Outrageous!

As a member of the rank and file of the Welsh Liberal Democrats the most sickening thing over the last three or four weeks for me has been having to sit back an watch Plaid undertake the most outrageous exercise in political opportunism that I can ever remember.

At the famous, or should I now say infamous, special conference in Llandrindod a few Saturdays ago, we all agreed to abide by the outcome of the democratic decision and this has been honoured in order to allow our leaders a clear run at their attempts to put together the 'rainbow coalition'. Many of us had severe doubts about the wisdom of trustibg either Plaid or the Tories, however a democratic decison had been taken and we, the sevety seven, swallowed our pride and our deep misgivings for the sake of party unity.

It is now clear that Plaid were merely stringing us along until a better deal for them came along. Who will now take the responsibility for this debacle? Who dhould now consider their position? You know who you are! THINK LONG AND HARD. You can be assured that the membership are also thinking long and hard.

Are we drifting?

Maybe it's because, many years ago, I served my appenticeship in the Merchant Navy that I get distinctly nervous when people talk about 'shipwrecks'. We Welsh Liberal Democrats seem to be drifting towards the rocks, waiting for Captain Ieuan Wyn to make a decision - any decision. Surely the First Mate Mike must be considering mutiny and confining the Captain to his cabin while those who can and should be decisive set a course to safety? As for Commodore Rhodri, he's sat on shore watching the pot of gold disappearing over the horizon.

I sense that the people of Wales are getting impatient and are looking around for their lifejackets. Six weeks seems a very long time in politics - we need some sort of progress, and soon.

Positive politics

Two pieces of good news: firstly, the Sustainable Communities Bill cleared the House of Commons yesterday. This could be very good news for neglected rural areas like Powys where communites are now desperate to hold on to anything resembling a community institution. Schools are under threat, post offices closing all the time, pubs closing frequently and clerics are having to take wider and wider responsibilities. Our farmers are being reduced to becoming park keepers.

I was chatting to a friend from the wilds of Radnorshire yesterday and we were discussing the success of the recent Radnorshire Young Farmers Club Rally at Penybont. He pointed out that he had worked on the gate for the rally last week-end and reckoned that the numbers of young farmers actually engaged in farming was delining at an alarming rate.

My point is simply that the provisions contained in the Sustainable Communities Bill which now has Government support, may allow clever politicians to at least slow down the rapid decline of rural communities.

The second piece of good news, well more of a good idea really, appears in this morning's Guardian in the form of an advertisement from Maplin, the electronics retailer who, while promoting a solar charge for mobile phones, advertises the campaign to remove VAT from energy-efficient products. Now that is something worth supporting.

Schools with surplus places

Spent the morning at Powys County Hall listening to the Council's Board debate the proposed move to go out to consultation on the closure of six Powys primary schools. Most of the six schools had brought delegations of parents to lobby etc. and some of these parents could not contain their unhappiness. My sympathy was not only with all those involved in these thratened schools, but also with my fellow County Councillors who were charged with making this difficult decision. To do nothing was, indeed, not an option, and I now fervently hope that the consultation process will be sufficiently robust to allow for all shades of opinion to be taken into account. There was a rather distasteful note sounded by Gwyn Gwillim who began one sentence with "Not being political, but we, the Labour Group....." and then went on to grandstand his way through the meeting after having failed to get the school in which he once had an interest removed from the list of schools up for discussion. So much for collective responsibility among members of the Board.

The difficulty that most Welsh Liberal Democrats have with this process is that the apparent 'picking off' of schools with the lowest pupil numbers is distracting the Council from considering the arguably more important issue of ensuring that Powys County Council is seriouly engaged in designing a primary education system for the 21st century, where schools are going to have to be much broader community-based institutions than they have ever been to date.

It is clear that the Welsh Liberal Democrat Party needs urgently to consider what sort of schools need to be created in order to meet the needs of children who are going to become world citizens after the 2020s and a more detailed and franker education debate is needed, a debate that embraces not only the party membership but also education professionals, parents and, above all, today's teenagers who are likely to become the parents of the future.

Who benefits from the Rainbow Coalition?

Had some time today to sit in the sun and re-read an interview with David Melding AM that was published in Planet 181 (February/March 2007). This set me wondering who will be the ultimate benficiaries of the now-probable rainbow coalition. This is what David Melding said at the turn of the year:

"The most pressing challenge facing the Welsh political system is how to conceive an alternative to a Labour-led government... Welsh politics will achieve maturity when the alternative to Labour is palatable and considered coherent. That alternative will have to contain the Welsh Conservative Party. The so-called "Rainbow" coalition is I believe already possible in the sense that a programme for government could be agreed between the Welsh Conservatives Party, Plaid and the Liberal Democrats. Culturally, however, Plaid face obvious impediments. Perhaps it will take a leap of imagination and a good deal of generosity to loosen obdurate prejudices..."

Clearly such a coalition has been on the Conservative agenda for some considerable time, and this must mean that the Conservatives think that they stand to gain hugely from such a coalition. Now if the Conservatives are set to gain from the "Rainbow", who is set to lose?