Sian Lloyd forecasts a sunny outlook for Plaid

Following our visit to Clwb yr Efail we ended our campaign of meetings and events with a rally on Conwy Quay on Tuesday morning in the company of BBC and ITV .

Sian Lloyd off the telly forecasted a sunny outlook for Plaid, sending us a special message of good luck especially inscribed on a rather nice cake.

The rally, the message and the cake all went down very well!

Diolch i ti Sian.

Phil

Plaid’s pensioner pledge travels length of Wales

Plaid’s pledge to tackle pensioner hardship travelled from South to North Wales, gathering signatures from Plaid Cymru candidates for this election.
We've attacked the London parties for their lack of action on pensioner poverty – condemning all three for betraying the most vulnerable elderly people by refusing to promise a state pension that is sufficient to live on.

The Plaid ‘Living Pension’ policy is central to the Westminster election manifesto. We have argued that it should be the starting point for relieving pensioner hardship.

Meeting people on the streets of Llanrwst, I was delighted to sign the pledge accompanied by my colleagues, Aberconwy AM Gareth Jones and Plaid’s Honorary President Dafydd Wigley.

Thousands of pensioners die every winter, because the current state pension doesn’t enable them to heat their homes and put food on their plates.

What is increasingly obvious now is that Plaid is the only party standing up for our pensioners. In Aberconwy especially, with a very high percentage of pensioners, a living pension is a crucial issue. Having been involved in the care sector for many years, I understand the financial difficulties faced by older people. It is nothing short of a national disgrace that many of our pensioners are having to choose between heating or eating.

I’m very proud of the stance that Plaid has taken to tackle these circumstances – and for any of the three London parties to say that they can’t afford a proper pension disgusts me, while at the same time, they continue to mount illegal wars and fund weapons of mass destruction.

It’s a betrayal of thousands of people who have paid taxes their whole life in order to get a decent state pension. Plaid will always put the most vulnerable first – and it is a question of priorities this election.

Nobody can be sure how domestic fuel prices will rise over the coming years, but the forecast is extremely worrying.

The more Plaid MPs we have following this election, the stronger our voice will be to fight for a state pension that people can actually live on.

Phil

Stop this fuel tax disgrace - duty hike must be postponed

Today we've renewed our calls for a freeze on fuel duty ahead of the Budget on Wednesday.

Fuel duty is set to rise by a further 2.55 pence per litre from April 2010 (1% above the rate of inflation) which will cost the average family an extra £200 a year and cause further problems to small businesses already struggling with higher fuel duties. Plaid has insisted that this duty hike should be postponed.

Campaign organisations such as the Road Haulage Association and local dairy farmers and contractors have come out in support of our calls for a fair fuel duty regulator. Under such a plan, an unexpected spike in petrol prices would lead to a freeze on fuel duty.

MPs from Plaid and the SNP have tabled an Early Day Motion urging a freeze on fuel duty and repeating calls for the establishment of a fuel duty regulator.

This will be the third time in as many years I have called for the introduction of a fuel regulator. It is the people of Aberconwy that will feel the pinch again if this fuel hike goes ahead. This will affect everybody from our dairy farmers, small businesses, and our struggling tourism industry. But as ever, it is always those who can afford the least who will be hit the hardest.

This is an issue that affects all parts of Aberconwy. Hard-working families feel the struggle of trying to run a car, but also these sky-high fuel taxes also impact on businesses, on prices in stores as costs rise to deliver food and other products to the shops, on the emergency services and on other public services.

Many people do not realise that when the VAT was decreased, the Westminster Government stuck an extra tax on fuel to compensate. That extra tax is still there and we are now facing another hike on top of it. This is deceitful and underhanded and I urge the Chancellor to come clean and give our people a break.

I'm pictured here with agricultural contractor Arwyn Vaughn who like every rural business will be badly affected by this fuel hike.

More from my colleague, Plaid's Parliamentary Leader Elfyn Llwyd MP, follows.

Phil Edwards

Rising fuel duty prices are already crippling industry – but it is also an unfair burden on struggling families, small businesses, rural areas in particular, and also sectors such as the emergency services will be hit especially hard by this.

This is just punishing ordinary people for a banking system failure that the London government helped to create. If the Chancellor needs to raise revenue he should do this by doing more to address tax avoidance by the affluent.

He needs to go much further than he has so far in introducing a genuinely progressive tax system. For example he could abolish the pension tax relief for the wealthy - not simply reducing it - and introduce he higher rate of tax at £100k not £150k. 

We will continue to fight this fuel hike and urge the introduction of a fuel duty regulator at the Budget to ensure price stability as well as lower fuel taxes.

