WHOSE NATURAL RESOURCES?

A water company, Southern Water - which serves customers in south eastern England, has states that customer demand is estimated to be double its available supply by 2020. As a result of climate change, a reduction of the amount of water allowed to be taken from natural sources, and a rise in population demand would outstrip supply. The company's plan for 2020-2025 sets out how it will overcome the deficit  by reducing leakage by 15% and encourage customers to use less water.

This could be good news for Wales, if we had control of our own natural resources and could benefit from a fair price for our water. For amongst our rich resources is the literal stuff of life – water. Water is likely to become a valuable resource for the people of Wales in future years, and who owns, it who controls it, and who benefits is likely to remain one of the key issues, of potential dispute between Westminster and Cardiff Bay. While our country’s voice has been significantly strengthened since 1999, with various Wales related acts, as yet we still do not have the same degree of control of our natural resources as either Scotland or Northern Ireland. 

Not for nothing does the issue of water rightly still understandably raises strong emotions and stirs long memories here in Wales. Some six years ago Boris Johnson (then Mayor of London, lately, after May 2015 an MP, former feign secretary and now with other things on his mind) was wittering on about the need for a network of canals being needed to carry water from the wet North to the dry South (for the ‘wet North’  read ‘Wales).

Cofiwch Dryweryn

Boris's revolutionary thought, not to mention his poor grasp of geography, was not a new idea, back in 1973, what was then the Water Resources Board, a now defunct government agency, wrote a major report that advocated building a whole raft of infrastructure to aid the movement of water, not to mention constructing freshwater storage barrages in the Ouse, Wash and Morecambe Bay, using a network of canals to move water from north to south, extending reservoirs and building new aqueducts, not to mention constructing a series of tunnels to link up river basins to aid the movement of water.

Despite the demise of the Water Resources Board in 1974 (two years before the 1976 drought) and its replacement by regional water management bodies, which were privatised in the 1980’s this issue has never really gone away. In 2006, the Environment Agency produced a report entitled "Do we need large-scale water transfers for south-east England ?" which in a refreshingly honest answer to its own question at the time was an emphatic ‘no’.

That said, faced with a prolonged period of drought in the South East of England, DEFRA itself held a drought summit on the 20th of February of 2012. The then Con Dem Government stated that it remained committed to the remaining legislative measures set out in its Water for Life agenda , which later became the Water Industry (Financial Assistance) Act.

The plan for water in 1973

That is as they say history, but whatever Westminster eventually decides to do in relation to water resources, we in Wales still need to have full democratic control of our own resources. Our resources incidentally should include those parts of our country where Severn Trent Plc runs our natural resources for a fat profit.

This process can begin with repatriating control of the Crown Estates and transferring control of lands in (and off-shore) to the Welsh Government in Cardiff. For the life of me I can see no realistic reason why this feudal anachronism cannot be consigned to the dustbin of history.

We need a whole Wales strategy to develop and to conserve our water supplies and our planning regulations will need to be tweaked or rewritten accordingly. We need to take a long hard look at our water resources and what we get for them and how we can develop them.

I see absolutely no reason why the Welsh people cannot fully benefit from any future exploitation of Welsh resources, including our water. Most politically aware people would not have been particularly shocked to discover that coincidentally that the Government of Wales Act (2006) thanks largely to Peter (now Lord) Hain (amongst others) specifically excluded the Assembly from making any laws relating to water supply – hmm – odd that isn't it?

Now such duplicitous behaviour on the part of New or re-born Old Labour is not to be unexpected. The problem is that it does little to engender any trust or visible demonstration of an understanding of devolution or Wales, especially when the bearded one’s version of Labour starts talking about re-nationalising the Water industry.

Putting Tory and Labour spin and rhetoric aside, the bottom line is that all our water resources should belong to the Welsh people, not to Private corporations or to the UK Government. Any future draft Wales Bill should strengthen the powers that we in Wales have over our natural resources and associated planning processes and devolve control of those parts of the Severn Trent water franchise to Wales.

A RELATIVE DEMOCRACY?

At the end of the day, the Welsh people should have a simple democratic right to have a greater say in something fundamental to civilised community life such as policing. This is already the case in Scotland, Northern Ireland, London and Manchester. Policing is only one side of the coin, to make devolved policing work, there is also a need to devolve control of criminal justice. 

I have been long convinced that now is the time is right to devolve policing powers to the Welsh Government in Cardiff. Devolving policing powers would increase the accountability of the Welsh Government; strengthen the democratic process by allowing decisions, which directly impact on the way our country is policed to be made, reviewed, revised and changed here in Wales. 

