As one of the 18....
As I posted below I both spoke and voted against the coalition with Labour. However I am more than happy to accept the decision and came away from National Council in positive mood.
There is a great deal in the document to be excited about and it is vital that Plaid get on with the job of selling our achievements.
We need to focus on communicating what we will bring to the new government to our supporters and the wider public.
The debate was very good natured and served to unify the party around its decision. It was much harder headed than I expected. Although nobody made the point explicitly it is clear that we will enter the coalition to make it work and realise it wont be perfect and we wont get everything we want even if its in the document. However if the Labour party drags its heels on so many issues as to delay real progress the Plaid leadership no that the broader party will support putting Labour into opposition.
Whilst it would be nice to have had a choice between the two deals the political reality is that it would have been impossible for the National Council to push the assembly group into a decision it did not want. It also would not have been a proper choice as the two documents were not drawn up at the same time with the result that the Red/Green document was inevitably better.
Whilst I have become frustrated over the past weeks with some members on the left of Plaid I respect their position and accept that this is by far the easiest option for the party. If we had opted for the Rainbow and it fell apart the damage would have been enormous. If it comes to it I think we can extricate ourselves from this with a lot less damage.
As I posted below I both spoke and voted against the coalition with Labour. However I am more than happy to accept the decision and came away from National Council in positive mood.
There is a great deal in the document to be excited about and it is vital that Plaid get on with the job of selling our achievements.
We need to focus on communicating what we will bring to the new government to our supporters and the wider public.
The debate was very good natured and served to unify the party around its decision. It was much harder headed than I expected. Although nobody made the point explicitly it is clear that we will enter the coalition to make it work and realise it wont be perfect and we wont get everything we want even if its in the document. However if the Labour party drags its heels on so many issues as to delay real progress the Plaid leadership no that the broader party will support putting Labour into opposition.
Whilst it would be nice to have had a choice between the two deals the political reality is that it would have been impossible for the National Council to push the assembly group into a decision it did not want. It also would not have been a proper choice as the two documents were not drawn up at the same time with the result that the Red/Green document was inevitably better.
Whilst I have become frustrated over the past weeks with some members on the left of Plaid I respect their position and accept that this is by far the easiest option for the party. If we had opted for the Rainbow and it fell apart the damage would have been enormous. If it comes to it I think we can extricate ourselves from this with a lot less damage.
posted by cymrumark at 2:20 PM
2 Comments:
As a socialist, I was interested to know if their were there people from the left who opposed both a Labour/Plaid Coalition and a Rainbow Coalition (ie calling for no coalition).
I'm pretty certain I heard the head of Plaid's women's section on Radio Wales saying she supported "no coalition"
obbWell the far left in Plaid are an entertaining bunch. Some of them were against "any coalition" until the "red green" came into fruition and then suddenly they were very enthusiastic about the coalition.
Two years ago I wrote an article in an internal party newspaper saying I opposed coalitions. I changed my mind as a result of campaigning over the last 12 months. Its fair to assume therefore that other people changed their minds in the space of a few weeks for good reason and are not just inconsistent.
The "head of the womens section" did speak against coalitions although I think this was code for "no deal with the Tories", in a radio interview. She was at the national council meeting but I did not hear her speak or see which way she voted. As she is a devoted reader of this blog I am sure she will feel free to comment :)
You look a bit like Sub Commandante Marcos of Zapatista fame "Y basta! viva Chiapas libre!"
Post a Comment
<< Home