Plaid pledges to fight Westminster’s cuts
By politics.co.uk staff
Welsh nationalist leader Ieuan Wyn Jones is prioritising jobs and education as he mobilises his party for elections on May 5th.
The Welsh Assembly deputy first minister will use his speech to the party’s spring conference later to argue that the next Welsh government will have to take the initiative and accept responsibility, after years of “excuses” from Labour.
Plaid Cymru and Labour have been in coalition in the Welsh Assembly, but are now gearing up for devolved administration elections this May.
Mr Jones will use his speech to pledge ongoing opposition to the Westminster coalition’s spending cuts agenda – without blaming the cuts for poor performance. This, he will say, “has not and will not be Plaid’s way”.
He will say: “We are at a crossroads. In this election we have a choice.
“Should it be about allowing the other parties to manage decline in our key public services, or should we rise to the challenge and meet the expectations of our people in what a Plaid government would insist will be a decade of delivery.”
A dedicated company to invest in essential capital projects, a Welsh Growth Fund and a plan to halve illiteracy rates by the end of the next Assembly term are on Plaid’s agenda.
The party is also promoting its plans to introduce fast broadband throughout Wales, improve mobile phone reception and invest in better transport links.
“Now is the time to transform Wales into the country we want it to be,” Mr Jones will add.
“We know that people expect nothing less of Plaid Cymru. Wales needs a party of government that will keep its word and is true to the values it holds dear.”
