Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader Elfyn Llwyd has expressed his frustration today at the failure of the Welsh Labour Government to make use of the new powers the Assembly was granted as a result of last year’s March 3 referendum. But when asked if Plaid Cymru should come to the Government’s rescue he ruled out such an intervention:
Attacking Labour’s record of governing alone since the may elections, he said: “There hasn’t been anything of any substance passed in the last 12 months… I’m trying to be fair now, I’m saying we’re also guilty of not coming up with any creative thinking but for a government to be stagnant that’s worse still, of course.”
However, Mr. Llwyd did not think that Plaid Cymru had any solutions either:
When asked if he wanted Plaid – which is in the process of electing a new leader – to seek to re-join Labour in government, he said: “No, I think it would be a great mistake to go into government at this stage. A huge mistake; I don’t for one minute think the party would have it.
“At a time when cuts are [happening] all the time, putting one or two ministers in would be a totally silly thing to do. Let’s see how it pans out.
“We have been in government before; we did a decent job last time. We didn’t have anything for it.
“We were kicked around the block. I think it would be better to be a constructive opposition at this stage, albeit working constructively to assist the Government in bringing forward things which are useful but I don’t think for one minute that the party would stomach going into any form of coalition.”
So at least one leading member of the party believes that Plaid Cymru should remain a party of protest rather than taking responsibility for running Wales.
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