Browse content similar to 04/03/2017. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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With just two months to go until the local elections all the parties will | :00:10. | :00:16. | |
be looking to -- looking to gain councillors and local control. | :00:17. | :00:21. | |
Welcome to Conference 2017. Good afternoon. Welcome to the first of | :00:22. | :00:34. | |
our Spring party conference programmes. We will be bringing you | :00:35. | :00:39. | |
coverage of the main parties and we are starting with Plaid Cymru who | :00:40. | :00:42. | |
are meeting in Newport. You can join in the debate. New year but usual | :00:43. | :00:53. | |
line-up. Joining me is our Welsh affairs editor. What are we | :00:54. | :00:59. | |
expecting from today from Plaid Cymru leading up to the local | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
elections? Plaid Cymru is in a pretty bullish mood. They are | :01:04. | :01:09. | |
favoured for these partly because Labour had a good set of local | :01:10. | :01:13. | |
elections last time so Labour would probably be losing ground anyway, | :01:14. | :01:17. | |
even of the party was not in disarray and was not in power in | :01:18. | :01:21. | |
Cardiff Bay and in a number of authorities. The Conservatives are | :01:22. | :01:25. | |
in power in Westminster you would not expect them to be doing | :01:26. | :01:28. | |
particularly well which leaves an opening for Plaid Cymru although | :01:29. | :01:33. | |
they will be worried in some areas a Ukip presence might get some of the | :01:34. | :01:36. | |
vaults that might otherwise go to Plaid Cymru. We have no idea how | :01:37. | :01:43. | |
many candidates Ukip or put up or what sort of campaign they will be | :01:44. | :01:48. | |
able to run. To be an eye on the comings and goings, we will have | :01:49. | :01:54. | |
more from you later this afternoon. Our correspondent is keeping an eye | :01:55. | :01:59. | |
on what is going on. I will be talking to delegates and members. It | :02:00. | :02:03. | |
is interesting to see the disparity between what the party wants to be | :02:04. | :02:08. | |
discussing, local elections, Brexit, proposals to raise the basic rate of | :02:09. | :02:14. | |
income tax by 1p to pay for health and education and social services. | :02:15. | :02:18. | |
What everybody is talking about is the future of Neil McEvoy. He was | :02:19. | :02:25. | |
suspended for a month yesterday after some comments he made to a | :02:26. | :02:28. | |
card of council official. The talk today is whether he should be | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
suspended as a Plaid Cymru assembly member while the investigation is | :02:33. | :02:37. | |
going on into what happened. Two senior assembly members have told me | :02:38. | :02:42. | |
off the record that they think he should be suspended. He is meeting | :02:43. | :02:45. | |
with the party chairman to see what happens next. He said that everybody | :02:46. | :02:55. | |
should have the right and freedom to express himself. He arrived couple | :02:56. | :03:02. | |
of hours ago. A buzz, the likes of which you do not get to see very | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
often in these Welsh political party conferences. You have to feel sorry | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
for Leanne Wood because in the past could rely on Thomas to cause a bit | :03:11. | :03:18. | |
of distraction. He has gone and has seemingly been replaced by Neil | :03:19. | :03:24. | |
McEvoy. Thomas is the usual preconference boiler but is now part | :03:25. | :03:32. | |
-- not part of the ranks anymore. Turning to the leader's speech given | :03:33. | :03:36. | |
by Leanne Wood. She said she wanted to rebalance Wales and be bothered | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
not have to accept what she called second best. I hope to speak to her | :03:41. | :03:46. | |
live later that this is what she had to tell her party. Good afternoon. | :03:47. | :03:52. | |
It is fantastic to be here in the city of charters for Plaid Cymru's | :03:53. | :03:58. | |
Spring conference. It was a series of events in and around Newport | :03:59. | :04:04. | |
during the 1930s which saw the emergence of a liberation movement. | :04:05. | :04:08. | |
Our ancestors in the Welsh working-class and the middle classes | :04:09. | :04:14. | |
stood up to demand their political and democratic rights. Williams said | :04:15. | :04:22. | |
they were fighting against all the odds. The revolt was not just | :04:23. | :04:26. | |
confined to the city. They were was support in Armagh than sure and in | :04:27. | :04:33. | |
the industrial coal field. It was here in Gwent where the colliers and | :04:34. | :04:38. | |
the iron men defended the people's charter with their lives. It was | :04:39. | :04:47. | |
here they called for a republic with full voting rights and accountable | :04:48. | :04:51. | |
government for the people, well, for men at least. It was a stark! It was | :04:52. | :04:58. | |
a utopian vision. It echoed the French racial, revolution decades | :04:59. | :05:06. | |
before. Even though the chartists were defeated the struggle for the | :05:07. | :05:13. | |
charter and democracy carried on. It had caught the imagination. It laid | :05:14. | :05:17. | |
the foundation for the people in Wales to be given the vote and for a | :05:18. | :05:21. | |
whole series of reforms for the working man. I am sure many of you | :05:22. | :05:28. | |
will remember that iconic mural in John Frost Square commemorating the | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
Chartist rising. It was terrible to see that mural destroyed by | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
developers while building a shopping centre. | :05:38. | :05:47. | |
While of course that investment was good for the city we must insist | :05:48. | :05:54. | |
that local councils do more to protect our heritage and history | :05:55. | :05:59. | |
when development takes place. New developments should not erase | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
special and unique local features, history of place names. What is | :06:05. | :06:10. | |
progress if we forget those who went before us? It is important to | :06:11. | :06:14. | |
remember those political struggles for they give us our rights. They | :06:15. | :06:20. | |
remind us that our rights were hard one. Plaid Cymru will always speak | :06:21. | :06:27. | |
out against those who want to sell off our heritage and history to the | :06:28. | :06:38. | |
highest bidder. The chief aim of the chartists was control. Many people | :06:39. | :06:45. | |
felt they had so little control, like today. That is why we can learn | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
from this history. Our democracy is not the living for so many people. | :06:51. | :06:55. | |
People in many parts of Wales feel like they are not getting their fair | :06:56. | :06:59. | |
share, they are being left out, neglected. Able have found | :07:00. | :07:02. | |
themselves on the outside and that is why we need a new charter for | :07:03. | :07:09. | |
democratic control. Central to that should be the premise that decisions | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
about Wales should be made in Wales. A modern-day charters should | :07:14. | :07:33. | |
consider matters of equality, especially income inequality and | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
justice. It must mean that following the vote to leave the European Union | :07:38. | :07:43. | |
Wales does not lose any funding, any of the democratic rights and | :07:44. | :07:46. | |
protections that we currently enjoy. It must mean that we do not lose any | :07:47. | :07:55. | |
aspect of our nationhood. A modern-day Welsh charter designed to | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
defend our country, extend our democracy, protect our environment | :08:01. | :08:05. | |
and strengthen our communities, a tour for governing ourselves as a | :08:06. | :08:10. | |
nation, for taking more responsibility whether in the | :08:11. | :08:12. | |
assembly or in the council chamber or anywhere else. Instead of leaving | :08:13. | :08:18. | |
it to others elsewhere to govern us on our behalf we should make and | :08:19. | :08:24. | |
enforce our laws and run our justice system. That is control. The party | :08:25. | :08:31. | |
of Wales says no to concentrating power in London and yes to making | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
our own choices and our own decisions. It is only through voting | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
for Plaid Cymru that we in Wales would be in control of our own | :08:43. | :08:47. | |
lives. The party of Wales will settle for nothing less. We will | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
stand up for Wales and for the principle of taking more control | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
over our own affairs so that we can make improvements in people's lives. | :08:58. | :09:04. | |
Following last me's elections there has been progress on a number of | :09:05. | :09:08. | |
Plaid Cymru's priorities. In fact you would be hard pressed to find | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
any progress in Cardiff Bay that is not down to Plaid Cymru. Take the | :09:14. | :09:18. | |
example of the new treatments fund. This will open up new medicines and | :09:19. | :09:23. | |
treatments for rare diseases especially cancer. A policy that was | :09:24. | :09:29. | |
inspired by the Williams, who will help some people's lives saved and | :09:30. | :09:36. | |
help others to live longer. The party of Wales said that the way the | :09:37. | :09:39. | |
drugs were being accessed in Wales was not there. We called for the | :09:40. | :09:45. | |
system to be changed. The First Minister said it could not be done | :09:46. | :09:49. | |
but Plaid Cymru made it happen. By challenging and persuading, we have | :09:50. | :09:56. | |
made other things happen as well. That budget included extra funds for | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
childcare, apprenticeships, local government, mental health services | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
and our capital investment priorities. The job now is to make | :10:06. | :10:12. | |
sure that all of it is delivered to benefit every part of this country. | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
We will do that by continuing to hold this Labour government to | :10:18. | :10:21. | |
account. Too many communities in Wales feel neglected, left behind by | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
the government in Cardiff Bay and the government in Westminster. My | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
message to people in those communities is that Plaid Cymru will | :10:32. | :10:38. | |
stand up for you. We will never apologise for securing investment | :10:39. | :10:41. | |
for places which are not getting their fair share. | :10:42. | :10:54. | |
There is no doubt that we live in an unbalanced Wales. An unequal Wales. | :10:55. | :11:04. | |
Anyone who tries to travel around this country can see first-hand the | :11:05. | :11:09. | |
problems we have got transport infrastructure. Too many people are | :11:10. | :11:13. | |
without broadband communications. Jobs, wealth, prosperity, are not | :11:14. | :11:16. | |
spread evenly throughout the country. I hear the same feelings of | :11:17. | :11:26. | |
neglect in different places. Challenging those geographic | :11:27. | :11:31. | |
inequalities is vital. At Westminster under the Tories wealth | :11:32. | :11:34. | |
and opportunity is being redistributed in the wrong way. | :11:35. | :11:39. | |
Robin Hood in reverse. The same is happening in Wales. The Labour | :11:40. | :11:44. | |
government is recreating the problem here where there is an overheated | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
centre at the expense of everywhere else. Here in the south-east hopes | :11:49. | :11:54. | |
of being pinned on a city region deal. The deal spends a relatively | :11:55. | :12:02. | |
small pot of money on, amongst almost half of our country's local | :12:03. | :12:08. | |
authorities and half of our population. ?1.2 billion spread over | :12:09. | :12:12. | |
20 years. How will that rebalance the economy? It is not good enough. | :12:13. | :12:20. | |
Elsewhere in our country we saw plans at election time for a North | :12:21. | :12:24. | |
Wales metro. That plan features a map of North Wales which includes | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
tester and Liverpool but not Conway and Gwyneth. It is not serious about | :12:30. | :12:36. | |
rebalancing Wales with the new Welsh revenue authority. Wrexham and | :12:37. | :12:42. | |
others were overlooked despite having 400 existing tax workers | :12:43. | :12:48. | |
between them. The revenue authority will be a relatively small | :12:49. | :12:51. | |
organisation with just 40 posts initially but that number of jobs | :12:52. | :12:57. | |
will grow and even 40 jobs would make a far greater impact in a | :12:58. | :13:03. | |
smaller town. As it stands the decision has been made to locate the | :13:04. | :13:09. | |
revenue authority in Treforest. When I called for as many of those jobs | :13:10. | :13:13. | |
possible to be filled locally, what was the First Minister's and so? | :13:14. | :13:19. | |
Most of the jobs will go to specialists from London. The First | :13:20. | :13:23. | |
Minister is responsible for skills in Wales. Doesn't that say at all | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
that they do not have the skills to fill those posts and doesn't it say | :13:28. | :13:31. | |
at all about Labour's lack of ambition for Wales? Do making Wales | :13:32. | :13:37. | |
more equal Plaid Cymru is aiming to unite this country. Inequality | :13:38. | :13:43. | |
divides people and regions. That is why we are on a mission to rebalance | :13:44. | :13:49. | |
Wales, to equalise Wales, and we have started already. Putting the | :13:50. | :13:55. | |
rail link on the agenda. Securing ?300,000 for a feasibility study | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
bringing that project closer to reality. When completed Plaid Cymru | :14:01. | :14:04. | |
will have secured the most significant railway in Wales since | :14:05. | :14:11. | |
the cuts of the 1960s. We will be doing everything in our power to get | :14:12. | :14:13. | |
that delivered. In south-east Wales we are pushing | :14:14. | :14:28. | |
for the City Deal to include guaranteed investment in former | :14:29. | :14:36. | |
coalfield communities and specifically designated role for | :14:37. | :14:40. | |
Newport. We have said that work on the metro should begin at those | :14:41. | :14:43. | |
points furthest away from the centre. We will not back a City Deal | :14:44. | :14:49. | |
which sucks people and even more traffic into Cardiff where Plaid | :14:50. | :14:55. | |
Cymru councillors have been campaigning against ingestion and | :14:56. | :14:59. | |
overdevelopment. The party of Wales is proud of our capital city. We | :15:00. | :15:05. | |
