New Blogs

A welcome to a number of new and newish blogs.

Sanddef of Ordovicius fame has added two new URls to his belt.

Cyflwr yr Undeb is only a fortnight old, but already has 55 posts, making it by far the most prolific Welsh language blog, and it is a blog worth reading.

Sanddef and I rarely agree on European matters, but there is little opinion on CyrU, just lots and lots of links to sources on European issues that are of value to Europhiles and Europhobes alike. Sanddef now has an English version of the CyrU site State of the Union. If you love the EU bookmark it - if you hate the EU this is the secret info amo store!

With the EU elections on the horizon a new Plaid blog has appeared called Best for Wales. This blog seems to be an unofficial back Jill Evans for Europe blog. A worthy cause, no doubt, but one that has a whiff of negativism about it. Plaid, Labour and the Tories will have a seat each in next years Euro elections. The fight is for the fourth seat - shouldn't europhile Plaid blogs be backing Eurig to gain the spare, rather than dissing him as a challenge to Jill's seat?

Another Plaid challenger who is bloging his campaign is Elfyn Llwyd MP, who has his eyes on the party presidency.

I have known Elfyn for too many years to remember, so I can't say anything against him.

He would make as good a Party president as anybody, he is one of the few Plaid big wigs who oposes using the socialist tag and that is a plus to me!

But, given that the party's power is vested in the Leader who will always be in Cardiff Bay, the President is still the Queen of the party, the Head of State, the titular top honcho - if Elfyn won the presidency - wouldn't there be somthing pervers in having Plaid's symbolic top dog in Westminster?

A Question of politics?

If you were to hold a hustings meeting to find out who the majority of Plaid Cymru members want to represent them as the party's lead candidate in the European Parliament elections, where would you hold it?

A) In Blackwood, Monmouthshire

B) In Blaenau Ffestiniog, Merionethshire

I am grateful to Ordovicius for explaining why the right answer:

A Blackwood

has nothing to do with trying to ensure that incumbent MEP, Jill Evans, secures the party's first place nomination spot, now that the party has given up on its women first policy.

The sad thing is that most Plaid members feel that Jill has been a good MEP, she could win the nomination on pure merit in Meirionnydd and elsewhere.

This sort of gerrymandering will discredit her as a candidate and add to Llais Gwynedd's claim that Plaid takes their heartlands for granted, whilst doing nothing to show that women in the party can win on merit, rather than through machinations.