMERYSHIRE HEALTHY?

Is the Health Service in Montgomeryshire healthy? That was the question asked by Plaid’s Commission on Wellbeing (Health and Social Care) when it took evidence from members of the public in a special meeting in the Royal Oak, Welshpool, recently the same week that the Labour Government in Wales announced that it had “nearly” reached the targets it had set itself for hospital waiting times but that 69,000 more people were on hospital waiting lists than when it took over responsibility for Health in 1999.

Chaired by Helen Mary Jones, Shadow Minister for Health and Social Services and Mid and West Wales AM, the Commission heard that cooperation on the ground between GPs, local hospitals and the general hospitals in Shrewsbury and Gobowen was generally good but wondered why patients had to travel out of Powys to receive treatment which could, and should, be provided by local hospitals and Health Centres. A lot of money and expertise was being taken out of Powys and was effectively subsidising the Health Service in England which was already better funded.

The meeting also heard from Rhianwen Emberton from Berriew who has faced difficulties in obtaining the drug Copaxone even though it is generally available in England for those who suffer from MS.