‘We don’t just need a new face at the top of Labour, we all need some new ideas for a new Wales’
Mark Drakeford may have won the race to lead his party in Wales, but the nation needs more than a change of Labour leader, argues Rhun ap Iorwerth
ON TUESDAY, the First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones, will formally resign after First Minister’s Questions. On Wednesday, the National Assembly for Wales will formally nominate a new First Minister.
Plaid Cymru AMs will nominate our leader, Adam Price AM, for First Minister.
We will do so because we believe that Wales can no longer afford more years of a tired Labour government. We need a radical new government with energy and bold ideas that will lift our country out of poverty.
The Labour Party has led Wales’ government for nearly two decades. Over that time, our economy, our NHS, our education system and our local public services have seen decline and deterioration. Our communities and our infrastructure have fallen further and further behind.
One in four people in Wales live in relative income poverty – the deep Conservative cuts at a UK level have been compounded by Labour’s failures in government in Wales. Local government cuts have decimated public services. People in Wales are suffering heavily under the brunt of austerity and a staggering one in three children in Wales live in poverty.
This has all happened under the watch of Welsh Labour and the new Labour leader Mark Drakeford.
When the people of Wales voted for devolution in 1997, they voted for powers to provide our people with the opportunity to have a greater say over their own lives for the first time in nearly 700 years.
It was an opportunity to chart our own course and deliver radical Welsh-specific solutions to problems that are unique to us as a country.
People believed that a new Wales was possible.
But a tired and unambitious Labour government cannot achieve a new Wales.
As cruel austerity policies and the roll-out of universal credit throws more and more of our citizens into further poverty, and as the shadow of Brexit hangs overhead, we can no longer afford to be complacent.
We can no longer sit back and accept that this is as good as things can get. We can no longer accept our poverty as inevitable.
We cannot have same old faces delivering old ideas and sluggish policies for a nation that needs to move on.
Wales needs so much more than a change of Labour leader.
Wales needs a new government with new ideas, values and the drive to build our nation into the successful country we know it could be.
Wales needs a new government that is willing to accept the responsibility over welfare administration to protect its citizens from cruel Tory policies.
Wales needs a government that can deliver a truly sustainable national health and care service.
Wales needs a government that will establish a sustainable Welsh national energy company – with the profit used to build up a basic income for all our citizens.
Wales needs a government that will create a real Development Bank to offer patient loans to help local companies grow and, when necessary, be bought by the staff themselves to help companies made in Wales both stay in Wales and prosper.
Wales needs a government that will introduce a comprehensive childcare package, making it possible for parents to return to work when they choose. This will give children from all backgrounds the best start in life with a healthy nutritious meal, clothes for school, support to attend field trips and receive a world-class education.
Wales needs a government that would create an affordable nationwide transport package to create a connected, sustainable and green transport system for the whole of Wales – connecting communities from north to south.
These are just some of the policy ideas that a Plaid Cymru government would introduce and implement in our radical but realisable programme for government.
On Wednesday, when we nominate Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price AM for First Minister, we will do so because we believe that the people of Wales deserve better than what they currently have.
That is why we are now calling time on this tired Labour Welsh government.
Now is the time for new energy, new ideas and a new direction.
Plaid Cymru means the Party of Wales – but not any old Wales. It’s the new Wales we’ve all been waiting for – and Plaid Cymru is ready to lead on.
■ Rhun ap Iorwerth is Plaid Cymru’s shadow economy and finance secretary and is the AM for Ynys Mon