Writing on his blog Mr. Dixon cited personal and “significant political” reasons for his decision:

But it isn’t as simple as just the personal and it would be dishonest of me to pretend that it is; there are some significant political reasons as well. There are a number of ways in which I feel that the party has moved, or is moving, in a direction which I cannot support, but being a national office-holder has fettered my freedom to say so.

His decision is most probably unrelated to but nevertheless comes following some unwelcome publicity for Plaid Cymru regarding manoeurvrings around the party’s selection processes for regional list seats.

Last week’s Wales on Sunday reported that that many Plaid Cymru members are throwing their weight behind a bid to unseat Bethan Jenkins in an attempt to “punish” her boyfriend, Neil McEvoy for his attempt to get into the Assembly and the subsequent threat to South Wales Central AM, Chris Franks.

The Inside Out blog highlighted further developments in this battle when they revealed that copies of an email sent by Mr. McEvoy are circulating in which he urges ex-car workers to sign a letter of mass support for Bethan after her campaigning work on their behalf.

Related posts:

1. Questions about Plaid Cymru MP’s payment to Party Chair
2. Another Plaid Cymru split
3. Plaid Cymru compound the problem

Actually, Badgers don’t seem to be on the blogs which is a shame. Apparently the pointless slaughter of thousands of creatures isn’t important enough to talk about. This is what is.

Glyn Davies is of the opinion that David Cameron’s promise not to veto any request for a referendum on further powers “was a very big day for Welsh politics”. Well, Mr Davies may well be right, this is both significant and very welcome. The clarity going into the election was needed. Unsurprisingly Nick Bourne welcomes the announcement as well.

But it does highlight the sad reality of the Conservative party’s attitude to Wales. Apparently we should welcome their decision not to over-rule the decision of a democratically elected government with it’s own mandate to rule. Can he promise that his Secretary of State will not start pissing around with LCOs in the way that the current one does? That would be nice.

Does anyone remember about a year ago when Labour promised to revolutionise the internet with Aneurin Glyndwr? Lets be honest, it was forgettable at best. Well, when I tried to log onto it now it tells me I need a username and password and it is now an ‘online resource for Labour members in Wales’. Well, well done on revolutionising internet campaigning Labour. While Freedom Central goes from strength to strength, your attempt at a collective blog falls flat on it’s face. Is this whole paragraph a smug gloat? Yes, and unashamedly so.

Right, the X-Factor twins have just survived again. What the fucking fuck? Sorry, normal service will be resumed. If you can call this service normal.

As the month goes on, the donkey race is continuing. In less than a month we will know who the next First Minister is going to be. But with the All Wales Convention reporting soon, a prickly subject is raising it’s head and, according to Betsan Powys it could be a deal breaker. Let’s be honest, the main reason many Plaid members were happy to get into the sack with Labour was because of the promise of a referendum. The One Wales Document, that magic scroll with which this country is run, is very clear on this. It states in no uncertain terms that they will “proceed to a successful outcome to a referendum for full law-making powers under Part IV as soon as practicable, at or before the end of the Assembly term.” No mention there of ‘as long as Labour members agree.’ Two contenders, the most likely winners, seem to now be retrospectively adding such a condition.

I don’t think it would be too over the top to say that should the new First Minister decide to back out on this commitment then they would essentially be breaking the act and I don’t think many people would be particularly shocked if Plaid did decide to walk away from the Government. John Dixon, the Chair of Plaid Cymru is less worried however, and is “confident both parties understand exactly what they agreed to”, which may be the case, but do they understand what each other believes they agreed to?

What would that mean for the future of the Assembly Government? Lord bloody knows.

Rumours seem to be abound of a March election. Something I heard yesterday and also appearing on Tory MP David Jones blog. He isn’t wrong, the thought of a February campaign isn’t one that will fill many peoples hearts with joy. Ever tried to leaflet wearing gloves? Harder than it looks. Can we drum up the activists to put on a full campaign earlier in the year, oh yes. But some of us would rather not regardless!

We know that Rhodri Morgan isn’t going to be in the Government next year, but of course there is more than just one person that makes up the Government. Wales Home’s Daran Hill is right when he suggests that  Rhodri’s governments have never changed drastically. For as long as I have paid any attention to Welsh politics there have been the staple faces of Jane Hutt, Jane Davidson, Andrew Davies, Brian Gibbons, Carwyn Jones and Edwina Hart. A quick check of wikipedia suggests that they have almost all always been involved in the government, or at least for the vast majority of the time of the Assembly.

