OUR INCREASINGLY THIN BLUE LINE

The Police Federation has just surveyed its members, and has found that officers in Wales have been assaulted more often during the coronavirus pandemic than their English colleagues. The Federation found Welsh officers were more likely to have been insulted, threatened, hit or kicked, with more than a third having been insulted at least once a week, a quarter were threatened and 17% were attacked.  

The Federation’s Welsh lead said it was possible that the higher rate of Covid rule enforcement may have made a difference.  The survey is carried out every two years with 888 Welsh officers taking part, with 35% saying they were verbally insulted at least once a week, 24% reporting verbal threats at least once a week and 17% were physically attacked without a weapon. While a police officers lot may not be a happy one this is totally unacceptable, if we are truly to stand up for our Police officers then its time to devolve Policing to Cymru / Wales as Westminster is not interested. . 

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. 

It is worth noting that 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 and our Police officers. 

6 Important Key Issues for 2021

I believe that there are six important policy areas that that should be important in the Senedd elections in May 2021.  They are Housing and Planning, Public Transport, Economic Development and Regeneration, the Devolution of control of Policing and Criminal Justice, control of our Water; and Energy. I firmly believe that these policy areas can set the agenda for our nation  for the next ten years +

We need to talk about Housing, Labour in Wales is silent on the matter and the other Unionist or anti devolution parties are silent on this issue. For the life of me, I cannot see any positives for Cymru / Wales simply being a simple adjunct to England, or Newport being a simple dormitory town for Bristol. I have never, and never will subscribe to the Severnside agenda, no matter how many times it gets rebranded and relaunched. In our south east, along the coastal belt and in and around Newport and Torfaen (not to mention around Cardiff and Caerphilly) and across Monmouthshire the last thirty years we have seen a significant if not spectacular growth in the amount of housing, a significant percentage of which of late has never quite been aimed to fulfil local housing needs. 

The other side of the coin, in relation to the pressing issue of Housing, is planning. Our Planning system is shambolic, Here in Cymru / Wales we face number of pressing problems, covid aside, many of our pressing problems are not helped by the inherent problems with our 19th planning system with its out of touch focus on unitary development plans, and the lack of decent affordable integrated public transport, which are all part of the problem we face.  Other than being an enabler to help with social and economic problems and the implementation of solutions, our Planning system is simply part of the problem. 

Another pressing problem that afflicts many of our communties, right across Cymru / Wales is that of redevelopment. Redevelopment is perceived by many people as something that is done to them, rather than by or for them. I have lived in Casnewydd / Newport for 43 or 44 years of my life - like many people  in the Port I have watched my home town / city get redeveloped to death. With the redevelopment companies moving in hoovering up the cash and departing. Newport’s 19th century Market which has served the city well, through good and bad times and two world wars, is to undergo yet another redevelopment. This redevelopment may be the final blow, as most to the remaining stallholders are in the process of moving out and the builders will soon  begin work to transform the market into a multi-million pound, multi-purpose centre.

Another key area, where the Unionist Parties are largely silent is that of Policing and Criminal Justice. At Westminster Unionist machinations (with Labour in Wales and the Conservatives working hand in glove in the voting lobbies - or Labour simply absenting themselves or abstaining) has resulted in a strange end result. 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.

The issue of Water, in Cymru / Wales should still be more contentious than it is - again the Unionists are as quiet as Church Mice on this issue. On the 15th July 2020, for the first time in our history, our Senedd debated 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.

The final key issue is that of energy (both Policy and Development). Back in the 1960's people were actually told that by the year 2000 energy would be so cheap that it would be impossible to bill people for it. That never happened, largely as a result of the ideologically driven privatisation of the energy boards created a privatised (effective) monopoly. Once ‘market forces’ set to work we were left with the big six energy suppliers (a cartel by any other name). With weak regulation - despite some periodic and actually very effective work by Westminster parliamentary select committees - the cartel members have been able to get away with much - mostly at our expense (literally). 

TIME TO DEVOLVE POLICE AND JUSTICE

It’s time to devolve control of Police and Justice to Wales as the powers are unsafe in the hands of any Westminster government and our communities will be put further at risk.  Back in 2017 Plaid Cymru called a vote on devolving policing during the passing of the Wales Bill through the Houses of Parliament. People should remember that given the choice of devolving Policing to Wales, the Conservatives voted it down and the Labour Party abstained - so much for standing up for our communities interests in Westminster.

It has to be unacceptable that Wales is the only nation in these islands without powers over its policing and justice policies – Northern Ireland, Scotland and even England do – but Wales doesn’t have control over Policing and Justice. Plaid Cymru is committed to the devolution of policing and justice to Wales to empower us to implement and pursue policies that serve the interests of our citizens and communities.

While Teresa May was perhaps too busy creating her hostile environment, Police numbers in Wales and England have been cut by some 19,704 police officers n since the Tories (and their eager Liberal Democrat’s coat holders) took office in 2010. Police budgets have been slashed, putting far fewer officers on the street. 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%.

Plaid Cymru will recruit an extra 1,600 police officers – two for each community – to keep us safe. 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 they 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 and May and to replace the present callous approach that prioritises targets over people’s needs. The extra police officers will 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.