Don’t blame Plaid for list of Labour failures

GRAHAM Simmonds (WM letters, June 29) has a good point about European money and its effect on Wales; however he vents his anger at two parties, not one.

Let’s remember, the only direct influence Plaid have had was a minority role in the One Wales agreement from 2007-11. Otherwise, all we’ve had in almost 20 years since devolution, is lame, stale Labour. EU money used effectively for infrastructure training and jobs works wonders, as anyone who has visited Ireland over the same period will realise.

Lack of effective financial targeting by the Welsh Labour Government, coupled with the Westminster’s total focus on south-east England’s needs, for the past two decades leaves us still with a fiscal deficit about 24% between what we earn and spend. Yet all Carwyn and his cronies can do is complain that our “share” of Barnett is too low. Surely the aim must be to stand on our own two feet?

Leanne Wood has consistently stressed such a need and that decisions need to be made in Wales, not Westminster, on matters that affect our lives. She has always called for major investment in renewable energy in Wales – but, as she said recently, “If you had a Welsh Government that was serious about ramping up renewables, they’d do something – but we don’t have that government”. On so many other matters too, Plaid’s view has been consistently ignored. So don’t spread your ire too widely, Mr Simmonds; save it for the successive Labour governments that have let down Wales all by themselves.