08/06/2009

Reflections on the Euro Result

The first comment has to be feeling absolutely sickened at the fact that two British fascists have been elected to the European Parliament.

To think that just two days ago we were remembering the sacrifices that people from these islands made in order to rid Europe of Fascists.

Today we are sending Fascist to be part of Europe's Parliament. Words cannot describe how bitterly I feel about this result - the people who voted for this evil party have pissed on every cenotaph in Britain and every allied war grave in Europe.

The result in Wales was also a bitter disappointment.

Adam Price has been spinning about how good the result in Wales was for Plaid, with only 2% points between Plaid and the Tory winners. But the truth is that Plaid has lost 14,000 votes since the last Euro Elections.

The last Euro elections were generally seen as a disastrous result for Plaid, but this time round the party lost votes and only managed a 1.5% increase in its share of the vote when the main opponents, Labour, lost 12% of its vote share.

This election was not only a disaster for Labour in Wales but was also a disaster for Plaid.

UKIP, a party that believes that Wales is just a geographical expression, a party that wants the National Assembly abolished and a party that opposes any use of the Welsh language now has 1/4 of the Welsh representation in the EU parliament.

Plaid gave them that seat by not fighting vigorously for Wales and not exposing UKIP for the vile anti Welsh party that it is. If Plaid has to learn one lesson from this election it must be that they must never give UKIP such an easy ride in any election again.

The SNP appears to be doing exceptionally well in Scotland, the BBC is projecting that it will beat Labour into second place with a lead of about 10%. There is little difference in policy issues that divide Plaid and the SNP. There are similar demographics between Scotland and Wales, so why is the SNP doing so well and Plaid doing so badly?

I would suggest that it is the way that the parties portray themselves.

The SNP is clearly a nationalist party that supports social democracy. Plaid comes across as a socialist party that supports Welsh democracy.

Plaid policies, Plaid members and Plaid's appeal are not socialist they are Nationalist. The party doesn't need to change what it believes in, it needs to change the way in which it sells those beliefs, by emulating the SNP and becoming a nationalist party that believes in social democracy rather than portraying itself as a closet communist party.

7 comments:

  1. I think there's another side to it: the Tories and the English Independence Party did well in a European election because of their Euroscepticism, whilst the Liberals got buried thanks to their being Eurofederalists. Plaid would do a lot better to fight to reclaim our rights from both Westminster and Brussels, rather than schizophrenically taking from one and giving to the other.

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  2. Let's not forget that UKIP got a quarter of the Welsh seats with an eighth of the vote. A barmy PR system accounted for that.

    Yes James D is absolutely correct Plaid is too closely identified with Eurofederalism. What's the point of a Welsh party that seems to be so eager give away sovereignity to unelected officials in Brussels.

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  3. you've both hit the nail on the head

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  4. The result is hardly a disaster. On a night the Tories were winning Wales they could not beat Plaid in the old Conwy. This is the Tory highwater mark...

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  5. "To think that just two days ago we were remembering the sacrifices that people from these islands made in order to rid Europe of Fascists."

    We didn't make sacrifices to rid Europe of Fascists. Otherwise we'd have invaded Italy in 1922, when Mussolini came to power. If they hadn't joined Hitler in 1940, who knows how long the National Fascist Party might have survived in power - perhaps, like Franco, into the 1970s.

    We made the sacrifices to prevent the whole of Europe falling under German domination - and we would have made the same sacrifices had German Communists been in charge.

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  6. What are you talking about? "We" haven't sent any (more) fascists to the EP! The Anglo-British did. No surprise there. The British nationalism in all UK parties has been moving this way for years.

    It really is about time Welsh nationalists focussed on what independence can offer our people and not worry about English politics.

    And remember, we have lots of political allies in these islands and on the mainland. Federal Brussels ain't the problem. Imperialist London is.

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  7. Anon 12.45 is talking the usual British nationalist bollocks. A fair voting system is not barmy; contrast that with the UK's corrupt 'first past the post' and unelected House of Lords.

    And who are these "unelected officials" in Brussels? I expect he / she means the Commission which, of course, has no powers of decision. Most EU decisions are made, in secret, by the Council of Ministers: the member state governments. The useless British media calls this a 'summit' 'cos they are too thick to understand.

    Plaid policy is for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty; hardly 'euro-federalist'. And Plaid believes in the sovereignty of the people of Wales - unlike your Brit commentators. We also want to share that, when we feel it appropriate, with fellow Europeans and other people on this planet.

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