The recent Con Dem and Conservative cuts will continue to shape policing and set the policing agenda here in Wales for the next twenty years. At a very basic level policing decisions in Wales need to reflect the needs and concerns of our communities, not the cost cutting agenda of the current Conservative Prime Minister (and previous Home Secretary) and the Ministry of criminal justice in London.

Plaid Cymru has rightly pledged to “stop the thin blue line from breaking” and to boost funding for the Welsh police forces. The party’s Home Affairs spokesperson, Liz Saville Roberts, has pledged to boost police funding in Wales by devolving policing to Wales.

The Westminster Government last year delayed the introduction of a new funding formula for forces in Wales and England after a “statistical error” was discovered. Once this new funding formula is introduced, the Welsh police forces will be £32 million a year worse off.

The devolution of policing would mean the Welsh police forces would be exempt from the Tories’ planned £32 million cut to their budgets and would lead to an additional £25 million through being funded through the Barnett formula meaning a total difference in Welsh police budgets of £57 million between Plaid Cymru and Conservative policy.

Our police forces are in favour of devolution, as are all four of the Police and Crime Commissioners in Wales. 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 the choice of devolving Policing to Wales, the Conservatives voted it down and the Labour Party abstained.

It is worth noting that there are 19,704 fewer police officers in Wales and England since the Tories took office in 2010. It is also worth noting that the Scottish police force has been exempt from Tory cuts due to the fact that effective control of policing has been long devolved to Scotland.

Number of police officers in England & Wales statistics:

http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN02615/SN02615.pdf

IT’S STILL OUR WATER

Our cash in their pocket...

Putting the controversy of the totally tactless / seriously tasteless / completely crass [delete as appropriate] Iron Ring of the North aside, it s a symptom of part of the problem, in that our country is often perceived as some sort of giant theme part or outdoor pursuits park for others amusement or enrichment. This attitude also clearly applies to making a fast buck out of our natural resources often at our expense, especially if it can be financed by our public money.

While our country’s voice has been significantly strengthened since 1999, with various Wales related acts, as yet we still do not have the same degree of control of our natural resources as either Scotland or Northern Ireland. Amongst our rich resources is the literal stuff of life – water. Water is likely to become a valuable resource for the people of Wales in future years, and who owns, it who controls it, and who benefits is likely to remain one of the key issues, of potential dispute between Westminster and Cardiff Bay.

COFIWCH DRYWERYN

The issue of water still understandably raises strong emotions and stirs long memories here in Wales. Five years ago Boris Johnson (who was the then solely Mayor of London, but, after May 2015 an MP and after June 2016 other things) started wittering on about a network of canals being needed to carry water from the wet North to the dry South (for the ‘wet North’ in reality read much of ‘Wales).

Now Boris's revolutionary thought, along with his poor grasp of geography, was no new idea, in 1973, the then Water Resources Board, the government agency (now defunct) produced a major report that advocated building a whole raft of infrastructure to aid the movement of water, not to mention constructing freshwater storage barrages in the Ouse, Wash and Morecambe Bay, using a network of canals to move water from north to south, extending reservoirs and building new aqueducts, not to mention constructing a series of tunnels to link up river basins to aid the movement of water.

The Plan for Water back in the 1970's

Despite the demise of the Water Resources Board in 1974 (somewhat ironically two years before the 1976 drought) and its replacement by regional water management bodies, which were privatised in the 1980’s this issue has never really gone away. In 2006, the Environment Agency produced a report entitled "Do we need large-scale water transfers for south-east England ?" which in a refreshingly honest answer to its own question at the time was an emphatic ‘no’.

Yet faced with a prolonged period of drought in the South East of England, DEFRA itself held a drought summit on the 20th of February of 2012. The then Con Dem Government stated that it remained committed to the remaining legislative measures set out in its Water for Life agenda , which later became the Water Industry (Financial Assistance) Act.

That is as they say history, but whatever Westminster eventually decides to do in relation to water resources, we in Wales still need to have full democratic control of our own resources. Our resources incidentally should include those parts of our country where Severn Trent Plc runs our natural resources for a fat profit.

This process can begin with repatriating control of the Crown Estates and transferring control of lands in (and off-shore) to the Welsh Government in Cardiff. For the life of me I can see no realistic reason why this feudal anachronism cannot be consigned to the dustbin of history.