will do everything in our power to protect its people from Labour's | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
local development plan. We will back a City Deal which shares the wealth. | :15:11. | :15:16. | |
Properly. We want the next Admiral, the next Welsh success story, to be | :15:17. | :15:24. | |
housed somewhere which other regional policy which creates viable | :15:25. | :15:30. | |
communities connected to it. A thriving Cardiff and a prosperous | :15:31. | :15:32. | |
land. Plaid Cymru has maximised our | :15:33. | :15:47. | |
advantage to wrestle concessions from Government. You have seen our | :15:48. | :15:50. | |
programme for opposition setting out what it is we want to achieve. What | :15:51. | :15:56. | |
we have won so far will help people in all of our communities and it | :15:57. | :16:01. | |
will help rebalance Wales. But that is only a glimpse of the change that | :16:02. | :16:06. | |
Wales needs. They're just small steps on the journey to a stronger, | :16:07. | :16:11. | |
self-sufficient nation. Imagine how much more we could do if the party | :16:12. | :16:17. | |
of Wales replaced Labour as the strongest party in Wales. Look at | :16:18. | :16:21. | |
the talent that I have got in the Plaid Cymru team in the Assembly. | :16:22. | :16:25. | |
Look at the ideas and the determination coming out of that | :16:26. | :16:31. | |
team. Plaid Cymru remains the change Wales needs. I want to reiterate | :16:32. | :16:37. | |
today that a Plaid Cymru Government is our number one aim. The Assembly | :16:38. | :16:42. | |
isn't the only arena where we're making a difference, Plaid Cymru has | :16:43. | :16:48. | |
the hardest working Welsh MPs in Westminster in 2016 and that is | :16:49. | :16:53. | |
official. More contributions, more questions and more activity than any | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
other party. And don't we need them? Where was the official opposition | :16:59. | :17:03. | |
when the Article 50 vote went through? What use is it after the | :17:04. | :17:09. | |
event to say the real fight starts now? How exasperating. The real | :17:10. | :17:18. | |
fight started before June 23rd, but the official opposition weren't | :17:19. | :17:22. | |
listening. Plaid Cymru had a raft of amendments to the legislation, all | :17:23. | :17:27. | |
intended to protect the Welsh national interest. We said after the | :17:28. | :17:33. | |
referendum that we would use every platform we had to hold the Leave | :17:34. | :17:38. | |
side to account for their promises. It was about making the Prime | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
Minister recognise what is good for Wales, but also what is at stake for | :17:45. | :17:51. | |
Wales Our Westminster team refused to give the Prime Minister a blank | :17:52. | :17:55. | |
cheque to carry out the hardest most damaging form of Brexit. People who | :17:56. | :18:00. | |
don't want to sever ties with Europe will remember that it was Plaid | :18:01. | :18:06. | |
Cymru who stood up for them and voted against this Conservative | :18:07. | :18:10. | |
Westminster Government. APPLAUSE | :18:11. | :18:22. | |
There can be no greater priority for our party right now than upholding | :18:23. | :18:29. | |
the Welsh national interest during the months ahead as the UK | :18:30. | :18:34. | |
Government begins the process of leaving the European Union. Scotland | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
has a confident and strong Government standing up for their | :18:40. | :18:43. | |
interests. Northern Ireland has a special position due to the peace | :18:44. | :18:48. | |
process. But what about Wales? Initially, Labour didn't know | :18:49. | :18:52. | |
whether it wanted us to be in the single market or out. Do you | :18:53. | :18:56. | |
remember how they ended up voting with the Conservatives and Ukip to | :18:57. | :19:01. | |
rule out participation in the European economic area or the | :19:02. | :19:05. | |
European free trade association? Having criticised Labour for that | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
vote, we couldn't allow for that to be the Welsh position ahead of the | :19:10. | :19:13. | |
negotiations with Theresa May and the UK Government. She would have | :19:14. | :19:18. | |
used that vote as evidence that Wales wanted nothing to do with the | :19:19. | :19:23. | |
European single market. When we had an opportunity to step up to the | :19:24. | :19:28. | |
plate and co-author the Welsh White Paper for the EU negotiations we had | :19:29. | :19:34. | |
to take it. We set out a clear set of demands to secure Wales' future. | :19:35. | :19:40. | |
In that paper, single market participation is the priority for | :19:41. | :19:46. | |
the Welsh economy. This means we want EEA or membership in a soft | :19:47. | :19:51. | |
Brexit, or the same tariff-free access to the European single market | :19:52. | :19:56. | |
as we have now. Being in the European single market is not just | :19:57. | :20:00. | |
about trade, it means setting a high bar, not lowering it when it comes | :20:01. | :20:06. | |
to workers' rights, consumer rights and protecting our precious | :20:07. | :20:10. | |
environment. Environmental regulation isn't red tape, it is | :20:11. | :20:15. | |
ensured cleaner beaches and seas, helping to transform the coastline | :20:16. | :20:19. | |
of Wales and tourism here. It makes sure that countries have a legal | :20:20. | :20:26. | |
duty to reduce pollution, to have a healthy natural environment to leave | :20:27. | :20:30. | |
to our children. We can keep these benefits when we're outside the EU | :20:31. | :20:36. | |
and we must. The party of Wales will not sign up to deregulation, | :20:37. | :20:42. | |
cost-cutting or a T-tip style deal with America. Plaid Cymru will not | :20:43. | :20:48. | |
endorse any Brexit which weakens our public services or stops our | :20:49. | :20:52. | |
students and young people from having the right to study abroad and | :20:53. | :20:57. | |
we will keep repeating this. In the Welsh NHS you are more likely to be | :20:58. | :21:03. | |
treated by a migrant than to see one in the queue. We can not and we will | :21:04. | :21:10. | |
not support any deal which makes it harder to recruit those skilled | :21:11. | :21:14. | |
workers that we need. And I reiterate to those people who want | :21:15. | :21:22. | |
to come to Wales to work as doctors, as nurses, as engineers, you are | :21:23. | :21:29. | |
welcome. APPLAUSE | :21:30. | :21:45. | |
And to all of those people who have moved here from overseas, the party | :21:46. | :21:54. | |
of Wales will never join in with the calls from those who make you feel | :21:55. | :21:58. | |
you don't deserve to be here. We will speak out for you when your | :21:59. | :22:03. | |
rights are infringed at home or abroad. The new presidency in the | :22:04. | :22:08. | |
United States has seen travellers from a host of majority Muslim | :22:09. | :22:13. | |
countries put under instant suspicion and the suspicion is now | :22:14. | :22:19. | |
being felt by Welsh people who are Muslim, as well. A Welsh maths | :22:20. | :22:28. | |
teacher born in Swansea, loved by his pupils and respected by parents | :22:29. | :22:32. | |
and colleagues at their school, he was thrown off a plane when | :22:33. | :22:35. | |
officials denied him the right to visit the country on a school trip. | :22:36. | :22:40. | |
He's been given no reason and no explanation. Well, I think I know | :22:41. | :22:45. | |
the reason. They think there's something wrong with his surname. It | :22:46. | :22:51. | |
sounds too Bangladeshi perhaps? Too Muslim maybe? He wrote to me after | :22:52. | :22:57. | |
the incident. He said that he believed that Plaid Cymru would | :22:58. | :23:03. | |
support him. And we will. I will be working with him until we get an | :23:04. | :23:06. | |
explanation, that's the very least he can expect. | :23:07. | :23:12. | |
APPLAUSE In case there was any doubt at all, | :23:13. | :23:32. | |
Plaid Cymru will stand up for all citizens in this country, everyone | :23:33. | :23:36. | |
who belongs to Wales should be treated with respect. If you live | :23:37. | :23:41. | |
here and you want to be Welsh, then as far as we're concerned, you are | :23:42. | :23:45. | |
Welsh and your rights will be defended by the party of Wales. | :23:46. | :23:57. | |
APPLAUSE Conference, I want to reaffirm today | :23:58. | :24:02. | |
that Plaid Cymru will not accept any negotiation which undermines our | :24:03. | :24:06. | |
farming sector and our rural communities. I've already told the | :24:07. | :24:10. | |
UK Secretary of State for EU withdrawal that we expect all of our | :24:11. | :24:15. | |
farming payments to be guaranteed for the future, not a Barnet share, | :24:16. | :24:21. | |
but nothing less than the amount our farmers are already getting now. We | :24:22. | :24:27. | |
expect a fair financial deal for Welsh agriculture and we expect | :24:28. | :24:32. | |
control in Wales as to how that money is allocated. Plaid Cymru | :24:33. | :24:39. | |
would then use that policy to control and prioritise the | :24:40. | :24:42. | |
struggling hill farmers and dairy farmers. In these uncertain times, | :24:43. | :24:48. | |
the party of Wales wants the whole country to stand behind Welsh | :24:49. | :24:53. | |
farming. The people who work our land and produce top quality food | :24:54. | :24:58. | |
are essential to our way of life and to the Welsh language. So I will | :24:59. | :25:02. | |
pledge today that a Plaid Cymru Government in Cardiff as well as | :25:03. | :25:06. | |
Plaid Cymru-led local authorities will do all they can to buy local | :25:07. | :25:12. | |
and to buy from Wales and I would urge all people wherever you are to | :25:13. | :25:18. | |
buy Welsh meat and Welsh dairy and all other Welsh food products | :25:19. | :25:23. | |
because when times are tough, we in Plaid Cymru don't walk away from our | :25:24. | :25:28. | |
rural communities, we stand with them. | :25:29. | :25:41. | |
APPLAUSE Conference, it's fair to ask what | :25:42. | :25:47. | |
happens when the Prime Minister and her Brexit team reject the Welsh | :25:48. | :25:52. | |
position, when they confirm a hard Brexit which doesn't prioritise our | :25:53. | :25:55. | |
membership of the single market? Plaid Cymru will continue to speak | :25:56. | :26:00. | |
for Wales as the situation evolves. Signing up to the joint White Paper | :26:01. | :26:06. | |
with the Welsh Government doesn't procollude us from developing our | :26:07. | :26:09. | |
own proposals and doesn't mean we're tide to any party. We will produce | :26:10. | :26:15. | |
our own contingency plans. I am not going to show our cards too early. | :26:16. | :26:19. | |
Wales and Scotland are currently still negotiating with the UK | :26:20. | :26:24. | |
Government. But what ever happens, Plaid Cymru is planning its vision | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
for Wales in the world. We'll make sure that the idea that we've | :26:30. | :26:35. | |
reached the end of Welsh nationhood is completely rejected, it won't | :26:36. | :26:39. | |
happen. Those who might be happy for Wales as an entity to disappear are | :26:40. | :26:47. | |
going to be very disappointed. And a Plaid Cymru Government, Wales will | :26:48. | :26:50. | |
develop the full international presence enjoyed by Europe and the | :26:51. | :26:54. | |
world's most powerful sub-state nations. Learning lessons from | :26:55. | :27:03. | |
stateless nations like the Basque country, and Quebec. Wales will | :27:04. | :27:06. | |
become more active on the international scene and we will | :27:07. | :27:10. | |
retain substantial links with the rest of Europe. But even more | :27:11. | :27:15. | |
importantly, Plaid Cymru will do everything in our power to secure | :27:16. | :27:22. | |
Welsh nationhood. The days of settling for second best are long | :27:23. | :27:27. | |
over and we say that any deal offered to Scotland over Brexit must | :27:28. | :27:32. | |
also be available to Wales. When it comes to sustaining our nationhood | :27:33. | :27:36. | |
and making our own decisions, the Wales bill that is now going through | :27:37. | :27:40. | |
parliament is a grave disappointment. Plaid Cymru believes | :27:41. | :27:45. | |
that it could lead to a Westminster power grab, that Welsh legislation | :27:46. | :27:49. | |
and Welsh power could be undermined by the UK Government. That's why our | :27:50. | :27:55. | |
team in Westminster will be launching a hands off our parliament | :27:56. | :27:59. | |
campaign and I'd encourage everyone who wants greater control in Wales | :28:00. | :28:05. | |
to get behind that campaign. When the so-called great repeal bill is | :28:06. | :28:09. | |
tabled the party of Wales will ensure that there are political | :28:10. | :28:14. | |
consequences for any Government or any party which tries to use that | :28:15. | :28:19. | |
bill to strip powers away from Wales. I was part of the St Davids | :28:20. | :28:24. | |
Day process, the Tories asked party leaders what we wanted to see in the | :28:25. | :28:30. | |
Wales bill. It gives me no pleasure to say it was the worst way of | :28:31. | :28:35. | |
drawing up legislation that I have ever witnessed. The Welsh | :28:36. | :28:39. | |
Conservative leader veteod the devolution of policing even though | :28:40. | :28:43. | |
policing powers were being transferred to Greater Manchester. | :28:44. | :28:48. | |
Good enough for Manchester, but not apparently good enough for Wales. | :28:49. | :28:53. | |
That was bad enough but at least no devolution of policing to Wales is | :28:54. | :28:57. | |
Conservative policy. Labour MPs from Wales disagreed with their own | :28:58. | :29:02. | |
policy and their own First Minister by joining in with that veto. We are | :29:03. | :29:07. | |
stuck here again with a piece of legislation that doesn't give people | :29:08. | :29:13. | |
the powers that they deserve. It is true we can partially devolve income | :29:14. | :29:18. | |
tax and improve the electoral system but we strongly believe that our | :29:19. | :29:22. | |
powers will be limited in other areas and that bill could lead to a | :29:23. | :29:27. | |
Westminster power grab and that's why we refuse to give our consent to | :29:28. | :29:34. | |
the Wales bill. The days of Plaid Cymru signing up to weak deals are | :29:35. | :29:41. | |
over. Friends, there are at present other threats to our nationhood. | :29:42. | :29:45. | |
Ukip has a presence in our National Assembly on the back of people's | :29:46. | :29:50. | |
grievances. In the last election of the major parties Plaid Cymru and | :29:51. | :29:57. | |
Ukip were the only two parties to see the vote share increase. This | :29:58. | :30:00. | |
means there are two different options for Welsh voters who are | :30:01. | :30:04. | |
disillusioned with Labour and the Conservatives. The Welsh nationalism | :30:05. | :30:10. | |
of Plaid Cymru, a party rooted in Welsh communities, proudly standing | :30:11. | :30:14. | |
up for Wales and believing in equality and justice for all, | :30:15. | :30:19. | |
outward looking, welcoming, internationalist. Or, the nostalgic | :30:20. | :30:26. | |
British nationalism of Ukip, looking for opportunities to sow division | :30:27. | :30:31. | |
