Tuesday 12 January 2016

Alun Davies on hubris (honestly).

In an excellent Blog post  before the Carwyn Jones , Nigel Farage Debate  John Dixon over at  Borthlas that maybe the argument  over membership over the European Union should be about vision, not economics.

 He writes
From a Welsh perspective, I’d continue to argue that the question we have to ask ourselves is whether we want to see Wales as a small appendage of a very English state trying to stand alone in the world, or whether we want to see our small nation playing a part alongside the other small nations of an essentially multinational and multilingual Europe.  That’s not really an economic question at all; it is a political one.  And it’s not an argument which presents the EU as some sort of ideal organisation either.  It’s a union which is continually, albeit slowly, evolving and changing, but which holds the potential for a combination of local autonomy and shared sovereignty in a union of consenting partners looking to the future rather than the past.
I’m pleased to see at least one of Wales’ politicians making a similar point - and pleasantly surprised that it’s a member of the Labour Party.

I was intrigued with the last sentence so I followed  the link to find that it is Alun Davies AM  Labour AM for Blaneau Gwent who indeed makes much of the same argument as John .

However Alun Davies would not be Alun Davies  if he did not try and have a dig at Plaid Cymru a Party in  which he was a former  prominent  member.

For he writes

 There aren’t many political events in Wales that are sold out immediately. It’s little wonder that Plaid are spitting mad. But Plaid would be well advised to focus on the day-job rather than to exercise an unearned hubris and an undeserved sense of entitlement on the airwaves.
When it comes to "unearned hubris"Alun Davies should  take a look in a nearby mirror.

But  the apparent  argument from a Labour Politician that Plaid should  not  take part in the Brexit debate  is ridiculous.

If Plaid had ignored the debate Labour Politicians would be asking that  Plaid should stop being so insular.

I am pretty sure that when he was a Plaid activist and NUS stalwart at Aberystwyth  Alun Davies would have attended a Anti Apartheid  rally in Cardiff in 1988 in which the star speaker was Archbishop Trevor Huddleston.

Also speaking was the then Plaid leader Dafydd Elis Thomas who was followed by the then Labour MP for the Rhondda Allan Rogers  whose impact on was so politics influential he a whole 2 lines on Wikepedia.

Mr Rodger for some reason  decide to "Remind Plaid Cymru that there were causes beyond Wales that needed to be fought".
 "
Prehaps Alun Davies joined in the cal of "Why do you think we are here?  he may even added a expletive.

Now years later he seems to believe  that the debate over Europe should be conducted by "the big boys" .

The point is we need as he acknowledges   more than a economic argument  on last nights performance its not going to come from Carwyn Jones. 

Indeed Plaid Cymru leader  did more with just one line to deliver a killer blow to Nigel Farage when he complained about foreigners with HIV receiving free treatment on the NHS with her "You ought to be ashamed of yourself" when he complained about foreigners with HIV receiving free treatment on the NHS. 

She and other should have been given the opportunity last night to repeat it.

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