The stuff of life...

We need a whole Wales strategy to develop and to conserve our water supplies and our planning regulations will need to be tweaked or rewritten accordingly. We need to take a long hard look at our water resources and what we get for them and how we can develop them.

I see absolutely no reason why the Welsh people cannot fully benefit from any future exploitation of Welsh resources, including our water. Most politically aware people would not have been particularly shocked to discover that coincidentally that the Government of Wales Act (2006) thanks largely to Peter Hain (amongst others) specifically excluded the Assembly from making any laws relating to water supply – hmm – odd that isn't it?

Now such duplicitous behaviour on the part of New or re-born Old Labour is not to be unexpected. The problem is that it does little to engender any trust or visible demonstration of an understanding of devolution or Wales, especially when Labour starts talking about re-nationalising the Water industry.

Putting recent Tory and Labour spin and election rhetoric aside, the bottom line is that all our water resources should belong to the Welsh people, not to Private corporations or to the UK Government. Any future draft Wales Bill should strengthen the powers that we in Wales have over our natural resources and associated planning processes and devolve control of those parts of the Severn Trent water franchise to Wales.

MAKE WALES MATTER

Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood said:

“Wales does not decide UK election results.

“Voting Labour, time and time again, cannot stop Tory governments from being formed.

“That is why I'm calling on people to reject the arrogance.

“Don't let people tell you that voting for Plaid Cymru is a “wasted vote”.

“We've had MPs for fifty years. 

“Not once have we put the Tories into government or voted to keep them in power. Not once.

“For Wales to win, there is another choice we need to make.

“We need to make a positive choice.

“To put Wales onto the political landscape.“And the only way we can do this is by voting for the Party of Wales.”

NO FRIENDS OF WALES

It has long been recognised that the Labour Party much like the Conservative Party are “no friends of Wales”. Recently highlighting the party’s voting record in Westminster, Plaid Cymru’s incumbent in Carmarthen East & Dinefwr, Jonathan Edwards, accused the Labour Party of “double dealing” with politicians willing to deceive voters in order to win their votes.

The Labour Party of turning a blind eye to its record in the Welsh Government – voting against scrapping zero hour contracts, charging students £9,000 a year for their education and failing to keep public services in the public’s hands.

Voting for the Labour Party would be voting by tombola, says Mr Edwards, who says Labour MPs spend more time attacking their own leader than they do standing up to Theresa May.

• The Labour Party says it is opposed to the spending cuts imposed by the Tories in Westminster but they voted with the Tories to implement £30 billion of spending cuts, focussed mainly on welfare benefits;

• The Labour Party manifesto includes a commitment to scrap zero hour contracts but they opposed Plaid Cymru’s efforts to scrap compulsory zero hour contracts in Wales on seven separate occasions;

• The Labour Party voted to double the income of the royal family despite austerity measures for the rest of the country;

• The Labour Party voted with the Tories to reduce tax credit payments for the lowest paid workers;

• The Labour Party manifesto includes a commitment to devolve policing to Wales, but their MPs have repeatedly opposed Plaid Cymru efforts to do so;

• The Labour Party voted with the Tories to cut benefits for disabled people and those with long-term illnesses;

• The Labour Party didn’t show up to vote to ensure the Prime Minister had to take into account the objectives of Wales when conducting negotiations with the EU;

• The Labour Party voted against requiring future trade deals to have the approval of each of the four countries in the UK and instead voted for London to dictate terms;

Jonathan Edwards said:

“Every election the Labour Party says the same thing – that they are the party that can stop the Tories and that they will stand up for Wales but it is deeds not words that matter. Voting Labour doesn't stop the Tories - it gives us the status quo.

“Actions speak louder than words and the Labour Party's record speaks for itself. 

"Labour is no friend of Wales’. When they do bother to turn up to vote, more often than not they vote against Wales’ interests, not with them.

“In Scotland they are working alongside the Tories in councils and are working together to win Westminster seats between them. Jeremy Corbyn himself has consistently voted against devolution – keeping Welsh natural resources in the hands of Westminster politicians; keeping Wales as dependent as possible on Westminster. It was a Labour Shadow Secretary of State for Wales that ensured the cross-party consensus on strengthening Welsh democracy was torpedoed through the so-called St David’s Day Process.

“Whether Jeremy Corbyn likes it or not, his MPs vote with the Tories when it comes to helping the poorest. Labour voted for the £30 billion package of spending cuts that was primarily focussed on capping welfare payments to those who need it. They voted to reduce tax credit payments for the lowest paid despite supporting a vote to double the income of the royal family.