and questioning any move to make Wales more self-governing or more | :30:32. | :30:37. | |
self-respecting. They are inward looking and isolationist. I wouldn't | :30:38. | :30:42. | |
agree that Ukip has shaken up the Senaad, if anything they've settled | :30:43. | :30:47. | |
in. They're deliberately holding back from proposing anything | :30:48. | :30:50. | |
controversial and are happy to support the motions and ideas of | :30:51. | :30:52. | |
other We should be wary about that. | :30:53. | :31:03. | |
Especially at local level. We saw how Ukip tried to muscle in on the | :31:04. | :31:07. | |
campaign against Welsh medium education. TRANSLATION: I and many | :31:08. | :31:18. | |
other parents have chosen to give our children Welsh education as well | :31:19. | :31:25. | |
as English medium education but it was a tragedy seeing Ukip | :31:26. | :31:29. | |
politicians interfering and intervening, trying to stop more | :31:30. | :31:39. | |
children from benefiting. As we saw a campaign in homes. It reminds us | :31:40. | :31:43. | |
all to choose our friends carefully. It also reminds us of our | :31:44. | :31:50. | |
responsibility, whatever party we may be, to tackle the decline in the | :31:51. | :32:01. | |
language and also it remains other parties who support the aim of | :32:02. | :32:07. | |
getting 1 million Welsh speakers, that empty words are not enough and | :32:08. | :32:12. | |
that there is a need to act and there is a need to support the | :32:13. | :32:18. | |
decisions of parents as one County Council did. | :32:19. | :32:38. | |
People in Wales now that Plaid Cymru will work to secure the best | :32:39. | :32:44. | |
possible deal for Wales as the negotiations to leave the EU take | :32:45. | :32:49. | |
place. People now are our values and they expect us to stand up for | :32:50. | :32:53. | |
Wales. They also know the business of the country of running the | :32:54. | :33:00. | |
country will carry on regardless. Wales still needs the same changes | :33:01. | :33:03. | |
are dead during the assembly elections last year. On May the | :33:04. | :33:09. | |
force you will again go to the ballot box to a lecture local | :33:10. | :33:18. | |
councillors. These should be about how Wales is governed at local | :33:19. | :33:22. | |
level. People have an opportunity to send a message to Labour in Cardiff | :33:23. | :33:26. | |
and to the Tories in Westminster Abbey will no longer stand by and | :33:27. | :33:32. | |
allow our communities to be ignored as local services are downgraded, | :33:33. | :33:37. | |
closed down or sold off. There are those who might not be convinced | :33:38. | :33:42. | |
that Wales needs change. That Wales doesn't need to send some kind of | :33:43. | :33:47. | |
message at these local elections. But the need for change is evident. | :33:48. | :33:53. | |
Does anyone need reminding a quarter of Welsh people live in poverty? A | :33:54. | :33:59. | |
third of Welsh children. In some councils senior officer P is way out | :34:00. | :34:04. | |
of control while lower pay grades are just being unfrozen. In Labour | :34:05. | :34:12. | |
led Caerphilly not far from here the peace candle cost ?4.5 million that | :34:13. | :34:18. | |
could have been spent on local services -- pay scandal. There are | :34:19. | :34:29. | |
cards in place on senior officer pay where Plaid Cymru has had influence. | :34:30. | :34:34. | |
Wales has gone backwards when ministers promised improvement. | :34:35. | :34:39. | |
Welsh workers are getting paid 10% less than the UK average. Waiting | :34:40. | :34:45. | |
times in health like behind Scotland and England with 25% of Welsh | :34:46. | :34:49. | |
patients waiting longer than six weeks for an MRI. I could go on. | :34:50. | :34:58. | |
Wales cannot afford to keep the boarding a legacy of failure. Plaid | :34:59. | :35:03. | |
Cymru is your local party. Your community party. We are on the side | :35:04. | :35:08. | |
of the people not the political establishment or the bureaucratic | :35:09. | :35:12. | |
elite. In an increasing number of places we are the people. We come | :35:13. | :35:17. | |
from our communities and represent the people in them. I want this | :35:18. | :35:22. | |
party to be rooted in the towns, villages and cities of Wales. I'm | :35:23. | :35:27. | |
not interested in the party that speaks to people. Plaid Cymru speaks | :35:28. | :35:35. | |
for people. With people. Our convent, conversations are a two-way | :35:36. | :35:42. | |
dialogue not a broadcast. The tide is turning. Beneath the surface | :35:43. | :35:47. | |
something is happening. In the last year Plaid Cymru gained more council | :35:48. | :35:50. | |
seats in by-elections than any other party. Labour and the Conservatives | :35:51. | :35:55. | |
went backwards. In Grangetown in Cardiff, and in Carmarthenshire, | :35:56. | :36:04. | |
people backed our local Plaid Cymru teams, and I want to thank our | :36:05. | :36:09. | |
community champions for securing victory. | :36:10. | :36:23. | |
While citizens know that Plaid Cymru has a strong track record in local | :36:24. | :36:32. | |
government. Where we lead the local authorities we are pushing ahead | :36:33. | :36:37. | |
with improvements. Our priorities are strengthening our communities, | :36:38. | :36:40. | |
caring for people with compassion and building affordable housing | :36:41. | :36:45. | |
targeted at local need. In Carmarthenshire, shovels are already | :36:46. | :36:50. | |
on the ground. The Plaid Cymru council is building some of the | :36:51. | :36:54. | |
county's first council houses for many years. Carmarthenshire has | :36:55. | :37:00. | |
risen up the league table for preventing homelessness. Since Plaid | :37:01. | :37:02. | |
Cymru took over the Wales audit office has commended Carmarthenshire | :37:03. | :37:08. | |
for delivering improved outcomes. Plaid Cymru is restoring the | :37:09. | :37:13. | |
county's good name. Another council is spending the most money per pupil | :37:14. | :37:17. | |
for education in the Hall of the country. Under the party of Wales it | :37:18. | :37:23. | |
is in the top three councils for most all of the major education | :37:24. | :37:29. | |
indicators. In the league table for people's perception of the quality | :37:30. | :37:34. | |
of council services or four Plaid Cymru led authorities score above | :37:35. | :37:37. | |
average with Plaid Cymru led council dropping the league. Gwynedd Council | :37:38. | :37:44. | |
has been innovative in its compassion and care for local | :37:45. | :37:52. | |
people. It has alleviated more than ?600,000 of bedroom tax payments, | :37:53. | :37:56. | |
enough to protect 1409 households from the insidious Tory bedroom tax. | :37:57. | :38:16. | |
Plaid Cymru councils are innovating and leading Wales in areas as | :38:17. | :38:23. | |
diverse as social housing, education and clean streets that we can all be | :38:24. | :38:28. | |
proud of. All of us in this conference hall can be proud of our | :38:29. | :38:34. | |
excellent Plaid Cymru councils. They make the case for there to be more | :38:35. | :38:37. | |
Plaid Cymru control light across the country. Friends, control over our | :38:38. | :38:45. | |
communities is in our hands. Cast your minds back to last year's | :38:46. | :38:50. | |
elections when we said Plaid Cymru was the change Wales needs. We know | :38:51. | :38:55. | |
from the Wales election study that most people who saw the election we | :38:56. | :38:59. | |
had the best campaign. They also thought that we did the best in the | :39:00. | :39:05. | |
TV debates and yes, that study says that we had the best candidate for | :39:06. | :39:07. | |
First Minister. But the same data showed that most | :39:08. | :39:22. | |
people did not watch the coverage at all. In recent weeks we have seen a | :39:23. | :39:29. | |
continued decline in Welsh newspaper sales and a far lower investment in | :39:30. | :39:33. | |
BBC Wales than Scotland is going to receive. There is no short cut | :39:34. | :39:40. | |
around the Welsh media deficit. In the last election people voted for | :39:41. | :39:44. | |
Plaid Cymru in the greatest numbers where we were the most active on the | :39:45. | :39:49. | |
ground. That is where we can make a difference. It is as simple as that. | :39:50. | :39:55. | |
To everyone who wants to see a Plaid Cymru community Champion standing up | :39:56. | :40:00. | |
for their local patch, I say, get out there and support your local | :40:01. | :40:03. | |
Plaid Cymru candidates. There is still the time to make a difference | :40:04. | :40:10. | |
and you can make it. Let's demonstrate that the party of Wales | :40:11. | :40:13. | |
is on the up, that the Welsh nation is moving forward stronger, and | :40:14. | :40:22. | |
let's show people that our team is a winning team. To all of the people | :40:23. | :40:26. | |
who make up this wonderful nation avers, I say, we do not have to keep | :40:27. | :40:34. | |
accepting second best. We do not have to keep putting up with neglect | :40:35. | :40:38. | |
with the same political parties who have let people down time and time | :40:39. | :40:45. | |
again. We do not have to put up with dirty streets, downgraded services, | :40:46. | :40:48. | |
young people struggling to find opportunities. This is an | :40:49. | :40:53. | |
opportunity for your community and for your country. Do not let Wales | :40:54. | :41:00. | |
be ignored. Send that message that we exist, that the matter. Stand up | :41:01. | :41:06. | |
for your interests and for your own control. Just like the chartists did | :41:07. | :41:14. | |
all those years ago. Give your backing to Plaid Cymru. Join with us | :41:15. | :41:17. | |
as we put in place the building blocks of a successful, more equal | :41:18. | :41:23. | |
and outward looking Wales. Building a strong nation starts in your | :41:24. | :41:28. | |
street. Building the new Wales starts with us and with you. The | :41:29. | :41:44. | |
Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood speaking yesterday about | :41:45. | :41:47. | |
geographical inequalities, saying there was an overheated centre at | :41:48. | :41:50. | |
the expense of everywhere else, even talking about wanting to see the | :41:51. | :41:59. | |
next Admiral based in the max else. A lot of politicians talk about | :42:00. | :42:03. | |
redistributing wealth. It is difficult. It is. Do you use your | :42:04. | :42:09. | |
major cities as the wider economic driver? Or do you try to attract and | :42:10. | :42:19. | |
Admiral elsewhere? It seems a huge debt. What Leanne Wood is trying to | :42:20. | :42:27. | |
do is cash in on a sentiment that exists in Wales very strongly in | :42:28. | :42:34. | |
north-east and north-west Wales and Swansea and Newport, this idea that | :42:35. | :42:38. | |
Cardiff gets everything. To an extent that exists in every single | :42:39. | :42:41. | |
country that they think the capital city gets too much. It is a potent | :42:42. | :42:47. | |
message particularly when you are running against Labour in a large | :42:48. | :42:54. | |
number of local authorities. It is a race with Labour. Is there a danger | :42:55. | :43:00. | |
that could be viewed as anti-Cardiff? This is where the | :43:01. | :43:04. | |
concentration of people is and most of the money is. I thought the | :43:05. | :43:09. | |
speech was clever. Cardiff has a contentious local development plan | :43:10. | :43:12. | |
which is pretty unpopular in large parts of the city. Being fought | :43:13. | :43:17. | |
aggressively by Plaid Cymru councillors. What she was trying to | :43:18. | :43:22. | |
say, whether it would work politically or not was, this would | :43:23. | :43:25. | |
take the heat off of Cardiff, helping these other places would | :43:26. | :43:28. | |
mean you would not have to put up with increased traffic congestion, | :43:29. | :43:33. | |
green fields being built on. Quite cleverly tailored, the message. How | :43:34. | :43:40. | |
politically realistic it would be as a government policy is another | :43:41. | :43:45. | |
matter. As an electoral message it is pretty well tailored. Before the | :43:46. | :43:49. | |
conference Leanne Wood said people on the doorstep were more concerned | :43:50. | :43:59. | |
with Borg mess than Brexit. We heard quite a bit about Brexit. Is Leanne | :44:00. | :44:04. | |
Wood conceding that she is not going to see a lot of the things in the | :44:05. | :44:09. | |
Brexit negotiations she would want to see, namely membership of the | :44:10. | :44:13. | |
single market? She has to be in that position. Reason she would say she | :44:14. | :44:17. | |
is in that position is because Labour is not fighting for those | :44:18. | :44:24. | |
things. Labour at a UK level, Welsh level is different, seems to more or | :44:25. | :44:27. | |
less have conceded that it will be some form of hard Brexit. People | :44:28. | :44:33. | |
within the Labour Party, some of them are not happy about that. There | :44:34. | :44:40. | |
is an interesting group of voters. Myths about the way people voted in | :44:41. | :44:44. | |
the referendum. Two thirds of people who voted Labour in 2015 voted to | :44:45. | :44:50. | |
remain. Yet they feel the Labour Party has become obsessed with the | :44:51. | :44:53. | |
one third of Labour voters who voted to leave and has been accepting the | :44:54. | :44:59. | |
Conservatives Brexit strategy because of that third. The Liberal | :45:00. | :45:03. | |
Democrats have spotted that group of voters and Plaid Cymru have and the | :45:04. | :45:08. | |
evidence of that labour voters who voted remain feel far more strongly | :45:09. | :45:16. | |
about that than Labour voters who voted Brexit feel about Brexit. The | :45:17. | :45:22. | |
St Anthony Labour voters that Plaid Cymru are going after. -- | :45:23. | :45:25. | |
disenchanted. Let's turn to two people who will be | :45:26. | :45:39. | |
talking a lot about the local election campaign. You will both be | :45:40. | :45:42. | |
standing, two councillors, somebody standing for the first time and | :45:43. | :45:45. | |
somebody who is more experienced. Not standing for the first time, | :45:46. | :45:50. | |
stood a couple of times before. You are standing for Carmarthenshire | :45:51. | :45:54. | |
County Council for the first time, why now is the time to stand? I | :45:55. | :45:59. | |
think basically I have grown up with the idea that young people don't get | :46:00. | :46:03. | |
into politics, we see especially - often you see a lot of grey hair and | :46:04. | :46:09. | |
not many young people. I think if I can just locally prove that young | :46:10. | :46:14. | |
people do have a place in politics, if that can get somebody else | :46:15. | :46:18. | |
involved in politics at a young age I will be happy. Was there anything | :46:19. | :46:22. | |
that was a trigger, you didn't see anything, we talk about Brexit all | :46:23. | :46:26. | |
the time, it wasn't anything specific, it's just you want more | :46:27. | :46:30. | |
young people into politics? That's the main thing, obviously when you | :46:31. | :46:36. | |
see the mess under Labour's rule, it makes you angry and want to make a | :46:37. | :46:39. | |
difference, since Plaid Cymru has taken over a difference has been | :46:40. | :46:42. | |
