Freedom Central » Leanne Wood

The case for private finance

Peter Black — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:46:25 +0000

There is a lot of nervousness in Wales about the use of private finance to fund public sector projects. That is understandable, particularly given the way that PFI deals have been discredited for providing an inferior service, hitting the terms and conditions of staff and actually imposing a bigger financial burden on Government than traditional financing methods.

It is for this, as well as ideological reasons that the One Wales Agreement specifically rules out the use of private finance for the health service and all but rules it out for other services as well.

It is also the reason why Plaid Cymru Assembly Member, Leanne Wood told Plenary on 20th January that:

There could be an easy and short-term solution to provide finance to maintain, upgrade or build new NHS buildings. As David Melding said earlier, in England, money has been provided through private finance initiatives or through public-private partnerships in order to carry out this work. Plaid Cymru believes that raising finance in this way is wrong for a number of reasons. The experience of such schemes has taught us that, in the long term, the amount of money paid from the public purse to finance private finance initiatives is far higher than the amount that would have been spent in the public sector. With PFI there is a high risk of compromising on quality and of staff terms and conditions being downgraded. PFI creates a long-term debt, which can cut into future spending and compromises the financial flexibility of future Governments. I am glad therefore that the One Wales Government has been reluctant to be seduced by the private finance initiative, despite the fact that lump sums of cash would be useful now to carry out the work that needs to be done.

I responded that we need to be pragmatic about this:

We need to find the best way forward. If we can find a way forward that involves private sector money or voluntary sector money but without accruing huge costs, we should take it. For example, you can generate capital receipts by the sale of surplus land, or, as ‘One Wales’ states, raise money on the bond market, which is private sector money drawn down to spend on this sort of thing. Therefore, there are pragmatic ways forward that do not incur the costs to which Leanne referred. That flexibility and pragmatism is the way forward.

I think that this is a sensible approach and so, it seems does a Plaid Cymru Minister, who is currently working on a scheme to attract private money so as to provide ore affordable housing:

According to Inside Housing the Deputy Minister for Housing, Jocelyn Davies is considering establishing a housing trust to pump private money into the social housing sector:

Peter Hughes, head of commercial lending at the Principality Building Society, confirmed one of the most ‘innovative and attractive’ options being discussed was the Welsh Housing Investment Trust, which would raise at least £100 million.

Mr Hughes will outline the principles in the first housing review in Wales to be launched by the Chartered Institute of Housing on 11 February.

Mr Hughes said: ‘Perhaps now is a good time for a strong institutional rented market. It you go back to the early 1990s and 2000s, everyone was interested in buy to let. It’s obviously not the market it was.

‘What may be needed now is not people who hold five or six or a dozen properties but institutions that are prepared to invest seriously.’

Banks, capital markets and possibly the Welsh government would feed money into the trust.

Mr Hughes said it would need at least £100 million from diverse sources put into it.

The trust would buy properties and housing associations would manage them.

‘This model works because of the mix of rent from the broad portfolio of properties in the trust,’ Mr Hughes said. ‘It gives sufficient income for the requirements of the trust.’

The hope is it would also kick-start the building industry giving ‘certainty for the exit for a developer’ in the current depressed market, Mr Hughes said.

He added the advantage with capital investors, such as life insurers and pension trusts, was that they put money in for the longer term. They would invest for 30 to 35 years compared with banks likely to put in money for 10 to 15 years, Mr Hughes explained.

In the review, he also points out the initiative has already got some ministerial support and is being looked at in more detail.

This is precisely the sort of practical approach I was advocating and the Minister is to be congratulated for taking the bull by the horns and pressing on with it. She is also to be praised for ignoring the siren voices within her own party and doing what needs to be done to deliver the commitments in the One Wales Agreement to which she signed up and which so far are falling short of what was promised.

The question now must be, if the government can do it for housing, why cannot they do it for health so as to make a start on dealing with the £500 million maintenance backlog in our hospitals?

This week I have mostly been reading…

Matt O'Grady — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:58:18 +0000

So this week I expected to be reading lots about the budget, but surprisingly there isn’t much about the massive cut in capital funding in much every department. Apparently that isn’t newsworthy. So here is what is more worthy of discussion.

