Tuition Fees and Coalition Government:

When Labour and Plaid agreed to share power in Wales in 2007 they made a series of agreements and pledges that formed the basis of coalition government. We all know that agreement as One Wales. On the subject of tuition fees here is what One Wales has to say:"

"We will provide extra assistance with student debt and maintain existing fee levels in Wales up to and including 2009/10. We will maintain the current level of resource throughout the four year Assembly term, doing whatever is possible to mitigate the effects on Welsh-domiciled students if the Westminster government lifts the cap on fees in 2009."

Unfortunatley Labour's interpretation of "whatever is possible", at this juncture, is to follow the lead from Westminster, and saddle Welsh students with additiontal burdens of debt come 2011. Labour's proposals may follow the letter of One Wales, but they certainly abandon the spirit of the agreement. Disappointingly Plaid leaders in Welsh government seem all to ready to temporarily suspend principle in this instance, and try to reshape Plaid's policy to suit Labour's planned public spending cuts. In the process of doing this they wish to ride roughshod over Plaid's election promises not to introduce tuition fees if in power.

Ieuan Wyn Jones (Plaid's affable, diplomatic, and somewhat inert leader, in case you missed him) may well point to pragmatism. He can also talk of the limits on ambiton that come with coalition governement. In this he has a point. The purpose of government is to slice the pie as fairly as possible, and as we are dependent on Gordon Brown the portions tend to be stingey- cuts to higher education spending are part of this process, arguably, brought to a head by recession. Ieuan fails to note however the other aspect of government. Which involves campaigning and standing by what you profess to believe in- and doing what you said you would do. It is a sign of the cynicism of the times that this seems naive- but pragmitism must be wedded to idealism if politicians, and democracy, are to serve any purpose. The career of most politicians, the average ones that is, are determined by the ability to compromise. The career of remarkable politicians is shaped by their refusal to do so. In this sense, by trying to alter a key Plaid policy mid-term- Ieuan Wyn Jones reveals himself as an unremarkable politician- closer to his colleagues in government than he is to the wishes of his own party.

All this points to a much wider problem at the heart of coalition governement. I know as a party activist I am not alone is asking what Plaid are attaining, and how are Wales benefitting, through our presence in government. Key policies cannot be introduced through the loathsome cumbersome LCO process, as there is constant interference from disgruntled MPs. Wales stands to lose a mammoth £500 million in future spending. The All Wales Convention is grinding slowly to the already suspected conclusion that a referedum on further powers is both winable and loseable. Devolution could even potentially be deferred rather than progressed even with Plaid in power.

This is hugely frustrating as in Europe, Assemby, and Westminster, Plaid have so much to offer. In government however we begin to risk being seen as New Labour's lackeys with added patriotism. There seems little point in supporting a party that will, when push comes to shove, endorse, however reluctantly, key policies they opposed when in opposition. Plaid are better than this split on tuition fees. The cost of power should never be the abandonment of key principles- not unless that Tony Blair and his ilke were right all along?! And that can't be right.

Notes on Welsh Nationalism and Happy New Year

Over Christmas I went to my brother's house for lunch. It was a family affair with a grand buffet, the normal kind of Christmas family party that I hated from my mid-teens until my 20s then started to enjoy again a few years back.

Over a sausage roll (staple Christmas fare) he asked me- "you still writing for those nationalists then?" This use of the word nationalist pricked my ears, as it is a most often used by those attacking Plaid. Nationalism does not enjoy a universal positive image in the UK. The legacy and memory of two world wars ensures that the word is viewed with a suspicion. The trick of those who would attack plaid is to try and make an unmentioned link between nationalism and fascism. But as anyone who has viewed Plaid's policies can tell you there is hardly a right wing bone in the body politic. In fact Plaid's policies, like those of Nationalist governments and parties the world over (SNP, Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail, Catalanists), veer from centrist liberalism to socialist (while never, obviously, becoming national socialist) As a party I think it is fair to say Plaid are well to the left of the current Labour party, and to the right of, for example, the SWP. The left/right divide is of course a crude and increasingly inadequate model for understanding the political spectrum.

