Labour lacks a Wales focus

A RECENT letter by Dr Keith Darlington in the Western Mail provided an excellent analysis of the dichotomy that exists in the Labour Party in Wales regarding devolution.

Despite having been the sole or principal part of the administration since the inception of Welsh self-government, Labour as a whole, still lacks a profoundly Welsh focus. The party in Wales remains the prisoner of the London leadership, which prioritises winning power at Westminster over its responsibilities as the governing party of Wales.

Is its increasingly ossified, ostrich-like unionism capable of a reboot?

The UK Labour Party clearly sees Labour’s Welsh seats as crucial to any hope it has of returning to government at a UK level but the loss of its traditional Scottish support makes such a return unlikely in the near future, despite the appalling ineptitude of the current UK Government.

Labour in Wales wastes far too much energy attacking Plaid Cymru, though Plaid seems to have ideas that are more creative and relevant to Wales’ problems. A recent article by Mick Antoniw (in nation.cymru) criticised Plaid Cymru for its “ultra-nationalism”. This patently absurd statement is not untypical of some Labour politicians in Wales. It’s particularly depressing for someone

like me who has supported the Labour Party since being old enough to vote. Is this perhaps the opening shot in the usual Labour attack on Plaid whenever it feels threatened?

The war between the two parties has the nature of a blood feud rather than serious political argument and has been very damaging to Wales.

In the post-war era Plaid has shared the same social democratic outlook traditionally associated with Labour.

Indeed, since the Blair era Plaid has become pretty much the repository of those values in Wales and Adam Price has much in common with the best of the old valley Labour MPS.

During the ‘ 50s there was a dialogue between prominent members of both parties regarding the possibility of setting up some form of Welsh selfgovernment, which makes this rather puerile and self-defeating feud all the more ridiculous.

Oh, for that kind of constructive dialogue now!

In my humble view there is very little prospect of a Labour Government with a decisive majority being formed at UK level any time soon.

No English/british government is likely to ever again espouse the kind of society envisioned by the 1945 government or pay any attention to the distinctive needs of Wales.

The social contract between the major parties that existed in the postwar era until being ripped apart by Thatcher & co will not, I fear, return on a UKwide basis.

We should no longer be at the service of the selfserving, tax-dodging, incompetent fantasists who run England and are always likely to.

However, there is certainly a prospect that an independent Welsh government could eventually get close to re-establishing a society based on those values of social justice and equality of opportunity that we once broadly

enjoyed.

The people who inspired my political views were the old Labour and trade union leaders who were both socialist and internationalist in outlook.

But I have never seen any contradiction between the self-determination of individual nations and an internationalist perspective.

It is surely the right of every people to rule themselves.

The Labour Party in Wales should itself become an independent entity and, like our country, free itself from the grim grasp of an increasingly dystopian England.

I SEATON Mumbles, Swansea

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