Oh, and advance warning that there probably won’t be an update next week because it is our conference and I will be too tired/hungover to do this next Sunday. I can tell you’re gutted. If anyone wants to volunteer to take my place for a week, feel free to volunteer!

As pointed out by Glyn Davies, tomorrow is likely to see Mps expenses return to the headlines. The fact that they have pretty much already announced that Gordon Brown will be asked to repay some cash will guarantee it becomes a high profile story even if no new information is revealed. Inside Out suggests that a new batch of MPs could be dragged into the media storm. I wonder who will be looking nervous tomorrow morning?

The soon to be ex MP Adam Price has posted an essay he wrote for the Western Mail, explaining why he thinks that Labour’s best chance is to stick with Plaid and not to ’hook up with some yellow tinged party of the centre’. Should Labour decide to ditch the ‘green stained party of daffodils’ then any yellow tinged party would surely be foolish to consider getting involved with Labour. Such an action would be akin to rats swimming towards a sinking ship, a ship that everyone would be best place in staying well away from. If Plaid want to remain onboard, then please feel free to, but prepare to get very wet.

I think Lee Waters of the Bevan Foundation’s blog ‘This is my Truth’ is getting a little carried away with his assertion that having a week where the Labour leader and First Minister is ‘hardly a recipe for stability’. If it was a long term arrangement, then it wouldn’t work, but for a week? I’m sure people will cope. It will be clear what Rhodri is there for, and clear that his successor will be in charge a week later. What will potentially be more controversial is the make-up of the cabinet. Presumably whoever takes charge will want to shape their team as they see fit, and with the likelihood being that there will be at least one vacancy in the cabinet at the time they won’t have much choice. During that week will Minister’s have to take decisions knowing that the new Labour leader wants to move them?

Cambria Politico are looking for films that can be compared to Plaid Cymru. I have a suggestion: Twilight. Like Twilight, Plaid lack any coherent narrative, point, value and seem to have a number of followers still complete convinced of the positives and showing a blind, unshaking faith in everything about them. Both also fill me with anger based on one point each that I feel needs to be put in capitals IEAUN WYN JONES HAS NOT SAVED THE WELSH ECONOMY and REAL VAMPIRES DO NOT SPARKLE. Ahem.

Guerilla Welsh-Fare seems to think it’s bizarre that Labour aren’t allowing proper scrutiny of their leadership candidates. While I agree with his reasoning as to why they should allow it, it isn’t exactly surprising they aren‘t. We’re talking about a party that puts so much faith in their members that their votes will only count for 1/3 of the final outcome. They do not believe in internal party democracy, which is fine, it’s their party and their choice how they run it. But if I was a Labour member, I would have to question why the hierarchy puts so little faith in my opinion? Maybe being in the Lib Dems has just distorted my view to the extent that I believe democracy should always be the default outcome. And there is a second question, if they are worried about awkward questions from their own members, are they not worried about awkward questions from the media and the other parties?

In the web side of the battle for Labour leadsership, my favourite site has to be Huw Lewis’s. Not only is he showing a sense of humour with bloopers and myths (which I very much approve of, humour has an important part in making politics bearable), he now has five pledges. The one that interests me is his pledge to build ‘more and better affordable housing’. What makes this interesting, is that it’s currently in the control of a Plaid Deputy Minister. Is he suggesting Jocelyn Davies isn’t doing a good enough job? Will he be trying to get her to change her approach to the issue? How exactly does he plan to deliver this promise? Don’t get me wrong, I agree with him, more needs to be done and if he can give credible suggestions on how he will achieve this goal then fair play to him. I hope that we will see exactly what he plans to do in this regard during the contest.

As much as I despise racism, along with everyone who reads this I hope, I don’t think Leanne Wood is right to press the police to ban the protest by the right wing Welsh Defence League. Politicians have to resist the calls to censor viewpoints that are unpopular. Just because you don’t like another organisations view, doesn’t give you any right to call for it not to be aired. What is however concerning is the risk of violence at this protest, a risk which will unfortunately be increased if another protest takes place at the same time and police resources are stretched. Wales Home carries an article this week suggesting similar views about the continued existence of no platform policies.

Right, that’s it for this week.

