Ramblings has picked up on an interesting theme about the Labour leadership race in Wales.
Our comrade Che Gravara has pointed out how Edwina Hart has made clever-handed remarks about the alleged ethnic composition of Welsh-medium schools, she really has said those things and they need to be contrasted with her official record which is of voting in favour of Welsh medium education. She has also based her campaign on "Clear Red Water" when this philosophy will be irrelevant if Labour is out of power at Westminster. It goes without saying she is not stupid and has done these things deliberately.
Carwyn Jones on the other hand, has deliberately selected an anti-Welsh Assembly Member Leighton Andrews as his Campaign Manager, so that he does not seem too "nationalist" or dare it be said, too Welsh. On that basis, the Counsel General launched his campaign with a wierd and unprovoked attack on the idea of Welsh independence, hardly the issue on the streets of Bridgend at present (and more's the pity).
Thirdly, Huw Lewis has tried to invent himself as some kind of champion of decentralist socialism with ideas that Plaid ideologue DJ Davies would be proud of. Shrugging aside criticism that he is a soft left Blairite and hates most things to do with Wales, Huw has sought to present himself as the radical choice, the only candidate challenging the traditional "Old Labour" statist model with a decentralised, co-operative alternative. Seeing as Huw Lewis represents Merthyr, one of the key strongholds of top-down Old Labour-style centralism, this is significant and brave.
The theme is that all of the contenders are running their campaigns in accordance with what they think is best for the Labour Party, not what is best for our country. Paul Murphy and Don Touhig are involved in the same game as their support for Edwina Hart is apparently (and conceivably, given their track record) based on their premise that she will "ruin" devolution or bring it into disrepute by being too left-wing and too pro-Wales.
The contest is becoming extremely partyist as each candidate attempts to detoxify themselves to make themselves palatable to a moribund Labour Party. It's bad enough that this makes the contest irrelevant to the vast majority of people in Wales. In theory there is nothing wrong with this as it's a party contest after all, but when in practice it means attacking the reputation of Welsh-medium education it is unacceptable.
The race for First Minister is at risk of shaming and exposing Welsh Labour rather than renewing it.
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1 hour ago
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The sad fact is that none of these candidates are suitable to be First Minister of Wales, or are the leaders that Wales needs more than ever.
~I'll tell you what amazes me, it's that Huw Lewis has managed single-handedly to hog the anti-poverty agenda, despite not having done anything about it. Over the years he has managed to identity this issue solely with himself.
It's quite amazing that a politician who was in power ad in influence and had a ministerial post in a pisspoor Labour government has turned himself into a one-man opposition group and got all the credit, by saying a lot and doing nothing, for this emotive issue.
It's Lewis poverty this and Lewis poverty that. No-one says that about any Plaid politicians. Why not?
Why haven't Plaid made their own anti-poverty agenda grab the headlines day after day? Why does no-one ever associate an individual Plaid politician with the anti-poverty agenda?
Think about it, because it's going to need to be addressed when you sit down and work out whether your AMs have been pulling their weight, and if so , then in what areas. I see no-one in Plaid developing any of the sort of profile on social justice that lewis has carved out for himself.
"I see no-one in Plaid developing any of the sort of profile on social justice that lewis has carved out for himself."
Leanne Wood?
Yes, Leanne Wood in terms of commitment, but not in terms of publicity or reputation outside constituency. When was the last time the Western Mail , Daily Post, Echo etc. or the BBC referred to one of the speeches she makes on poverty?
The fact is that Lewis has this issue sewn up as his baby.
That is a travesty, but it's also the fault of those who have let him do it, i.e. the other parties (not to mention his own), and especially yours. You've been so obsessed with dissing him for living in Penarth that you've forgotten how to take him on in substance and politics. I imagine you'll live to regret that.
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