This site has been surprisingly quiet on Plaid Cymru’s pledge to use the proceeds from scrapping the Trident nuclear missile system to fund an extra £20bn a year on providing a “living pension”.
This was met with derision across the political spectrum as being unrealistic and unaffordable in the current economic circumstances. And of course the other point that was made very forcefully was that Plaid would never be in a position to put such a policy into place so they could afford to indulge themselves with unattainable pledges.
This is the thrust of Matt Withers’ column in today’s Wales on Sunday. He points out that Plaid may as well pledge an annual personal visit for every pensioner from Daniel O’Donnell for all they’ll ever be tested on it: they’re not going to form the next government.
What is most bizarre about their pension promise is the way that the nationalists propose to pay for it, if it is costed at all. The expenditure on Trident is of course a one-off capital payment that once it has been spent cannot be spent again. How then can it be used to fund a recurring spending commitment that needs to be funded each year?
Furthermore, not only are Plaid promising to use this cash several times over on pensions they also want to spend it on other things too as this exchange from Wednesday’s Plenary session makes clear:
Andrew R.T. Davies: I am grateful to you for taking an intervention, Chris. The whole logic of your party is to seek an independent Wales. Today’s debate is about looking at how the NHS will be funded in the future and to elicit answers from the One Wales Government. You have not given one iota of information as to how your party would fund the NHS and safeguard key front-line services if we were in an independent Wales, so try to give some answers rather than empty rhetoric.
Chris Franks: I can put it in two words: scrap trident. That would be quite a contribution, or are the Conservatives content to carry on pouring money into weapons of mass destruction?
Either Plaid Cymru have found a money tree, in which case they should tell the Welsh Finance Minister, or they really do have problems with basic sums. Can we actually believe anything they tell us at all about the deliverability of their programme at a UK level? In fact when it comes to a UK General Election, what is the point of Plaid Cymru at all?
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