Labour must re-offer Plaid a formal deal

Adam Price the Senior Plaid Cymru MP has called upon Welsh Labour to re-offer Plaid a Red-Green Coalition (here and here) and there is a serious case for Welsh Labour to offer such an agreement to Plaid Cymru and go into a red-green coalition, and the reasons for which are the following:

Firstly the current minority government, going along with 'progressive agreements' is unsustainable, Labour cannot keep saying to the opposition, "here we will do this for you, by the way here is our backside give it a kick while you at it" because sooner or later they will kick it hard enough to get Labour out of the door and into opposition, and would end up damaging how electable Welsh Labour is for quite a while. It is also even more important that we get a working consensus in the Assembly, Wales cannot cope with an unstable government that could fall at any moment, it would not be good for the people of Wales, nor will it be good for Welsh democracy. A struggling government trotting along for months with an opposition just waiting to get the boot in, is very, very bad for the governance of Wales, and would be the fault of both Welsh Labour and the current opposition parties, and the Welsh public shouldn’t forgive any of them, if they were to allow this farce to go ahead, like it is at the moment.

Another reason why Labour needs to team up with Plaid, is because it would be the best thing to get a radical, centre-left and hopefully socialist agenda on the cards. This would have to include getting a full-law making parliament, like the one Scotland has. This is because the current Assembly’s powers is too limited to make any real impact on fighting poverty and inequality in Wales. A full-law making parliament however would give Wales the ability to make serious measures to bring more social justice, fairness and equality to Wales. However a full-law making parliament in Wales should only be an ‘end to a means’ (more social justice), rather then Plaid’s means to a end (independence). Plaid should no-longer be seen as the enemy, or as an reactionary nasty nationalist party, but as an ally in the cause of making Wales a progressive nation.

There is also the case that, if Labour attempt to conduct a coalition deal with Plaid, in an open, honest, serious and fair manner, willing to listen and concede on many issues with Plaid, all talks must be done as openly as possible. This way we could put the ball in Plaid’s court. Plaid would have to show their hand, they would either have to come into a coalition with Welsh Labour, or turn around and admit that they want power for themselves, and don’t even want to listen seriously to what Labour have to offer (if the latter is indeed what Plaid want.) However if that is to work, Welsh Labour would have to give Plaid no real excuse to turn down the deal, and do anything reasonably possible from Labour’s end.

The way forward for Wales is Red-Green coalition with Plaid, that would give Wales what they really voted for in the Assembly elections, and would bring Wales forward into a modern and mature democracy, with the radical ideas and progressive values to improve the value of life for everyone in Wales.