20/09/2016

The Problem for Plaid is local government


Ifan Morgan Jones has made an interesting post on his blog on why he thinks  Plaid Cymru should move to the centre-ground, I have left a comment there on why I think he's wrong.

I do however, agree with one of his comments :
"They think: Which of these parties is run by people who are politically and culturally like me? Can I trust them to run the economy - do they understand my aspirations?"

But i don't agree with his attempt at resolution of the problem.

Changing where the party's political rhetoric stands on a left/right spectrum is not how to achieve the goal, the way to achieve it is by electing people "who are politically and culturally like me" at those levels of government that are lower than Europe, Westminster and the Assembly.

In the last round of local elections hundreds of county councillors were elected unopposed, including Labour, Lib Dem & Independent councillors in places like Gwynedd, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire. There were some counties where the BNP had more candidates than Plaid and counties where not a single Plaid candidate stood; many thousands of community councillors were elected unopposed.

This is an area that the party needs to look at with urgency, and should contact all members with details of what standing / being elected involves before the next round of local elections in May 2017.

Getting members elected at the lowest level will also help with the other perennial Plaid problem, press coverage. Most Welsh people read London daily papers, but they also read local weekly papers. My local weekly is unlikely to report on what Leanne said in Cardiff, but it will report on how John Jones, the Plaid councillor for Llanbethma ward agreed with her call for "yyy policy".

Every ward with at least one Plaid Candidate at community and county level, would be a huge boost to the party, especially if the party could agree to one strap-line slogan that all candidates had to use on all publicity such as "Wales needs independence" (example only better slogans may be available) .