Plaid Cymru are back at it again, digging up the dead-in-the-water independence debate. Why? Because it serves as a convenient smokescreen to distract the Welsh public from the clear failings of their minority administration in Cardiff Bay.
We are 100 days in, and across key metrics, from NHS waiting lists to frontline service delivery, things are worse than ever. The hard economic figures speak for themselves. Respected independent analysis, such as the paper by Guto Ifan, Cian Siôn and Daniel Wincott, (DEVOLUTION, INDEPENDENCE AND WALES’ FISCAL DEFICIT Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 January 2023) shows that Wales operates with a massive structural deficit that is currently cushioned by the Union.
We simply do not have the financial resources to stand alone without triggering severe economic disruption or steep cuts to basic services. But Plaid don’t care about economic realities. Fiscal incompetence and political ineptitude go hand in hand. Looking to Sinn Féin for political inspiration on constitutional agitation shows just how far down the barrel they are willing to scrape.
Plaid and their partners are the Welsh political establishment. The Senedd already holds extensive powers over health, transport, and education. Instead of clamouring for more powers, more politicians, more quangos, and more taxpayer waste, it is time to use the powers Cardiff Bay already has. The people of Wales want real solutions to real problems:
Fixing NHS Waiting Lists:
Cutting administrative bloat, empowering frontline clinical staff, and clearing backlogs for routine procedures like cataract surgeries.
Employing Trained Staff:
Retaining our locally trained nurses and doctors instead of losing them to other regions or administrative overhead.
Scrapping Unnecessary Rules:
Reversing blanket 20mph zones and focusing on economic growth, sensible tax policy, and infrastructure.
Independence is not the answer Wales is looking for. Wales does not need more division or grandstanding, it needs unity, practical delivery, and genuine reform.
Gareth Beer MS, Member of the Senedd for Sir Gaerfyrddin
