Plaid Cymru - another Political Stunt. What's New?

28. Feb, 2015

What could you hear from Plaid Cymru in the months of public consultation and seminars for the budget of Carmarthenshire County Council - a pin drop!  Obviously cwtched up cosily by the fire in Ty Bres having first, created a new car park in front of it obviously making sure that all disabled and Mum's with prams would vote for somebody else.
 
The anticipation within the Plaid Group mounted and mounted - some being heard to cry this, at last, will be our day of glory!  It had to be, to brighten up Councillor Emlyn Dole's day who had been branded 'an eternal optimist' on his assumption that Plaid would win the Hengoed County seat.


On the day itself the Plaid Cymru Group came to life like Durucell battery bunnies - you could not stop them or shut them up. Their smiles were as wide as the River Towy - you would swear Wales had already won the World Cup! (Rugby or Football - take your choice).  Cries of 'this is it boys, our time has come!' came at two minutes before the start of the meeting when a motion was introduced to the Council requesting that the whole period of consultation where 1,800 surveys had been received and hundreds of Carmarthenshire residents had attended many seminars be totally ignored. 


Unfortunately, as usual, they had not done their homework and were swiftly given advice by the officers of the Council that impact of their motion would mean that the budget could not be balanced and it would mean a 10% increase in council tax increase in year 2.


You could say, giving them the benefit of the doubt, that they forgot that year 2 and 3 should be included to enable the Council to balance a budget or you could say that having refused to enter meaningfully into budget negotiations until 2 minutes before the meeting, it was a great excuse to say 'Don't blame the cuts on us', a tactic already used by the Plaid group in the Assembly earlier this year. You take your choice as to what you believe but one thing is for certain it was NOT a good day for democracy although it was noticed that the Independent Group gave them a merit badge for trying.