CITY OF LONDON 1 WALES 0

Our Senedd is quite unique, it is the only devolved legislature within these islands not to have any control over its nation’s police forces. 

Now it’s worth noting, that control over Policing is devolved to Scotland (effectively since 1945), Northern Ireland, England, London, Manchester and even the City of London.

Even the Crown dependencies: the Channel Islands, the Isle of Mann and even the overseas territories (some of which are a focus for tax avoidance / tax evasion) have democratic control over their own Police services. 

Back in 2017 Plaid Cymru called a vote on devolving policing during the passing of the Wales Bill through the Houses of Parliament. 

We should remember that given an opportunity to devolve Policing to Wales, the Conservatives voted it down and the Labour in Wales MP’s abstained. 

This provides yet another example of the way the Conservative Party and Labour Party happily co-operate at Westminster to disadvantage Cymru / Wales. So much for standing up for our national interests. 

Aside from direct control of policing, it also comes down to numbers. Boris made much of his plan to boost Police numbers during the last Westminster General election (in November and December 2019). 

Even with the impact of Covid19, in relation to police numbers, it has gone rather quiet over there, which may prove that Boris’s plan may well not be quite as easy to as achieve as the soundbite it was. 

At the time, Home Office officials suggested that Boris’s promise to recruit 20,000 new police officers in England and Wales within three years just simply would not work. 

They estimated that some 50,000 officers would be needed, because so many officers were set to leave the service - more than a few perhaps demoralised by the impact of nearly 10 years of Conservative (and for some of the time willing Liberal Democrat) government. 

Of course from Boris’s perspective, 20,000 was such a nice round number. 

It was slightly ironic that the pledge to recruit more Police officers, was a direct result of the cuts to fall in police numbers was mostly brought in by the Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition. 

Boris's much trumpeted election promise of 20,000 extra police officers - was nice, save for the fact that we were already 19,704 police officers down in Wales and England and Wales since 2010. 

Here in Cymru / Wales, since 2010 we were at least 500 fewer police officers are on our streets. 

So even if Boris could achieve his extra 20,000 Police officers he would basically take us back to were we were in 2010 - with a next gain of 296 police officers in Wales and England as a whole. 

Save of course that they would not all be coming to Cymru / Wales, so even if we got 5% of them (say 25) that would still leave down by 480. 

If policing was fully devolved and funded on a population basis as is the case with other policy areas our Welsh police forces would receive upwards of £20 million more funding per year. 

Police budgets however were slashed, something that directly resulted in far fewer officers on our streets. 

The end result was that Welsh forces have been hit harder than those in the rest of the UK, due to an unfair funding formula. Between 2010 and 2018, the number of police officers in Wales decreased by 9%.

The full devolution of policing would have meant the Welsh police forces would have been exempt from the Tories’ £32 million cut to their budgets and would have benefitted from an additional £25 million through being funded through the Barnett formula.

This would have meant a total difference in Welsh police budgets of £57 million between Plaid Cymru and Conservative policy. 

Plaid Cymru would have recruited an extra 1,600 police officers – two for each community – to keep us safer. 

This would mean that our officers will be better rooted in our communities, instead of being stretched to cover large geographical areas with fewer resources. 

This would give the police the ability to focus on the priorities we need to keep us safe. 

As argued by the Thomas Commission on Justice in Wales, we need to create integrated people-centred services – from prisons to counselling to housing – to undo the damage done by Cameron / Clegg and May and to replace the present callous approach that prioritises targets over people’s needs. 

Extra police officers would help facilitate community engagement in which the police and the community can relay issues of mutual concern with targeted, community based problem-solving approaches to improve crime reduction and rehabilitation.

Plaid Cymru, alone amongst all the other political parties operating within Cymru / Wales, is committed to the devolution of policing and justice to Cymru / Wales to empower us to implement and pursue policies that actually serve the interests of our citizens and communities. 

It is simply unacceptable for Cymru / Wales to be the only devolved nation in these islands without powers over its policing and justice policies. 

The problem we now face, is that with an openly centralist Conservative government in Westminster, which is hell bent on undermining, weakening and destroying devolution, is one of where do we go now? 

Let’s be honest, with ourselves, Cyrmu / Wales will get no additional new devolved powers, and few of any powers that have been repatriated from Brussels are going to find their way to Cardiff, Belfast or Edinburgh. So what’s next? 

