The baton now passes to Plaid Cymru
On Wednesday in the Metropole my party’s management board unanimously endorsed my approach in negotiating an agreement on the so called Rainbow Alliance. It was an historic moment. Alas across town another historic moment was fast approaching, as the party which should have been best able to deal with this type of situation was deadlocked with no provision for a casting vote in the constitution as to whether to go ahead or not.. I could bore on here about the common law of meetings giving the chair a casting vote but I won’t. Perhaps there wasn’t a chair — who knows? Nothing would surprise one. However, Mike German stuck to his guns and the same town reeling from its strategic significance saw the decision reversed by a 2 to 1 margin. It is also somewhat ironic that a keystone of the document was a moratorium on any hospital closures or run down of services and this is the most dominant issue in Mid Wales with threats to hospitals at Builth, Knighton and Llanidloes for example. Mike must also have been relieved to read in Peter Black’s blog today that Peter is not trying to organise a putsch against him.
This weekend in Rhayader at a charity car boot sale for Cancer Research and in Aberystwyth there is palpable disappointment at what might have been. I went out for a meal with Lisa Francis last night and we resolved not to talk politics and when these self denying ordinances lasted for about 30 seconds I think we both felt that we had done rather well to steer clear of politics for so long,.
The baton now passes to Plaid Cymru to follow its internal processes. ( or not ) Llandod and Aberystwyth are on standby.