Elfyn Llwyd MP

Notes:

Plaid Cymru has long campaigned for a new mechanism to cap petrol prices. Together with the SNP, a motion to amend the Finance Bill in 2008 to create a Fuel Duty regulator, was voted down by Labour.

1. FUEL DUTY Early Day Motion, tabled this week by Plaid’s Adam Price MP and the SNP’s Stewart Hosie MP, reads:

That this House notes the recent unexpected spike in the price of petrol at the pump, recognises that unexpected increases in the price of fuel impacts significantly upon hard-working families, businesses of all sizes, seriously affects those living in rural areas who have no transport alternative except private cars, and impacts upon the costs of public services; recognises the need for greater research, development and support for reducing our dependency upon oil for everyday use, but in the short-term calls for a freeze on fuel duty in this Budget to protect those affected by the current price spike and further calls for a fuel duty regulator to prevent unexpected spikes in prices from affecting hard working families in future.

2. SNP/PC motion last vote on 2 July 2008 (Finance Bill) – 308 to 14. Labour voted against, Cons and Lib Dems abstained. PC and SNP voted for. 2 weeks later, 16 July 2008, Tories put down a similar motion.

Conwy Castle flies the flag on St David’s Day

Phil Edwards has welcomed the sight of the national flag, Y Ddraig Goch - The Red Dragon, flying once more over Conwy Castle, after being absent from its flagpole for many months.

Following complaints from local people about the missing flags, Phil took the issue up with CADW and the Welsh Assembly Government.

Officials confirmed to Phil last week that the flag would be back flying over Conwy today, St David's Day, and so it was!

"Y Ddraig Goch - our national flag, had been absent from its flagpole over the Castle for some months now and, despite my best efforts to find out why, no-one in officialdom was providing me with a satisfactory explanation," said local Conwy man, Robin Jones, who then complained to Cllr Phil Edwards and Cllr Tony Tobin, leaders of the Plaid Group on Conwy County Borough Council.

Phil Edwards took up the issue with CADW and its boss, Heritage Minister Alun Ffred-Jones AM, asking for an explanation and an assurance that the flag would be flying in time to celebrate St David’s Day.

Responding on behalf of the Minister, a spokesman explained:

"There have been a number of health and safety concerns linked to the flying of the Ddraig Goch at Conwy which we have been seeking to resolve and which have prevented us flying any flags from the Castle. Primarily these relate to the hoisting mechanism, which causes some staff difficulties, particularly on windy days, and the problems with seagulls."

Phil Edwards said:

"Conwy Castle has towered over the town since the 13th Century and it’s slightly ironic that, given the brutality of Edward 1st towards the Welsh and the violent history surrounding Conwy Castle , 800 years later Health & Safety steps in and prevents us from hoisting a flag up a pole!

"St David was famous for saying ‘do the little things’ and the least we can do is to make sure that our proud heritage is protected and we fly our flag over Conwy on the day we remember and celebrate Wales ’ Patron Saint."

CADW’s spokesman then confirmed:

"We are continuing to explore solutions to these problems but have in the meantime taken the decision to continuously fly the Ddraig Goch between 1st March and 30th September each year (changing it when its condition dictates). I can therefore confirm that the Ddraig Goch will be flying on St David's Day this year."

Phil Edwards stressed the importance and significance of the flag being flown throughout the year adding:

"I’m hopeful that, whatever the difficulties are at the moment, they can be resolved before next September so as to allow the flag to be flown all year round."

Robin Jones, who first raised the issue with Phil, said:

"I’m delighted that CADW have finally responded in such a positive manner and I am very pleased that Y Ddraig Goch is flying once again from Conwy Castle on St David's Day."

Phil calls for national debate on policing

Had a hectic couple of days in Cardiff for Plaid's pre-election conference.

Everyone was in bouyant mood and great spirits and I can rarely remember such a sense of optimism in advance of any election, let alone a General Election for the UK Parliament.

Here's the speech I gave to the Civil Rights Panel in the Saturday morning session of conference.

Please feel free to comment on my call for a national debate on policing.

Best wishes

Phil

The issue of civil rights has a direct impact on our daily lives, whether we believe it or not, whether we like it or not.

It can't be seen as an abstract issue nor one confined to some policy document gathering dust on a shelf somewhere in the Home Office.

It may be true that in the past generally many of us may have taken our own rights for granted, understandably maybe because we want to be safe, we want to feel safe in our homes and walking the streets. But scaremongering is a very useful tool for a Government to use when it wants to get its own way.