IT'S STILL OUR WATER...

Today for the first time in our history, our Senedd will debate the issue of independence. While most independent observers will note that our devolution settlement is deeply flawed, by way of comparison to Scotland and Northern Ireland. It’s sometimes shocking when you actually look at the things that we don’t control - aside from Policing, and large aspects of the planning process, significant aspects transport infrastructure development and probably most surprising of all our water resources.

`They can do it, so why can't we?

Last week the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) issued a report that stated that parts of England would run of of water within 20 years. Pulling no punches the PAC accused Ministers and water industry regulators of failing to act. Defra was also accuse of lacking any leadership on the issue and MPs called for the problems of water leakage to be addresses with urgency and people to be encouraged not to waste water.

It's normal for nations to control their own resources

Things must begetting worse over there, as back in March 2019, the chief executive of the Environment Agency - the public body responsible for protecting the environment and wildlife in England - Sir James Bevan, told a Waterwise conference, that within 25 years England will not have enough water to meet demand. 

He stated that the impact of climate change, combined with population growth, means the country ( England ) is facing an "existential threat", "We all need to use less water and use it more efficiently and that, in around 20 to 25 years, England would reach the "jaws of death - the point at which, unless we take action to change things, we will not have enough water to supply our needs".

In October 2018, a water company, Southern Water - which serves customers in south eastern England, stated that customer demand is estimated to be double its available supply by 2020. As a result of climate change, a reduction of the amount of water allowed to be taken from natural sources, and a rise in population demand would outstrip supply. The company's plan for 2020-2025 sets out how it will overcome the deficit  by reducing leakage by 15% and encourage customers to use less water.

Now this could be both good and bad news for Wales, good news if we had control of our own natural resources and could benefit from a fair price for our water, and bad news if we do not. For amongst our rich resources is the literal stuff of life – water. Water is likely to become a valuable resource for the people of Wales in future years, and who owns, it who controls it, and who benefits is likely to remain one of the key issues, of potential dispute between Westminster and Cardiff Bay. 

While our country’s voice has been significantly strengthened since 1999, with various Wales related acts, as yet we still do not have the same degree of control of our natural resources as either Scotland or Northern Ireland. Not for nothing does the issue of water rightly still understandably raises strong emotions and stirs long memories here in Wales. 

This matters because of Boris Johnson (now Prime Minster, previously Mayor of London, an MP since May 2015, and a former foreign secretary and) has previously wittered on about the need for a network of canals being needed to carry water from the wet North to the dry South (for the ‘wet North’ read ‘Wales). Boris's revolutionary thought, not to mention his poor grasp of geography, was not an original idea.

Back in 1973, what was then the Water Resources Board, a now defunct government agency, wrote a major report that advocated building a whole raft of infrastructure to aid the movement of water, not to mention constructing freshwater storage barrages in the Ouse, Wash and Morecambe Bay, using a network of canals to move water from north to south, extending reservoirs and building new aqueducts, not to mention constructing a series of tunnels to link up river basins to aid the movement of water.

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Despite the demise of the Water Resources Board in 1974 (two years before the 1976 drought) and its replacement by regional water management bodies, which were privatised in the 1980’s this issue has never really gone away. In 2006, the Environment Agency produced a report entitled "Do we need large-scale water transfers for south-east England ?" which in a refreshingly honest answer to its own question at the time was an emphatic ‘no’.

That said, faced with a prolonged period of drought in the South East of England, DEFRA itself held a drought summit on the 20th of February of 2012. The then Con Dem Government stated that it remained committed to the remaining legislative measures set out in its Water for Life agenda , which later became the Water Industry (Financial Assistance) Act. That is as they say history, but whatever Westminster eventually decides to do in relation to water resources, we in Wales still need to have full democratic control of our own resources. 

Our resources incidentally should include those parts of our country where Severn Trent Plc runs our natural resources for a fat profit. This process can begin with repatriating control of the Crown Estates and transferring control of lands in (and off-shore) to the Welsh Government in Cardiff. For the life of me I can see no realistic reason why this feudal anachronism cannot be consigned to the dustbin of history and control of it transferred to Cymru / Wales.