made, that's why I would be happy to join that team and be that | :46:43. | :46:47. | |
progressive change. We heard on Friday, yesterday, Leanne Wood | :46:48. | :46:50. | |
saying on the doorstep Brexit isn't coming up often, people are keen to | :46:51. | :46:54. | |
talk about dog mess, is that what you are finding, are people more | :46:55. | :46:57. | |
interested in not necessarily dog mess, but local things and bins and | :46:58. | :47:03. | |
recycling, rather than Brexit? I think definitely, I think our role | :47:04. | :47:07. | |
as councillors or candidates is to ensure that local people get local | :47:08. | :47:11. | |
issues sorted. You have MPs who can deal with the constitutional issues. | :47:12. | :47:15. | |
But they need people they can trust, at a local level to deal with local | :47:16. | :47:20. | |
issues who have time and energy to deal with those, those are issues I | :47:21. | :47:28. | |
have come across. How are things looking in your council area, I am | :47:29. | :47:31. | |
expecting you to say good things there, but on a Wales-wide basis? We | :47:32. | :47:36. | |
are working hard, I think Labour are on their uppers by the look of it | :47:37. | :47:41. | |
with a split between the Corbynists and the Blairites, I suppose they | :47:42. | :47:46. | |
would call themselves. We have a good chance of taking control in | :47:47. | :47:50. | |
Carmarthenshire, for example. I am hoping we will in my council, as | :47:51. | :47:54. | |
well, although we have only one Labour member. I think if you look | :47:55. | :48:00. | |
down at councils where, down to South Wales where we have held | :48:01. | :48:08. | |
councils before, in Caerphilly we will be knocking on the doors down | :48:09. | :48:11. | |
there quite hard in order to get that control back. Presumably, given | :48:12. | :48:16. | |
as you were saying, that the Labour Party is facing some troubles at the | :48:17. | :48:20. | |
moment, let's just say that, if it's not - if the time isn't right now | :48:21. | :48:26. | |
for Plaid Cymru to make big gains and breakthrough, presumably when | :48:27. | :48:30. | |
will be a better time? We are hoping this will be a time when we can | :48:31. | :48:34. | |
regain the strength we had at the beginning of the millennium, | :48:35. | :48:39. | |
actually. There's work going on all over Wales to strengthen. We heard | :48:40. | :48:43. | |
this afternoon Powys beginning to awake to the fact they need Plaid | :48:44. | :48:47. | |
Cymru councillors there, as well, to help lead. Isn't therein a danger, | :48:48. | :48:51. | |
what we have seen from Plaid Cymru in the last couple of elections is | :48:52. | :48:55. | |
inertia, the 2015 general election didn't really make big gains, other | :48:56. | :49:00. | |
than Leanne Wood in the Rhondda last year, didn't really make big gains, | :49:01. | :49:04. | |
how much of a pressure is on Plaid Cymru now to make - to show there is | :49:05. | :49:08. | |
momentum there? I hope there will be momentum. I am fairly confident we | :49:09. | :49:12. | |
will see momentum this time. I think people are just fed up. The cuts | :49:13. | :49:17. | |
that we have had to suffer instigated by a Tory and Lib Dem | :49:18. | :49:24. | |
coalition in London way back whenever it was under David Cameron | :49:25. | :49:30. | |
and that's been continually year after year and I have seen since I | :49:31. | :49:36. | |
have become leader a cut of 25% in the revenue budget, well, that's not | :49:37. | :49:40. | |
sustainable if we want to keep good services in our schools and with our | :49:41. | :49:47. | |
older people. We need proper funding and that's my fight. Also, economic | :49:48. | :49:53. | |
development going forward because as I say, lots - there is a danger now | :49:54. | :49:57. | |
with Brexit that we will lose ?55 million that's come in to the | :49:58. | :50:01. | |
farmers and structural funds. If that's not replaced from London, | :50:02. | :50:09. | |
then we are going to be really badly off. You have just heard all the | :50:10. | :50:15. | |
problems that councillors are facing there, cuts, Brexit, everything that | :50:16. | :50:20. | |
may or may not come. Why do you want to go into that? Do you want to | :50:21. | :50:29. | |
cancel your candidacy live! That's why we need as many Plaid Cymru | :50:30. | :50:41. | |
councillors. We have had a Plaid - the cuts will come from the Tories | :50:42. | :50:45. | |
and Labour, that's why we need at a local level Plaid Cymru. Is it more | :50:46. | :50:50. | |
difficult for a younger person to take tough decisions than somebody | :50:51. | :50:54. | |
who's got more life experience, do you think? I think that is | :50:55. | :51:00. | |
definitely a view shared by many, but what I say is that because you | :51:01. | :51:03. | |
are young you have to prove yourself and that's what I will be hoping to | :51:04. | :51:06. | |
do and those decisions, some might be mistakes but you learn from those | :51:07. | :51:10. | |
mistakes and that's what I am hoping to do and strive on that. I said | :51:11. | :51:17. | |
earlier that the party wants to talk about Brexit, council elections, dog | :51:18. | :51:20. | |
mess. Actually a lot of people here are talking about the future of Neil | :51:21. | :51:24. | |
McEvoy, suspended now as a Cardiff councillor. What do you make of it, | :51:25. | :51:28. | |
two Assembly members have told me he should be suspended from the party | :51:29. | :51:31. | |
while there are investigations going on about his future, what do you | :51:32. | :51:35. | |
make of it? As a member who is also bound by the code of conduct, and | :51:36. | :51:42. | |
have been since I became an elected member in 99 we all have to keep to | :51:43. | :51:49. | |
the code of conduct. It would seem that this external panel that has | :51:50. | :51:51. | |
looked into the case has seen that there was a case to answer. Now, | :51:52. | :51:55. | |
whether the chairman of the party wishes to look into that more | :51:56. | :51:59. | |
closely, well, that's up to him and I am not chair of the party at this | :52:00. | :52:03. | |
point, I have been in the past, I have had to deal with difficult | :52:04. | :52:07. | |
situations then. So I am sure he will in due course have to look at | :52:08. | :52:11. | |
this case, as well. But you are a prominent Plaid Cymru member. If you | :52:12. | :52:19. | |
were in that position now and we know that - do you think he should | :52:20. | :52:24. | |
be suspended? He has been suspended as a councillor for a month anyway. | :52:25. | :52:28. | |
We need to cool it a bit and step back and look closely at what | :52:29. | :52:32. | |
actually happened, from a party political point of view. As I say, I | :52:33. | :52:37. | |
have every confidence in the present chair to do that on our behalf. I | :52:38. | :52:43. | |
don't know how many conferences you have been coming to but there is | :52:44. | :52:47. | |
quite a buzz around this one mainly because of the discussions around | :52:48. | :52:51. | |
Neil McEvoy's future. As a conference, how do you think it's | :52:52. | :52:55. | |
been going so far? It's been great, it's different to the last few, we | :52:56. | :52:59. | |
have council leaders talking and that brings home this is a grass | :53:00. | :53:03. | |
roots party, we haven't the big money of Tory and Labour, we need | :53:04. | :53:08. | |
these people and local councillors to come to the conference and speak | :53:09. | :53:13. | |
up and make sure that not only do MPs hear our problems, but that we | :53:14. | :53:17. | |
can make sure that our voices are heard at a local level. You have | :53:18. | :53:20. | |
shared it with the party and the BBC, as well. Thank you both. That's | :53:21. | :53:24. | |
the voice for local Government and we will be sharing more from the | :53:25. | :53:28. | |
other political parties over the next few conferences. For the | :53:29. | :53:32. | |
moment, back to the studio. Thank you very much. Brexit is at | :53:33. | :53:36. | |
the top of the political agenda these days. Let's get the view from | :53:37. | :53:41. | |
the European Parliament now. Jill Evans is Plaid Cymru's MEP. Here's | :53:42. | :53:45. | |
what she had to say to the conference. | :53:46. | :53:51. | |
I am confident after yesterday and hearing our fantastic team of local | :53:52. | :53:56. | |
council candidates speaking here on the platform and in the hall that | :53:57. | :54:03. | |
they offer people a real voice in shaping the future of their | :54:04. | :54:08. | |
communities. It's been a massive honour and responsibility to have | :54:09. | :54:13. | |
been your voice, Plaid Cymru's voice and Wales' voice in Europe for many | :54:14. | :54:19. | |
years now. It's a great feeling to have been able to raise Wales' | :54:20. | :54:25. | |
profile and help people in however small a way and I know from my years | :54:26. | :54:30. | |
as a councillor and today I still see changes that I could achieve as | :54:31. | :54:36. | |
a councillor but the only way any of us can do those things is by working | :54:37. | :54:42. | |
with people in the community because the people who live in those | :54:43. | :54:46. | |
communities know what is needed to improve them. By strengthening our | :54:47. | :54:53. | |
communities we strengthen and build our nation. Disaffection and | :54:54. | :54:59. | |
alienation are two of the factors that led to the rejection of EU | :55:00. | :55:03. | |
membership by some communities in Wales. As we know, some of those | :55:04. | :55:10. | |
communities benefitted most from EU membership financially. I was born | :55:11. | :55:14. | |
in the Rhondda and I have always lived there. The name is famous | :55:15. | :55:18. | |
around the world because of the coal industry. It produced enormous | :55:19. | :55:23. | |
wealth but not for the people of the Rhondda. The money was exported with | :55:24. | :55:30. | |
the coal. It's the same story, isn't it, in our communities up and down | :55:31. | :55:36. | |
the country. Those communities were, by their nature, immigrant | :55:37. | :55:39. | |
communities, people came from all over Wales, from the UK and other | :55:40. | :55:44. | |
parts of the world to work in those heavy industries. The communities | :55:45. | :55:52. | |
were multicultural and multilingual. They were and still are close | :55:53. | :55:55. | |
communities, well-known for the warmth and generosity of the people | :55:56. | :56:03. | |
and I know that growing up in one of those communities it certainly | :56:04. | :56:07. | |
enriched my life. Today, few people move into our communities to work | :56:08. | :56:11. | |
because there are few jobs to come for. Young people are more likely to | :56:12. | :56:17. | |
leave, taking their skills and talents with them. So things have to | :56:18. | :56:22. | |
change. We can not allow that to continue. But neither can we go | :56:23. | :56:29. | |
back. We have to take this opportunity to rethink, to reengage | :56:30. | :56:35. | |
and to revitalise our politics. We can not leave it as a people, we | :56:36. | :56:43. | |
must give control to people in Wales, encouraging and supporting | :56:44. | :56:47. | |
community action. And we have to take the responsibility for that. We | :56:48. | :56:52. | |
have to work against hate crime and racism. Our language is positive and | :56:53. | :57:00. | |
our message is hopeful. As Leanne said yesterday, we welcome everyone | :57:01. | :57:03. | |
who has chosen to make Wales their home, whether for just a few years | :57:04. | :57:09. | |
to study or to learn new languages, or whether permanently to raise a | :57:10. | :57:13. | |
family or to retire. It's uplifting to me to see people from all over | :57:14. | :57:20. | |
the world who have come to live in Wales identify strongly with our | :57:21. | :57:25. | |
nation and want to play their full part in building its future. We | :57:26. | :57:32. | |
should have an enlightened and inclusive and a progressive path. | :57:33. | :57:38. | |
I've been involved in many campaigns over the years, whether working for | :57:39. | :57:43. | |
justice for Kurdish people, for Palestinian people, whether | :57:44. | :57:47. | |
protesting against wars on nuclear weapons for the peace movement but | :57:48. | :57:51. | |
one of the most memorable campaigns that I have been involved in was the | :57:52. | :57:59. | |
local campaign to close the notorious landfill site in the | :58:00. | :58:03. | |
Rhondda. This polluting rubbish tip was on top of the mountain right | :58:04. | :58:08. | |
opposite my home, so I didn't just smell it, but every morning when I | :58:09. | :58:14. | |
got up and opened the curtains I could see it. What started as a | :58:15. | :58:19. | |
small protest because of the nuisance from the flies and the | :58:20. | :58:27. | |
smells in the local community, grew into a real huge community action. | :58:28. | :58:32. | |
It became a permanent camp on the site blockading the road to the tip. | :58:33. | :58:37. | |
Because what had happened, people complained of course to the local | :58:38. | :58:42. | |
council in the beginning about the nuisance from the tip. And they were | :58:43. | :58:47. | |
ignored and they were fobbed off with answers and people kept | :58:48. | :58:50. | |
complaining and more people complained and the problems got | :58:51. | :58:54. | |
worse and worse and worse. People wrote letters. We had meetings. We | :58:55. | :59:03. | |
had protests at the council offices. But people stood there hold placards | :59:04. | :59:09. | |
that were not only ignored by the council but the people were ignored | :59:10. | :59:13. | |
and weren't believed. So people realised that they had to take a | :59:14. | :59:19. | |
different type of action. When the camp was set up at the entrance to | :59:20. | :59:28. | |
the site it became a real microcosm of the community because older | :59:29. | :59:31. | |
retired men would go up there first thing in the morning to light the | :59:32. | :59:36. | |
fire, young parents would turn up after taking the children to school | :59:37. | :59:39. | |
and then they would go back and bring the children back with them. | :59:40. | :59:44. | |
Local shops and food and hot drinks, everybody played a part. Women and | :59:45. | :59:50. | |
men of all ages and all backgrounds who had never been involved in | :59:51. | :59:55. | |
politics soon became experts on certainly how the local authority | :59:56. | :00:01. | |
works, but also the dangers of toxic waste, the dangers of landfill, | :00:02. | :00:06. | |
about EU environmental law and much, much more. Of course when Plaid | :00:07. | :00:12. | |
Cymru took control of the council in Rhondda we did close the tip, with | :00:13. | :00:18. | |
the help of a petition to the European Parliament and using | :00:19. | :00:22. | |
European environmental laws on waste. Now why am I saying this, do | :00:23. | :00:27. | |
you think? It's several years ago now. I wouldn't for a minute wish | :00:28. | :00:38. | |
that on any other community. But if we can mobilise that kind of | :00:39. | :00:42. | |
enthusiasm and strength of feeling to work for the good of our | :00:43. | :00:48. | |
communities and for the good of Wales against the dangers of leaving | :00:49. | :00:51. | |
