14/09/2009

Cultural Nationalist Right Wing Anti-Tories

Glyn is feeling hurt by Adam Price's attack on the Conservative Party in his conference speech.

I cannot fathom the strategy at all. At the very time when I would have expected Plaid to seek to influence Conservative policy (in that we have a decent chance of soon becoming the British Government) Adam seems intent on fostering enmity.

The rationale behind the speech is quite simple:

In the European elections the Labour party lost many thousands of votes, but those who couldn't stomach voting Labour again stayed at home, they didn't transfer their vote to any other party. Because these people stayed at home the Conservatives topped the poll in Wales for the first time since secret ballots began.

Adam's logic is that the stay-at-homes would never, ever, consider voting Conservative – because they believe in the myth of the Hairy Arsed Tory Monster. Adam's attack wasn't an attack on the Conservative party, but an attack on the Labour Party. What he was saying was that Plaid are as good, if not better, than Labour at fighting monsters; so if you want to battle the monster don't stay at home - Vote Plaid.

As a political tactic it is a good one. There will be a damned sight more disillusioned former Labour voters in the next Westminster election in Wales than disillusioned voters of any other party. If Plaid can get Adam's message out on the doorstep as forcibly as he made it at conference then there could be some unexpected gains for Plaid in the next election.

The problem that Plaid has, however, is that despite its desire to appeal to the disillusioned Labour voter, most of its current core support is not a part of the hard left.

What was interesting about Adam's speech was that it attacked the Tories, not from the left, but from the cultural nationalist position. The appeal to the history of Wales would have made Gwynfor proud! And the speech might be seen as a smidgen of belated acceptance that those of us from the cultural right part of the national cause still have a part to play in our nation's politics!

7 comments:

  1. Adam Price's anti-conservative speech can be summed up in two words "tough love". Adam knows full well that Plaid will have to govern with the Tories post 2011, so his speech was an invitation to the Conservatives to speed up their "decontamination" process, but this time in a Welsh context. The sub-text was: "If you want a seat at the table, prove that you are fit to serve the people of Wales"

    Araith wych a strategol glyfar gan AP yn fy meddwl i.

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  2. Anon,

    I cannot say I am that much in the know, but I don’t agree with what you are saying.

    My understanding from the speech was that deconamination is not about sharing power with the tories, but about the Tories moving on from their historical folly with regards to Wales.

    To say if Plaid are to Govern in 2011 they need the tories seems very simplistic in my view.

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  3. Call me cynic but if Adam is going to be the next leader of Plaid. (if he is not already) He will certainly need the support of Plaid's cultural nationalist wing. Unless Plaid decides to do a "Gordon Brown". It seems to me that Ieuan Wyn Jones is being treated like a "Lame duck" possibly a dead one!

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  4. Quack Quack - Ieuan out

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  5. Plaid have a strong leadership group with IWJ, AP (& not forgetting Elfyn Llwyd), and with DW sitting in the wings. They all have their strengths (and weaknesses) but together they appear to be a much more capable and cohesive group than the other parties. Does it really matter who wears the hat of leader as long as everyone sings from the same sheet and each plays to their strengths?

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  6. its hard to take Glyn seriously to be on this given his own history and problems with Nick Bourne.

    They say the speech didn't ruffle welsh tory feathers, so why then did they all decide to blog on the speech, i'd say its job well done for Adam.

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  7. 'he who fights with monsters turns into a monster himself' nietzsche

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