“Their manifesto says they want free tuition fees but they could do this today in Wales where they govern. Instead, Welsh students are charged £9,000 a year to go to university, thanks to Labour. They say they want to scrap zero hour contracts but they have had seven separate opportunities to do so in Wales and on each occasion, they either abstained or voted against Plaid Cymru.

“Their manifesto says they are in favour of devolving policing but they have consistently opposed this when it has come to voting on it. In fact the incumbent Labour candidate in the Rhondda said this week that he opposes it, despite it being in his manifesto.

“Putting a cross next to Labour in this election would be voting by tombola. Will you get a Corbynista, a Blairite or a Brownite? The only thing that’s certain with the Labour Party is that they will always have to answer to their head office in London, and never to the people who elect them.

“Even if Jeremy Corbyn were to be Prime Minister, the only way to force him to take notice of Wales - to remember that we exist and to deliver on crucial projects that have been ignored by successive Tory and Labour governments, is to make sure there’s a strong, loud and united block of Plaid Cymru MPs in the House of Commons, standing up for Wales at all times.

“Scotland has its block in Westminster. Wales needs its own Welsh block.

“The only way to ensure our railways are electrified, that the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon is delivered and that a road network fit for the 21^st century is built across Wales is to vote for Plaid Cymru, the party of Wales.”  

Labour's voting record can be found at the following links:

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2015-01-13&number=129

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2015-10-29&number=102

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2016-06-08&number=15

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2017-02-06&number=139

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2016-06-13&number=18

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2016-07-11&number=41

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2016-07-05&number=34

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2011-06-21&number=300

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2012-01-31&number=445

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2014-05-06&number=263

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2014-06-24&number=20​

Siân Damon at Abergavenny Hustings

Speaking at Abergavenny hustings @Plaid_Cymru #DefendWales #TarianCymru pic.twitter.com/dQXf43gxW2

— Sian Damon (@sianplaid17) June 5, 2017

Siân Damon for Monmouth

Siân Damon for Monmouth     

We know that Wales faces big challenges because the UK is heading for momentous change. Successive governments over the past 15 or so years, Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats in coalition, have created a society where everything is about the individual – about personal finance and self. That Policy has divided society; listening to each other, community values and working together have been replaced by fear and austerity.

Plaid Cymru is the only party that works in and for Wales and its people and is not bossed from Westminster. Without your voice, Wales is being treated like a neglected county of England. We must have strong representation in the Westminster parliament to defend our people and our country. Plaid is the only party that will fight for fair incomes for Welsh farmers, more money for the health service in Wales and support new industries. For the people of Wales today and for future generations, vote for a community party based on fairness and equal opportunity.

SILENCE IS LABOUR

The old legal concept that silence implies consent, which had existed since ancient times, was weakened when the Conservative government's moved to undermine the 'right to silence' in the late 1980's and 1990's. Yet more locally it has survived amongst local Labour politicians in Newport, especially in relation to the destruction of Newport's University.

Seeking votes prior to successive polling days local Labour politicians this year have endeavoured to make much of the potential of Newport's knowledge quarter, in and around the riverside campus of the University of South Wales. The city should take strides to develop its reputation of excellence when it comes to cyber security. Yet the case put by Labour is undermined by what happened to our city's University and their tacit consent in its destruction.

The demise of the former University of Newport, absorbed and asset stripped by the former University of Glamorgan, as a result of a combination of greed, stupidity, bad decisions and perhaps a failure on the part of the former management to understand how politics in Wales works, has done many of the former employees and the City of Newport few favours.

Despite the spin this was no merger, simply the removal of an educational rival and an asset stripping exercise, driven by a desperately ambitious Vice Chancellor (although admittedly sitting in the House of Lords as a Peer would not necessarily be the height of most people's ambitions).

In fairness to the former Management of the former University of Glamorgan, it can be said that they played a blinder, maximising the benefits of a close working relationship with Leighton Andrews, silencing the former board of governors, etc. All of those photo opportunities, dinners, freebies, etc for LA clearly paid off in the end. No wonder he needed to use the government limousine so much, prior to his eventual and much deserved electoral demise.

The same cannot be said for the former University of Newport, which regularly expended significant sums, to feed a rag tag bunch of Labour cronies (from various levels within the Labour machine) to little avail. When in trouble and seeking help the best they got was silence from a wide range of local Labour members at various levels - from Newport City Council, the National Assembly and Westminster.