the European Union, then anything is possible. | :00:52. | :01:00. | |
In the words of the often quoted Williams, I have quoted them many | :01:01. | :01:08. | |
times, because I can often find something in the books to guide and | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
inspire me, he wrote, the Welsh have danced among these giant cog wheels | :01:14. | :01:19. | |
before. Welsh other people have lived by and remaking themselves in | :01:20. | :01:26. | |
generation after generation. That is the challenge that faces us. In the | :01:27. | :01:32. | |
aftermath of the EU referendum we have to create a new Wales. A new | :01:33. | :01:38. | |
Wales in Europe. Because we always have been and we still are a | :01:39. | :01:44. | |
European nation. We are not defined by the vote to leave the EU as a | :01:45. | :01:48. | |
people or party. We need to understand that and we need to show | :01:49. | :01:53. | |
people in Wales what drives as other party. We exist to protect and | :01:54. | :02:02. | |
promote the interests of all the people in every part of Wales. Our | :02:03. | :02:08. | |
interest are best served by working hand-in-hand with the rest of Europe | :02:09. | :02:13. | |
and beyond. We want Wales to take its place on the international stage | :02:14. | :02:21. | |
and perform with enthusiasm. Our role as a proud and confident nation | :02:22. | :02:26. | |
of strong and vibrant communities. A force for good and a voice for peace | :02:27. | :02:32. | |
and justice. We are ambitious. Because the people of Wales deserve | :02:33. | :02:36. | |
nothing less than a party with vision and drive. A party on a | :02:37. | :02:48. | |
mission. And we are. Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans. I much longer she or any | :02:49. | :02:55. | |
other MEP will be there is anyone's guess. I am joined by Leanne Wood | :02:56. | :02:59. | |
the leader of Plaid Cymru. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Lots of | :03:00. | :03:07. | |
your speech yesterday focused on what to call our geographical | :03:08. | :03:11. | |
inequalities in Wales. You talked about an overheated centre at the | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
expense of everywhere else in Wales. Do you think these issues have been | :03:16. | :03:18. | |
there since the start of devolution and if so what did you do about it | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
in your time when you were power-sharing? I was not in | :03:24. | :03:30. | |
government as you know. I have been the leader of Plaid Cymru for five | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
years and we were in coalition government prior to that. Labour has | :03:35. | :03:37. | |
led the government in years for 18 years. We have seen inequalities | :03:38. | :03:45. | |
grow and it is unacceptable that in the north of our country 21% of the | :03:46. | :03:51. | |
people live there and 17% of capital investment is spent in the north. We | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
want to see wealth and prosperity spread to every community throughout | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
this country. We are community champions. Community is very | :04:02. | :04:06. | |
important to us, strengthening our communities will be our top phrase | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
for the local elections. That is why in my speech yesterday I made a | :04:11. | :04:15. | |
pitch to all communities in Wales and said that under a Plaid Cymru | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
government we would look out for everyone. If you are to redistribute | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
wealth across Wales it would mean you would have to move something | :04:27. | :04:31. | |
from Cardiff or south-east Wales to another part of the country. What | :04:32. | :04:38. | |
would you move from the economic centre? You are making an | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
assumption. We are talking about future expenditure. We have talked | :04:43. | :04:46. | |
about the need for regional development and we have different | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
needs in different parts of the country. We believe that economic | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
development should be done on a regional basis, meeting the needs of | :04:55. | :05:08. | |
those local communities, and future expenditure should be considered on | :05:09. | :05:37. | |
an all Wales basis. We have an overheating south-east and future | :05:38. | :05:39. | |
investment is planned for a year which is great and obviously our | :05:40. | :05:42. | |
capital city is very important to us. But the city region deal that is | :05:43. | :05:48. | |
on the cards we want to make sure that the places furthest away from | :05:49. | :05:50. | |
the centre for example with a metal are started first so that those | :05:51. | :05:54. | |
areas that are most deprived tend up getting some investment. You talked | :05:55. | :05:56. | |
about wanting to see the next Admiral based in a town in the | :05:57. | :05:59. | |
valleys. How could you make sure that would happen if you were First | :06:00. | :06:01. | |
Minister? There are things that government can do. If you had a | :06:02. | :06:02. | |
regional industrial plant. The government we have now does not have | :06:03. | :06:04. | |
one. Take the Welsh revenue authority. That is going to be set | :06:05. | :06:06. | |
up in Treforest ten miles north of Cardiff. There will be 40 jobs | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
initially. You could say not many. That can make a huge impact will | :06:11. | :06:13. | |
stop good news for your constituents. Well, it would be | :06:14. | :06:20. | |
excellent news for my constituents if those jobs were going to be from | :06:21. | :06:25. | |
the local area. When I asked the First Minister about this he said | :06:26. | :06:32. | |
that we do not have the skills in Wales for those tax jobs apparently, | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
even though he is responsible for those skills. Those jobs are going | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
to be filled by experts from London. That is outrageous that shows lack | :06:44. | :06:47. | |
of ambition on the part of the First Minister who is responsible for | :06:48. | :06:50. | |
skills. He knew really be having tax-raising powers at some point and | :06:51. | :06:54. | |
it should've been up for him to make sure have people in Wales with the | :06:55. | :06:59. | |
skills to do though is very important jobs. Looking to the local | :07:00. | :07:03. | |
elections, before the conference you said people on the doorstep were | :07:04. | :07:06. | |
more concerned with dog mess than Brexit. Do you believe that? That | :07:07. | :07:15. | |
was in response to a question that you asked me I think which was how | :07:16. | :07:21. | |
much is Brexit coming up on the doorsteps? It is not in great | :07:22. | :07:26. | |
number. People are more concerned about local issues, local services, | :07:27. | :07:32. | |
and dog mess is coming up a lot. Your version of Brexit, you are | :07:33. | :07:38. | |
losing the battle, you want to see membership of the single market, | :07:39. | :07:41. | |
would you concede that argument has long gone? We lost the battle on | :07:42. | :07:50. | |
June 23 if you like. We are trying, while accepting the result, we know | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
we are going to leave the EU, what is important is how we leave. And | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
the manner, the type of Brexit, hard or soft, whether retaining | :08:01. | :08:05. | |
membership of the single market or not, these are questions still up | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
for debate and discussion and as long as they are up for debate and | :08:10. | :08:12. | |
discussion Plaid Cymru will be putting forward the case for the | :08:13. | :08:17. | |
best interests of Wales and we have said all along that it is jobs and | :08:18. | :08:23. | |
the economy that are at the top of the agenda for us and that is why | :08:24. | :08:26. | |
our continued membership of the single market is so important. What | :08:27. | :08:30. | |
are your hopes for the local elections? What have your council | :08:31. | :08:36. | |
leaders -- one of your council leaders said Labour are on their | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
uppers. If so, we can expect Plaid Cymru to gain overall control, can | :08:43. | :08:48. | |
we? We are in control in four councils already. We would be | :08:49. | :08:52. | |
looking to maintain that of course and I think this election is going | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
to be an interesting one. We are looking to make gains in a host of | :08:57. | :09:01. | |
communities throughout the country and I would like to see Plaid Cymru | :09:02. | :09:05. | |
and control in more than the four we hold. This is not just don't Plaid | :09:06. | :09:10. | |
Cymru's election results. We have to see how the other parties do and | :09:11. | :09:15. | |
which parties we could work with, which we could have similar | :09:16. | :09:19. | |
manifestos. There is going to be quite a bit of discussion and | :09:20. | :09:22. | |
negotiation after the local elections. I am confident Plaid | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
Cymru will put in a good show. Would you concede your track record in | :09:29. | :09:34. | |
elections so far would not instil confidence in your activists looking | :09:35. | :09:37. | |
ahead to the local elections? You to over just after the last set of | :09:38. | :09:42. | |
local elections and since then you lost councillors, you haven't gained | :09:43. | :09:48. | |
MEP or MP, you gained one assembly member and there has been a | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
defection. It is not an inspiring record. Is it? You put this point to | :09:53. | :09:59. | |
me every conference. My members are very positive in a strong mid-and I | :10:00. | :10:07. | |
think we are confident of making gains in the local elections. I have | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
said clearly to my activists time and again the way we win votes in | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
Plaid Cymru is to connect with people in their communities and that | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
is why the doorstep to be conversations has been so important. | :10:22. | :10:25. | |
It is down to the members on the ground to deliver the results in me | :10:26. | :10:28. | |
and we have everything else in place, it is about the local | :10:29. | :10:31. | |
activity and I am going to be looking to my members to make sure | :10:32. | :10:39. | |
they put in the graft. There has not been a Thomas spoiler to this | :10:40. | :10:43. | |
conference but there have been negative pressure guarding one of | :10:44. | :10:48. | |
your assembly members and councillors, Neil McEvoy, after the | :10:49. | :10:53. | |
judgment in the tribunal yesterday. Do you believe that Neil McEvoy is a | :10:54. | :11:00. | |
bully? Let me tell you, we take bullying very seriously in Plaid | :11:01. | :11:05. | |
Cymru, but we also take process very seriously. This is a matter that has | :11:06. | :11:11. | |
been referred to the party chairman. There is a process being undertaken | :11:12. | :11:15. | |
and I respect that process and it is important that all of us respect | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
that process. One of your fellow Plaid Cymru members said on social | :11:21. | :11:23. | |
media that the leadership should not let someone speak the day after this | :11:24. | :11:29. | |
result, we cannot condone this behaviour and ignore in our own | :11:30. | :11:37. | |
ranks. Is she right? I have a lot of sympathy with what better than | :11:38. | :11:41. | |
Jenkins has said and I listened to all of my members and I take on | :11:42. | :11:45. | |
board all of their views very seriously but there is a process in | :11:46. | :11:50. | |
place, the party chairman has decided alongside the steering | :11:51. | :11:53. | |
committee that the conference as plant will go ahead, but the | :11:54. | :11:57. | |
conversations will take place next week in terms of the process and | :11:58. | :12:02. | |
that has to be stuck to. I cannot add anything further. Would you like | :12:03. | :12:08. | |
to see him suspended as an assembly member? I am not going to comment on | :12:09. | :12:14. | |
that. There is a process in place. I take process is extremely seriously | :12:15. | :12:20. | |
as I do accusations of bullying. This will be dealt with according to | :12:21. | :12:25. | |
the connect processes. Do you think Neil McEvoy is an asset or | :12:26. | :12:33. | |
liability? I have a lot of members in my party. They do a lot of work | :12:34. | :12:38. | |
for Wales and for their communities and many of them will be standing | :12:39. | :12:42. | |
for election in May and I am supportive of my members' activity | :12:43. | :12:48. | |
on the ground. That is all I want to say. After the hearing your McEvoy | :12:49. | :12:55. | |
continued to refer to the process as a sham, kangaroo court. He said it | :12:56. | :12:59. | |
was politically motivated. Do you agree? I am not going to comment on | :13:00. | :13:06. | |
the further illness. There is a process in place and I am going to | :13:07. | :13:10. | |
dear the process. Thank you, Leanne Wood. The conference has heard from | :13:11. | :13:19. | |
all of Plaid Cymru's leading figures, amongst them the health | :13:20. | :13:27. | |
Guzman. -- spokesperson. To me it says a lot that the promise of | :13:28. | :13:35. | |
health spending, the ?350 billion for the NHS, was so influential in | :13:36. | :13:39. | |
the EU referendum. Its influence came from the fact that the promise | :13:40. | :13:44. | |
that played on a matter that is so important to people. The future of | :13:45. | :13:54. | |
the NHS. It was here in Gwent that inspiration was found, strength to | :13:55. | :14:04. | |
go on and established the NHS. Here likened the rest of Wales there is a | :14:05. | :14:10. | |
realisation that his vision is being held back from its potential. There | :14:11. | :14:13. | |
is excellent in the NHS in Wales. Devoted skilled staff second to | :14:14. | :14:17. | |
none. We are lucky to have them and we cannot thank them enough. They | :14:18. | :14:24. | |
are being asked to do more and more. Through lack of government support | :14:25. | :14:31. | |
to deliver the impossible. Since I became Plaid Cymru shadow secretary | :14:32. | :14:37. | |
for health and social care I noticed a pattern of behaviour whenever it | :14:38. | :14:40. | |
comes to an issue on which Labour has a poor record. Several issues | :14:41. | :14:46. | |
where Labour should be running the NHS in a better way, recruitment of | :14:47. | :14:51. | |
doctors and nurses, management of waiting lists, diagnosis and | :14:52. | :14:55. | |
treatment and preparing for the pressures of winter. We talk about | :14:56. | :15:00. | |
that every year as if winter comes as a surprise. People do not want to | :15:01. | :15:09. | |
