The Spin Doctor column in this morning’s Wales on Sunday has an interesting story about Plaid Cymru’s approach to government – claim the credit when things go right but blame others (mostly the Westminster Government) when there is a problem.
In the chamber Ieuan Wyn Jones, as Minister for Economy and Transport is absolutely adamant that the worsening employment figures in Wales are nothing to do with him. He does not have his hands on the levers of macro economic policy. This does not stop him claiming credit for the alleged success of the Pro Act scheme in preventing job losses, even though it was introduced by another (Labour) Minister.
There was of course a wobble about a year ago when Wales appeared to be bucking the trend leading to an avalanche of praise from Plaid Cymru bloggers and politicians for the miraculous abilities of their leader, only for things to go very quiet when the trends reversed. It seems that Ieuan Wyn Jones is only responsible for good things.
They have not learnt their lessons from that misjudgement. The Wales on Sunday reveal that when the latest unemployment figures for Wales were released last week Plaid Cymru misread them and thought that they showed an improvement. As a result a press release went out from Gareth Jones AM claiming the credit:
“We know that the actions Plaid Leader Ieuan Wyn Jones has taken in government have saved thousands upon thousands of jobs,” he cooed. Half an hour later though and the truth dawned, unemployment had actually risen by 10,000 in Wales. The press release was withdrawn. Curiously it was not followed by a replacement missive expressing regret for the Economy Minister’s failure. After all it was no longer his responsibility.
Does Plaid Cymru hypocrisy know no bounds?
Related posts:
I take it that a copy of that press release is still available on non-Plaid web sites?
“There was of course a wobble about a year ago when Wales appeared to be bucking the trend leading to an avalanche of praise from Plaid Cymru bloggers and politicians for the miraculous abilities of their leader, only for things to go very quiet when the trends reversed. It seems that Ieuan Wyn Jones is only responsible for good things.”
Of course i’m categorised as a “Plaid blogger” and I noted at the time that the figures might well increase the next month as they are beyond Ieuan’s control.
I don’t know what Plaid bloggers were suggesting Ieuan had busted UK-wide trends.