rats, sinking ships, rubbish and headless chickens..
A report in yesterdays Western mail has confirmed what many in Plaid have been thinking for months. That when Labour are defeated in next years assembly elections the Lib dems will prop them up rather than create a fresh new government.
Its not exactly a surprise to us but fellow blogger, and Lib dem AM, Peter Black (see link alongside) is getting very het up about it. Peter even sees the hand of the dasterdly Nationalists in the story despite it obviously being well sourced from within the Lib dems. It shows an astonishing lack of judgement for rats to start swimming towards a sinking ship.........
On the subject of Lib dems there has been a lot of publicity about the landfill site just outside Wrexham. Wrexham councillors have voted to maintain the site despite changes in legislation since planning permission was granted. Perhaps the Lib dem leader of Wrexham council should have a word with the Lib dem leader of Liverpool city council and ask them not to dump their rubbish. It would help if Liverpool started to meet some of its re-cycling targets...
Nice to see the Labour party running round like headless chickens. The panic is being led by Welsh Labour MPs(unusual to see them doing anything at all!) who see disaster looming on the horizon in the shape of next years assembly elections. No doubt Blair is making things worse for Labour however his departure will only limit the damage. With Blair Labour face humiliation in next years polls. Without him they only face defeat.
Its not exactly a surprise to us but fellow blogger, and Lib dem AM, Peter Black (see link alongside) is getting very het up about it. Peter even sees the hand of the dasterdly Nationalists in the story despite it obviously being well sourced from within the Lib dems. It shows an astonishing lack of judgement for rats to start swimming towards a sinking ship.........
On the subject of Lib dems there has been a lot of publicity about the landfill site just outside Wrexham. Wrexham councillors have voted to maintain the site despite changes in legislation since planning permission was granted. Perhaps the Lib dem leader of Wrexham council should have a word with the Lib dem leader of Liverpool city council and ask them not to dump their rubbish. It would help if Liverpool started to meet some of its re-cycling targets...
Nice to see the Labour party running round like headless chickens. The panic is being led by Welsh Labour MPs(unusual to see them doing anything at all!) who see disaster looming on the horizon in the shape of next years assembly elections. No doubt Blair is making things worse for Labour however his departure will only limit the damage. With Blair Labour face humiliation in next years polls. Without him they only face defeat.
posted by cymrumark at 5:21 AM
9 Comments:
Peter Black has posted on his blog that the story is not sourced from within the Lib dems "because I have checked".
Yes but would the journalist tell you?
You are clinging to some very unpalatable wreckage here Mark. What evidence do you have that it is 'obviously' sourced from the Lib Dems other than malicious hope? How is it obvious?
I would be astonished if there had been no sourcing from the Lib dems given the nature of the story. I have spoken to a couple of English Lib dems in senior positions in your party all of whom assume there is some truth in the story based on past experience.
If it were Plaid you would be saying "it must be true"........
It's not just the Lib Dems who should hang their heads on Wrexham's landfill problem... three Labour councillors failed to vote for revocation (enough to tip the balance) and, guess what, Labour is in control at the Murkey Waste Disposal Authority, which is responsible for the dumping of 300,000 tonnes in Johnstown.
Oh, and the Tory on Wrexham's planning committee voted against revocation too... which means that the big three Westminster parties voted for landfill. Only Plaid Cymru has stuck by its principles.
Given that Plaid and IWJ have totally bottled it when it comes to co-operating with other parties, it does not take a genius to figure out that the most likely scenario after the Assembly elections will be a Lab/Lib Dem coalition.
Its a shame that your leadership hasn't got the guts to be able to play an active part in offering an alternative to Labour.
Welcome pontygwindy....it seems like you might be a source of amusement. Constant repition of something that barely makes sense? must be a lib dem or a tory?
You obviously haven't heard my repertoire of bad jokes, which are far from amusing!
In all seriousness, if my assessment of Plaid's budget position is wrong, then what is your interpretation of what happened last week?
We stuck to our position agreed by our National council in June/July 2005. We will not enter a coalition prior to the assembly elections.
On the budget we have stuck to our position and will continue to do so. The First Minister has said he will not resign if he fails to get the budget through so the issue of a coalition does not really appear likely.
None of the opposition parties is stupid enough to want to try and form a government with a few months left till the elections. The Libs are using any excuse they can to avoid a three party coalition after the elections as they intend to form a limited "pact" with Labour to keep them in office. The Tories are having a go at us because they wish to replace us as the main opposition but things are not going as well for them as they would like...particularly in the North.
There is nothing that IWJ or Plaid have done last week that makes a coalition any more or less likely to happen.
Doubt your jokes are worse than mine!!
I subsequently read about Plaid's position after my earlier rant and it seems that IWJ was hardly the most vocal of the opposition leaders when it came to the prospect of an opposition coalition before the election, so apologies for that. Born out of frustration and a real desire to see Labour kicked out in Wales.
Mind you, if this evening's Wales Today is anything to go by IWJ could make things difficult for you in the short term if he is seen to let the Budget go through by abstaining, although we will have to see what happens tomorrow.
Not sure I agree with your assessment of the Lib Dems wanting to avoid a three party coalition. In my experience there is at least one Lib Dem AM who would happily join any coalition of any description if it meant he could have a ministerial car!
The limited pact theory interests me. Any formal coalition would require the Lib Dems to seek endorsement from a special conference. In the case of a Lib Lab arrangement, the answer is likely to be no. Rank and file members don't want to be seen to be propping up a discredited Labour administration. MG might try to get away with it through a pact - technicaly not a coalition so he might not feel that he would have to go to the party. The only problem I have with this is that this would be even less politicaly advantageous to the Lib Dems than a coalition. And pacts don't mean ministerial cars, either.
On the Tory issue, I think it is too close to call as to who will end up as the biggest opposition party come May 2007, but that comes with the caveat that I've been out of the loop for well over a year now, so your intelligence is probably more up to date than mine.
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