Plaid Cymru: not frightened to share its ambition, unlike some
The major political parties' manifesto continue to roll. Labour grabbed the most attention yesterday, but Plaid Cymru also issued its manifesto, and I have taken a look.
Plaid Cymru breaks the pattern created by the other leading parties in this election, so far. They have not included a costing in their manifesto. Given that the whole basis of their approach to this election is to claim that the formula for apportioning UK-wide funding to Wales is inappropriate, I can understand why.
It is Plaid Cymru's suggestion that the Barnett formula, agreed upon decades ago but subject to occasional revision since, fails to take into consideration the varying needs of the countries in the UK, based in particular on the fact that the lower levels of average income in Wales are likely to result in higher levels of need for government services, and so an above average weighting for funds. The same problem exists in Scotland and is, of course, the basis on which the Tories claimed to undertake a levelling-up programme during the course of the last parliament, even though that turned out to be nothing more than a slush fund for redirecting money to Tory seats. I do, therefore, have considerable sympathy with the claim that Plaid Cymru make.
I also agree with many of the key proposals in their manifesto, which they summarise as follows:
On taxation, their key suggestions are:
It is hard to argue that these proposals would not be good for Wales when that would obviously be the case.
Many of these suggestions will be familiar to readers of this blog because it looks as though Plaid Cymru, like the Greens and the Liberal Democrats, have adopted many of the ideas in my Taxing Wealth Report 2024: some of the figures look remarkably similar. I cannot be sure what the relationship between that Report and those three manifestoes is, but the coincidences do appear high.
I was also pleased to see this on a Weslh Green New Deal:
PC does, in my opinion, play an important role in Welsh politics, even though it remains a minority party. It champions Wales and the Welsh language.
Unlike Labour, which dominates the Welsh scene, it is a party of ambition.
It is willing to promote the interests of the people it seeks to serve, and not vested interests.
Its role in promoting the opinion of those who live in West Wales in particular, which is an area for which I have a strong affection, is important, and from my conversations there, I realise that it is appreciated.
All that being said, Plaid Cymru, like the Greens, knows that it will only have a few members in the coming Parliament, at most. However, the fact that it rightly claims to be a part of ambition on the cover of its manifesto is reflected in the document that it has published. What a shame it is that the majority of the English lead parties in this election do not share that characteristic with Plaid Cymru. The country would be in a much better place if they did.
Plaid Cymru may not have presented detailed calculations in the manifesto, but I can still see why it will win support in at least some parts of Wales.
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