lose the hope that the NHS really can deliver on the original vision. | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
Labour's approach to the issues raised about the NHS's performance | :15:15. | :15:19. | |
often go through a process similar to what we might recognise as the | :15:20. | :15:23. | |
responses to a loss, the five stages of grief. Denial of the problem. | :15:24. | :15:28. | |
Comments like those figures cannot be compared. That was an isolated | :15:29. | :15:31. | |
incident. We will be told you are attacking | :15:32. | :15:41. | |
hard working staff, they might even say that the media isn't getting it | :15:42. | :15:46. | |
right. What does that sound familiar? But when the issue we are | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
raising won't go away, Labour will then move on to the third stage, | :15:52. | :15:57. | |
bargaining. They'll announce a new initiative perhaps to tackle the | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
problem, they'll offer the patients who are concerned about performing | :16:03. | :16:06. | |
or about performance a review on the way forward and they'll promise, as | :16:07. | :16:10. | |
in the chamber in the Assembly, that things will be better by this time | :16:11. | :16:15. | |
next year. When my predecessor as Shadow health Minister first raised | :16:16. | :16:21. | |
the issue of cancer waiting targets being repeatedly missed, both the | :16:22. | :16:25. | |
then health Minister and the First Minister made a promise to the | :16:26. | :16:30. | |
Assembly. They promised the targets would be hit by October. October | :16:31. | :16:38. | |
2013. It's now March 2017 and those targets still haven't been met and | :16:39. | :16:46. | |
performance is still as bad today with those promises quietly | :16:47. | :16:50. | |
forgotten. But when we continue to highlight poor performance after the | :16:51. | :16:55. | |
bargaining we then see depression. We'll be told that Wales is just too | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
ill compared to others. Which is sort of an echo of of the argument | :17:01. | :17:07. | |
that we're too poor, to self-govern, it's about as accurate, as well, it | :17:08. | :17:11. | |
was dispelled by the audit office several years ago. We will be told | :17:12. | :17:14. | |
the Barnett formula is unfair and Labour doesn't have the resources to | :17:15. | :17:20. | |
fully meet the needs of Wales. I am sorry, but the extra funds that we | :17:21. | :17:26. | |
do need simply don't explain the performance gap. Particularly when | :17:27. | :17:31. | |
we can point to examples of incompetence, of financial waste, | :17:32. | :17:34. | |
such as spending hundreds of millions of pounds on agency staff | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
because of the failure to plan the workforce properly. And of course | :17:39. | :17:43. | |
they'll blame patients for being too ill. They'll blame high attendance | :17:44. | :17:52. | |
at A on people who should have gone to the GP. They'll blame the | :17:53. | :17:57. | |
high rates of obesity and smoking, they're blaming obesity and smoking | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
in Wales as if everybody in Scotland and England live perfectly healthy | :18:03. | :18:08. | |
lifestyles. It's made to seem as if poor performance is inevitable. What | :18:09. | :18:14. | |
can they do, they've only been in Government running the Welsh NHS for | :18:15. | :18:21. | |
18 years? Then of course there is the 5th stage. Acceptance. Sadly | :18:22. | :18:29. | |
this hasn't happened yet. We still haven't seen Labour accepting that | :18:30. | :18:34. | |
our health service can and should do better for Wales. Genuinely. Plaid | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
Cymru does accept that and that's why we have focussed on solving | :18:40. | :18:46. | |
problems, not denying them and not deciding they're somehow inevitable. | :18:47. | :18:50. | |
We will train and recruit doctors we need for all parts of Wales, | :18:51. | :18:54. | |
including the establishment of medical education in the north. We | :18:55. | :18:59. | |
do want to retain the nurse bursary, we will set ambitious targets for | :19:00. | :19:03. | |
cancer diagnosis, that cancer charities themselves want and that | :19:04. | :19:07. | |
the Welsh Government continues to deny are needed to improve survival | :19:08. | :19:13. | |
rates. And we will focus on making our NHS as good as anywhere in the | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
world and not just breathe a sigh of relief when new figures aren't quite | :19:18. | :19:22. | |
as bad as they could be or were expected to be. That's not good | :19:23. | :19:30. | |
enough. APPLAUSE | :19:31. | :19:36. | |
Is finance a problem for health, like the rest of the public service | :19:37. | :19:43. | |
in Wales? Of course it is. Wales has been starved of funding by Tory | :19:44. | :19:48. | |
austerity. Just like it was by Labour's refusal to change funding | :19:49. | :19:56. | |
form lass. Remember that. But it's a pretty grim mix that we have now. | :19:57. | :20:04. | |
The resolute austerity of the Tories and the resolute left edge of | :20:05. | :20:09. | |
Labour, seeking to run Wales like managers. Don't get me wrong, a good | :20:10. | :20:18. | |
manager can work wonders. But Labour isn't managing, isn't coping. | :20:19. | :20:24. | |
Frankly, we don't need just management, we need vision, we need | :20:25. | :20:30. | |
leadership, that's what Plaid Cymru is offering. It's time for Wales to | :20:31. | :20:36. | |
say we can do better. It's time for Wales to say let's aim higher. It's | :20:37. | :20:43. | |
time for Wales to unite in search of a new way of doing things. It's time | :20:44. | :20:53. | |
for Wales. APPLAUSE | :20:54. | :20:56. | |
The Plaid Cymru health spokesperson addressing delegates there. Vaughan, | :20:57. | :21:01. | |
we haven't talked about the Plaid campaign looking ahead to the local | :21:02. | :21:05. | |
elections and the seats that they and the councils they might look to | :21:06. | :21:13. | |
win. Which are they? Well, you have, if you like, the traditional Plaid | :21:14. | :21:18. | |
Heartlands, Gwynedd is a council they normally hope to control, also | :21:19. | :21:23. | |
Conway they lead at the moment, that's leading at a disparate group | :21:24. | :21:26. | |
of councillors. Then the big prize for them this time I think would be | :21:27. | :21:30. | |
Carmarthenshire. That's a council they never controlled outright. They | :21:31. | :21:34. | |
lead it at the moment in alliance with independents. They do think | :21:35. | :21:37. | |
they have an outside chance of taking outright control. | :21:38. | :21:40. | |
Carmarthenshire is one of the biggest local authorities in Wales | :21:41. | :21:48. | |
so that would be a major prize. Elsewhere, Caerphilly and Rhondda, | :21:49. | :21:50. | |
traditionally very good places for the party. The party's controlled | :21:51. | :21:56. | |
them before. But they're working a pretty hard face there, a | :21:57. | :22:01. | |
particularly if you get Ukip candidates coming in, as well. | :22:02. | :22:04. | |
Ironically enough, Ukip and Plaid Cymru attract a similar sort of | :22:05. | :22:09. | |
voter in working class constituencies, people is enchanted | :22:10. | :22:12. | |
with Labour who want to give the local Labour Party a kicking and | :22:13. | :22:17. | |
Cardiff I think, you were talking about Neil McEvoy, the truth is the | :22:18. | :22:23. | |
quandry for Plaid Cymru is at times Neil McEvoy embarasses them but he | :22:24. | :22:26. | |
is also the man who reaches the part no other Plaid politician has ever | :22:27. | :22:31. | |
managed to reach before. He has an appeal in Cardiff which is something | :22:32. | :22:33. | |
that Plaid have been searching for, for the best part of 50 years. So it | :22:34. | :22:38. | |
will be interesting to see how they manage that. That's the local level. | :22:39. | :22:46. | |
I think now we can speak to someone who represents the party on a | :22:47. | :22:48. | |
national level. Yes, thank you. Joining me now is | :22:49. | :22:54. | |
the member of parliament, thank you for joining us. A lot of our viewers | :22:55. | :23:01. | |
will have seen on the news a student who was debe deported to Sri Lanka | :23:02. | :23:05. | |
months before the end of her degree, what's the latest you can tell us | :23:06. | :23:13. | |
about that? I saw it on Thursday, she's extremely relieved to be back | :23:14. | :23:16. | |
and her mother, and is getting on with her studies. She's been | :23:17. | :23:20. | |
allowed, I think, this is the terms she's been allowed to do her exams, | :23:21. | :23:24. | |
but we will have to fight the case for a more permanent solution but | :23:25. | :23:29. | |
she's now got a very good legal representation. What's the hope in | :23:30. | :23:33. | |
the longer term, that she will be allowed to remain here? She's been | :23:34. | :23:39. | |
here since she was 12. In some ways she comes from Bangor now but she is | :23:40. | :23:43. | |
a Londoner, lived there since she was 12. I should imagine that any | :23:44. | :23:47. | |
sensible Government would see she's such an asset. She's doing a degree, | :23:48. | :23:52. | |
she's going to get a first. It's an area where there is a huge skills | :23:53. | :23:55. | |
shortage. We would be crazy to send her back. One of the other issues | :23:56. | :24:00. | |
discussed a lot by you in Westminster over the last few days, | :24:01. | :24:06. | |
weeks, months, is Brexit. Isn't Plaid Cymru on the wrong side of the | :24:07. | :24:11. | |
debate, aren't you losing the debate looking at keeping full membership | :24:12. | :24:15. | |
and access, full membership of the single market, do you get the sense | :24:16. | :24:18. | |
this is an argument you are losing? I get the sense the Government isn't | :24:19. | :24:22. | |
listening and they're determined to get either a minimal deal or | :24:23. | :24:28. | |
otherwise to crash out of all the European arrangements and just | :24:29. | :24:31. | |
taking a chance and I think that would be disastrous for the UK but | :24:32. | :24:38. | |
specifically for Wales. We have our position which we think would be | :24:39. | :24:42. | |
advantageous for us and would expect us to argue for anything else and I | :24:43. | :24:49. | |
hope the Government will see sense. Doesn't your position become more | :24:50. | :24:52. | |
difficult when you consider that Wales as a whole voted to leave the | :24:53. | :24:57. | |
EU, knowing more than likely that would involve or could involve | :24:58. | :25:03. | |
leaving the single market as well? Well, I didn't hear anybody before | :25:04. | :25:07. | |
the debate - before the vote saying they'll crash out of the markets and | :25:08. | :25:10. | |
will have to take a chance on the world stage. I didn't hear a single | :25:11. | :25:14. | |
farmer saying we hope to export a lot of lamb to New Zealand. It would | :25:15. | :25:19. | |
be crazy to say those things. The Government are now ascribing all | :25:20. | :25:23. | |
kinds of things to the voters saying it was about immigration and this | :25:24. | :25:26. | |
that and the other. I don't think that's how it is. I think there | :25:27. | :25:30. | |
should be an opportunity to think carefully. There isn't that much | :25:31. | :25:35. | |
clarity it seems to me, you are more than likely to correct me, doesn't | :25:36. | :25:40. | |
seem clarity in terms of what's your settled view now on immigration, | :25:41. | :25:43. | |
what should the model be after Brexit? Well, clearly the | :25:44. | :25:48. | |
immigration is very good for us in Wales, we have skills shortages and | :25:49. | :25:53. | |
shortages of people in social care and in health. Obviously as an - we | :25:54. | :26:01. | |
would want to control the level of immigration and sort of imgrags or | :26:02. | :26:06. | |
have agreement as we have had with the EU for free movement. We are not | :26:07. | :26:11. | |
in that position at the moment. We can say what our aspirations and | :26:12. | :26:14. | |
principles are. You are not saying what you want to see after Brexit | :26:15. | :26:18. | |
now under the current circumstances, without Wales being an independent | :26:19. | :26:21. | |
country. It's virtually impossible to do that. We don't know what the | :26:22. | :26:25. | |
proposed... What do you want to see? We would like to see our membership | :26:26. | :26:29. | |
for the markets and if that's contingent, if that is dependent on | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
having freer movements than is envisaged we would be happy. You can | :26:35. | :26:38. | |
say and I guess with some justification that voters didn't | :26:39. | :26:41. | |
know whether or not single market membership was going to continue. I | :26:42. | :26:44. | |
think you can say to a greater degree of certainty immigration and | :26:45. | :26:47. | |
controlling immigration was a big issue for a lot of people in Wales | :26:48. | :26:51. | |
to vote to leave. Aren't you therefore going against that element | :26:52. | :26:56. | |
of that vote? We started this conversation talking about my | :26:57. | :27:00. | |
student going to be thrown out. As many people have come up to me, | :27:01. | :27:04. | |
yesterday I walked across the road and five people stopped me and said | :27:05. | :27:07. | |
what a good thing it was she was allowed to stay. At least one of | :27:08. | :27:13. | |
those I know is an ardent Ukip supporters. Don't you think people | :27:14. | :27:19. | |
voted to regain control and immigration does have that sense of | :27:20. | :27:23. | |
belonging to elements of the debate? I can see that as I said in my | :27:24. | :27:27. | |
speech this afternoon I think there are people on both sides of the | :27:28. | :27:30. | |
debate who have mixed views and there are good people, I would say | :27:31. | :27:33. | |
it's a good majority of people on both sides of the debate who | :27:34. | :27:37. | |
certainly don't want to go into the narrow sort of exit that MrsMay | :27:38. | :27:42. | |
seems to be proposing and if that fails, she's proposing to launch us | :27:43. | :27:47. | |
into the perilous waters of world trade without any guarantees at all. | :27:48. | :27:52. | |
If that happens and that's the threat, that unless the European | :27:53. | :27:55. | |
counterparts, the remaining 27 countries play ball, she will walk | :27:56. | :28:01. | |
away and go for a low corporation tax, lower regulation economy. If | :28:02. | :28:04. | |
she does that, under those circumstances you would say you | :28:05. | :28:07. | |
would have to have a general election before she would be allowed | :28:08. | :28:14. | |
to carry on with that. She has to to have approval of some sort. She is a | :28:15. | :28:20. | |
Prime Minister who hasn't been approved by a general election. From | :28:21. | :28:22. | |
what I understand from her she doesn't want to go before 2020 | :28:23. | :28:27. | |
either. Would you be happy MPs have a said on that or is that a | :28:28. | :28:30. | |
fundamental shift in the UK's economy that you would say that has | :28:31. | :28:33. | |
