Welsh Government: devolve corporation tax to Wales as well as Northern Ireland.

Next Tuesday in the Assembly, the First Minister will set out what his government’s stance will be on which financial powers should be transferred to Wales. We’ll have to wait for the full detail, but it’s now clear that in one significant area – corporation tax –  Carwyn Jones has shifted position. In today’s Belfast [...]

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Plaid Cymru: leadership and Labour.

Plaid Cymru has today set out some of what it wants from Carwyn Jones if he wants the party’s support in avoiding stalemate in the Assembly. AMs Elin Jones and Simon Thomas said Plaid wants the First Minister to publish a programme of government for the entire five-year term; an early indication of his likely [...]

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Election 2011 – Where now?

The dust is beginning to settle, the politicians are rested and refreshed and this is the week in which decisions will be taken which will have long-term consequences for Welsh politics. I expect to see some movement by the end of Monday from Carwyn Jones about how he intends to deal the hand he’s been [...]

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Election XIII – the Funding Gap

As political interventions go, this is one of the most intellectual: one of the UK’s leading scientists, backed by 60 other senior academics criticising all four political parties. What worries  Sir John Cadogan is that he says none of the parties in this election campaign is addressing concerns about the funding gap between our universities [...]

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Election XI – Welsh Conservative manifesto launch

The Welsh Conservatives have launched their manifesto today, meaning that all four of the main parties in this election have now laid out their promises for us. You can read the manifesto in full here. It’s the smallest of all four manifestos, coming in at just 32 pages but as small books go it has [...]

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Election VII – the Passenger

From partner to passenger. That’s what Plaid leader Ieuan Wyn Jones became in the words of Welsh Labour spokespeople today. Mr Jones has been Economic Development minister as well as Deputy First Minister for the last four years of coalition government in Cardiff Bay. And when asked to list his achievements, he frequently points to the [...]

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Election VI – Plaid Cymru manifesto

There’ll be a manifesto a day this week and Plaid Cymru is the first party to unveil its pledges.  I’m not going to summarise it – you can read the full manifesto here. I’m halfway through it; we can compare notes when we’ve both finished. Just a few side notes to report. Every time Plaid [...]

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Former Plaid chair no longer a party member

Plaid Cymru’s former chair, John Dixon, has left the party after four decades as a leading activist. It’s no secret that Mr Dixon has had his concerns about Plaid’s direction for some time. He quit as chair  last July, citing ’a number of reasons for this decision, mostly political, and some personal.’ Even so, his was a [...]

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What does Plaid want?

It’s Plaid Cymru’s spring conference at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay this weekend and all the focus in on the Assembly election on May 5th. The party is in a very different position to that which it found itself in before the last election in 2007, in that then it was eyeing up [...]

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Budget preview

When he stands up to deliver his budget tomorrow (Wednesday), the Chancellor George Osborne will do so in very bleak circumstances. The military is engaged in a new conflict which will have to be paid for whilst at home, the latest figures show inflation is rising and borrowing higher than anticipated. All of which gives [...]

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