There are of course innumerable nationalist parties out there that harbour vile right wing elements. The Northern League in Italy (Italian regionalism in general has a distinctively right wing flavour) would be a prime example of this. The Republican party of the US is another. It goes to prove that words and concepts are tricky. Meanings are not fixed. And nationalism is a schizophrenic entity. For every Bismark there is a Michael Collins.

Crudely speaking nationalism has its roots in two distinct historical tendencies. One being libertarian republicanism, which first found expression in the US and French revolutions, and the writings like those ofTom Paine. The other kind of nationalism has its roots in fascism and national socialism. The kind preferred by Franco, Musolini, and Hitler, that champions the myth of rebirth and the myth of the nation. It is laced with social conservatism and racism. However, nearly all political movements have swallowed and embraced nationalism to some extent. We are all of us nationalists really.

Unless you believe in the immediate dissolution of the EU, the UN, the removal of all national borders and all nation states by means of revolution, you yourself are a nationalist in one form or other. But I guess we don't think of it like that most the time. We rarely interrogate our identities, they seem implicit rather than fluid. Identity however is not fixed, especially not national identity.

So when asked if I am a nationalist I say yes. While not without problematics it seems no crime to me, and I am proud to state, that the Welsh people deserve sovereignty. We all of us regardless of nation deserve democratic institutions answerable the the people. Power should be disseminated to the masses. The greatest happiness for the greatness number of people is only attainable once the greatest number of people have the power to attain autonomy and mastery over their socio-political destiny. This is where socialism comes in. I am pipe dreaming and waxing lyrical of course, but there is a proud tradition of this in Wales and beyond. "I am not the only one of my kind".

Either way, word up, here is one hope for the new year.

That the sovereignty and rights of the people of Palestine are respected in equal measure as Israel's right to exist. Another pipe dream of course, but never-the-less an historical imperative.

Happy new year to you all and thanks for reading x

Review Of the Year

It is that time of the year again. A time of taking stock of all that you have, or more likely would like to have. A time when we turn to family, tinsel, and maybe the idea of the innocent baby Jesus, to stave off the yawing emptiness at the edge of our lives.

It has been a funny old year. On a personal level I am grateful for my partner's much improved health, the new flat, and the handful of poems, articles, and essays I've had published. And the few songs I've manged to write and perform with the aid of my trusty acoustic guitar.

This world is bigger than me however, at least the world feels bigger than me, which is why I joined a political party. The most openly democratic, and leftist party, in Wales that is. As Ron Davies once said "devolution is a process not an event." I am pleased with my tiny contributions to this event- an event which could, with time and luck, see a dynamic Wales and Welsh people, institutionally ready to face the numerous challenges ahead, and an example of democracy and co-operation in practice. Such heady aspirations are of course flavoured with cynicism.

This year, for example, we have seen:

The Iraqi government start selling off www.handsoffiraqioil.org The Iraqi people's oil reserves. Such a moves render the invasion and occupation a total commercial success while cementing the legacy of humanitarian disaster.

The world watched on with a face somewhere between horror and disapprobation as Burmese rulers sat upon their hands after the country was hit by acyclone and aid failed to be distributed.

The collapse of the Western Financial sector. Our liberal capitalist system was only saved by state intervention on an unprecedented scale. The coffers of central treasuries around the world have been ransacked in order to ensure the continued lack of integrity in the global capital markets and the restoration of the appearance of liquidity. All in all it is a vindication of Lenin's maxim 'that capitalists will always have the funds to prevent any crisis, as long as it is the workers that foot the bill.'

There were no palpable human rights improvements in China as a result of the OlympicGames. Any cynicism from the Welsh people is largely drowned out by cheers as Nicole Cooke brings home the first British Gold medal.

Bolivia faces an internal crisis as the country's wealthy elite make the most self interested claims for autonomy ever. The media, and the left in general, is weirdly silent in its support for the Evo Morales government (even if Tony Benn et al did eventually send out an excellent letter to the broadsheets)

Civilians suffer as Russia is engaged in a game of geo-political chess in Georgia

Italy elect Silvio Berlusconi (again). He forms a coalition with the far right and Italy is given a de facto fascist government (again).