Whoever does win, they will want to put their own stamp on the make up of the Government, and surely that has to involve more than simply just re-arranging the deck chairs. For once I agree with Guerilla Welsh Fare who questions who there is who is actually good enough to come into the Cabinet. Given that there are several cabinet members stepping down, now would be a good time to bring new talent in. I struggle to think of options for doing so. Thankfully I won’t be First Minister in a months time, not unless something goes seriously wrong somewhere anyway.

Over two months ago, an erudite, clever, smart, sexy, modest and just possibly slightly delusional individual pointed out that you could bet on the race for First Minister. Back then Ladbrokes were willing to offer 5/1 on Edwina Hart, and put Huw Lewis in second favourite.

This is no longer the case, as the latest odds are as follows:

Carwyn Jones: 4/9
Edwina Hart: 9/4
Huw Lewis: 7/1

Certainly not good news for the Lewis camp, whose chances may have been overstated by Ladbrokes in the first place. But good news for anyone who followed my advice to bet on Edwina. If you got 5/1 then this two horse race could be profitable. Should she win, I will have enough for 37 pints of tasty, tasty Kalt in the new pub in the bay.

Not that I am advising gambling and spending money on beer or anything. Only a reckless idiot would do that.

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Details of the redacted expenses published by the House of Commons reveal that a company called Corwynt was paid a total of £10,129.51 to supervise work on a new computer system in the Ammanford office of Mr. Price, who is the MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr. Corwynt is an IT consultancy registered at the home of Mr. Dixon in Llanpumsaint and both he and his wife are listed as directors of it at companies house.

Mr. Dixon explains that Adam Price and Rhodri Glyn Thomas, who represents the same constituency in the Welsh Assembly, had decided to create a unified team of caseworkers and as such they needed a new IT system to accomodate this. He was asked to oversee the work.

This sounds all very plausible and there is no evidence to contradict it but the explanation does raise a number of questions and in particular what it was that Adam Price got for his £10,000?

It is the case of course that AMs have computer equipment provided to them for their work and that they are part of a networked system which can not be tied up to any other system because of a firewall. MPs are in a similar position. So whatever work Mr. Dixon was contracted to carry out could not have involved linking up those two systems.

It is perfectly legitimate for AMs and MPs to use their allowances to buy other IT equipment to carry out tasks that their Parliamentary systems cannot deal with. This might involve the maintenance of websites, uploading videos and the design of surgery and other information leaflets as well as software to deal with casework. It would be a simple task to network a couple of PCs and a few printers to enable staff to work together as a team on these tasks. The cost of doing so would come to a few thousand pounds including the cost of hardware and software.

The questions that need to be answered therefore are:

1. Did the £10,000 include the cost of hardware and software?
2. What was the exact nature of the work carried out by Mr. Dixon?
3. If hardware and software were not included in the cost then why did a simple networking task cost so much and what was the additional cost of the equipment?
4. Was a competitive tender sought for the work so as to ensure the taxpayer got value for money?

Related posts:

1. Plaid Cymru chairman Dixon quits over party’s direction
2. Another Plaid Cymru split
3. Plaid Cymru forget how many MPs they have

This morning the Plaid Cymru AM, Leanne Wood has waded in to categorically deny that the Secretary of State’s version of events. She has challenged Mr. Hain to say who he’s talked to and when. Plaid Cymru’s National Chair, John Dixon has also written on his blog, saying that he ’simply cannot believe what (mr. Hain) is saying.’

Leanne says that the Welsh Secretary is trying to keep his devo-sceptic MPs happy, but risks destabilising the Welsh government in the midst of recession. She goes on to assert that what Mr. Hain says counts for little as it is the Assembly alone that decides when the referendum will be held. ‘And his opinion is likely to count for even less after the next UK general election… ‘

Clearly Leanne is anticipating a Conservative victory at Westminster or at best a hung Parliament, but she is wrong to say that the timing of a referendum is entirely in the hands of the Welsh Assembly. Parliament must vote for it too and so implicitly no realistic vote will be taken in Cardiff Bay without the nod of Westminster Ministers.

It would be useful if Ieuan Wyn Jones himself could comment on Mr. Hain’s claims of ‘an understanding’ on the referendum date. Then at least, we will know what has been agreed and who with.

