Adam Price in Golwg

A number of Blogs refer to Adam Price's column in the Welsh magazine Golwg dated Aug 2nd. Here is a translation of the article:
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Towards a Rainbow Government

It was a shock to the system walking through Whitehall last week and happening to come across Wales' Deputy First Minister leaving Gwydir House - a sort of island of Anglo-Welshness in a nondescript house overshadowed by the MoD - which serves as the home to the Wales Office.

The sun shone for a few minutes to note an historic moment: the first nationalist in power to visit London without being beheaded.

Its clear that Peter Hain was not talking about the streets of Whitehall in his semi Churchillian interview; We will fight them on the streets - whilst referring to Plaid. Taking that with the claimed comment by Betty Williams that Plaid are Nazis, one would think that a civil war rather than a coalition was about to begin.

And now a summer offensive has been announced by Major General Hain to sell "the Union" and to condemn independence. The labour party is living a duplicitous life; divorcing Plaid in London whilst still on honeymoon in Cardiff.

But in one sense Peter is right. No one should think for a second that the coalition would extend to Westminster or to County council chambers. On the contrary, in fact. For the sake of Welsh democracy, the hegemony of the Labour party needs to be challenged where they are at their worst: where they are parochial and British.

It is pretty obvious that neither Plaid Cymru – nor any other party – can do this on their own. We need allies, but perhaps not the ones we were talking to in the shadow of the rainbow.

To see the affect of Labourism at its worst on the southern valleys communities, go to Blaenau Gwent. There Peoples Voice will be challenging to take over in the local elections next year.

If we can work together with the Labour Party of every party, why should we not do so with a movement that is popular, forward thinking and truly socialist in deed not just name? After all Plaid was pioneering with this sort of cooperation in the 1992 General Election by going into coalition with the Greens in Gwent and Cardiganshire.

If such an experiment was successful the seats of the triumvirate of arch_Brits David, Touigh and Murphy would start to look very fragile. And the possibilities don't end there. A joint campaign with the Greens in the 2009 Euro-elections could see Labour beaten for the first time ever by gaining the second seat.

And who knows when the 2011 election comes, there may be a rainbow government after all - but this time with more attractive colours.
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Blogging responses from: Normal Mouth ... Tomos Livingstone .... Homage to Catatonia