We need a whole Wales strategy to develop, conserve and enhance our water supplies and our planning regulations will need to be tweaked or rewritten accordingly. We need to take a long hard look at our water resources and what we get for them and how we can develop them. I see absolutely no reason why the Welsh people cannot fully benefit from any future exploitation of our natural resources, including our water. 

Time not to make the same mistakes? Cofiwch Dryweryn

Many people would be shocked to discover that the Government of Wales Act (2006) thanks largely to Peter (formerly the pain, Lord) Hain (amongst the other usual suspects) worked hard to specifically exclude the then Assembly (now Senedd) from making any laws relating to water supply – hmm – odd that isn't it? Such duplicitous behaviour on the part of New or re-born Old Labour should not have been unexpected. 

Putting Tory and Labour spin and rhetoric aside, the bottom line is that all our water resources should belong to the Welsh people, not to Private corporations or to the UK Government. Any post BREXIT future draft Wales Bill should strengthen the powers that we in Wales have over our natural resources and associated planning processes and devolve control of those parts of the Severn Trent water franchise to Wales.

Wales has proven itself during the Coronavirus crisis by acting independently to protect our citizens from the dysfunctionality and ineptitude of the Westminster Government. Not for nothing does the latest opinion poll for Welsh independence had 25% - an increase of +4 since January.  Support for Scottish independence, support for a united Ireland is at an all-time, and support for English independence are at an all time high. We cannot bury our head in the sand, this is why we need a discussion on Wales’ future as an independent country.  

We are waking up to the idea that there is another way, another future, another choice. As Cymru / Wales comes out of this crisis, we cannot go back to the status-quo. Under-investment and unfair funding forms the crux of this unequal union of broken promises - delivered by the Tories at Westminster and defended by Labour through their support for the stagnant status-quo which has failed Wales.

Welsh independence can be a force for good. A force to reject the regressive, insular and backward-looking politics of Westminster for the politics of hope, of caring and of community that we can all have in our new independent Wales standing tall amongst the other nations of the world. It's time for change and it is only through a Plaid Cymru Government that that change, and our independence, can be won.

An Equal Nation and a Nation of Equals

Plaid Cymru Leader Adam Price has today set out how a Plaid Cymru government would make ending poverty its priority with an ambitious vision for childcare and social care in Wales.

At its heart is a commitment to look after everyone at the dawn and twilight of their lives.

Proposals include:

·         A Welsh Child Payment

·         Free Child Care from 12 months of age

·         National Health and Care Service

Adam Price said that intergenerational poverty was a ‘blight’ on communities throughout Wales and that the looming post-Covid economic crisis would compound this without radical change.

He vowed that a Plaid Cymru administration would be “a government for all generations”, giving people opportunity in youth and dignity in old age.

200,000 children in Wales are living in poverty - Plaid Cymru will put it right

Plaid Cymru Leader Adam Price said:

“If the Covid crisis has taught us anything, it is the value of a caring society. Becoming an equal nation and a nation of equals will be the guiding mission of a Plaid Cymru Government.

“After twenty years of a Labour-led government, there are still 200,000 children living in poverty in Wales. That is a blight on our communities and something I am determined to change with £35 a week child payment targeted at families who have to decide between heating the home and feeding the children.

“These ambitious policies are designed to offer opportunity in youth and dignity in old age.

“Plaid Cymru’s childcare offer would boost the incomes of thousands of households, allowing non-working parents back into the workplace and creating up to 3,000 new jobs.

“Similarly, the National Care Service will make Wales the “caring nation” – valuing our care staff with salaries comparable with the NHS and making social care, free at the point of delivery.

“I want to lead a government for all generations – a government delivering radical change, not for change’s sake but for the sake of the thousands of families whose futures rest on it.

“I want my son to grow up in a country where poverty is a distant memory thanks to a belief that there is no challenge too big to overcome.

“The 2021 Senedd Election is the time for change, and it will only come about by putting into action what the current Government has talked about but failed to deliver for so long.”

ENDS

FOR WALES, SEE WESTERN ENGLAND…

The Conservatives in Cymru / Wales, with some honourable exceptions have never been happy with devolution, deep down they would probably like to get rid of it (along with the very idea of Cymru / Wales). Boris' mutterings about intervening to over rule the Labour in Wales Government's decision not to build the M4 relief road, last week, or the lead Financial Times article (Monday 13.07.2020) about Westminster’s plans to retain control of state aid at the expense of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, should not surprise anyone. 

