Thursday 1 December 2011

Statement of intention to stand as Plaid Cymru leader

I have said I would consult with party members, friends and family over the past few months on standing for Leader of Plaid Cymru.

I believe on the basis of those conversations that I can offer something positive and exciting for the future of Plaid Cymru. I believe the best way to explain and set out the ideas and vision I have for the party is by entering the race to become party Leader. I do this with the intention of winning, but also knowing that such debates and contests reinvigorate parties and politics in themselves.

I believe Plaid’s current policies are broadly right. We are widely seen as the party that brings forward the ideas that shape Welsh politics and whose ambition and urgency moves the political process along. Without Plaid we would not have seen the referendum, or the Holtham Commission setting the groundwork for the Silk Commission. Plaid has set the pace since the election on demanding a Plan B for the Welsh economy and our views on capital spending – and our Build for Wales idea – are now mainstream.

Yet, we don’t get the credit for this, and we lost our second party status in the last election.

Clearly, our message is not getting through. Sometimes it is confused: I support independence as the constitutional aim for Plaid Cymru and our nation. But independence in not the answer to today’s immediate problems and focusing on arguing about it only encourages the voters to assume we are not addressing their daily difficulties.

Sometimes we have allowed other parties to steal and wear the clothes we first designed and fashioned.

More than anything, however, we have become a party of the Assembly, rather than the national party of Wales. One of my key tasks as Leader will be to take the leadership out to the nation as a whole as much as possible and recapture the high ground of putting Wales first. Lately, other parties have claimed those heights, but the reality is that both Labour and the Tories have increasingly bowed to their Westminster party demands; revealing their claims to be empty positioning.

So leadership from the Assembly but for the nation as a whole.

But what sort of leadership? I believe there is great value in being the first among equals. Plaid Cymru has a tremendous team of talent across the generations. Not all can stand for this particular post at this time. I will work in collaboration with all parts of the party to lead from the front, yes, but to bring people with me at the same time. I will urge the party to look at the widest range of talent and not focus its hopes and ambitions on one individual but rather expect that individual to bring out the best in the party as a whole.

I believe Plaid Cymru was born for government. We exist to bring about ever increasing self-government. We must shoulder the responsibility that comes with that. In the last decade or so we have helped create a Welsh state. But our ambition cannot end there. We have seen in the last few months that allowing one party to drift along in government is not healthy for the Welsh economy. Progressive politics in Wales will not be delivered by Labour. An athlete never gives of his or her best if they train or run on their own. Wales needs and deserves another radical, progressive party breathing down the neck of Labour and challenging its supremacy. As Leader I would want Plaid to plan for a two elections, ten year strategy and maintain the conditioning and fitness building that a party needs for that long haul.

But Plaid doesn’t just exist for the sake of Wales’ constitutional future. We exist to fight for and deliver fairness in social and economic policy. I believe in a mixed economy - I think Plaid Cymru should be concerned that the private sector is not as strong or successful as it could be. But Plaid Cymru should never be laissez faire about the impact of global capital on our communities. Regulating business for environmental and social benefit is a core value of the party I want to lead. The prize for Plaid is to marry our national ambition with a proper concern for the long term future of our planet. We live in a comparably well off society. But we don’t do enough to exploit our natural resources for the benefit of our people and our planet. Fighting for regulation, control and ownership of our wind, water, wave and solar resources will be a key aim of Plaid under my leadership.

Finally, I believe Plaid’s message needs to be heard afresh, in a different accent and in a different way. I am the product of a one parent family from Aberdar; I was raised in an English only home at a time when Welsh was seen as a curious remnant of the past . My politics were forged in class consciousness - my shoulders may even still bear some of the chips. My destination, however, was the politics of nation-building, as time after time I saw Labour sell out Wales for the hope of power in London.

100 years of Labour domination in Wales has only made us more dependent; less resilient; less resourceful. That culture of dependency is the last great barrier between Wales today and a better future for our nation. In all its myriad ways, shattering that is now Plaid’s historic task.

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