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TERRY DIGNAN: In the resorts of North and
West Wales there's a stillness in the air. But politics is never out of
season for Plaid Cymru's new leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones. He's visiting party
activists in seats Plaid hopes to win from Labour at the General Election.
IEUAN WYN JONES MP: "You know, there's a sort of
feel - you get a feel now that, you know, the whole election is going to
be totally different after devolution".
DIGNAN: But Labour accuses Plaid
of disguising its true ambitions and a lack of tolerance in its ranks.
PAUL MURPHY MP: That is the sort of problem that
we face in Wales and it's this sort of soft underbelly of Welsh Nationalism
which is so frightening to most of us in Wales.
IEUAN WYN JONES MP: My message to the Labour Party
is you have failed in your efforts to dissuade people from voting for Plaid
Cymru because for them the real issue is that Labour has turned its back
on the people of Wales.
DIGNAN: In the heart of Snowdonia,
Plaid demands help for tourism and farming, both hit by foot and mouth.
Reaching out beyond its Welsh-speaking strongholds, Plaid also calls for
action to save jobs in steel and manufacturing.
But here in rural North Wales, Plaid's enemies say the party has been
exposed for what it really is - intolerant, anti-English and some would
say, racist. Plaid's new leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones, says the allegations,
which he rejects, are a distraction from the real issues facing Wales -
Labour's failure to deliver better services and more jobs. Yet Labour and
the other main parties believe it's now going to be much more difficult
for Plaid to deny, in the coming election, that its ultimate aim is a sovereign
independent Wales separate from England.
ACTUALITY:
DIGNAN: Labour has every reason
to fear Plaid. In elections two years ago to the devolved National Assembly
which now governs Wales, Plaid won seats in the Labour-dominated English-speaking
south of the country as well as the Welsh-speaking rural North and West.
Meeting the voters and their children, Ieuan Wyn Jones is in Conwy, a
seat taken by Plaid in the Assembly elections. Then, Labour accused Plaid
of downplaying its commitment to Welsh independence. Now that the pieces
are in place for an election strategy, it's become apparent Plaid will
again avoid referring to independence. Instead, it says its long term aim
is self-government within the European Union. What does that mean, asks
Labour? Wait and see, replies Plaid.
JONES: If Europe goes down the
way of being a Europe of the regions, Wales' place in that will be in a
particular direction. But of course if Europe doesn't develop in that way
and Wales might at some stage want to make an application to be a Member
State within the European Union. So what I've said to the party is that
in order to get clarity on that it's important for us to discuss this issue
and to come to a conclusion on it so that everybody understands exactly
where we stand.
MURPHY: Really the only question
we have to ask is, 'Do you, Welsh Nationalist Party, want to be separate
from England? Do you want to be part of Great Britain, part of the United
Kingdom? That's a very difficult question that they have to answer, but
it's one that we intend to pose time and time again - stay away from all
this fudge and nonsense, one simple question: do you want to remain part
of the United Kingdom?' And I think that'll be the key question during
the election.
DIGNAN: Wales shares with Scotland
a landscape which in normal times attracts visitors by the coachload. But
Scotland has the edge in self-government. So Plaid wants Wales to have
at least the same law making powers as the Scottish Parliament. Even if
English-speaking Wales agrees, Plaid's rural heartlands may want to go
further and strive for independence.
JONES: Our view is that full national
status is a long-term ambition and that would be something that could be
put to the people of Wales some years down the line.
MURPHY: People in the south in
the Welsh Nationalist Party would have difficulty in selling that. On the
other hand in the traditional rural north, west heartlands of the Welsh
Nationalist Party they have to keep to that line because that's what people
vote for. Now that's very difficult for them and they're going to have
to answer that question.
DIGNAN: Edward the First built
Conwy Castle - to consolidate English power here. Two hundred and fifty
years later Wales finally lost its independence. Plaid's traditional supporters
want it back - to tackle their country's economic problems and to protect
their language. They fear that in rural areas incomers from England threaten
the survival of the Welsh tongue.
Ieuan Wyn Jones has been presented with the first really big test of his
leadership by comments about English-speaking people made by one of his
Plaid councillors. Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative politicians
have united in outright condemnation of the failure, as they see it, of
Ieuan Wyn Jones to disown his controversial councillor. From Plaid's point
of view, with an election in the offing, this could hardly have happened
at a worse time.
ACTUALITY
DIGNAN: While Plaid's roots are
in Welsh-speaking rural areas, in this school drama rehearsals are in the
language of the majority in Wales. Plaid's goal is to represent that majority.
Yet some party members have a more pressing concern, saving their language
against an influx of English speakers into small villages. These fears
were put by a leading Plaid councillor, Simon Glyn, when he appeared as
a guest on a BBC Radio Wales discussion programme.