So much for cultivating 'political influence' when it came to the crunch loyalty to the Labour machine counted more than any desire the save a significant local employer (600+ jobs) in Newport (and across the former county if Gwent) and a financial contributor to the local / regional economy (to the tune of £120 million a year).

The failure of local Labour elected' to speak out and to help our former University survive in its hour of need speaks volumes for the reality of the Party formerly know as New Labour in Wales. When it comes to the crunch party interests will always cone before community interests - something that should be remembered before casting our votes on June 8th.

CALL FOR INDEPENDENT AUDIT OF SECURITY

Plaid Cymru says Wales has potential to become cyber security centre of excellence, and has called for an independent audit of Welsh security resilience in the wake of a string of cyber security attacks on the public sector and the terrorist attack in Manchester last week.

The party’s candidate in Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, Jonathan Edwards, says that the decade of cut-backs on public spending has left our public sector at risk of cyber-attacks and that our security services’ ability to prevent terrorist atrocities like the Manchester attack should be independently audited, rather than investigated internally.

The NHS in England was crippled by a global cyber-attack last month in which hackers demanded a ransom after infiltrating the health service’s antiquated computer service. The NHS in Wales was not affected but in an earlier incident in March, thousands of Welsh NHS staff’s details were stolen in a hack on a private contractor.

Plaid Cymru warned in 2015 that almost 20,000 NHS computers in Wales were at risk of being hacked as Microsoft ended support for the operating system ‘Windows XP’ being used by the NHS.

It is suggested by terrorism experts that there are 500 potential terrorist plots against the UK thought to be current at any one time with 3000 people under investigation by the security services. There are a further 20,000 people identified as having sympathies with so-called Islamic State. Full surveillance on one person requires 24 officers in two 12 hour shifts. If all 3000 people under investigation were subject to full surveillance it would require 72,000 officers which is an impossible task. An independent audit would look at what resources would be needed in order to keep Wales safe.

Wales has expertise in cyber-security and is home to a National Cyber Security Academy in south east Wales. Mr Edwards believes Wales should build on its expertise and ensure Wales becomes a centre of excellence for cyber-security, not only strengthening our defences but also creating high-value, well-paid jobs.

Jonathan Edwards said:

“Keeping Wales safe and secure must be our top priority as politicians and making sure our country is adequately resourced to be able to resist the modern-day threats we now face is crucial.

“Plaid Cymru warned two years ago that our public sector is at risk of cyber-attacks and although the Welsh NHS evaded the crosshairs of those who attacked the English Health Service this time, there is no doubt that our NHS and other public organisations must reinforce their defences.  

“How we ensure our country and its people are safe is a matter of constant evolution and modernisation. The threats we face today are of a different nature to the threats we faced three years ago, let alone a decade ago. There are clear questions to be asked about how well-equipped our security services are in dealing with the threat of terrorism and I question whether the best way to answer those questions is for the security services to investigate themselves. We must carry out an independent audit of how well-equipped, well-prepared and how resilient our country is.  

“Experts suggest that the number of people across the British State who are under investigation at any one time is around 3000 and on top of that there are some 20,000 people who sympathise with organisations such as so-called Islamic State. To keep just one person under full surveillance requires 24 officers in two 12-hour shifts. It is clearly not feasible to expect that every potential person of interest to be under surveillance.

“The Tories are also intent on scaling back our police forces at a time when they should be being bolstered. If the Tories have their way after this election, the Welsh police forces will be £32 million a year worse off. We have to defend our police forces from this cut and the best way to do that is to devolve the police forces to Wales which would not only protect them from the Tory cut but also automatically lead to a £25 million boost to their finances every year. A difference of £57 million a year.

“We must also audit our public sector’s resilience to cyber-attacks. We are lucky to have the skills in Wales already through the National Cyber Security Academy and we should build on that. We could make Wales a cluster of expertise in digital security – not only bolstering our defences against cyber-attacks but also creating high-value, well-paid jobs in Wales. The Cyber Security Summit should be being held in Wales where the expertise is, not in London. The London parties will never think to make use of Wales’ expertise – they will always just focus on London and the south east of England. That’s why we need Plaid Cymru in Westminster, standing up for Wales and making sure Whitehall remembers that it is there to serve four countries, not just one. 

“What we cannot do is carry on as we are – hoping that we’ll cope when we are attacked again. An independent audit is a necessary step in determining what measures need to be put in place to keep Wales safe and secure.”