Tired of Labour posturing?

11:03am Thursday 7th December 2006

Dear editor,

It was with some initial surprise that I read this week that Rhodri Morgan wants us all to believe that Labour in Wales is somehow different from Labour in England.

Then I remembered that he did exactly the same thing about four years ago - just before the last Assembly elections. What an amazing coincidence!

I can fully understand why anyone fighting an election would want to distance themselves from the current government, of course.

Indeed, we see examples, almost daily, of Labour AMs and MPs desperately trying to deny all responsibility for everything their government does or says.

In the case of AMs, they seem to want to distance themselves, not only from Blair, but also from Rhodri Morgan and his government in Cardiff. They even claim to be leading campaigns against their own government's policies. And who can blame them for trying?

But how honest is this posturing? Where is Labour's policy and direction really decided? The answer is in London, however much Rhodri Morgan might try to pretend otherwise.

The Labour Party in Wales is funded from London by the same dodgy loans as Tony Blair - to such an extent that they recently dropped all pretence at having separate accounts for Wales - and Peter Hain has made it perfectly clear that London will block any proposal from Wales with which he disagrees.

The good news, however, is that if people do want a party which offers Wales something different, a party which never accepted Blairism or the Thatcherism on which it is based, then they have a real alternative available in Plaid.

Come to think of it, that's probably what the Labour party in Wales is so afraid of.

John Dixon, Plaid Assembly candidate, Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire.