Debate in the Senedd on the Welsh economy

Speech delivered in the Senedd on Wednesday 21st September during a Plaid Cymru debate on the funding cuts and the Welsh economy.

Leanne Wood: I would like to focus on public procurement and its potential for stimulating local economies and helping to create jobs. The amount spent by the public sector in Wales is estimated to be £4.3 billion every year. In my view, and that of Plaid Cymru, that money should be working for the Welsh economy, and at the moment so much of it is not. Too much money leaks out of Wales and that is contributing to the ongoing weakness of the Welsh economy. A new mindset is required if we are to turn this around. I accept that some good progress has been made, but to take that next leap a new mindset is required.

In questions earlier, the excellent examples that can be seen in housing were mentioned. Efforts to include social clauses in contracts that enable the sourcing and training of labour locally have been a great success, providing a model of good practice that could be rolled out throughout the public sector. If a local firm gets a contract for work, the money earned by the workers in that firm is more likely to be spent locally, close to where they work, stimulating local business activity. Conversely, people who work far away from where they live are more likely to spend their money elsewhere. Of course, people who are not in work at all are unable to spend money locally, which is why areas with high levels of unemployment often have dying, or dead, town centres. Supermarket, internet and out-of-town shopping has taken a heavy toll on our town centres and there is a limit to what the Government can do to change people’s shopping habits. However, the Government can change its own shopping habits. Every pound that leaks out of Wales is a pound that is not working for Wales. By resolving to try to plug these gaps and keep Welsh expenditure in Wales, that money could contribute towards sustainable jobs growth. If I were to make an optimistic assumption that the Government does not intend to water down the previous Government’s carbon reduction ambitions, measures geared towards supporting public bodies to purchase their food and renewable energy from local sources wherever possible would provide numerous desirable outcomes.

What is stopping the local procurement of food and renewable energy? First, we have competition rules. They may be challenging, but those challenges have been overcome in the social housing sector and in other European Union countries. More work would need to be done to upskill people and to ensure the business capacity to provide food and renewable energy to the public sector. More would also need to be done to train those responsible for procuring on behalf of the public sector—an issue that will be expanded upon later.

Most of all, this would require the political will to set about utilising public sector expenditure to create jobs. Regrettably, without such will and commitment, the cuts will inevitably drive the movement the other way. Bigger, more centralised contracts may well be cheaper, but a failure to decentralise and make money work for the good of the Welsh economy risks us missing a great opportunity.

The creation of a home or internal market was suggested by Leopold Kohr in his 1971 book Is Wales Viable? Kohr’s thinking has been further developed in 'A Greenprint for the Valleys’. Although it offers solutions for the market failures in the Valleys, its principles can be applied anywhere, and I recommend that Members read both—I would, would I not? Commitment, effort and political will from the Government to plug these gaps and stop money leaking out of Wales, coupled with a commitment to decentralise, unbundle and make public contracts smaller, could provide a much-needed boost to the Welsh economy. Surely this is an opportunity that we cannot afford to miss.

Letter to Welsh MPs on S4C

To all Welsh MPs

I am writing to you to ask you to support the campaign to safeguard the future of the only Welsh-language broadcasting channel in the world. A lot is at stake for the Welsh language and I hope you will agree with me that this issue transcends party politics.

A strong, independent S4C is of vital importance to the survival of the Welsh language. This is especially the case in those areas where there has been resurgence in the language, as evidenced by the surge in demand for Welsh medium education. In many of these households S4C provides, through its excellent children’s service Cyw, the only opportunity to hear Welsh spoken outside of the classroom.

There is every reason to be alarmed about the future of Welsh language broadcasting. Firstly, S4C faces a cut of 40% in real terms to its budget. There is not a single television channel in existence that would find it easy to cope with such a devastating financial hit. With S4C due to be absorbed by the BBC under the clandestine funding arrangements thrashed out between the corporation and the Westminster coalition, there is also a real threat to the autonomy of the channel.

Furthermore, the Westminster coalition is planning to give ministers the powers to shut down the channel. There is simply no guaranteed provision for S4C beyond 2015.

Anyone with a desire to preserve and encourage the Welsh language will, I hope, support the campaign to secure:

(1) Complete management and editorial independence for S4C without any interference by the BBC or the Government enshrined in statute.

(2) An independent funding formula for the Welsh language channel based on inflation and enshrined in statute.

(3) A levy on private broadcasters drawing on best practice in other countries in order to add to the resources available to the channel.

(4) Close collaboration between S4C and the Welsh Government to ensure, where possible, synergies in their investment in the media, such as the Welsh Government's investment in Golwg 360, education resources, and local radio.

The ‘Save S4C’ campaign is not about calling for the status quo to remain. There is an almost universal recognition that changes need to be made in a wide range of areas to improve S4C. Scrutiny, management structures, its digital platform, quality of programming and the best use of Welsh creative talent are particularly pressing. S4C’s future should, in my view, be the subject of a public review undertaken by the Welsh Government, given that the Westminster coalition has refused to be held to account for the changes they have pushed through. Until that review comes, we must do all we can to make sure that we still have a Welsh broadcasting channel to protect.