The US electorate defy prejudice and a somewhat dicey electoral system to elect Barrack Obama. He'll take the reins of this imperial looking democracy in the New Year.

There is no real development in the fight against Climate Change, just the familiar prevarication.

Closer to home

Gordon Brown doubles the income tax burden on the poorest in society by imposing a 100% income tax increase on the lowest earners, he then has to backtrack (a little bit). Tax rises for the richest are postponed until after the next election.

Benefits are to be reformed. It seems the sick and incapacitated might be forced to work for free at Tescos or the suchlike in order to keep benefits.

Wales sees a 25% increase in unemployment in three months. Public sector jobs are still cut in Wales.

New Labour first want to shut 1000s of post offices, then want to keep them open. Now it seems they wish to part privatise them.

Key Plaid policies like the Welsh Language Act, and the reversal of the right to buy, are given a hard time by New Labour MPs as they come before them in the form of LCOs. Some talk (correctly) of a constitutional crisis. Most people are unaware of this as they don't know what LCO stands for.

Everyone's favourite droll mopheaded bumbling reactionary closet racist Boris Johnson is elected as mayor of London.

An open verdict is returned on the John Charles De Menezes shooting. The jury were prohibited from returning the verdict of unlawful killing.

Gwent Ambulance response times are among the worst in the UK. (a post on this subject is forthcoming)

On the plus side

Plaid make some gains and new Labour suffer massive defeats in the local elections. Even Kier Hardie's old stomping ground of Blaenau Gwent is lost by New Labour.

SNP make key gains in Scotland- even taking Glasgow East.

There is a special fund for sub-post offices.

Train lines are finally being improved and extended in Wales.

There is a special mortgage relief fund in Wales.

It looks like the devastatingly awful idea of an M4 relief road is all set not to happen (as the Welsh transport budget has been syphoned off to pay for the London Olympics, apparently)

OK- that concludes my review of the year- if there anything that I've missed (there must be) please fill me in...

Calls For A Green Windfall Tax

Earlier this year, after much pressure from the left both inside and outside of the New Labour Party machine, it was announced that a windfall tax was under consideration.

Then- a short time later a windfall tax was categorically ruled out . Just one day after the French nuclear giant EDF announced it would buy the UK's creaky nuclear assets after all. I am not saying the two decisions are connected. But it is foolish to think that a Windfall Tax on profits would not necessitate a restructuring of the EDF offer. Business sense dictates that you will pay a great deal less for, or not bother buying at all, a business that's profits will be taxed, than you would for business which is entirely shareholder friendly.

Going back to at least 2006 there have been calls for a windfall tax based at least in part on Norwegian Oil Legacy programmes. Yet the debate in the UK did not explicitly mention leaving non carbon emitting energy out of the tax. Perhaps this was assumed. But it was not made clear.

A green tax of this nature would be a masterstroke. By ring-fencing carbon tax revenues the government could create a giant capital fund- the interest payments on this could presumably be directed at alleviating fuel poverty. It would also incentivise investment in green technology green energy projects. The energy companies could effectively claim tax back, and this would accordingly be directed at schemes that reduce emissions and create jobs.

That is one possibility. I'd be very interested in running it passed Hilary Benn and Ed Milliband. Given that this New Labour government has presided over one of the lowest tax regimes for the rich ever, while forcing the burden onto the working and middle classes, I won't be expecting a positive response. I'll let you know though. Interesting to note that this proposed tax would exempt nuclear fuel energy providers from paying a penny- while opening up the door for them to receive huge investment grants. Could this make it more attractive to this New Labour government? If we suppose the windfall tax was a consideration for EDF then perhaps it would.

The other possibility is my favoured one. It involves nationalising the energy companies, breaking up the US owned national grid, and encouraging community owned, and produced, green energy. Together with bringing the costs of installing solar energy panels right down- by installing them in every home, and insulating every home (with wool, a commodity we the Welsh are rich in).

