Monday 6 October 2008

Hain in the neck



On Sunday's Politics Show, Peter Hain appeared to oppose the Welsh referendum pledge that his party have signed up to as part of the One Wales agreement (as the Hen Ferchetan reports here). He has said that a referendum should not take place before 2011, because we won't win. He clearly wants to be on the winning side. The whole point of having a referendum is to see whether the people want what is on offer. Waiting for public opinion to change when the pledge has already been made defeats the object. The 'Yes' campaign will take our case to the people of Wales. Do people want a stage-managed referendum?

Welsh Ramblings has questioned whether Hain really is committed to more powers for the Assembly. Times have changed since the Labour party in Wales had its course decided by its MPs rather than its AMs. Welsh Labour's Assembly Group should decide and are deciding their own agenda now. They should have the final say on where Welsh Labour stands on this referendum, not Peter Hain or any other out of touch MP. There is a growing realisation now that Thatcherite policies and economics have been unsustainable and are leading to the possibility an economic collapse. The need to break away from the London consensus has never been clearer, and getting a Parliament, despite its limitations, is the most obvious next step forward. There are difficult times ahead and we should remember Gwyn Alf Williams who wrote how in the past the people were "left naked under an acid rain" of Thatcherism.

5 comments:

Draig said...

So where is the Yes campaign? I don't see any leadership being offered on this matter. Is it any surprise that Hain and a tiny group of "No" campaigners are basically doing the running at the moment?

Scotland under Salmond marches onwards towards Independence, and what are we doing? Whistling hopefully and staring at our shoes!

Unknown said...

A very nice title to your post, Leanne!
I agree he is a real Hain and one we could well do without.

Unknown said...

Fair comment from Draig, Leanne?

Leanne said...

It certainly is a fair comment.

Interestingly, there is no 'Yes' campaign in Scotland either, for their independence referendum.

We do need a 'Yes' campaign but it can only be launched on a co-ordinated basis by all the political parties and other groups that will want to participate.

We don't need to worry about the 'No' campaign. David Davies and a handful of right-wing councillors can do what they want, we should wait until the time is right and not let them decide our strategy.

I am confident there will be a referendum by 2011 and I know we can win it.

Unknown said...

I watched the broadcast on the Scottish Parliament debate on independent digital TV broadcasting for Scotland and it was very positive. Alex Salmond has won them over and obtained cross-party support.
Let us hope that the Assembly will obtain this degree of unity when the debate takes place!