Related posts:

1. Welsh politicians argue over which end to break open a hard-boiled egg
2. The new open NHS? – Just don’t rock the boat
3. Reckless Government must clarify that Wales is still open for business

Here’s Your Starter For Spring, All Conferring

The Assembly has of course been off on recess, which gave everyone time to get through the rest of spring conference season. Having survived Tory attempts to Welshify themselves at a cricket ground and Plaid’s efforts to cast off the cottage burning we were first to the plate in the second half.

The result was record turnout for a Welsh Lib Dem conference, a jam-packed policy agenda, a great Q&A session with both our leaders and a typically firebrand keynote speech from the leader herself. The press coverage was similarly upbeat and there’s plenty of reaction from the blogosphere to get your teeth into here, here, here, and here.

But one thing that sticks uppermost in my mind is that I spent a goodly chunk of Saturday night in the bar talking to the executive member for education – in Blaenau Gwent. So don’t tell me we haven’t grown and don’t matter outside Mid Wales and the cities…

And then it was Labour’s turn, closing things off in Swansea with not so much a conference as a leaving do in the staff canteen. With Rhodri heading towards voluntary retirement and Labour generally hurtling towards involuntary booting out on their arses, they had little option but to mutter, mutter against the dying of the light. Paul Murphy did his best “You’re Welsh, You’ll Vote Labour” routine, but the BBC’s sermon metaphor rather hit the nail on the head of that one.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Get Out Of The Cock-Up

Meanwhile, the Welsh Assembly Government’s tuition fees policy was rapidly leaving behind the cynghanedd and acquainting itself with the Icelandic Sagas.

For starters, John Dixon decided that expelling 17-year-old Arianwen Caiach-Taylor for dissent was not vengeance enough and set about pursuing her mother too. Sian Caiach, a former NHS whistleblower, twice Plaid parliamentary candidate and current Plaid councillor in Carmarthenshire, found herself accused of pretty much every Plaid leak for the last three years. That accusation was of course somewhat dented by The Western Mail stating directly beneath those accusations that Cllr Caiach wasn’t the leak…

The new media then took over the story as The Next Leader Of Plaid Cymru™ walked into an elephant trap of Borisian proportions. Post-conference, the blogosphere had been engrossed in a debate about astroturfing by Plaid staff writing anonymous blogs ignited by a Freedom Central piece from Peter Black, a debate largely predicated on the inability of Plaid members to understand the meaning of the word anonymous.

In the midst of all this, Adam Price was sufficiently irked by Peter’s own blog – pointing out that it was pretty ridiculous for Plaid (of all parties) to suggest that the best way to get Wales out of recession was to go cap in hand to Westminster – that he launched into a full-throated… explanation of why his party are sufficiently stupid as to think that junior coalition partners don’t matter.

Which was fine, except that Freedom Central had just discovered by way of FOI that, while Adam had talked the talk on fees, threatening judicial review no less, his official contribution as a Member of Parliament had been, well, naff all. Adam invoked the astroturfing row in his defence, but wasn’t able to muster any factual answer beyond a protestation that he’d spoken to Plaid’s special adviser (something that is somewhat less convincing when it appears in paragraph seven, while an impassioned defence of that special adviser in his previous life as MP for Ceredigion appears in paragraph one…)

By this point, however, it was clear that the incompetency pact has kicked in and that Labour had to do something monumentally dumb to take the heat off their coalition partners.

Carwyn Jones, Leader Of The House and front-runner to take over from Rhodri Morgan as Labour leader, was only too happy to oblige, telling the Assembly that the decision to make the announcement about tuition fees on March 18th had only been taken at 12:30pm on March 17th. Which was funny, given that official e-mails confirmed that, after some effort had been made to move the statement so it would fall after Plaid conference (and thus spare them the embarrassment of holding a conference at a University having just shafted all students everywhere) the date of the statement had been confirmed on March 10th. They say the devolved assemblies do things differently, but lying to the House is still lying to the House, so for one leadership candidate it rather looks like it might be man overboard…

The betrayal was finally completed on Wednesday. After Plaid and Labour were too gutless (that word again, Adam, happy now?) to have a vote on the whole shambles, the Liberal Democrats forced one themselves. To their credit, Leanne Wood and Bethan Jenkins backed up the rhetoric and voted against the government, but otherwise (apart from the notably absent Ieuan Wyn Jones) the coalition held firm.

