In addition to the vote on Friday condemning Ieuan Air, it seems that the Plaid Cymru Conference also reaffirmed the party’s opposition to top-up student tuition fees – even though their own Ministers and most of their AMs backed the introduction of such charges for Welsh-domiciled students.
As the paper reminds us this issue was a major cause of dissension in the party last year when most members of the Plaid group at the National Assembly were persuaded their longstanding policy of resisting the introduction of top-up fees was no longer affordable:
At the time, former MP Adam Price and a minority of AMs including Bethan Jenkins, argued passionately it was important to maintain a principled stand against education fees.
Arianwen Caiach-Taylor, a 17-year-old student from Llanelli, was expelled from the party after writing a strongly-critical personal letter on the issue to Plaid leader Ieuan Wyn Jones.
It appears that the motion that was passed opposes any further increase in tuition fees in England, and mandates the party’s three MPs to vote against any such rise if it was debated in the House of Commons.
This raises the question as to how MPs can be mandated on this issue but Assembly members cannot? Surely, Plaid delegates will want to mandate their AMs to vote against tuition fees as well, not to mention forcing them to vote down the £800,000 subsidy for Ieuan Air.
And if they cannot so mandate AMs then what value can be placed on their manifesto or even the subsequent partnership agreement with Labour once the election is over?
As if to confuse the electorate even further Plaid Cymru have also adopted as policy their leadership’s schizophrenia on nuclear power. They are against it except in the case of Wylfa B, which they now support.
Dropping policies and adapting them so as to go into a partnership government is of course the real world but consistently sending mixed messages on matters of principle surely devalues the Party. Who are the hypocrites now?
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