Boris and his ilk, in what's probably the most narrow elitist English governments (if not one that appears to be increasingly out of touch with English thinking on the Union) anytime since the 1700’s, have serious barely concealed disdain for the concept of devolution and an unconcealed contempt for Cymru / Wales. The creation of the Union Policy Implementation Committee (chaired by Michael Gove) aims to strengthen the union and 'bind' the UK's nations, at the expense of our interests.

Poor West Britons?

I have little doubt that the Conservatives will happily work to weaken if not abolish devolution in Cymru / Wales and work to weaken and undermine it in Scotland. They have certainly played fast and loose with the political process in Northern Ireland in a desperate but ultimately successful (in the short term) attempt to stay on office - something that threatened to undermine the hard won peace process. 

Now none of this is new - when one of the more recent failed Conservative leaders started talking about reviewing devolution and strengthening the Union at a time when BREXT threatened to deliver a rollback of powers then any one who believes in democracy and devolution to the nations and regions of these islands should have been concerned. 

Despite the spin and the claims to the contrary, devolution was not Teresa May’s legacy, her legacy was political chaos and economic uncertainty, and a use of BREXIT to attempt to roll back devolution and strip away powers from Wales and Scotland and to undermine the devolved institutions and constitutional settlement within these islands. As late as the 2005 Westminster general election the Conservatives (and Teresa May) were still publicly uncommitted to devolution for Cymru / Wales. 

For a Conservative leader to talk about constitutional diversity was particularly rich. The soon to be former Prime Minister is correct in one key area, the fact that some Westminster government departments have failed to recognise the reality of devolution. The Conservative party, under Cameron, May and now Boris has reluctantly paid lip service to devolution, but, many suspect that it will actively work to weaken the powers of the devolved governments post BREXIT. 

None of this is new, back in 2015, after David Cameroon, won his first Westminster majority, and before he messily ended his premiership over BREXIT, there was, at least from this end of the M4 / A55, the perception of a faint brief whiff of what could best be described as devo rollback in the air. As the then unconstrained Conservative government settled in at Westminster, what's was in it for Cymru / Wales - potentially nothing good. 

Scotland, as far as the Westminster unionists may have been concerned may be quietly (and honestly) be perceived as a lost cause (perhaps a literal case of 'when' rather than 'if' in relation to independence). Cymru / Wales on the other hand may yet offer far more constitutional room to meddle with, to tinker with or even rollback parts of our deeply flawed constitutional settlement - something that could take us back to an 'England and Wales' polity for the first time since pre 1601.

Here in Cymru / Wales we have all seen and experienced the Westminster wobble in relation to the commitment to complete the electrification of the Great Western line to Swansea, the failure to develop the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon, and the threat to cancel promised public borrowing powers after the proposed M4 Relief road was dropped.

Our constitutional settlement, such as it is is, even to the disinterested, remains deeply flawed, second rate and simply unfair, not coming remotely close to either Scotland or Northern Ireland when it comes to powers which could be used to influence and shape economic matters. 

The Conservative Party appears happy to be appealing to the type of nationalism that saw the rise of UKIP in the past. With the Europe issue potentially off the political agenda, devolution is next. The Brexit Party (along with the Abolish The Assembly Party) has just publicly committed itself to challenging devolution and effectively destroying our young democracy. 

There are times, when you can be excused for feeling that Cymru / Wales not only has an unpredictable future but also has an unpredictable past. As a former observer of the old Soviet Union the emergence of a nominal political party actually dedicated to abolishing our embryonic parliament from the inside during the Newport West By-election) reminded me of the activities of interfront in the Baltic republics in the late 1980's and early 1990's - save without the backing of the Kremlin (Westminster). 

Here in Cymru / Wales we have two (or three) political parties that have wrapped themselves in the Union flag and openly expressed a version of political reality based on British exceptionalism and nostalgia. This problem existed long before BREXIT and has the potential to unleash a combination of a deep devo rollback and a BritWash of pretty much everything - be it sport (Team GB, etc), culture, history, economics or politics. 

Wrapped in a flag...

That this is the partial triumph of what could perhaps best be described as an aspirational nostalgia of a view of the past that never existed over reality should disturb most people. Now it would be too easy to pass off the mutterings and musings of the far right as a collection of nutters and eccentrics (they may be). They appeal to a heady combination of nostalgia for a questionable view of the past, hostility to the concept of devolution and perhaps a yet to be articulated hostility to the very existence of Cymru / Wales - politically and culturally. 

