ADAM PRICE rallied the faithful at Plaid’s annual conference with a stirring call for a Plaid Cymru administration to turn what he described as ‘a decade of drift’ into ‘a decade of decision’ for Wales.
After first sharing his experiences as an International Election Observer during the Catalan referendum on independence, the Carmarthen East and Dinefwr AM set out the start of an ambitious policy agenda Plaid Cymru will be exploring for its 2021 Programme of Government.
Mr Price said rather than “wallowing in a trough of Celtic despair” it was “time to turn our eyes to the coming decade.”
Setting out four of the first policies the party’s new think tank, Nova Cambria will study, the party’s Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Economy & Infrastructure, Adam Price said: “We’ve exported our talent, our hopes, our dreams for too long as a nation. It’s time to turn them into reality here at home. So over the next few months we will task Nova Cambria with working up the detail of the kind of bold ideas that we want to see at the heart of the Plaid Cymru Government of 2021 in which I hope to serve.
“These ideas are based on the things you as members and supporters have been telling us as elected members you want to see in the new Wales we will begin to build.
“That means calling an end to free cash for foreign-owned companies – to little or no long-term benefit to the Welsh economy – and ensuring all future support to business is channelled by an independent Development Bank investing in Welsh-based businesses, not through grants but through loans and long-term equity investments.
“We will abolish business rates and replace them with a system of taxation that is fairer, doesn’t penalise the high street or punish capital Investment. In return for this commitment to help our indigenous businesses, we will also be asking business to work with us for the good of Wales. We’ll create a regional network of Business and Enterprise Councils, business-led organisations based on the model of Continental Chambers of commerce, independent of Government but business deciding what business needs to thrive and prosper in every part of Wales.
“We will introduce a guaranteed youth basic income for all young people between the ages of 18-24 so that young people can study in Higher or Further Education or start a business or spend a year volunteering in a true National Citizen Service – and for those out of work we’ll guarantee a job – so that our young people can give back to our Country but so we can also give to them the foundations they need for their future which is our future too. We’ll use our guarantee to the youth of our Country to attract back the half of our undergraduates that leave our Country every year, many of them never to return. You are our future. And we want you to make your future here.
“We will create financial security for the young as the surest foundation for them to build up their productivity, build on their creativity, and together, build prosperity for all.
“I’m fed up of being a late nation, so we’ll become the first to do this in the world.
“We’ll turn this nation from laggard to leader. One by one we’ll take those league tables that have us languishing at the bottom and we’ll turn the world upside down and our Wales the right side up.
“We’ll do it by the power of our belief. We’ll do it with the steely determination of a people on the path to freedom. We’ll do it with the hopes of generations to come as a guiding light in front of us, and the voices of generations past ringing in our ears.”
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