ID cards to combat the threat of terrorism are a prime example. It was sold to us by a control freak government as a panacea that would resolve this threat and then keep us all safe, which of course is now widely accepted as being dangerous nonsense.

Most of us want the Government, and the by that I mean the Police, to catch criminals if they burgle our houses, lock away child molesters, murderers and rapists, and generally keep us from harm.

What we don’t want, or need, is to be spied upon constantly in our daily lives. That is what they used to do in the USSR under the Communists and still do in some other repressive countries.

Organisations like Liberty, an independent organisation that looks after human rights and our rights as free citizens, have taken a battering from the ‘establishment’ because they have dared to stand up and challenge them.

But we can’t afford to leave the protection of our civil rights to Liberty.

Our freedom and our basic rights were hard fought for - by our grandparents and great grandparents -we must protect those freedoms and cherish them.

We all have a duty to do that.

The role of the police changed fundamentally under the Thatcher Government. Ken Clarke, then Home Secretary launched an Inquiry into Police Responsibilities by Sir Patrick Sheehy – the Chairman of the British & American Tobacco company. An ideal man to protect our rights and look at policing? I think not.

By the way, Ken Clarke became a director of BAT a short time later.

They convinced themselves – as the Tories always do – that you can run everything like a business.

How stupid and dangerous a concept that turned out to be as Labour has grasped that concept and proved time and again that it will restrict our liberties at every opportunity. Labour has introduced some 3,500 new ways of breaking the law since it came to power.

The Tories, slavishly followed by Labour, embarked on a policy of setting targets and objectives which on the face of it may sound harmless enough – but actually that policy has taken bobbies off the streets, it has closed our police stations and it forces the police to focus on issues that are government-led.

So if it’s not a target or an objective - it’s not a priority. If it’s not a priority it doesn’t get done. If you can’t count it, it isn’t worth doing.

And basic police work like preventing crime is replaced by ASBOs and public reassurance is provided by people in uniform who are not attested nor have even basic powers of arrest or stopping vehicles.

The worst thing we can do now is to look at these issues in isolation or deal with them in a piecemeal fashion.

Policing in a democracy is a complex business. It is linked directly to our individual rights at citizens and it's my firm view that we need to have a national debate on policing. We, the people have a right to have a say about how we are policed which is the very basis of policing in the UK – Policing by Consent.

Lose sight of that basic principle and we are on very dangerous ground.

We need to revisit and review the laws that have been rushed in under the guise of prevention of terrorism acts and laws that allow councils to spy on its own rate payers.

Last week we launched a discussion paper on having our own Jurisdiction in Wales. When that arrives we need to commit Wales to review every law that currently stands and decide whether it becomes a Welsh Law or not

We need to have responsibility for policing in Wales to be devolved so that we can decide whether the current metropolitan system is what we need or whether we need to develop a new community-based system, accountable and answerable locally, with bobbies working in their own communities preventing and detecting crime.

And we need a system that is centred on justice for the victims of crimes and where there is honesty and faith in sentencing policy.

This will be a huge challenge but guided, as we will be, by the principles of justice, fairness and integrity as the very basis of our thinking, we will succeed.

Phil and Elfyn seek solution to Llanrwst football pitch problems

Elfyn Llwyd MP is to take up the problem of Llanrwst United’s waterlogged football pitch with senior officers of Conwy County Borough Council following a meeting arranged by Phil Edwards.

Mr Llwyd was recently invited to see for himself the damage to the pitch which has allegedly got worse since the construction of new drainage systems under the road next to the new Hafan Gwydir development.

Such is the state of the pitch that Llanrwst United’s junior team is now forced to play in Betws-y-Coed.

Cllr Phil Edwards, Plaid’s Deputy Leader on Conwy County Borough Council, arranged for Elfyn Llwyd to meet local councillors Siân Lloyd-Jones and Ian Jenkins at the site along with John Berwyn Pritchard, Chairman of Llanrwst United’s Junior Section.

Elfyn Llwyd MP said:

“We cannot go on with a ruined football pitch and teams with nowhere to play. John Berwyn has every right to complain about this sad state of affairs and I will be writing to senior officers in Conwy to ask for their urgent assistance in sorting this problem out.

“I’ve had a similar case in Blaenau Ffestiniog where the football pitch had become waterlogged and unusable. That’s now been fixed and I hope the experience of putting that right will help in efforts to resolve this problem in Llanrwst.”

Phil Edwards added:

“I’m pleased that our local MP is now to take up the case. I hope that Elfyn’s involvement and his experience with similar issues in Blaenau will help bring about an early solution to this problem.”