Given the recent disparaging press remarks of County Council Leader Kevin Madge about the Council’s Plaid Cymru councillors, I welcome the opportunity to put the record.straight.
Since the modernization of Wales’ County Councils in 1999 (when the “Cabinet” system was introduced), the Plaid Group has consistently been in favour of all three main Groups (Labour, Plaid Cymru and the Independents) cooperating and forming an inclusivecoalition to run Carmarthenshire County Council. There is good reason for this, namely thatcompared to a coalition of only two Groups, it has a number of clear and very significant advantages:
(i)It largely eliminates discredited adversarial/confrontational politics.
(ii)It promotes a spirit of cooperation and compromise within the Council.
(iii)It can utilise the best talents of all groups on the Council, not just some groups, and the Plaid Cymru Group now certainly has a significant number of very talented individuals.
(iv)It is therefore likely to be the best and most effective way to run the Council.
(v)It is clearly fair to all Council groups.
(vi)It reflects the results of Council elections and, therefore, the wishes of the electorate far more closely than a coalition that excludes a Council group (or groups). In the 2012 County Council elections Plaid gained 38% of the total votes cast as well as 38% of the councillorselected, andyet has no representative on the Council’s 10-member Cabinet.
Sharing power fairly amongst the County Council’s groups was Plaid’s declared policy in 1999 but Labour refused to be part of any such inclusivecoalition. Consequently, during 1999 – 2004 aPlaid/Independentcoalition was obliged to administer the Council. Then, after the County Council elections of 2004, 2008 and 2012, Plaid Cymru remained in favour of an all-inclusive coalition running the County Council. However, on each occasion it was rejected by the Labour and Independent groups. Instead, they combined to form a ruling coalition that excluded Plaid Cymru. What decision could possibly be more political than that? Indeed, rejecting one political party and favouring another – 3 times - were astonishingly political decisions for a group that calls itself “Independent”. Thus the coalition created a “Government” and “Opposition” within the Council, imitating the discredited Westminster Parliamentary system. It is ironic – and somewhat amusing - that, having deliberately created anopposition, the two groups often cry “foul” and express amazement when the Plaid Group actually behaves like an opposition.
During 2004 – 08 Plaid was the smallest group with 16 members whereas in the period 2008 – 12 both the Independent and Plaid groups had 30 members,Labour having 11. However, in the present Council Plaid Cymru forms thelargest group with 28 members, Labour and the Independentgroupshaving 22 each. Natural justice clearly suggests that the largest group on the County Councilself-evidently has a moral right to be part of the Council’s Administration (whichever group that may be – Plaid at present), with its Leader being the Leader of the Council. I have spoken to many people about this issue and they all strongly agree with this view. It appears that this equitable principle is opposed by no-one except the Labour and Independent members of Carmarthenshire County Council.
In a recent press release Councillor Madge states that by not participating in the budget event to identify Council cuts (21 October) “Plaid Cymru councillors have let down the people who voted for them”. The real reason that Plaid councillors are continually letting down the people who voted for them is because they have been banned from the Council’s ruling coalition that – to all intents and purposes – runs the County Council. The Plaid Group are more than willing to cooperate and assist the Labour and Independent groups in making Council decisions but it must be on a proper, prescribed and comprehensive footing, namely as full members of the Council’s ruling coalition. If the two ruling groups persist in refusing to permit the Plaid Group to play its rightful part in running the Council, it has no alternative but to remain in opposition and allow the Labour/Independent coalition to take full responsibility for making Council decisions, difficult or otherwise.