to go to the British people for a vote? My personal view I have to say | :28:34. | :28:39. | |
is that a general election would decide this on a UK basis, we would | :28:40. | :28:44. | |
have to see about voters in Wales. On the whole, MPs should be having a | :28:45. | :28:48. | |
vote. I have to say I am against the referendum, because on the whole, | :28:49. | :28:52. | |
they're not about the question on the ballot paper, so often. If you | :28:53. | :28:59. | |
look at the reasons why people voted for or against, there are all kinds | :29:00. | :29:04. | |
of reasons and I think we really need to confirm whatever the terms | :29:05. | :29:08. | |
are. Lastly, looking at the debate over Brexit and the votes that we | :29:09. | :29:11. | |
have seen in the House of Commons, in parliament, House of Commons and | :29:12. | :29:16. | |
House of Lords, isn't it showing the need to have a non-elected appointed | :29:17. | :29:22. | |
second chamber in the UK that can look more dispassionately at things | :29:23. | :29:25. | |
like Brexit without the pressure of having to seek election? Well, if we | :29:26. | :29:31. | |
had an elected second chamber they wouldn't... They wouldn't have been | :29:32. | :29:37. | |
able to speak freely. Depends what the term is. It's one of the things | :29:38. | :29:43. | |
offered. So you have a people with a certainty of tenure but can't stand | :29:44. | :29:46. | |
for re-election, then you have that degree of independence but also the | :29:47. | :29:50. | |
degree of legitimacy in terms of election. Would you get the | :29:51. | :29:54. | |
expertise, would leading figures in science and academia want to ever | :29:55. | :29:58. | |
stand for election, isn't it showing that what you have is a revising | :29:59. | :30:06. | |
chamber full of experts, a few hereditaries as well, they can look | :30:07. | :30:11. | |
dispassionately at Brexit? And Bishops. You forgot Bishops. When we | :30:12. | :30:18. | |
had a vote about eight years ago, you could have 80% elected and 20% | :30:19. | :30:23. | |
appointed or systems in Ireland where a large proportion are elected | :30:24. | :30:26. | |
but then sectors of the economy nominate their own people. There is | :30:27. | :30:30. | |
lots of ways of doing this apart from having a Prime Minister | :30:31. | :30:36. | |
appointing who he or she likes or who they have donated most to the | :30:37. | :30:40. | |
party, if I may say so. Speaking of difficult decisions for party | :30:41. | :30:44. | |
leaders, you will be aware a lot of talk has been about the future of | :30:45. | :30:49. | |
Neil McEvoy. I will ask you the question is he an asset or a | :30:50. | :30:51. | |
liability? On that basis he is a very effective | :30:52. | :31:01. | |
and very industrious assembly member and counsellor. Anybody like that is | :31:02. | :31:07. | |
an asset. One has to concede there is a down and said -- downside in | :31:08. | :31:15. | |
that he has had this hearing and we take this seriously. No party would | :31:16. | :31:18. | |
like to have this judgment against them and I am not sure what Neal | :31:19. | :31:23. | |
will be doing if he can do anything to contest that. In the meantime | :31:24. | :31:28. | |
while there is this uncertainty, investigations, should he be | :31:29. | :31:33. | |
suspended? As two assembly members have said to me today. I understand | :31:34. | :31:38. | |
that if the position for the chairman who is going to be taking | :31:39. | :31:44. | |
the investigation forward. In some cases I would be calling for Arlene | :31:45. | :31:49. | |
Foster to stand back while the investigation is ongoing and that is | :31:50. | :31:55. | |
not unreasonable. It is not my decision. You say that maybe he | :31:56. | :32:02. | |
should be suspended? It is to be considered. I do not know the | :32:03. | :32:08. | |
details of the case. It is something we take incredibly seriously. We | :32:09. | :32:10. | |
need a quick investigation because he has work to do as we all have. | :32:11. | :32:16. | |
That is the last of the contributions from the conference | :32:17. | :32:22. | |
floor. Neil McEvoy. You said he was able to | :32:23. | :32:31. | |
reach the parts not many members of Plaid Cymru unable to reach. How | :32:32. | :32:37. | |
difficult a position are the party in with this one? It is a difficult | :32:38. | :32:42. | |
position because it is so close to the local elections. Any sort of | :32:43. | :32:47. | |
suspension, were it for more than a month that he has been suspended | :32:48. | :32:51. | |
for, by the tribunal, would be difficult. It also raises a question | :32:52. | :32:59. | |
of double jeopardy in that this ruling was a ruling by the body | :33:00. | :33:02. | |
about the code of conduct for councillors. It was something he did | :33:03. | :33:07. | |
as a counsellor not as an assembly member. He was not an assembly | :33:08. | :33:12. | |
member at the time. It would be a question whether it would be a | :33:13. | :33:16. | |
double punishment. Not so much of it was the party punishing him but if | :33:17. | :33:21. | |
it was the assembly gets. That is why I am surprised that assembly | :33:22. | :33:24. | |
members were talking about this because he was not an assembly | :33:25. | :33:28. | |
member. If the assembly group were to take action that would be very | :33:29. | :33:32. | |
problematic. Is it also a problem because he has a very large fan | :33:33. | :33:38. | |
base? Within the party but also amongst people who year has managed | :33:39. | :33:42. | |
to entice from other parties especially where he lives locally. | :33:43. | :33:47. | |
They might be disenfranchised perhaps if further action was taken | :33:48. | :33:52. | |
against him? If your McEvoy walked away from Plaid Cymru a lot of | :33:53. | :33:56. | |
people would leave them. There is no sign as far as I can see that he has | :33:57. | :34:03. | |
any intention of doing that. We have seen people tweeting that they are | :34:04. | :34:06. | |
more convinced than ever that Neil McEvoy will one day be the leader of | :34:07. | :34:13. | |
Plaid Cymru. He is a more might personality and within the context | :34:14. | :34:16. | |
of the assembly group, quite a small group of people, ten people, there | :34:17. | :34:23. | |
are people who like Neil McEvoy and people who hate him. That is the | :34:24. | :34:27. | |
difficulty. That is lively and we these people keep going on about | :34:28. | :34:32. | |
process it could so easily become about personality and that is what | :34:33. | :34:36. | |
they are trying to avoid. Policy, hoping to hear from Adam Price | :34:37. | :34:40. | |
before the end of this programme. He is going to be talking about the | :34:41. | :34:46. | |
possibility of raising tax in Wales, putting a penny on the basic rate of | :34:47. | :34:52. | |
income tax. A very brave politician who talks about raising taxes. In | :34:53. | :34:56. | |
this context wheels would be the highest taxed part of the UK. Yes. | :34:57. | :35:03. | |
It is politically not always stupid. You remember Paddy Ashdown ran a | :35:04. | :35:08. | |
successful campaign based on a penny on income tax to spend on education. | :35:09. | :35:15. | |
Abstract talk about a tax increase can be quite effective in terms of | :35:16. | :35:19. | |
the voters. The difficulty is in Wales the tax base is tiny. An extra | :35:20. | :35:26. | |
penny on income tax in Wales would not bring in very much money at all. | :35:27. | :35:30. | |
It is not something that would transform health or education. It | :35:31. | :35:39. | |
strikes me as being... Symbolic? If you wanted to be kind you would call | :35:40. | :35:43. | |
it symbolic and if not you might call it a gimmick in that the amount | :35:44. | :35:47. | |
of money it would bring in would not really be transformational for the | :35:48. | :35:53. | |
Welsh government or public spending. Are they on a sticky wicket? Adam | :35:54. | :35:57. | |
Price was advocating lowering the top rate of tax in 2014. Since then | :35:58. | :36:03. | |
the money the Welsh government has been spending especially on health | :36:04. | :36:07. | |
has gone up quite considerably. It is hard to see why they were | :36:08. | :36:13. | |
advocating a tax cut before 2014 and now spending on health has gone up | :36:14. | :36:18. | |
and they are advocating a tax rise. Yes, Adam Price is an interesting | :36:19. | :36:22. | |
politician and sometimes he is in politician mode, like when he is | :36:23. | :36:27. | |
talking about a tax increase, and sometimes he is in deep thinker | :36:28. | :36:32. | |
Maud, and what he was seeing a few years ago was the point that was | :36:33. | :36:37. | |
made by the Economist who frequently advises the Welsh government which | :36:38. | :36:41. | |
is the one of the most effective thing she can do to try to increase | :36:42. | :36:45. | |
the wealth of Wales... Would be to bring in the big earners. If you | :36:46. | :36:51. | |
paid less tax if you chose to live in one part rather than in the | :36:52. | :36:56. | |
Cotswolds. That is an academic argument. Adam Price with his | :36:57. | :37:00. | |
student had on he might make that argument. Very difficult argument | :37:01. | :37:06. | |
for a politician to make. Let us hear from him. He is walking out on | :37:07. | :37:16. | |
stage. Adam Price. Talking about tax and other things. TRANSLATION: I had | :37:17. | :37:27. | |
the privilege of being in the city | :37:28. | :37:36. | |
during my 20s and getting to know the vitality of its culture and its | :37:37. | :37:41. | |
warmth. The warmth of its people. It is great to revisit and reconnect | :37:42. | :37:48. | |
and make my home here over the few days of conference. A full | :37:49. | :37:56. | |
generation has passed since this nation of ours decided to place its | :37:57. | :38:02. | |
future in our hands. This was not just a decision to replace one group | :38:03. | :38:08. | |
of men and women with another. This was a decision to create a new | :38:09. | :38:16. | |
Wales. A Wales in which poverty of ambition and circumstance were | :38:17. | :38:21. | |
abolished and a new era of leadership, purposeful, | :38:22. | :38:30. | |
inspirational, transformational, was placed at the very heart of our | :38:31. | :38:35. | |
Constitution. And the public life of our nation. We wanted for our | :38:36. | :38:41. | |
country, so long a land of wasted potential, to be instead a land of | :38:42. | :38:49. | |
opportunity. Our hopes, demands for our country, were by no means | :38:50. | :38:55. | |
radical. By all prevailing standards they were modest. That our children | :38:56. | :39:02. | |
could grow up three of poverty, that the education of our young and our | :39:03. | :39:09. | |
care for elderly was at least on a par with our nearest neighbours. | :39:10. | :39:13. | |
That we gave the best chances we could do people at the start of life | :39:14. | :39:20. | |
and the best care possible at the end. 1997 was, to use that phrase, | :39:21. | :39:30. | |
sometimes on the most curious of lips, a vote for change. Not change | :39:31. | :39:35. | |
for change's sake but change for a purpose, the founding purpose of any | :39:36. | :39:41. | |
democracy, to lift up the people by the people's hand. It was not a new | :39:42. | :39:50. | |
state we wanted to build. So much as a new society. Distinguished by | :39:51. | :39:57. | |
social justice, economic dynamism and cultural achievement. Yes, | :39:58. | :40:08. | |
tolerance, kindness and love. 1997 ended 18 years of Conservative rule | :40:09. | :40:11. | |
and that was undoubtedly a liberation. But much more than that, | :40:12. | :40:18. | |
it ended the studied disdain of distance, social and geographic, | :40:19. | :40:23. | |
that flowed from 500 years of being ruled not by our peers, not by our | :40:24. | :40:30. | |
own people, but by the gilded mansions of another nation. | :40:31. | :40:36. | |
Self-government for Alice has never been an end in itself. It was the | :40:37. | :40:42. | |
means to self-advancement, self-improvement, | :40:43. | :40:48. | |
self-determination, to prise ourselves not individually but | :40:49. | :40:52. | |
collectively out of the rut of poverty, ignorance and disease into | :40:53. | :41:02. | |
which accident at birth had cast generation after generation. | :41:03. | :41:06. | |
Government by our own people meant for us government for the people | :41:07. | :41:12. | |
above all else, a new Wales, a new chance. I could hear the sentiments | :41:13. | :41:21. | |
of a young man who fought for his country's freedom but never enjoyed | :41:22. | :41:27. | |
its roots, Michael Collins. He more than any would have been celebrating | :41:28. | :41:32. | |
that headline then -- from yesterday, Unionists lose majority | :41:33. | :41:36. | |
for the first time in the Northern Ireland assembly. Unionists, or | :41:37. | :41:47. | |
their real title British nationalists, if they can do it, so | :41:48. | :41:55. | |
can we. I was surprised to see a political hero being named the other | :41:56. | :41:58. | |
day with some half baked analogy between the Irish free states treaty | :41:59. | :42:04. | |
and the Wales bill. I guess they both sparked a civil war although in | :42:05. | :42:07. | |
the latter did was confined to the Labour Party. One thing Michael | :42:08. | :42:13. | |
Collins would never have done is to join the Conservative Party. A short | :42:14. | :42:18. | |
while before he was killed he gave one last speech on building up our | :42:19. | :42:25. | |
land. Setting out his vision for the future of his country -- Ireland. | :42:26. | :42:33. | |
And such is its engineering power, this is what he said. The growing | :42:34. | :42:38. | |
wealth of Ireland well, we hope, be diffused through all of our people, | :42:39. | :42:44. | |
all sharing in the growing prosperity, each receiving according | :42:45. | :42:48. | |
to what each contributes in the making of that prosperity so that | :42:49. | :42:54. | |
the wealth of all is a sure. How are we to increase the wealth of Ireland | :42:55. | :42:58. | |
and ensure that all producing it shall share in it? That is the | :42:59. | :43:01. | |
question that will engage the attention of the new government. | :43:02. | :43:06. | |
What we must aim at is the building up of a sound economic life in which | :43:07. | :43:13. | |
great discrepancies cannot occur. We must not have the destitution of | :43:14. | :43:19. | |
poverty at one end and at the other an excess of riches in the | :43:20. | :43:24. | |
possession of a few. That was Ireland on the cusp of freedom over | :43:25. | :43:31. | |
90 years today. Over 90 years ago. When we look at the Wales of today, | :43:32. | :43:36. | |
we are more connected through technology than ever before but we | :43:37. | :43:44. | |
have an epidemic of loneliness. We have a wealth of opportunity. This | :43:45. | :43:49. | |
single device has more computing power within it than the Apollo | :43:50. | :43:55. | |
spacecraft that was used 50 years ago. To escape from Earth's orbit | :43:56. | :44:02. | |
and returned safely from the moon. Yet we are continually confronted by | :44:03. | :44:06. | |
evidence of sell your to solve the most basic problems of everyday | :44:07. | :44:13. | |