Actually no. No it isn’t. I need to say it again. Fuck you Stephanie Meyer. I want two hours of my life back and a refund for the cost of my cinema ticket. And an apology. I mean seriously, sparkling vampires? What the hell? How did you think that would work? You just ruined the whole genre of vampire films. Every time I even hear the word vampire I’m going to think of that film and I’m going to be angry. I won’t forgive you for that.

I carry grudges for too long.

First Minister’s Questions

Peter Black — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:12:26 +0000

Western Mail columnist David Williamson seeks to portray First Minister’s questions yesterday as Rhodri Morgan’s swansong with the Labour front bench ‘like greyhounds coiled for the starting gun.’

Indeed that was how it looked in the chamber too, but it was Plaid Cymru members who seemed most anxious for a resolution to the speculation, with Leanne Wood referring in the very first question to the First Minister’s departure and urging that he head up a ‘yes’ campaign once the All Wales Convention reports later this year.

Other Plaid Cymru members also raised the referendum and there seems to be a sense of expectation on their part that now the convention has done its job, the campaign can begin. However. nobody yet knows what the convention’s report will say nor whether Labour will use it to say that now is not the time.

My view is that the report will suggest more work is needed to educate the Welsh public and that as a result the referendum will be put on the back burner. If that happens then there will be a huge sense of being let-down on the part of Plaid Cymru and maybe a realisation that they have been misled on this agenda from the start.

I hope that I am wrong but we will see. The fact is that the commitment to a Convention has wasted two years in which we could have been building a cross-party campaign for a vote that will abolish the costly, time-consuming and ineffective LCO system. Plaid Cymru were party to that decision so if they are disappointed then they only have themselves to blame.

AMs expenses – first impressions

Freedom Central — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:07:07 +0000

The searchable database of Assembly Member allowances has now gone on-line here. Without doubt journalists and campaigners are scouring it to get themselves a good story so we thought we might start them off with a quickie.

It has been noted that the Conservative Leader Nick Bourne paid Haecceitas Ltd £2,438.79 in twoinstallments on 8 May 2008 and 7 April 2009 respectively for a website. Does anybody know where this website is?

The only site that we are aware of is this free blogspot account whilst Google does not throw up any new sites either.

Presumably there is a big launch planned and, given the time it has taken to develop and its cost, the site will be very good.

Update: The BBC have identified that Plaid Cymru AMs Chris Franks and Leanne Wood claimed £400 each towards the cost of the party’s stand at the National Eisteddfod in Cardiff. The rationale is apparently so that they could hold surgeries there. Their constituents would have had to pay £12 each to see their AMs with their problems.

Open warfare

Freedom Central — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:28:21 +0000

Open warfare has broken out over Peter Hain’s claims that he has discussed postponing a referendum on further powers beyond 2011 with senior Plaid Cymru member.

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.

Y Barcud Oren #8

Gareth Aubrey — Sat, 16 May 2009 05:56:00 +0000

Forever delayed but back at last in the wake of the most important Wednesday of the Welsh political year (and I’m not referring to Lembit’s council tax summons…)

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

Breaking News – Welsh Lib Dems lose vote to block Welsh Top-Up Fees.

Newswire — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:32:00 +0000

Aside from the notable exceptions of Leanne Wood and Bethan Jenkins, Plaid Cymru failed to follow their party policy and have now allowed the introduction of Top-Up fees in Wales. Plaid’s line has always been that they were against fees but could not persuade Labour. This afternoon, they didn’t need to. There were enough votes to do without Labour, but they failed to vote for their own policy. This will doubtless raise many questions amongst the membership. Expect anger, expect rage, and probably expect more expulsions as a result.

We shouldn’t forget though, this is not about Plaid’s hopeless divisions, and fake excuses which have been so clearly exposed this afternoon, it is about the future of Welsh students, many of whom have just been handed a future of debt!

The full list of Plaid Members who abandoned Welsh students this afternoon, including their “Missing” leader is below. (Congrats again to those two brave and noble Plaid Ams, The Welsh Tories and independent AM Trish Law for doing the right thing today.)

Peter Black (South Wales West)
The National Assembly For Wales:
Calls on the Welsh Assembly Government to reverse its decision to scrap the tuition fees grant.

