Sunday, 10 May 2015

I see dark clouds on the horizon, the future look pretty bleak for most.

It was an unexpected election result, that many, including me,  hoped we wouldn't get....to poorly paraphrase Monty Python "nobody was expecting a tory majority".  Even if Labour had not melted as rapidly as the ice caps of the North Pole in Scotland, they still would have lost.

And now who knows the horrors the triumphant Tory party will unleash onto the UK. Let's say I'm not optimistic at all, for all of Cameron's talk of one nation politics, we know he only means in reality England.

Boris Johnson it seems was ready when he purchased in advance them water cannons, for he must have had predicted the likely ground swell of anger that would rise even there, when Ian Duncan Smith is released to decimate the welfare state, and we find out where the axe will fall, and where the £12 billion in cuts will come from. When those who can least afford it are hit hardest and those whom don't need it are given a handout.

True, the Conservatives in Wales had their best result for aeons, as they defeated Labour in Gower of all places, and kicked Clegg further by gaining two seats from the Lib Dems. But don't expect this motley crew of Welsh Tories to stand up for Wales when the tories impose policies that favour England at the cost of us Welsh.

Not that I'm saying anyone one of them (the eleven welsh tories) don't have Wales interests at heart - in reality, they will be told where to stand and what to say...period.

I suppose if I was digging around for good news, it would be that maybe Cameron might keep his promise to devolve more power to Wales as he devolves more power to the English regions. Though what are the odds do you think that whilst the devolution of powers will be imposed in England, here in Wales he will want a referendum held first. And the result of a referendum on further welsh assembly powers is not a certainty by any means.

Oh and Nigel Farage wasn't elected, nor UKIP's Welsh leader and son of polish hiring family, Nathan Gill.

Now, and this is important. With the Tories making gains in Wales and UKIP share of the vote rising we need to start worrying about next years Assembly Elections.

Let's think what would happened if the Tories gained power here, that would be goodbye to many many things that we the Welsh feel justly proud of. It would be goodbye free prescriptions, free school  breakfast clubs, and the start of the end of the Welsh NHS as we know it, to name just three.

It would, in my humble opinion, be a disaster to most of us in Wales.  This is why, Plaid Cymru must keep on building on the momentum they got from the General Election and the good standing that it gave Leanne Wood; though not maybe in share of vote, by taking progressive politics in Wales forward, by reaching out to all in Wales, by being the true one nation party of Wales, there to represent the interest of Wales first, second and last as their priority, without having to first gain permission from party headquarters over the border.

And I hope Carwyn Jones, won't do a Miliband and refuse to talk coalition, that all parties that want a progressive Wales, a successful Wales, with social justice and social principles at its heart form an alliance now or soon before we all wake up to being a region of England.

Lastly for now, I am truly concerned as to the UK's future (not in terms of the current union, I've long argued for a UK Federal Republic) but for it's future economic prosperity. For now it's highly likely there will be a referendum on continued membership of the EU, and again the result of that is far from certain.

Most serious commentators be they politicians, academics or business leaders agree it would be a disaster if the UK left the EU. They only hope is that Cameron can pull it off again as he did last week and over the Scottish Referendum, albeit with help from Labour in the later....or hold on, thinking about it, in both cases.

If Brexit happens, it could truly spell the end of the United Kingdom as a union. What many feared with a Labour/SNP coalition, because master strategist Lynton Crosby scared them to think so, they have by voting in the Tories in reality made the prospect of it happening a greater likelihood than ever before.



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