life. We have the highest proportion of children living in poverty of any | :44:14. | :44:18. | |
nation in the UK, one in three. 200,000 lives blighted right at the | :44:19. | :44:26. | |
very beginning. We have had in Wales since 2010 a statutory commitment to | :44:27. | :44:33. | |
eradicate child poverty by 2020. While poverty in Scotland and the | :44:34. | :44:37. | |
north-east of England has been going down it has increased here compared | :44:38. | :44:41. | |
to ten years ago. It is said to increase even further. What is the | :44:42. | :44:50. | |
Welsh government policy response? To end our biggest anti-poverty | :44:51. | :44:52. | |
programme communities first and put nothing in its place. 25 years ago I | :44:53. | :45:06. | |
wrote this report for a major conference on the future of the | :45:07. | :45:11. | |
valleys, rebuilding our communities, with Professor Kevin Morgan who went | :45:12. | :45:16. | |
on to lead the 1997 Yes campaign. The depressing fact is that or an | :45:17. | :45:22. | |
rereading this report it is just as relevant now as it was then because | :45:23. | :45:26. | |
nothing much fundamentally has changed. | :45:27. | :45:31. | |
In this report we quoted David Markwint, who was then a member of | :45:32. | :45:38. | |
the Labour Party and has subsequently left to join us and he | :45:39. | :45:45. | |
is here in the room with his wife, as well. | :45:46. | :45:51. | |
APPLAUSE I think all four of us, I suspect, | :45:52. | :45:58. | |
are natural co-operators, progressive pluralists by | :45:59. | :46:01. | |
inclination, striving to find the Common Ground which can often be our | :46:02. | :46:07. | |
best chance for change. Kevin and I ended our report then with these | :46:08. | :46:12. | |
words, if the unpretentious claims of the Valleys for decent jobs, for | :46:13. | :46:17. | |
better public services, and for a clean environment are to be met, we | :46:18. | :46:23. | |
simply must come to terms with the fact that what we have in common is | :46:24. | :46:30. | |
far more enduring than what divides us here in South Wales. It's that | :46:31. | :46:37. | |
characteristically Welsh motivation, the disposition to co-operate for | :46:38. | :46:41. | |
the common good that brought us together under one banner in 1997 in | :46:42. | :46:47. | |
Yes for Wales and ten years later in One Wales. It's why we work where we | :46:48. | :46:53. | |
can, even now in opposition, through the Welsh National White Paper on | :46:54. | :46:57. | |
the withdrawal from the European Union, for example, to embody the | :46:58. | :47:02. | |
politics of the united front, not that of a broken and divided nation. | :47:03. | :47:09. | |
But the problem, and I say this in regret as much as in reproach, the | :47:10. | :47:16. | |
problem in all this is glaringly obvious, it's called the Labour | :47:17. | :47:22. | |
Party. This is a party born from the struggle for social change which now | :47:23. | :47:29. | |
prop gates in our country at least the mindset of social inertia. The | :47:30. | :47:34. | |
First Minister, by temperament and belief, is about as far as possible | :47:35. | :47:41. | |
as is possible to be, from embodying the radical urgency of now. There | :47:42. | :47:45. | |
was a time when stung by my criticism of his bad political | :47:46. | :47:50. | |
posture, he started standing up straight at that elect turn in First | :47:51. | :47:54. | |
Minister's questions. -- lecturn. But now he is slouched back into the | :47:55. | :48:01. | |
slow and easy complacency of unchallengeable supremacy. A session | :48:02. | :48:07. | |
at FMQs is like being inrolled at a poor quality university, being | :48:08. | :48:12. | |
lectured at but learning nothing. A few weeks ago, he proudly told us, | :48:13. | :48:16. | |
arm resting on his rostrum, how he had come up with the idea for the | :48:17. | :48:24. | |
South Wales Metro at a rugby club. Sometimes if I close my eyes I can | :48:25. | :48:28. | |
hear him saying to strangers at the bar in the rugby clubs of his | :48:29. | :48:33. | |
retirement, I used to run a country once. | :48:34. | :48:41. | |
LAUGHTER Labour in Wales is failing and it | :48:42. | :48:46. | |
will fall. The only question is who will be there to pick up the pieces? | :48:47. | :48:53. | |
For the future of our nation at this time there can only be one answer to | :48:54. | :49:00. | |
that question. It has to be us. Not us in the narrow sense of this | :49:01. | :49:07. | |
party, but us in the collective sense, represented by this party of | :49:08. | :49:12. | |
our taking responsibility for our own problems, the solutions to which | :49:13. | :49:17. | |
as we hold up a mirror to the state of our nation, are quite literally | :49:18. | :49:23. | |
staring us in the face. That task of moving from | :49:24. | :49:28. | |
complainants to controllers of our own fate, authors of our destiny, | :49:29. | :49:34. | |
shapers of our future, begins with a local elections in May. Wales will | :49:35. | :49:40. | |
not be liberated by a mass march in Cardiff or even a match in Cardiff. | :49:41. | :49:47. | |
It's those small steps we take down a farmyard lane, up and down a | :49:48. | :49:54. | |
Valleys terrace, the time you take to listen that will liberate Wales. | :49:55. | :49:58. | |
Brick by brick, the new Wales will be built up - built from the blessed | :49:59. | :50:04. | |
ground up. Governing locally is how we demonstrate to people nationally | :50:05. | :50:10. | |
that there is a better way, that we don't have to accept the | :50:11. | :50:14. | |
inevitability of poverty, disadvantage and decline. That | :50:15. | :50:19. | |
another Wales is not just possible, but the urgent imperative of the | :50:20. | :50:25. | |
times in which we live. We have underinvested for generations in the | :50:26. | :50:29. | |
skills of our young and the care of our elderly. The new tax powers give | :50:30. | :50:38. | |
us new possibilities and we as a nation must now decide on our | :50:39. | :50:42. | |
priorities so we as a party will ask the people of Wales over the summer | :50:43. | :50:47. | |
how these new powers should be utilised. Should we raise a penny | :50:48. | :50:54. | |
for a purpose dedicated to transforming our beleaguered NHS? | :50:55. | :50:59. | |
?200 million for our schools and colleges could close the gaping | :51:00. | :51:04. | |
chasm of funding for students between Wales and our neighbours. We | :51:05. | :51:09. | |
could, if we choose to, build a health and education system that was | :51:10. | :51:15. | |
equal to the best. We could become the test bed nation for solving the | :51:16. | :51:20. | |
societal challenges of the next generation. And it's in that spirit | :51:21. | :51:27. | |
I am pleased to announce we as a group in the National Assembly are | :51:28. | :51:31. | |
about to create an ideas lab focussing on new ideas for our | :51:32. | :51:38. | |
economic transformation which given our guiding inspiration is that new | :51:39. | :51:45. | |
Wales, we have a restless desire to build we will call Novacambria, it | :51:46. | :51:52. | |
was the first attempt to create a new Welsh homeland in south America, | :51:53. | :52:02. | |
some 15 years before in Brazil, led by the visionary Thomas Phillips. | :52:03. | :52:06. | |
The community failed when many of its members, some of whom were | :52:07. | :52:14. | |
Colliers from the old County of Gwent decided to work in nearby | :52:15. | :52:19. | |
mines owned by others, rather than attempt to grow their own cotton. | :52:20. | :52:23. | |
There is something of a metaphor there for the Welsh predictment, I | :52:24. | :52:27. | |
think. STUDIO: Just as dam Price was -- | :52:28. | :52:33. | |
Adam Price was taking us down memory lane we will leave him there and | :52:34. | :52:36. | |
turn to our political editor. Good afternoon. What's it been like | :52:37. | :52:43. | |
there today, has this saga surrounding Neil McEsri overshadowed | :52:44. | :52:50. | |
everything? -- McEvoy? I think so. Broadly, this is actually my fourth | :52:51. | :52:54. | |
spring conference I have been to for Plaid. I think it's been quite flat, | :52:55. | :53:00. | |
admittedly I am comparing it with the Assembly campaign and dmreks, | :53:01. | :53:03. | |
maybe it's a reflection of where we are in the electoral cycle. We have | :53:04. | :53:08. | |
council elections coming up, but it's difficult to characterise those | :53:09. | :53:12. | |
and get your head around those because they're 22 separate battles, | :53:13. | :53:16. | |
so many local factors. So I think that was the backdrop with which the | :53:17. | :53:24. | |
McEvoy circus arrived today. A bit of breaking news. In the cafe behind | :53:25. | :53:33. | |
me the talks between the party's chair and Neil McEvoy have broken up | :53:34. | :53:38. | |
in which they were going to discuss that decision from the panel | :53:39. | :53:43. | |
yesterday. Having spoken to Alan Jones today, he said he is not going | :53:44. | :53:48. | |
to revisit that panel and kind of repeat all the decision-making | :53:49. | :53:52. | |
process that went on, which would suggest that they are going to | :53:53. | :53:58. | |
accept the findings and that would suggest then that it would be a | :53:59. | :54:02. | |
logical extension, this is speculation, that some kind of | :54:03. | :54:08. | |
action would be taken. The problem for the party clearly is that this | :54:09. | :54:12. | |
is an independent official panel that has upheld a complaint of | :54:13. | :54:16. | |
bullying and particularly for Leanne Wood I think, who has been a high | :54:17. | :54:21. | |
profile campaigner against bullying herself, that's the pressure she | :54:22. | :54:25. | |
will come under some pressure. On the flip side, Neil McEvoy, as no | :54:26. | :54:31. | |
doubt you have been reflecting so far, has come out fighting and we | :54:32. | :54:36. | |
have all seen what a one-man publicity machine as a politics he | :54:37. | :54:41. | |
can be. On the policy front we were hearing from Adam Price talking | :54:42. | :54:46. | |
about this penny for a purpose, a penny on the basic rate of income | :54:47. | :54:51. | |
tax. It's a bold thing to be putting out, isn't it? Yeah, it is. You | :54:52. | :54:57. | |
know, it's not particularly going to be attractive to a lot of voters you | :54:58. | :55:01. | |
would have thought talking about tax rises. It's that early first firing | :55:02. | :55:07. | |
gun, isn't it, to these powers that are coming down the track in terms | :55:08. | :55:13. | |
of the devolved financial powers and in that sense I think it is | :55:14. | :55:16. | |
interesting. No one's going to want to see any increase in income tax. | :55:17. | :55:21. | |
The calculation the party is making is to raise income tax for | :55:22. | :55:25. | |
specifically the NHS and public services, then that could be a | :55:26. | :55:32. | |
different matter. So, that is what they were looking to capitalise on. | :55:33. | :55:37. | |
Of course, I think it will potentially lead to some real | :55:38. | :55:41. | |
differents in the future, the Conservatives are talking openly | :55:42. | :55:45. | |
about this, about their plan to proprocess reductions in tax. Welsh | :55:46. | :55:51. | |
Labour don't want to touch it, they don't want to bring in any | :55:52. | :55:53. | |
difference between Wales and England. Plaid, if they go down this | :55:54. | :55:57. | |
route, we are looking at a potential increase. We will have to see how | :55:58. | :56:03. | |
that goes. Elsewhere in terms of the economic policies, the one big thing | :56:04. | :56:07. | |
Leanne Wood talked about was focussing on this imbalance, the | :56:08. | :56:11. | |
inequality, geographically and regionally, you could argue she is | :56:12. | :56:15. | |
dusting down an old policy here, the kick Cardiff routine which the party | :56:16. | :56:19. | |
are at strains to say is not the case, they just want a greater | :56:20. | :56:22. | |
regional spread in terms of economic development, to be fair to them, I | :56:23. | :56:27. | |
think it will a policy that will go down well on the doorstep and over | :56:28. | :56:30. | |
the weeks that's what they need, particularly when it comes to local | :56:31. | :56:35. | |
council elections. Finally, quickly on Brexit. Leanne Wood's political | :56:36. | :56:40. | |
friend is Nicola Sturgeon, they're singing from the same hymn sheet in | :56:41. | :56:44. | |
terms of membership of the single market but the two things Leanne | :56:45. | :56:48. | |
Wood doesn't have that Nicola Sturgeon has is that Wales voted to | :56:49. | :56:54. | |
leave and she doesn't have this threat up her sleeve of an | :56:55. | :56:59. | |
independence referendum, how weak a hand does Leanne Wood have? Well, | :57:00. | :57:06. | |
that's the point, isn't it? At the same time, though, I think what you | :57:07. | :57:11. | |
have a sense of today and yesterday is that because the party is wedded | :57:12. | :57:15. | |
to the remain side of things and it is worth pointing out that really it | :57:16. | :57:19. | |
was the Highpoint in terms of Leanne Wood's speech was the applause when | :57:20. | :57:26. | |
she talked about immigration and the Brexit-related matters, quite | :57:27. | :57:30. | |
clearly that is what everyone has got worked up about. The party | :57:31. | :57:34. | |
cannot change its tune. It is too far on one side and I think the | :57:35. | :57:39. | |
calculation again is that it will represent the numbers of people who | :57:40. | :57:42. | |
voted to remain, even though the majority voted to leave in Wales. | :57:43. | :57:46. | |
Thank you very much indeed. The final word to Vaughan before we | :57:47. | :57:50. | |
leave. How much of a factor do you think | :57:51. | :57:55. | |
Brexit will be in the local elections, we heard Leanne Wood and | :57:56. | :57:58. | |
discussed how much people are talking about dog mess according to | :57:59. | :58:02. | |
Leanne Wood on the doorstep, do you think Brexit will be a case of | :58:03. | :58:05. | |
revisiting the referendum vote again? No, I don't think Brexit will | :58:06. | :58:10. | |
be a huge issue in terms of Brexit being an issue. I think what will be | :58:11. | :58:15. | |
an issue and will affect the campaign is the disarray in the | :58:16. | :58:19. | |
Labour Party. The disunity that was caused, well, it's begun with Corbyn | :58:20. | :58:23. | |
but everything that's happened in the Labour Party since the | :58:24. | :58:27. | |
referendum, the lack of clarity, you know, that's where the opening for | :58:28. | :58:32. | |
Plaid Cymru is. It's the problems the Labour Party faces, because in | :58:33. | :58:36. | |
urban Wales the seats Plaid Cymru can hope to win by and large are | :58:37. | :58:42. | |
Labour seats. Not long to go now until everybody goes to the polls. | :58:43. | :58:45. | |
Vaughan, thank you very much. Our time is up for today. Don't forget | :58:46. | :58:49. | |
you can follow all the latest on Twitter. | :58:50. | :58:53. | |
Next Saturday, it's the turn of the Welsh Liberal Democrats. For now, | :58:54. | :58:54. | |
thank you for watching. Goodbye. # You can shake an apple | :58:55. | :59:00. | |
off an apple tree # Shake-a, shake-a, sugar | :59:01. | :59:13. | |
but you'll never shake me | :59:14. | :59:17. |