So a deal has been struck with Plaid Cymru to ensure that Mark Drakeford will be assured that his Welsh government will be virtually untroubled in getting its business through for the rest of this parliament. Plaid were hardly negotiating from a position of strength and seem to have gained little apart from s couple of special advisers - presumably additional to the current roster, and at taxpayer's expense - in the government machine.
Some of the agreed policies are worthwhile. Making school meals free for all primary children will remove the stigma of poorer families having to apply for them. There are some hopeful noises about improving council tax and fair votes for the Senedd, but no firm commitment to doing away with the former in favour of local income tax or introducing STV for our national elections.
At least there will be no cut in the NHS budget as there was under the One Wales Government.
4 comments:
I am neither Labour or Plaid, but I wish you could see this as a positive. It certainly beats the hell out of the Lib Dems climbing into bed with the Tories and the horror show that ensued. No forgiveness for that, ever.
I do view stable government as a positive and Drakeford as the best First Minister we have had in twenty years of government in Wales. I regard PC as about as trustworthy as the Tories, but fortunately they are in a minority position in this new agreement. This is unlike the Tories in 2011 who managed to bully or deceive Clegg into staying in government after the initial achievements of the coalition.
"Trustworthy". Lib Dems actual signed promises not to raise student fees and then promptly assisted in raising student fees. Lib Dems are the prostitutes of British politics.
You won't find any argument from me about the immorality of Clegg & co. breaking a personal pledge to the NUS. In fact, I recall criticising him at the time. What makes it worse is that it later turned out that Cameron offered Clegg the option of whipping the party to abstain on the vote to raise student fees without compromising the coalition.
Several points need to be made:
- some of us candidates could spot an elephant trap and did not sign the pledge;
- the LD manifesto was not involved, much though Labour like to imply it;
- Labour backed the student loans system - indeed, they broke a manifesto promise in order to introduce it - and would almost certainly have followed the recommendation to increase fees if they had been returned with a majority;
- it was the LD "payroll vote" who supported the rise. Most of the backbench party either voted against or abstained. One junior minister (Jenny Willott) "rebelled" and disgracefully lost her job over that;
- the NUS pledge was in two parts. The second part was to improve the student loans system and Vince Cable and his team worked round the clock to do just that. The result was an endorsement by the independent money saving expert Martin Lewis.
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