This second proposal is the clearly the more radical, and in keeping with my understanding of Plaid's ethos. It is ideas like this supported throughout the grassroots that, as I said at conference this year 'makes Plaid like Plaid, not just New Labour with a red dragon on the sleeve.' However- radical proposals would only be attainable after a period of transition. So the former proposal of a green windfall tax could help facilitate the latter.

I'd be fascinated to hear your thoughts. Clearly something needs to be done. The governments current policies of going nuclear, building an expensive and inefficient Severn Barrage, and making optimistic targets for decades into the future, with no plans of how they will be reached, are failing the climate. Failing the climate is failing our future. To be honest it seems New Labour favour the soft selling of climate change, in order to avoid risking the wrath of big business. The Tories are committed ideologically to more of the same. I despair of English politics, but at least in Wales Plaid offer a green, and progressive, alternative.

New M4 would be bad for business

I sent this letter out to the south wales Argus today (see below).

For those of you not in the know the Assembly is looking into spending several transport budgets all at once (£350 million) on a few miles of motorway skirting round Newport. Effectively this scheme is a bypass that allows you to bypass the existing motorway that itself allows you to bypass the centre of Newport. So road planning has reached the point where you need to build by-passes for by-passes.

Officially we are now at a point consultation with the motorway. Public, environmentalists, and businesses are being consulted. After this consultation the motorway will go ahead as planned. That is the normal result of such a consultation. Government can say how they have consulted and very carefully, and gravely, decided to do what they planned to do all along thank you very much.

The new M4 would also, somewhat incidentally, though none the less crucially in my opinion- carve through an area of scientific interest, home of cute little mice and voles, and roman ruins. Unfortunately environmental cases- however strong- rarely influence infrastructure decisions. Politicians and the public are both swayed more by economic rather than environmental concerns. For this reason all my campaigning against the motorway will be based on the unsound business case for this new motorway. It is this argument that the environmental lobby need to win if the motorway is to be stopped. The sad thing is that many people couldn't give a stuff for voles and curlews. Fortunately for the voles and curlews however- the business case for the motorway is frightfully weak, as this letter below hopefully begins to illustrate:


The proposed Levels M4 development in Newport would be bad for
business. Tolling motorists and freight vehicles twice- once at the
Severn Bridge, then again at the new M4 as planned, would deter rather than encourage business into Wales.

We are told by the New Labour politicians planning this scheme that the 'economic case' for this motorway justifies the £350 million cost. And that tolling this new stretch is a key to its economic viability. But this 'economic case' for the motorway is shaky at best. Just last week there was credible evidence that one toll at the Severn Crossing was damaging for Welsh business. Are we really meant to think that adding another toll deterrent just a few miles down the road will encourage business into Wales? This new toll will actively discourage investment.

All environmental concerns aside the more you study the Levels motorway proposal the more logically conflicted it becomes. The assembly would be better off holding on to this money and making improvements to our rail infrastructure instead. One key step to tackling climate change is freight on rail. As the new motorway proposal is environmentally unsound and economically incredulous it would be best for everyone if the plans were abandoned now.

Plaid of course are not against all new roads just as they are not against new development in general. Just this week Jonathan T Clark, Westminster candidate for Monmouth, was saying how a new trunk road was needed in the Caldicot area. Plaid are for development- but not when development satisfies only the needs of vested interests and rich lobbyists- but Wales and Welsh communities on the whole.

Scrap Council Tax?

That sounds 'controversial' (imagine me doing that annoying index finger gesture). However, now would be a fantastic time to rethink the existing council tax system.

Welsh councils have just been given a below inflation cash settlement from the government. While this doesn't sound to bad at first it doesn't take a genius to work out that, since councils are paying more for stuff like the rest of us, they will have to cut spending and jobs to make ends meet. Or, just as unpopular and unfair, raise council taxes. In fact council tax increases are abysmal- as it is the hardest pressed (usually the hardest working in my experience) who notice council tax increases the most. Cutting spending is equally dire. Less money for schools, for police, for refuse collection, leisure facilities, and all the other really important things councils pay for.

When governments cut council budgets they effectively pass the buck for spending cuts onto elected bodies that are not central government- thus spreading the blame when Primary schools need to close, or the lollypop lady gets the sack.

