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 to achieve a great deal.
Not only does it have to appeal to Conservative voters across Wales, many of whom are still sceptical about devolution, but it also has to complete the rebranding that’s gone on over the last ten years which is sometimes half-jokingly referred to as Welshification.
And it also has to appeal to other parties if a rainbow coalition with Plaid and the Liberal Democrats becomes a possibility.
Privately a party source told me that about 90% of the manifesto is true blue Conservative that no Tory anywhere in the UK could really disagree with.
It’s the other 10 per cent that’s much more interesting. This is where you find pledges like the commitment to ‘working towards 1.5 million Welsh speakers by 2015,’ quite a pledge from any party, let alone the Conservatives.
And when it comes to the nation-building ‘wish-list’ there’s a huge amount of reaching out to Plaid in the manifesto, for instance a commitment to fair funding for Wales and a statement that ‘the legal jurisdiction of Wales needs to be made more account and partly accountable to the National Assembly.’
A little book then, but one that could go a long way.
ITVAdrian 
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