5000 say no...the end of apathy?

Plaid in Central North Wales (Aberconwy, Clwyd West and Vale of Clwyd) have been running a petition against the proposed hospital closures and service reductions proposed by the Secondary Care Review. So far we have 5000 signatures with more arriving daily.

Not difficult you might think. A few hours harassing people in the street or going door to door will soon get the numbers up. Except that's not the approach we have taken. Cllr Gareth Jones in Aberconwy, myself in Vale of Clwyd and Phil Edwards in Clwyd West have delivered 1000s of leaflets door to door with petition slips on them for people to return. People have to read the leaflet cut out the slip and send it back to us. Phil Edwards put an advert in a local paper also using a "send back slip".

For so many people to go to such lengths is incredible. Shop keepers have volunteered to have petitions in their premises, I have sent copies of a petition to everyone returning the slip on the leaflet and dozens of people are collecting more names.

There is always talk of political apathy and claims people have no interest in what affects them. This is utter non-sense. When a political party campaigns on issues that affect the public then the public are happy to join in and lend a hand.

Interestingly the public are quick to see that these proposed service reductions are the product of Labour(and previously Lib dem) policies in Cardiff. Labour are in for a hard time in next years Assembly elections in North Wales.