And nothing touched me deep inside, the day Plaid Cymru died…

Y Barcud Oren appears (theoretically) regularly at Liberal Democrat Voice and cross-posted at Freedom Central

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John Dixon, who is Plaid’s most senior lay official, has called on chief executive Gwenllian Lansdown to organise a disciplinary hearing that could result in the expulsion of Sian Caiach, Plaid’s parliamentary candidate for Ogmore and a Carmarthenshire County councillor.

In a letter to Ms Lansdown, Mr Dixon says his complaint falls under three headings:

passing internal party information to the media;

failing to co-operate with an investigation by the party chair into a leak of private correspondence which led to damaging coverage; and

encouraging one or more persons to write and publish misleading stories which would damage the party.

Nobody likes leaks from within the party and I understand that Sian Caiach denies she is responsible, but these sort of actions hardly paint Plaid Cymru as a picture of openness, in which members are encouraged to debate issues and hold open discussion on its future direction.

Related posts:

1. Another Plaid Cymru split
2. Plaid Cymru split widens
3. Questions about Plaid Cymru MP’s payment to Party Chair

The Civil War Of Unit Three Plus One

To begin at the beginning, back in October an independent review recommended abolishing the grant that Welsh students studying in Wales receive to negate their top-up fees, in favour of more means-tested help. A month later, Education Minister Jane Hutt endorsed that review’s findings. Which was all well and good, except that Plaid stood on an anti-fees platform in 2007. Then again, the One Wales Agreement wasn’t exactly clear on the matter, guaranteeing the existing fee position only until 2009/10 and talking about “maintaining the current level of resource”.

The opposition on the Plaid benches quickly appeared from the usual suspects; The Next Leader Of Plaid Cymru™ for the parliamentary party, the Secretary General of the People’s Democratic Republic Of Treherbert for the assembly group, and John Dixon (Winner, Academy Award For Most Abysmal Performance By An Assembly Candidate 2007) for the grassroots. (Oh, yes, and Bethan Jenkins probably said something about it, but frankly, who cares?)

Matters came to a head at last month’s Plaid National Council meeting, where a motion from Plaid’s ministerial team to review their stance on fees was firmly rejected. The response from the ministerial team was simple; we cannot deliver this. Elin Jones then added further fuel to the fire, claiming that not only would her ministerial colleagues back the change, but the majority of the assembly group would too. Not that that would be a stupefyingly moronic thing for the AM for Aberystwyth University and the University of Wales, Lampeter to say, of course…

Having been spurned by Ieuan Wyn’s desire for continued vehicular buttock comfort, the rebels unleashed their fury. Leanne and the other one took a aggressive, principled stand and agreed… to… abstain… Adam Price, meanwhile, got inventive, threatening a judicial review of the minister’s decision. The press speculation swirled along throughout last week, aided and abetted by some grenade throwing courtesy of Peter Hain.

And then, just when you thought things couldn’t get any more surreal, Ieuan Wyn forced a vote of Plaid’s National Executive which backed his line of allowing fees to be introduced in practice while opposing them in principle. If you’re feeling like you’ve stumbled on an episode of “Da, Weinidog” you’re not alone…

Ain’t Too Proud To Beg

Still, having managed to piss off both halves of their core vote (the nationalists and the communists), Plaid headed for safer ground, launching walescan.com, the website that’s supposed to inspire the “independence generation” to rise up with idealistic fervour and lead the nation (as if the lack of Facebook was what was stopping them before…)

But before they break out the “Ie Gallen Ni” T-shirts, Plaid might like to compare their Monday morning press release with their Thursday afternoon one. For the week before walescan appeared, the Assembly had debated the Welsh Assembly Government’s actions to lead Wales out of the recession; while I enjoyed Peter Black’s mental picture of Rhodri Morgan parting the Bristol Channel, I was amazed that in the “metaphors involving leaders standing next to large bodies of water” stakes he didn’t opt for a certain King of Denmark.

And lo, on the Thursday, the Leader of Plaid Cymru (and not the Deputy First Minister and Minister for Economy and Transport, obviously…) launched a discussion paper detailing Plaid’s plans to boldly… go cap in hand to Westminster for £3bn. So, independence, then…

Y Barcud Oren appears (theoretically) regularly at Liberal Democrat Voice and cross-posted at Freedom Central

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