There should be something disturbing about people who live (or perhaps reside) within a nation that has been badly governed for generations by a narrow minded corrupt unresponsive political institution, in our case, on the bank of the Thames, actively campaigning to remove a new accountable democratic national parliament.  That said the right has little concern for Cymru / Wales or any other the the devolved nations within these islands beyond an arrogant expectation of taciturn obedience. 

Boris Johnson is on record stating that Westminster is an English Parliament. Our nation, is at best an afterthought and more than likely an irritation to the current Conservative Leader. What we are looking at is not so much a case of for Wales see England, more like for Wales, see Western England.

EBBW VALE AND BEYOND...

It is quite simple really - decisions about railway infrastructure development and spending upon our railways need to be made here in Cymru / Wales, not in Westminster. This already happens in England by default, and in Scotland and Northern Ireland by design. For this to happen in Cymru / Wale then full control of our railways, network rail operations and the network rail budget needs to be devolved to the Senedd.

11% of UK railways, 1% of Network Rail spend...

Thats the first step, a. Full control of planning processes in relation to infrastructure, full control of the all of the railways in Cymru / Wales and full control of network rail and the network rail budget for Cymru / Wales would simply be the first step towards actually giving our embryonic democracy all of the toolset required to do the job properly. 

While that’s not necessarily the relatively easy bit it would be a significant start. The slightly more difficult bit is electing a government that will actually use said tools to actually do the job - of improving, and developing our railway infrastructure.  We simply can not rely on Labour in Wales or any of the other Westminster focused / based political parties to make the case for further powers or to supply the will power and the vision to change things. 

One of the reasons why we have little choice but to use our cars and the M4 to get around Newport (and to go to work) is because of the lack of any reasonable alternative easily accessible means of public transport. Long before Corvid 19 came along, even the Welsh Labour government had finally run out of tired excuses and soft weasel words to hide their inaction and failure to deliver much beyond sound bites and logo laden graphic images. 

A ghost train...

The failure to connect the Ebbw Vale line to Newport means that commuters living in communities in the Ebbw Valley remain unable to travel directly to Newport (and beyond) by train and have little option but to use their cars. They are denied the opportunity of catching connecting trains to Newport, Bristol, London, Cheltenham and beyond as well as possibly travelling slightly more rapidly to Cardiff in the morning and evening as result of the failure to run a fast service direct from Abertillery to Cardiff as originally promised back in 2003. 

This leaves commuters no choice but to drive and feed the congestion of an already at times overcrowded M4. The Ebbw Vale line, at least to Cardiff, which reopened in 2008 (carried a years worth of anticipated passenger numbers in the first four months) has made a real difference to peoples lives. The new rail service failed to connect to Newport from day one despite the implied promises, hints and suggestions made before and since the railway line was reopened that it would. 

Nothing to see here, move along...

Somewhat ironically to all intents and purposes is already operating – as trains already run by stealth on occasions from Ebbw Vale into Newport and vice versa when regular maintenance occurs. The rail line and the signalling work fine – what we need is a regularly timetabled rail service - now rather than later. Long overdue decisions about our infrastructure could make a real and significant difference and begin the process of providing realistic alternatives to everyday car use. 

Elsewhere in our SE, the construction of new railway stations at Caerleon / Ponthir, Llanwern and Magor - with well planned walk routes, and ample safe, secure park and ride facilities would also make a real difference. Any railway stations should also include decent facilities - along with the reinstatement of a more functional bus service (that's directly connected to the new railway stations). 

Elsewhere in Europe where significant housing developments are planned the infrastructure - often railway stations, tram stops and transport hubs are constructed first before any houses are built - but just not here. We should see a real commitment from the new Senedd government in May 2021 to prioritise the addition of  infrastructure before any approval for proposed housing developments is given.

Our transport and infrastructure problems require political solutions and political decisions - something that will not come from the current incumbent inert Labour government in Cardiff Bay. With a post BREXIT (and hopefully a post Corona) world rapidly approaching- some hard sensible sustainable longer term choices need to be made with a degree of urgency - one of those should be to start work on (those parts of) the Metro that will make a real rapid difference to our lives and our communties.