Labour in Wales are letting people down
Political parties and by extension politicians should only exist to improve the lives of the people they are serving. I don’t doubt that that is the aim of the vast majority of mainstream politicians and it is only at the factional extremes that parties and some politicians seek to further the interests of a particular race or indeed class.
I cannot help but feel, however, that the Labour party, certainly in Wales and probably more widely, is losing its way. The denial of the opportunity to council tenants no matter how limited a denial is a kick in the teeth to totally reasonable aspirations of people in Wales to own their own homes. In fact the provision of the “right to buy” in Britain was the biggest single shift of wealth to working people that
there has ever been in our country, all the more extraordinary that the Labour party should want to limit that right. The restriction of the choice of services in the NHS once again runs counter to the rise in the aspirations that exist in society today.
The same is true in education. The lack of choice for parents is not sensible. Take the situation as argued by the Labour party that free school breakfasts is a sensible use of public money ( I do not accept that position but for the sake of argument let us accept it ) and yet a parent in say Newport or Merthyr may be denied that option for their kids because their designated school doesn’t offer the breakfast scheme and Labour don’t believe that they should be able to exercise choice..
The Labour party’s monochrome view of society is rooted in the post war world of Attlee and indeed I often feel the First .Minister hankers after those certainties of ration book Britain and. the simpler life of those days with the more rigid class structures of the times.
The Labour party in Wales is uncomfortable with the idea of people exercising choice and perhaps cannot comprehend that people will not accept their view of what is best for them. The denial of choice and the exclusion of the private sector’s involvement in the provision of public services is seen by Labour as likely to raise the quality of public services just as it has in socialist nirvanas like Cuba and North Korea no doubt! Sadly for Wales Plaid Cymru seem to accept this dangerous analysis (if I may dignify it as such).
The evidence is to the contrary. Monopoly provision with no mechanism of choice is stultifying and will not improve the standards of schools or of hospital care. Even Labour at Westminster seems to recognise that Sadly Labour in Wales has a lot of catching up to do.
Alan Jones said on January 4th, 2008 at 10:28 am:
It was a risky course to take, for Plaid Cymru to ally with Labour in government, it is true, but it was a well-considered move in order to advance the cause of self-rule and the establishment of a Welsh Parliament, as well as to give Plaid credibility and valuable experience of hands-on government.
It was recognised that the stance of Nick Bourne was well-intentioned but quite out-of-step with that of David Cameron and the great bulk of Conservative opinion throughout Britain, where almost all people favour the retention of the Union and the traditions of the British establishment, despite its decreasing relevance to contemporary British life. Any association with the Conservative party would have been detrimental to the cause of Plaid, as you must be aware, particularly as Plaid has its roots in socialist egalitarian philosophy and not in class division and capitalist principles which are not stressed but nevertheless still inherent in Conservative ethics. Furthermore Plaid derives the bulk of its support from former Labour strongholds in the populous post-industrial areas of the country.
It is extremely difficult for a Tory politician such as yourself, with known loyalties to Wales and the advancement of the nation, to steer a course which is fundamentally in opposition to the views of front bench M.P.s and policy-makers of the Conservative Party in Westminster. These views must change before your party in Wales has any hope of contributing to the unity and not the fragmentation of the Welsh nation.
Alan in Dyfed
dotcommentator said on January 4th, 2008 at 11:39 am:
It is rather ambivalent of Brown in Westminster to bang on about new politics, democracy etc while he undermines it at every turn. For example, he did not attend the vote on the Freedom of Information Act and MPs very early in his premiership and, closer to home, he won’t entrust decisions about power stations more than 50MW to democratically elected Assembly members like you, Nick. He prefers to let unelected members of some planning commission to do it instead. I’m not ready to vote Conservative yet, though.