BBC RADIO WALES:
SIMON GLYN: Once you have more than fifty
per cent of anybody living in a community who speaks a foreign language
then you lose your indigenous tongue almost immediately and this is what
is happening in our rural villages. We are faced with a situation now where
we are getting tidal waves of migration, inward migration, into our rural
areas from England.
QUESTION TIME:
DAVID DIMBLEBY: Tonight, on Question Time
the President of Plaid Cymru, Ieuan Wyn Jones.
DIGNAN: On BBC ONE's Question Time
Plaid's leader said Councillor Glyn had highlighted a problem of young
people being unable to find work and buy homes in their own villages. But
he was asked to condemn the comments about language as totally unacceptable.
IEUAN WYN JONES "QUESTION TIME": He did not say that English was a foreign
language.
DIMBLEBY: He described English
as a foreign language.
JONES: No, no he didn't.
DIMBLEBY: This is the BBC's transcript
of it.
GLENYS KINNOCK MEP: That's the BBC's transcript.
DIMBLEBY: Hang on a second.
JONES: No, let me just finish the
point.
DIMBLEBY: Alright but just, just
read it there. He described English as a foreign language and.....(applause).
MURPHY: It's something which is
so offensive, so deeply offensive to those of us who are English-speaking
and offensive to our friends from England as well.
DIGNAN: Conwy is marginal. Having
lost it to Labour at the last General Election, the Conservatives have
a new candidate. But Plaid, which won here in the Assembly elections, stands
in his way. So, he's every reason to exploit Councillor Glyn's remarks
for all they're worth.
DAVID LOGAN: The truth about Plaid has
been exposed recently with the comments of Councillor Simon Glyn. Using
racist language to highlight what is a very serious social problem in the
rural communities of Wales. His party leadership have been quite definite
in their refusal to sack him when they've apologised on his behalf, then
he has withdrawn those apologies. I think we've had exposed the real agenda
of Plaid and it is quite frankly a very unpleasant one.
DIGNAN: Not to be outdone, the
Liberal Democrats have taken their place in the assault on Plaid. They,
too, have their eyes on marginal seats like Conwy. They say Ieuan Wyn Jones
should have taken the earliest opportunity to rebuke Councillor Glyn publicly.
VICKY MACDONALD: I think there is a problem with
what Simon Glyn said about the English living in Wales that Ieuan Wyn Jones
has not addressed and has not distanced himself from. He really should
have taken that issue in hand and dealt with it. It's a... Simon Glyn really
had no right to say these things. They are very unfortunate remarks and
have done Plaid I think a lot of damage.
DIGNAN: Plaid must limit further
damage or risk losing in areas, especially South Wales, where Welsh speakers
are in a minority. That would leave the party's electoral strategy in ruins.
So, the leadership is conceding that some of Councillor Glyn's comments
were unacceptable. Above all, it wants to avoid any impression that it
only represents those who speak Welsh.
JONES: The real issue is that there
are Welsh speaking communities in the rural areas that are...that are under
great difficulties and under great pressure and there are urban areas in
Wales where similar communities, English speaking, are also under similar
threat. So what we've got to do and I make it perfectly clear, Plaid Cymru
is a party for the whole of Wales and we want to try to address the issues
as they affect people wherever they live in Wales, whatever language they
speak, whatever the background.
DIGNAN: Two years ago Plaid brought
in a rich harvest of votes at the elections to the Welsh Assembly. Labour
predicts there'll be no repeat performance at the General Election. Because
whatever hopes it has of accumulating seats in the English-speaking south,
Plaid remains, says Labour, a party dominated by its Welsh-speaking heartlands.
MURPHY: I know that all parties
are broad church parties, but there is a fundamental difference with a
party which pretends in the South to be socialist, left-wing, English-speaking
and all the rest of it, but in the North is very, very different indeed
as obviously illustrated by Councillor Glyn's comments.
DIGNAN: By the time he sets off
on the campaign trail, Ieuan Wyn Jones will hope he has moved the debate
on from his handling of those comments. He wants to fight the election
on Labour's record in power. That way, he believes, Plaid has every chance
of winning over Labour voters in south Wales and in seats like Conwy.
JONES: They are determined now
to register their protest against Labour because they say you know for
New Labour read New Tories in Wales. It's just a continuation of Tory policies
and they see Plaid Cymru as the only real alternative and they are not
going to be dissuaded about voting for Plaid Cymru simply by these diversionary
tactics from the Labour Party.
DIGNAN: The tranquillity of the
resorts of North and West Wales may be disturbed earlier than usual this
year. There's an election in the air, one which could see Plaid Cymru break
out of its rural heartlands. Its opponents hope that by its own actions
Plaid may have made that goal harder to achieve.
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