Although it’s becoming increasingly difficult to separate the fluff from “journalism” during silly season, here’s a limited selection of choice quotes and announcements from over the summer.
In an interview with BBC Wales’ Felicity Evans, former MS Leanne Wood said:
“I don’t feel like (the 2018 leadership election) was done correctly….and probably that’s part of why it’s been quite difficult….(Myself and Adam Price are) not friends now. We haven’t been friends for years.”
“And losing a friendship under these political circumstances, when the project you believe in and is getting somewhere is stopped, that adds an extra layer of difficulty.”
“I spent a lot of time internally within Plaid Cymru trying to persuade people that we needed to accept (the 2016 Brexit referendum) result, trying to persuade people that the messages and the words we were using to describe what had happened were causing great anger amongst people in some places.”
On the one hand, this is refreshingly honest. You don’t have to be everybody’s friend and if you set out in politics to only surround yourself with people who think the sun shines out of your arse you’re doing it wrong. A few months before it happened I thought a leadership election would be too early even if the signs were there that Leanne Wood was on borrowed time.
Leanne Wood was also spot on about Plaid making a mistake by pressing for a second Brexit referendum. People need to know for certain that they may have made a choice that affects them negatively on a personal level – and we’re only beginning to see that happen now – before you start talking about do-overs.
On the other hand, this is very salty. While as mentioned earlier you don’t have to like everyone, Plaid has a long-standing tradition of making the leader’s job harder because senior personalities are pathologically unable to put their egos and personal ambitions to one side for the good of the party – Leanne was a victim of that herself. She also had six years to make progress as Plaid Cymru leader and didn’t do any better or worse than Adam Price has done so far. The Rhondda isn’t the centre of the universe and Plaid need to win five or six seats across the valleys to make a dent in Labour’s hegemony – something they’re nowhere near doing under the current electoral system.
That’s not a leadership problem, the problem of individual candidates, or our problem as the electorate – it’s the party’s problem as a whole.
What perhaps makes this come across as a bit snider than it was meant to be is that – as most of the people reading this will probably know – Adam Price has been on paternity leave so he couldn’t respond.
There have been a lot of comments from people who should otherwise know better about his “absence” or “silence” – even question marks over his leadership simply for taking paternity leave (which ends as of this week) – all smacking of sexist double standards.
On the launch of an e-bike loan pilot scheme (originally announced back in March):
“We want walking and cycling to become the normal choice for shorter journeys because active travel is not only better for our environment, but also for our health and economy.
“We know that this will involve a huge cultural change and that’s why we’re investing in schemes like the electric bike pilot to help people who have never cycled before to make a change to the way they travel in an affordable and sustainable way.”
– Deputy Minister for Climate Change, Lee Waters (Lab, Llanelli)
This scheme sounds like it would be great for people who may have mobility issues that would otherwise put them off cycling instead of driving (or haven’t cycled in a while a need a bit of help).
I’m sure the Welsh Government and Sustrans have thought of this, but more powerful e-bikes exist in a similar legal grey area as e-scooters and are treated as low-powered motorbikes or mopeds which need insurance etc. It’s something the Welsh Government ought to look at, but I’m assuming they don’t have the necessary powers.
The Welsh Government made a bit of a balls-up of an announcement on the use of “ozone cleaners” to disinfect classrooms ahead of the new term.
On August 30th, they said:
“£3.31m will be provided for new ozone disinfecting machines, to reduce cleaning times, improve disinfection and reduce costs. The funding is expected to supply more than 1,800 machines, at least one for every school, college and university in Wales.
“To address the issue, the Welsh Government asked Swansea University to establish an Ozone Classroom Decontamination Project, backed by Welsh Government funding. Scientists at the university have developed an Ozone disinfecting machine, now in production, which can be deployed for this task.”
On paper, this sounds like a novel solution (with big questions, naturally) to one of the main concerns parents and others may have about the new term – that it would lead to a surge in Covid-19 infections.
However, within a day or two BBC Wales reported:
“The Technical Advisory Group of experts to the Welsh Government will look at results of early trials of the machines ‘before any procurement process begins’.”
It sounds like a u-turn, but they probably just didn’t communicate it very well and made it sound like it was a done deal when it was still some way along the testing phase. Not a good look.
On the milestone of reaching 15 million trees planted in Uganda through a Welsh Government initiative:
“On top of planting 15 million trees – a fantastic achievement in itself – Wales has helped to protect an area of tropical rainforest twice the size of Wales and supported 16,000 families across 30 villages who may have otherwise faced severe hardship.”
– Minister for Social Justice, Jane Hutt (Lab, Vale of Glamorgan)“Our pledge to plant 3 million more (trees in Uganda) every year for the next 5 years will deliver substantial benefits, not just for those within Mbale, but it will have a considerable global impact on climate change.”
– Minister for Climate Change, Julie James (Lab, Swansea West)
Now, that’s great; climate change affects everyone and reforestation is as important in Africa as it is anywhere else (maybe more so).
That said, given the Welsh Government’s abysmal record on forestry creation in Wales, maybe Ugandans can start an aid programme to plant trees here?
On Team GB:
“Now, the last thing I want to do is a be a typical politician and make a political point out of all of this, but I think there’s a valid one to be made here….
“Those of us that seem desperate at the moment to rip our country apart with their calls for ‘independence’ fail to consider the sporting ramifications for these successes.
“Our athletes are thriving at the Olympic Games, because they compete as ‘Team GB’ and not in spite of it.”
– Tom Giffard MS (Con, South Wales West)
He has a point. It would be difficult to attribute medals won by Welsh athletes as part of team events as “Welsh medals”. Those who got over-excited and did so over the summer were wrong to do so.
However, winning medals is probably more down to the talent of the individual athletes, the standard of coaching and the amount of hard work they put in over years than the flag they compete under.
I found this funny. I don’t know why, I just did. Probably the “we must exist” bit.