In addition to lobbying the Westminster Coalition Government, I have decided to withhold payment for my television licence. While this form of protest and the potential consequences may not be to your liking, I hope you can appreciate the strength of feeling on this issue. I hope therefore you will contribute to the campaign to protect Welsh language broadcasting by working to take S4C out of Schedules 3 and 4 of the Public Bodies Bill currently under scrutiny. Please consider – and ask your colleagues on the Public Bodies Bill Scrutiny Committee to also consider - supporting Amendments 10 and 38 and to vote against New Clause 2 at the Committee’s meeting tomorrow (Thursday 15 September).

Yours sincerely

Leanne Wood AM.

Follow the money

Speech delivered to the Plaid Cyrmu conference on a motion about the Welsh economy.

The world has become a very different place since the global banking crash. 2008 saw catastrophic system failure and unsurprisingly, it's those who can least afford it who are now being asked to pay. It's clear that we can't go on in the old way. Capitalism is broke. The market has failed spectactularly and new thinking is needed if we are to get out of what is a very big mess.

It's not as though we haven't been here before. The depression of the 1930s only ended in the US with Roosevelt's New Deal and it took years. The Tories answer is for drastic and savage spending cuts and they plough ahead despite the warnings. Their strategy is for the market to provide private sector jobs to replace those lost in the public sector. We all know that strategy won't work in Wales - the market failed to provide jobs in too many places in the boom years. It'd be naive to believe it's going to deliver now.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

The Greenprint was put together to offer propsals to turn around those economies where the market has failed. But the basic principles can be applied to any community. I doubt whether there is a single community in Wales that isn't feeling the after-effects of 2008.

In 1971, Leopold Kohr wrote a book called "Is Wales Viable", which tackles the economics of an independent Wales - the "can we afford it" question. Kohr proposes the creation of a home market - where people consume products from Wales, or the home community. Of course it couldn't be done for everything, but if a home market can be created for the basics - renewable energy and food, then we could not only improve our economic position, but we could build up resilience as well - to food and energy price hikes, which are pretty much inevitable.

You may have heard the phrase "follow the money". So much money is leaking out of the Welsh economy. Kohr would argue that we should plug those gaps, stop those leaks and take steps to keep the money within the local community. Local authorities are in a good position to take a lead on this. Procuring locally, supporting budding co-operatives, making attractive loan finance available, prioritising job creation and taking steps to keep money local would make a good start.

Co-operation is part of Plaid Cymru's DNA. In the early 1930s, DJ Davies and Noelle Ffrench championed co-operation not only as a way to overcome economic disadvantage, but also as a route to Welsh freedom. Many party members have set up and been involved in running co-ops over the years - co-operation and collectivism are a key part of what Plaid is about.

In the Basque Country during economically difficult times during the 1980s, the Mondragon Corporation was formed and is still going strong today employing thousands in manufacturing. One of the most successful post-2008 UK companies has been the John Lewis Partnership - a co-operative.

This new, post crash world needs new and different thinking.

The motion asks that Plaid Cymru prioritises job creation and the economy, and that we use our strength and influence at the local authority level to contribute to that aim. We can show that by building sustainable and self-sufficient communities and delivering real improvements, we can at the same time as contribute towards the building of a sustainable and self-sufficient Wales. Our nation is, after all, a community of communities. Please give your support to this motion.

A message from Plaid Cymru to Cardiff Mardi Gras

My speech to the Mardi Gras this afternoon:

Prynhawn da Mardi Gras Cymru.

I bring you greetings and solidarity from Plaid Cymru.

Today is a day for celebration. A day to party. But it is also a day to remember.

In days gone past, being openly gay was militant. We should always remember and be thankful to those older gay activists who refused to hide who they were, who refused to kow-tow to a homophobic society. They have given us what we have today and we have come a long way in a relatively short time.

But we can't afford to be complacent. The economic climate will threaten some of the progressive gains we have made in recent times. We are in increasingly intolerant times. Hate talk is on the up.

We hear benefits claimants called scroungers, young people called scum. As gay people you should understand where hate talk can lead.

Whoever is being picked on, hate talk is a danger to us all. We cannot allow it into the mainstream.

I ask you to take one small moment today to make a big decision. Will you commit to challenging intolerance or hate talk wherever you hear it? If you hear people being put down because they are gay, on benefits, immigrants, gypsies, young - and we've recently been subject to such intolerance for being Welsh...

Decide to stand up to it. Challenge it.

Don't let hate and intolerance become a normal part of Welsh political and civic life.

Today is about celebrating and remembering. It could also be about being determined to fight to keep the gains we have made and to make our society better. If everyone here today makes a personal commitment to stamp out hate in Wales, you can make a fantastic contribution towards creating that equal society we all want.

I hope you all have a great party today. Let's celebrate, but lets also strive to keep what we've got - and more. Diolch am gwrando.

What price war?

