THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE

A number of thoughts crossed my mind in relation to the proposed Co-operation Agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Labour Government which emerged on Monday. Politics my old man periodically said, sometimes when I was listening, is about the art of the possible, and along with that thought, Harry S Truman said that it was amazing what you can achieve if you don’t care about who gets the credit. 

While the devil obviously lies very much in the detail it also lies very much in the actual delivery. That said the proposed Co-operation Agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Labour Government offers real opportunities to get things done and to change peoples lives for the better as well as to boost our nations economy and infrastructure. 

The proposals that have been outlined include:

National construction company – Establish Unnos, a national construction company, to support councils and social landlords to improve the supply of social and affordable housing.

Net zero energy company – Work towards the creation of Ynni Cymru, a publicly-owned energy company for Wales, over the next two years, to expand community-owned renewable energy generation.

Procurement – Explore how to set meaningful targets to increase Welsh public sector procurement from the current 52%. As a first step, we will carry out a detailed analysis of the public sector supply chains and promote the purchasing of made-in-Wales products and services.

Local tourism levies – Introduce local tourism levies using local government finance reform legislation.

Building safety – Significantly reform the current system of building safety, which has allowed a culture of cutting corners to the detriment of public safety. We will introduce a second phase of the Welsh Building Safety Fund.

Property and Fair Rents – Publish a White Paper to include proposals for a right to adequate housing, the role a system of fair rents(rent control) could have in making the private rental market affordable for local people on local incomes and new approaches to making homes affordable.

Second homes – Take immediate and radical action to address the proliferation of second homes and unaffordable housing, using the planning, property and taxation systems. 

• Actions being planned include a cap on the number of second and holiday homes; 

• Measures to bring more homes into common ownership, a statutory licensing scheme for holiday lets;

• Greater powers for local authorities to charge council tax premiums and increasing taxes on second homes. We will explore local authority mortgages.

Childcare – Expand free childcare to all two year-olds with a particular focus on providing and strengthening Welsh-medium childcare.

Public transport – Ask Transport for Wales(TfW) to explore the development of transport links between North and South Wales, including how to protect potential travel corridors on the west coast of Wales. We will continue to press ahead with Metro developments to improve connectivity and encourage people to switch to public transport. We will ask TfW to work with local authorities in North West Wales and the Welsh Government to develop plans for an integrated transport system.

Media financial support – Fund existing and new enterprises to improve Welsh-based journalism to tackle the information deficit.

All good stuff, it think that it would be well to remember that this is in no way a coalition; Plaid Members won’t be part of the Welsh Government. As the agreement states Plaid will appoint a designated lead member for the agreement and committees made up of Welsh Ministers and designated Plaid members to reach agreement on issues covered by the Co-operation Agreement.

I do sometimes wonder, even with the slow steady growth of devolved powers even within our deeply flawed devolutionary settlement, just exactly what the elected representatives of Labour in Wales have been doing since 1999? And why they appear to be so bereft of ideas that they need ours… 

Mind, as they say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, so in the short term I can live with Labour in Wales masquerading as Plaid lite, as long as the above actually gets done. 

REMEMBERANCE 2021

Another remembrance Sunday approaches,  if somewhat muted to Covid. Today, however, is the 11^th November, at 11am it will be one hundred and three years to the moment when the Great War - at least on the Western Front , ended - with the armistice. There are no more living veterans from the First World War, yet people will pause to publically and privately remember the veterans and survivors of more historic and more recent conflicts and particularly those who never came back. 

The 947,023 military casualties (with 744,702 of them from these islands) between 1914 and 1918 (by way of comparison with the 264,000 military dead from 1939 - 1945) should still shock us even now.  My family like far too many others in Wales (and elsewhere on these islands) had relatives who served and survived and also relatives who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars and other conflicts. 

My lost relatives (and their missing descendants) play on my mind at times like this - one of my maternal grandmother’s lost two brothers in the First World War and its aftermath. Her elder brother was a regular soldier, who wrote home and told them not to allow his younger brother to join up and to come out to France. It was, however, too late as the younger brother had already joined up was killed in action in 1918 and buried near Amiens. My paternal great grandfather (and my grandfather) both served in the First World War and survived but came back as deeply changed men (as did many).

Coming from a relatively large extended close family, I am of the age, that I grew up with a generation of older relatives a number of whom had seen active service in the second world war in the Navy, Army, Air Force and the merchant navy. They like many from those generations rarely talked about their actual experiences of the war, and then perhaps save only occasionally to those whom they had served with, who would have understood, because they had survived similar experiences. Younger relatives have also served in more recent more modern conflicts around the world and fortunately have come back. 

As I have said previously I have absolutely no problem remembering those who lost their lives and the courage, comradeship and their endurance of those who served in the First World War and other more modern conflicts (and not necessarily those who served in the armed forces). What I have no time whatsoever is rose tinted sentimental nostalgic flag waving foot-tapping pap. As has been said elsewhere, soldiers don’t go into conflict aiming to die - not for the politicians, for patriotism or even us - but they often can end up dying with their friends and comrades with whom they served. 

The first world war was the first conflict when real concerted efforts were made to remember and record all of those who had fallen - particularly because of the decision (taken for a variety of reasons) not to bring the fallen home for burial. One consequence is that far too many literally still lie in corners of foreign fields, are names on war memorials, faded photographs, faded memories or too many literally have no grave at all. 

Speaking of another bloody conflict across the Atlantic, the, US President Abraham Lincoln noted at Gettysburg the fallen had given their last full measure of devotion. And that what we do or say does not really matter in comparison with what the fallen (and those who survived) had done. It may be more true today that the world will little note the current crop of political leader’s lyrical wittering on conflict (both recent or older) or long remember them. 

What we should never forget what the former soldiers and veterans did and what they went through. We should not just cherish their memory but should ensure that after their military service they remain fully honoured as should be the military covenant. Never again should it be found that dead heroes are cheaper to honour  than live ones.