‘NEW DEAL’ PROMISE AS PRICE TAKES PLAID REINS
PLAID Cymru’s new leader Adam Price has promised to deliver Wales a “New Deal” akin to that of America in the 1930s, aimed at creating real prosperity and raising people out of poverty.
In his first extended interview after defeating Leanne Wood and Rhun ap Iorwerth in Plaid’s leadership election, Mr Price said his party would offer hope that would propel it into government in 2021 and then – through real improvements to people’s lives – persuade them of the case for Welsh independence.
Explaining why he had been Plaid’s “leader-in-waiting” for so long, and hadn’t taken earlier opportunities to run for the job, Mr Price said: “The question I’ve had most consistently since I was first elected as an MP in 2001 has been: ‘When are you going to become the leader of Plaid Cymru?’
“It really was now or never – those were the two options.”
He served two terms in Westminster before attending the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in the USA.
“That’s the stock of ideas I’ll be drawing upon as we start now to prepare our programme for government which will hopefully inspire confidence in the Welsh people in 2021.”
Asked how he reconciled the hope he wanted to inspire with the huge challenges posed by Brexit to the Welsh economy, Mr Price said: “I think we are living through a very dark chapter in politics, when all the positivity has been sucked out of democratic politics, not just in these islands through Brexit, but it’s a common phenomenon throughout the democratic world at the moment.
“So that’s the phase we’re in – and if you want to think of it in emotional terms, the presiding note at the moment is not one of hope but one of anger – and possibly one of despair, I think, as the political class fails even to deliver Brexit in an any organised way. We do live in dangerous times.”
Mr Price said such a situation called for a “politics of hope” more than ever.
“We in our party are convinced that the only sustainable solution to Wales’ problems, whether it’s poverty, the state of our public services and our economy, is independence. That’s the positive project that’s going to deliver hope in the long term. But we need to build a bridge for people – it’s deeds not words that solidify hope, and you can only do that in government.
“The first line in the recipe for rabbit soup is ‘catch a rabbit’. In politics, it’s ‘get elected – form a government’. That’s actually how we cut through this fog of inertia and obfuscation that’s become modern politics.
“We’ve got to show to people we can make a difference – it’s not just words. We can actually deliver the kind of radical change that people have been hoping for. And you know, it’s a message people instinctively respond well to.
“People like to know you’ve done the homework – that it’s an exciting vision, but also deliverable and credible. So we’ve got work to do at every level. It’s a case of advance on all fronts. That doesn’t mean that you don’t need to prioritise – and we will.
“In this initial 100-day plan that I’ve spoken about, we need to reorganise the machinery of the party: that’s the engine room. If you don’t win elections, you’re not going to be in government.
“The second step is looking like a government in waiting – that really is so important. It’s about building confidence that an alternative is there.
“Thirdly, policies do matter. If you think of the great pivot points in politics, when an era of dominance changes – they always have had at their core content.
“Part of that is creating a programme which is coherent, which tells a story, not just in micropolicies here, there and everywhere, but says: ‘Here is the old Wales, here is the new Wales and here are the five or six really big things we’re going to do in the first year of our government’.”
Asked how he would convert to Plaid’s cause the large numbers of people in Wales who take the view that the country can’t afford to become independent, he said: “That’s a great question and the core question for us.
“One reading of our predicament is that Wales is a country that lacks confidence in itself.
“Wales was a powerhouse of the industrial revolution more than once in the last 250 years. We have ended in this abysmal rut of the last 40 years not because there is anything natural in terms of our size or our culture or anything else: it’s because of economic mismanagement and a lack of political leadership. Those mistakes can be unmade with a different kind of political leadership. Wales is, in terms of the talent of its people, a rich country. The poverty is in terms of ambition and political leadership.”
One of the first people to congratulate Mr Price on his leadership victory was Paul Davies, the recently elected Welsh Conservative leader, who said he looked forward to working with Mr Price on “matters of common interest”.
On the thorny issue of how far he would be prepared to cooperate with the Conservatives in government, Mr Price said: “The clear mandate I will seek as leader is that we say no to a coalition with both conservative parties: one with a big C and one with a small c – because they have both been destructive of the Welsh economy in different ways. I say no to coalition with both those parties, so that we can put on the table a very clear choice, which is the only realistic choice: a continuation of Labour’s inertia, drift and decline and the alternative, which is a Plaid Cymru government for the first time.”
One of Mr Price’s most prominent supporters, former MP and AM Cynog Dafis, said: “Nobody should underestimate the significance of this result. Plaid Cymru now has a leader of exceptional political talent, sincerity, commitment and ability. I think we may have in Adam the most important leader that Plaid Cymru’s ever had.”
We do live in dangerous times