Yn Cyflwyno Eich Ymgeiswyr Plaid Cymru

Eich Plaid Leol Your Local Party

Introducing Your Plaid Cymru Candidates

DAVID THOMAS MALDWYN/MONTGOMERYSHIRE

Cefais fy ngeni a fy magu yn Hwlffordd a symudais i Lanwddyn yn 1986 lle rydym wedi mwynhau profi Mwynder Maldwyn. Rydw i’n mynychu rhai gweithgareddau diwylliannol fel yr Eisteddfod, Steddfod yr Urdd, Steddfod Powys (rwyf yn Is-gadeirydd Pwyllgor y Dysgwyr 2007), Gwyl Maldwyn, Y Mari Lwyd a’r plygeiniau.

I have lived in Llanwddyn since 1986 and am Chair of Governors at Ysgol Efyrnwy, Chair of the Lake Vyrnwy Marathon Committee and Vice-Chair of the Learners Committee for Eisteddfod Powys 2007. I am also a member of the Powys Citizens Panel. I have worked for Powys County Council as a Youth Training Officer and as a teacher in Llanfyllin High School.

NERYS EVANS CANOLBARTH A GORLLEWIN CYMRU /MID AND WEST WALES

Cefais fy ngeni yn Llangain, Caerfyrddin a fy addysg ym mhrifysgolion Manceinion a Chaerdydd. Rwyf i’n gweithio fel swyddog gwleidyddol i aelodau Plaid Cymru y Cynulliad.

I am a PCS union official in the Assembly and have a special interest in workers’ rights, rural affairs and the Welsh language.

Labour has had 8 years to make a difference in Montgomeryshire, but instead its urban agenda and obsession with Cardiff have resulted in threats to most of our local services – including our hospitals, schools, libraries and post offices.

DAVID SENIOR CANOLBARTH A GORLLEWIN CYMRU/MID AND WEST

WALES

I was born in Welshpool and educated in Oxford, Newtown and the Universities of Wales and Kent. I am a Plaid Cymru Councillor on Welshpool Town Council. I have a strong interest in the sustainable economic development of our market towns and offering young people a chance to remain in our communities.

Rydw i’n dysgu mewn ysgol breswyl ar gyfer bechgyn efo anghenion arbenning. Roeddwn i’n un o aelodau gwreiddiol Cyfeillion y Ddaear Y Drenewydd ar rydw i’n aelod o’r Sefydliad Materion Cymreig.


Mae’n amser Newid er Gwell . Mae’n Bryd Gwneud Gwahaniaeth.
Pleidleisiwch dros Plaid Cymru – Dwywaith!

Mae Plaid yn llawn ystyried nad yw pawb yng Nghymru yn byw ar goridor yr M4 na’r A55, ac rydym eisiau gweld pob rhan o Gymru yn ffynnu. Nawr yw’r amser i wneud gwahaniaeth trwy roi eich ffydd ym Mhlaid Cymru i wneud gwahaniaeth ym Maldwyn.

Only one member of Rhodri Morgan’s cabinet represents a seat outside South Wales. It’s time we made the Government in Cardiff sit up and take notice that Montgomeryshire is part of Wales too! Only Plaid can form an alternative government to Labour in the Assembly and put the issues of hospitals, schools, farming and transport at the top of the agenda.


What can Plaid Cymru do for us in Montgomeryshire?

IN OPPOSITION Plaid has put a cap on student fees, won extra money for every school in Wales, secured the future of Tir Mynydd, won extra council tax relief for pensioners and set up an inquiry into the Welsh Ambulance Service.

IN GOVERNMENT Plaid intends to replace council tax with a local income tax, provide grants for reducing home energy consumption, create affordable housing, double spending on childcare, move three government departments out of Cardiff, develop, not downgrade, community hospitals, develop the Post Office as a service of government, appoint a Language Commissioner, purchase food for hospitals and schools locally and hold a referendum on the Constitution by 2011.

It doesn’t matter where you come from – Welshpool, Wolverhampton or Warsaw – if you think that what happens in Wales should be decided by the people who live in Wales then Plaid Cymru is the party for you. Two of our presidents, Saunders Lewis and Dafydd Wigley, weren’t born in Wales.

It doesn’t matter what the colour of your skin is, how rich or poor you are, how young or old you are or what languages you speak or don’t speak Plaid Cymru is the party for ALL the people who live in Wales.

Beth ydy polisiau Plaid Cymru? www.newidergwell.plaidcymru.org
What are Plaid’s policies? www.changeforthebetter.plaidcymru.org

Get involved! 02920 646000 www.plaidcymru.org Ymunwch â ni!

Plaid Cymru ym Maldwyn www.plaid4maldwyn.blogspot.com Plaid in Montgomeryshire



It’s Time for a Change for the Better. It’s Time to Make a Difference. Vote Plaid – Twice!

Don Rhodri Rides Again!

Why on earth is Rhodri Morgan bringing David Cameron into the Assembly election debate? Most of the things he blames the Tories for are out of the hands of the Assembly anyway and, if Wales is still suffering, as he suggests, it is Labour's fault as they have had 10 years to sort it out!

Rhodri is well and truly in Don Quixote mode, tilting at imaginary foes, afraid to confront the real enemies in his own party. His truest statement is that the Tories have never won a majority in Wales but without a proper Parliament, which Rhodri resolutely opposes, the same thing could happen again and Wales would be defenceless in the face of an unsympathetic government in London - Labour or Tory.

Come on Rhodri, attacking the Tory record in Westminster is so last century. Give us a proper fight based on Labour's record in Wales, not on some bogeyman hiding under the stairs.

PCS Workers Deserve Our Support

The PCS workers who recently went on strike at Revenue and Customs offices in Welshpool and Newtown derserve our support if only because we shall all lose out if, as the Labour government proposes, they are all but closed by 2008.

The loss of 47 posts will take around £1.8m out of the local economy and with jobs in adjacent offices like Oswestry and Aberystwyth also being cut the chances of the workers finding similar jobs is slim indeed.

Also as the nearest manned Tax Office will be in Telford or Wrexham anybody who depends on a face-to-face interview to sort out their tax affairs will be faced with a long journey or will have to use the phone or internet.

With tax evasion and VAT fraud conservatively estimated at no less than a staggering £30bn it would make sense for staff to be retained to recoup these losses which are robbing us all of due revenue.

It is hypocritical of Labour AMs to pretend to support the PCS officers when it is their own government which is cutting their jobs!

A Good Day on the Campaign Trail!

Nerys Evans, Mid and West Wales list candidate, and I spent a very useful day in Welshpool today starting with an hour in the market with Montgomeryshire's farmers. Following that we met with Clive Faulkener of the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust and shared some thoughts about sustainable farming, especially in the uplands, which Clive thinks will be particularly at risk from climate change.

We had a very pleasant working lunch with Nick Knight, Mark Lingard and Anwen Evans of the County Times and then spent an hour with Oldford Commiuniites First and heard about some of the very interesting developments there from Mandy and Hannah. We then met with Dave Morris, PCS union convenor in HMRC Welshpool, who had done some research on the economic consequences of the proposed job losses and had calculated that the impact on the economy would be about £1.8m per year - an awful lot for an area like Welshpool.

Our final visit was to Derwen Farm Shop in Guilsfield where we met Rachel Joseph, the owner, and Zoe (see photo above with [l to r] me, Zoe, Nerys and Rachel) The shop is full of superb and mostly Welsh produce and is a shining example of what can be achieved by local sourcing of food - something Plaid Cymru will be treating as a priority in the new Assembly after 3 May.

I should like to thank all the above for taking time to meet with us today and also to Arwyn Groe, Mike Allen and Sion Powys for accompanying us during parts of the day.

Labour in Westminster keeps ignoring Labour in Cardiff

The past two weeks have offered us vivid illustrations of the political imbalance which exists between Westminster and Cardiff.

First we heard Sue Essex apparently supporting PCS workers against the action of her own government in London and then we had Rhodri Morgan calling for 0% interest rates in Wales. Both of these Assembly politicians will be routinely ignored by their counterparts in Westminster and what London wants (job losses in the public sector and punitively high interest rates for manufacturing industries) it will no doubt get.