Spare a thought everyone for poor Blaenau Gwent- who this year voted out the New Labour council, and have been handed a measly 1.7% increase in spending, which is like a 3.8% cut (I am not saying these two events are connected or that the outgoing Labour council acted out 'slash and burn' tactics. I am not saying the same thing happened in Newport either. These are just scurrilous rumours.)

With greater powers for the Welsh assembly, and a Plaid government heading it up- we could see off this situation by introducing a local income tax. Plaid has long argued for this. Like conventional income tax local income tax would ensure the rich pay 'slightly' more for local services and the harder pressed less. The current system, based on anachronistic valuations of your house, is not really fair, and it leaves no room for equitable targeted increases directed at those most able to pay. In this way negative effects of a recession in Wales could be mitigated with Plaid in power.

So scrap council tax- of course not- rethink it- yes.

Mortgage Relief and the economy

In a fanfare, together with billions of squid being doled out to the banks, interest rates were cut last week. All part and parcel of the taxpayer rescuing the failed private sector.

It seems the model made so popular by Thatcher and Reagan, and subsequently deregulated further by Bush, has failed. It was a bad idea to take Adam Smith's enlightenment era advice of 'let the market alone' literally after all. As many of us knew before the credit crunch. The official line of 'no-one could have seen this coming' simply is not true.

Ideology aside the immediate evidence for now is that banks are not passing on the interest rate cut to those struggling with mortgage payments. In fact mortgage rates remain, at best, static. With massive support from the taxpayer to bail out banks in their hour of need the least we should expect in return are mortgage rate reductions, so that ordinary families can live free from the fear of repossesion.

With the limited powers and resources available to us the Plaid deputy housing minister Jocelyn Davies has already taken crucial steps to protect homeowners caught up in the current crisis. But the banks should be caring less about profit and more about their consumers until this crisis has passed. One would hope for an immediate half a percent reduction in mortgage rates. With greater powers Wales could add this string to any bail-out actioned.

Unfortunately this rate cut does not seem to be on the cards and the most we can hope for in the short term is that the gloom mongering news is abated for a day or two and that the economy can take a breath and begin to recover.

The upshot of the entire rescue package is that New Labour, through effectively nationalising so many banks, inadvertently, and in a very roundabout way, end up fulfilling one of their key 1993 manifesto pledges. It is all very much the accidental death of New Labour economics.

Anyone hankering for a socialist utopia on the back of all this nationalisation should not get their hopes up though. It seems most unlikely that either the Tories or New Labour would allow for a similar nationalisation deal to be permitted for any part of the Welsh transport or energy sector. It is one rule for the bankers and another one for the rest of us. This incumbent government in Westminster are the same crew who were until recently declaring an end to boom and bust and asking the FSA to back off the banks. New Labour economics have failed-and in Wales only Plaid have a convincing programme to begin to replace it.

No hope in David promotion

Wayne David, MP for Caerphilly, was last week promoted to junior minister in Gordon Brown's government. This is clearly payoff for New Labour loyalty and it provides opportunity make a rubbish joke. How does a Welshman get a new Labour promotion? Carefully.

Very carefully in Mr David's case. He, like his Newport East colleague Jessica Morden, has carefully avoided voting against his government on one single occasion. In other words, like so many welsh new labour MPs, he was against an inquiry into the Iraq war, for post office closures, for abandoning the 10p income tax threshold, pro-ID cards, and for 42 days detention without charge (a measure that was abandoned today by central government in light of overwhelming cross party opposition in both places, lords and commons alike).

In South Wales it seems we are stuck for now with New Labour MPs who will do nothing to offend Westminster and upset the New Labour project. This, of course, is one reason among many why to vote for Plaid.

While it would be nice to applaud more Welsh representation at government level it seems David's promotion is nothing more than a thank you after years of forgetting his values and kow-towing to the likes of Blair and Brown. Hopefully the good people of Caerphilly will remember this come the long delayed general election and vote for Plaid. How delicious if Wayne David was to lose to Plaid again, as he did in Rhonnda not so long ago.