Plaid Cymru Conference

I have just got back from Plaid Cymru’s pre-election conference in Cardiff. I was a guest of their Councillors Association and addressed a meeting on “The Future of Local Government.”

In my presentation, I argued that local government was an important part of the democratic system, which should be valued and funded fairly, adding that improvements could be made but any top-down reorganisation (such as that forced on Cornwall by the Liberal Democrats and Labour) should not be entertained.

It was certainly a bouyant event, with Plaid confident of making significant gains at the General Election. The Party presently has three MPs and hopes to also win further constituencies such as Aberconwy, Ceredigion, Llanelli and Ynys Môn.

There were also a few references to the comments of a newspaper columnist (Simon Carr in the Independent) who recently referred to the three MPs as “Plaid Cymru’s fearsome threesome” and added they “have probably had more effect on Parliament than the entire Liberal Democrats.”

I am pictured above with Ieuan Wyn Jones, the Leader of Plaid Cymru and the Deputy First Minister of the Welsh Assembly.