Unfortunately we can expect much more of this after 3 May. The Government of Wales Act ensures that Peter Hain and his Westminster pals will have no fewer than five opportunities to overturn any measure proposed by the Assembly. This is a direct consequence of Rhodri Morgan's obsequious capitulation to his MPs when he chose the ridiculous Orders in Council over the sensible recommendations of the Richard Commission.

With the weakest legislature in Europe on offer it will be no surprise if participation in the Assembly elections on 3 May falls below 40% and Morgan and Hain will have only themselves to blame.

Ambulance Response Times Put Residents At Risk

Last year a footballer with a broken leg had to wait for 40 minutes on a cold pitch in Llanwddyn for an ambulance to arrive. Last month a family near Llanwddyn waited 50 minutes for an ambulance to attend an emergency call. Will the next occasion be 60 minutes or even more?

I have no doubt that the ambulance crews themselves are doing a sterling job but the management of the service leaves much to be desired. It is true that for 360 days of the year perhaps we may only need a routine service but on the other five we expect an emergency response from what is, after all, an emergency service.

The whole of the north-west of Montgomeryshire, including the accident blackspots of Lake Vyrnwy and Pistyll Rhaeadr, is being put at risk because of the down-grading of the Llanfyllin Ambulance Station and this needs to be re-examined urgently.

In 2003 the Labour Assembly Government promsed that ambulances would meet their response time targets in 65% of life-threatening situations by March 2005. Latest figures show it is actually happening on just 54% of such occasions. Something is seriously wrong and it requires immediate action.

PLAID CANDIDATES TOUR WELSHPOOL

Nerys Evans, Plaid Candidate for Mid and West Wales, and I will be visiting Welshpool businesses on Monday 19 February.

Welshpool is typical of many Welsh towns with its historic produce and livestock markets alongside more recently developed light industry and services. Plaid Cymru proposes cutting business rates to support Montgomeryshire’s market towns and also developing both public and private transport links so that goods produced in Montgomeryshire can access wider markets more easily”.

We will also be visiting Welshpool Town Hall to discuss the exciting developments on Welshpool Town Council with Plaid Cymru Town Councillor and Mid and West Wales candidate, Cllr David Senior.

Call for an Inquiry into Ambulance Response Times in Montgomeryshire

Today I am calling on the Powys Local Health Board and the Welsh Ambulance Service Trust to launch a joint inquiry into the ambulance response time of 50 minutes to a fatal accident near Llanwddyn, Lake Vyrnwy, on 18 January.

I know it was an awful night and the ambulance crew certainly did everything they could but 50 minutes to respond to an emergency call does seem unreasonably long. I wrote to the Welsh Ambulance Service in May 2006 warning them that removing the 24-hour staffing from Llanfyllin and requiring its ambulance to provide cover for other stations in Montgomeryshire would leave a large area of the county without adequate provision. Maybe for 360 days a year a routine service is acceptable but, sadly, sometimes an emergency response is required and it has taken this tragic accident to highlight the deficiencies.

I have consistently argued that the north-west corner of Montgomeryshire, characterised as it is by narrow roads and the tourist hotspots of Lake Vyrnwy and Pistyll Rhaeadr , deserve to be served by an ambulance which is stationed permanently in Llanfyllin and which is staffed 24 hours a day.

Rhodri doesn't want a Referendum!

I am sure that all the parties in Wales want the Assembly elections to be fought on the genuine issues affecting us in Wales but Rhodri Morgan is naive if he thinks that some voters at least willl not take it as a referendum on Blair's Britian.

He also seems to have forgotten that the Labour party scandalously and unashamedly used the 2003 Assembly elections as its own referendum on Blair's decision to go to war on Iraq and portrayed those of us who thought it was perhaps not the best option at the time as somehow anti-British.

The fact is whether the 2007 Assembly elections are a referendum on Blair's legacy or on Rhodri's future the result will be the same as the Welsh electors have clearly had enough of both.

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?