I recently obtained figures which go some way to shedding some more light on the true horrors of war. The death toll in Afghanistan has become a familiar story in the news. At the time of writing, 379 UK soldiers have died during operations since the invasion of 2001. The death toll for UK soldiers in Afghanistan has long since passed that of the Falklands war which is remarkable given that the early years were relatively quiet – it was 2004 before the first UK soldier died following hostile action from the Taleban and it was another year-and-a-half before the next soldier died. Given the disproportionate number of soldiers Wales contributes to the UK Army, the bloodiness of the war in Afghanistan is a particular concern here. There are countless examples of civilians dying in their droves as well.

The death toll, as shocking as it is for civilians and combatants alike, only tells part of the story. For every death, there are many, many others being seriously injured or maimed. Here are figures showing how this has been the case for UK armed service personnel or civilians working for UK armed forces in Afghanistan. The information, obtained through the Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA), shows the number of ‘very seriously injured or seriously injured’ on operations in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2009 surpassed 300. This was nearly double the amount of the casualties sustained during the eight previous years combined. In 2001, when Afghanistan was first invaded by coalition forces, no military personnel or civilians from the UK were recorded as being very seriously or seriously wounded on operation there that year.

Figures from the same source on the number of amputations carried out on members of the armed forces reinforce the previous statistics. Between 2009 and 2010, the number of “surviving UK Service personnel” having a “traumatic or surgical amputation, partial or complete, for either upper or lower limbs” rose by 40% from 55 in 2009 to 79 last year. Of the 79 people undergoing amputations last year, 39 were identified as “significant multiple amputees.” The figures show that in 2006 the amputations numbered seven.

Last year alone there were three people every week, on average, working for the armed forces sustaining a serious or very serious injury in Afghanistan. The number of serious or very serious injured service personnel between January and the end of July is 47 which actually represents a decline in the rate at which soldiers are being seriously injured when compared to the previous two years. However, not many would argue this figure is acceptable.

From the very beginning Plaid Cymru has opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have also campaigned for better support to be given to ex-soldiers suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health disorders. Not only have the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq proved to be very costly to human life but also to the public finances. Will the mainstream political parties in the UK now accept they were wrong to support interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan and that those mistakes have been compounded by not having any clear exit strategy in either case?

Take a holiday in Wales

It's back to work today after a fantastic holiday in Wales.

The coast of south Ceredigion is unspoit, not commercialised, natural and peaceful.

We camped on a working farm which had fields bordering onto the sea between Mwnt and Gwbert. Nant Y Croi Farm is great for children - there are baby donkeys to feed and small ponies to ride around the campsite, tractor rides as well as having plenty of space to play. A cut through two fields takes you to a rocky walk to the sea where dolphins and seals can regularly be seen and the fresh food sold out of the farm-house guarantees delicious breakfasts.

Food is one of the reasons to holiday here. One of my faviurite restaurants in Wales is the Harbourmaster, just up the road. Unfortunely, I didn't make it there this time, but I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for somewhere to celebrate a special occasion. The food and drink is all local to the area. It'd delicious. They serve great beer too. We did manage to have a meal and watch an amazing sunset from the terrace of the Gwbert Hotel and get plenty of treats from the Llwynhelyg Farm Shop just up the road in Sarnau. The locally-made Tregroes chocolate waffles are out of this world. If you haven't tried them yet you really should. And the local cheeses...outstanding. Not cheap, but it is holidays! We also managed to sample some good ale with views at Y Llong, Tresaith and in Aberporth.

As well as enjoying some great weather on Mwnt beach which was a 20 minute walk along the coast from the campsite and shopping in Aberteifi, we found plenty to do when the sun wasn't shining. My six-year-old was entranced during an afternoon at the Butterfly Rainforest in Felinwynt. We went on a boat trip in Cei Newydd where we spotted half a dozen dolphins and another trekking horses through the beautiful countryside.

With no mobile phone signal on the farm, it was the perfect switch-off break. The overflowing inbox on my return is a price well worth paying.

Labour should now rule out PFI

A Treasury select committee has concluded that the Private Finance Initiative is poor value for money. With stories like this, this and this, it would have been difficult for them to arrive any other conclusion.

Wales has been shielded from the worst impact of PFI. This foolish form of finance was ended in the Welsh health service when Plaid Cymru formed the One Wales Government with Labour in 2007. I hope that the Labour minority government won't ditch this committment and that they will extend a ban on the use of PFI throughout all sectors. PFI will saddle our children and grandchildren with an unsustainable level of debt and will set us back in attempts to improve economically.

Due to the slashing of the Welsh capital budget by the Westminster Government, Labour could be tempted to turn once again to PFI. Despite the wealth of evidence out there to show how pernicious PFI can be, various Labour Ministers have evaded direct questions on their plans for PFI that I and other Plaid colleagues have asked of them.

While Labour in Wales are unlikely to pursue PFI with the same vigour as Blair and Brown did from 1997 onwards, the commissioning of just one PFI project would be one too many. Its time to rule out PFI in Wales.