This morning’s Western Mail reports on the growing rift within Plaid Cymru over the proposal of their Assembly Group to unilaterally abandon the party’s opposition to top-up fees. As the letter from Cymru X to AMs outlines, Plaid’s opposition to top-up fees was clearly set out in their election manifestos in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007, whilst at the weekend, their national council instructed all their AMs and other elected members to vote according to party policy.
Despite this the overwhelming majority of the Plaid Group appear to be in favour of jettisoning previous commitments. Just two AMs seem prepared to stand out from the herd, Leanne Wood and Bethan Jenkins. The Western Mail’s editorial is damning of the way that this has been handled:
Few members of the party’s national executive who supported the One Wales agreement when it was voted on two summers ago did so thinking Plaid would be giving up its commitment to no top-up fees during the current Assembly term.
The least they could reasonably expect is that if such a change were being proposed, they would be consulted in advance of a decision being made. If Ieuan Wyn Jones believes that economic circumstances have forced a change in position, he should have taken the case to his membership and spelled out the figures. Without such detail, some will inevitably take the view that he and his colleagues have been hoodwinked by Labour.
Meanwhile, there is also controversy about the way that the letter to Assembly Members has been toned down to reduce its criticism of Plaid’s Labour partners:
Internal Plaid documentation sent in error to the Western Mail shows that the party’s chair John Dixon had approved a stronger second sentence explicitly criticising Labour: “The party’s ministers in government are working hard for the people of Wales, and are sometimes faced with having to make difficult choices, particularly in light of the restrictive levels of funding made available to Wales by the Labour government in Westminster.” This was later amended.
As the paper says ‘The inadvertent revelation that Plaid watered down its statement to the Western Mail to remove any explicit criticism of Labour will not resonate well with many Plaid members. It arguably provides evidence that elements of the party’s leadership are prepared to pull their punches because of the aforementioned love-in at Cardiff Bay.’
Are Plaid Cymru now getting into bed with Labour at a Westminster level? We should be told.
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