Clearly a Tory - blue horns
Now, let's set things straight here. I am someone who has only missed one election in my life (Council election when I was out of the country and I still get angry about it) and on every occasion, I have voted for anyone but a Tory. I have even pondered where there would be a situation when I would vote Tory and the only one I could come up with, was if it was a two candidate ward with a Tory and BNP candidate. Even then, I would have to seek a confessional for doing so; converting to Catholicism being an extreme but necessary step to allow me that one Tory vote.
So, now that we have laid the ground rules, it is clear that I have some understanding of why many consider being ruled by Tories as, well just say 'unpaletable', but is this still a basis for a whole political ideology? I don't think so. So, what is my problem with this form of politics, when considering my personal feelings towards the Conservative and Unionist Party?
I genuinely believe that by basing a core message on who you hate rather than what you can offer, you are selling short the community, city and nation you represent. I also believe that this is the core problem with the Labour Party in Wales; a political grouping that can only unite by espousing such 'virtues' but in doing so offers no vision, no direction and no hope in breaking out of a downward spiral of economic decline.
I was flicking through some facebook pages earlier this evening, where a few Labour trade unionists I know neglected to mention their UK party leader's inability to support them in their fight to protect their pensions, or their party's contemptuous treatment of Council workers in Bridgend or RCT. Oh no, for they justified their continuing blind support for a party that now does so little for their union members, by mocking Plaid for voting with 'those Tories' in the budget debate in the Senedd. Somehow, that was a justification for Labour's hypocrisy over so many issues. I did not know whether to laugh or cry.
Labour used the 'we hate the Tories' to great effect in the Assembly elections, realising that such a message with a new Tory Government in power in London, would deliver votes. Yet now that they are in power, where is the vision, where is the direction and above all, where is the leadership? From all the signs, they also appear to be looking to use this winning formula in next year's Council elections. So the argument goes, shouldn't Plaid copy them to chase the same vote? Well in a word, no.
Surely, it is incumbent on Plaid more than anyone, to offer a manifesto based on ideas and a vision based on more than our dislike of our opponents? Above all, it is vital that we do all we can, to convince the people of Wales that they deserve so much better than a message of what we can offer, and not whom we hate.
So let's work for a Welsh political message of Hope over Hate in next year's elections. Lord knows that we could do with some hope in what is going to be a very dark 12 months.
The trouble is that Plaid tried "we hate Labour" last May and paid the price. Will anyone learn from this particular lesson next year?
ReplyDeleteIt would be great to think that a message of hope would work for Plaid Cymru next year especially in these troubled times and they will win seats, but Welsh voters have been conditioned to hate the Tories for decades and its gonna take more than good policy to get them to believe the Tories aren't the enemy.
ReplyDeleteAsk yourself how many elected Plaid Cymru members still play to the Tory baby eaters mentality especially in the Valleys, Welsh Labour voters will rarely if ever support another Party and I've never understood why Plaid Cymru in particular continues to court them at elections. If Plaid want to make progress there are enough non Labour voters in every seat to target, build support and eventually win outright with the decline in Labour voters and support, but it seems those in charge have difficulty understanding that.
The irony is there are many Labour supporters/voters in Wales who would still prefer to be ruled by Tories in Westminster rather than their own party in Cardiff.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. But have some have said, there's no point replicating Labour's Tory-hate (a largely superficial, electoralisti pose-since they agree entirely with the Tories on all key questions) with Labour hate. Plaid need to talk less about their opponents and have the confidence to articulate unapologetically their vision for Wales. Let the Unionist coalition justify their no-change attiude to a failing UK, and watch them flail. This how the SNP won.
ReplyDelete"If Plaid want to make progress there are enough non Labour voters in every seat to target, build support and eventually win outright with the decline in Labour voters and support"
ReplyDeleteOn what grounds would those non-Labour voters switch to Plaid Cymru, given Plaid's commitment to independence and nationalism? The recent profiling work done by Richard Wyn Jones and Roger Scully shows that the Welsh identifiers vote for Plaid and Labour. The Tory and Lib Dem vote is overwhelmingly British identifying.
It might sometimes be overlooked though that Labour doesn't have that many councillors compared to what we would expect from the votes they command. Plaid has been able to take council seats off them all across Wales in the past. Not just what has happened in the Valleys but in Caernarfon and the urbanised parts of Gwynedd. But the May elections will be a stern test of whether Plaid can hold places like Caerffili against a still resurgent Labour.
Shambo,
ReplyDeleteMost of our time was actually spent pushing policy but in doing so, we bombed in the polls. We made a decision to turn on Labour as they were ignoring policy and just claiming that they would protect you from the 'evil' Tories. Our tactic actually stopped us dropping in the polls (despite cliams otherwise), but the Labour narrative carried the day-without any challenge from the media in Wales. In Scotland, Labour followed the same tactic and the media there crucified them for it.
The difficulty is that while many people call for positive politics and less tribalism, the Tory v Labour political game still dominates and as the Welsh media becomes less and less influential, this all-encompassing mantra dominates. Without giving too much away, we will do all we can to come up with policy ideas but all parties are tied down to an extent, by the sheer size of the current cuts.