Jones, Helen Mary – AGAINST
Jones, Gareth – AGAINST
Jones, Allun Ffred – AGAINST
Jones, Elin – AGAINST
Jones, Ieuan Wyn – DID NOT VOTE
Davies, Jocelyn – AGAINST
Franks, Christopher – AGAINST
Ryder, Janet – AGAINST
Thomas, Rhodri Glyn – AGAINST
Lloyd, Dai -AGAINST
Asghar, Mohammed -AGAINST
Evans, Nerys – AGAINST

Labour and Plaid Cymru to merge?

Freedom Central — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 07:44:00 +0000

Aneurin Glyndwr may be on an Easter break but its writers must have choked on their chocolate egg this morning when they opened the Western Mail and found this article advocating a long-term strategic partnership between Labour and Plaid Cymru.

Two Labour activists, Nick Davies and Darren Williams have published a book called ‘Clear Red Water: Devolution and Socialist Policies’ in which they argue that Labour and Plaid should extend their coalition deal beyond the 2011 Assembly elections, forming joint policy groups to develop a long-term socialist programme for Wales.

Such an idea will both delight and revolt the likes of Leanne Wood and Bethan Jenkins who have been trying to take their party to the left but who cannot stand the thought of being in the same bed as New Labour for a minute longer than they have to.

It will almost certainly alienate those Tory Dragons who remain members of Plaid Cymru in Gwynedd and other parts of rural Wales, and who have been resisting the concept of an independent socialist republic.

What it means in practical terms is quite interesting. It would involve Labour and Plaid Cymru going to the polls in 2011 with a joint manifesto, possibly with an electoral pact in place as well. It would link Plaid Cymru closely to the unpopular Gordon Brown Government at the forthcoming European and General Elections.

It may eventually see a merger between the two parties in which those on the left of Plaid join with Welsh Labour to form a Welsh Socialist Party whilst the rump of both parties go off to seek alliances elsewhere – nationalists to an expanded Llais Gwynedd, Social Democrats to the Liberal Democrats or even the Tories.

It is an interesting concept and one from which the leadership of both parties will do everything they can to distance themselves in weeks to come.

Y Barcud Oren #6

Gareth Aubrey — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:47:00 +0000

Are you sitting comfortably (having recovered of course from the power of Kirsty’s performance in Harrogate)? Then let’s begin by opening our books to the odds of the One Wales Government lasting the month…

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

Plaid Cymru split widens

Freedom Central — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 11:08:00 +0000

This morning’s Western Mail reports on the growing rift within Plaid Cymru over the proposal of their Assembly Group to unilaterally abandon the party’s opposition to top-up fees. As the letter from Cymru X to AMs outlines, Plaid’s opposition to top-up fees was clearly set out in their election manifestos in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007, whilst at the weekend, their national council instructed all their AMs and other elected members to vote according to party policy.

Despite this the overwhelming majority of the Plaid Group appear to be in favour of jettisoning previous commitments. Just two AMs seem prepared to stand out from the herd, Leanne Wood and Bethan Jenkins. The Western Mail’s editorial is damning of the way that this has been handled:

Few members of the party’s national executive who supported the One Wales agreement when it was voted on two summers ago did so thinking Plaid would be giving up its commitment to no top-up fees during the current Assembly term.

The least they could reasonably expect is that if such a change were being proposed, they would be consulted in advance of a decision being made. If Ieuan Wyn Jones believes that economic circumstances have forced a change in position, he should have taken the case to his membership and spelled out the figures. Without such detail, some will inevitably take the view that he and his colleagues have been hoodwinked by Labour.

Meanwhile, there is also controversy about the way that the letter to Assembly Members has been toned down to reduce its criticism of Plaid’s Labour partners:

Internal Plaid documentation sent in error to the Western Mail shows that the party’s chair John Dixon had approved a stronger second sentence explicitly criticising Labour: “The party’s ministers in government are working hard for the people of Wales, and are sometimes faced with having to make difficult choices, particularly in light of the restrictive levels of funding made available to Wales by the Labour government in Westminster.” This was later amended.

As the paper says ‘The inadvertent revelation that Plaid watered down its statement to the Western Mail to remove any explicit criticism of Labour will not resonate well with many Plaid members. It arguably provides evidence that elements of the party’s leadership are prepared to pull their punches because of the aforementioned love-in at Cardiff Bay.’

Are Plaid Cymru now getting into bed with Labour at a Westminster level? We should be told.