PLAID CYMRU has officially launched its campaign for the National Assembly election in May presenting three ambitions and nine steps forward to create “a well, well educated, wealthier Wales.”
The party’s launch, which took place on Wednesday (Feb17), set out an ambitious programme for government focusing on 9 key policies in the fields of health, education and the economy.
Former MP and Plaid Cymru’s candidate for the Carmarthen East and Dinefwr constituency, Adam Price, kicked off the campaign launch with a rousing key note speech on why, after 17 years of Labour rule, Wales needed a change of government.
Plaid Cymru’s three ambitions and 9 steps forward are:
A Well Wales: Cure and Care NHS
- National Commitment on Cancer: 28 day diagnosis guarantee
- Cut waiting times by investing in an additional 1000 doctors and 5000 nurses
- Abolish home care charges for the elderly and people with dementia A Well-Educated Wales: Cradle to Career Education
- Free universal pre-school care for children from 3 years of age
- A National Premium for teachers: raising standards in our schools
- Pay off £18,000 worth of debt for graduates who work in Wales and create 50,000 new apprenticeships
A Wealthier Wales: Building our Economic Engine
- Major investment in our transport, energy and green infrastructure
- A WDA for the 21st century to sell our products and ideas to the world
- Cut business rates and give more public contracts to Welsh firms
Addressing the campaign launch, Adam Price said: “I admit I’m an optimist. But so were we as a nation once. I was born into a council house, went to a comp, survived on free school meals, never had a car or a holiday growing up. I’m fairly typical of many in my generation.
“But the one thing we did have was hope, the fervent foundation of selfbelief in which we were all brought up, that the future would be better than the past, that through a combination of individual application and collective effort we could improve our own lot and the lives of others.
“The thing that makes me angry, the thing that brought me back into politics is the extinguishing of hope – the sense of resignation, that the state that people are in is the sum total of our reasonable expectations.
“That shorter lives, lower wages, fewer qualifications is an accident of birth, not a cancer we can cure together.
“Well it doesn’t have to be that way. There is a better way – a new Welsh way, a new way forward together.
“A way to be well, to be welleducated, to be wealthier. Modest ambitions for most countries, but for Wales these are aspirations that can only be met with a radical break with the present.”
Turning his attention to his home county of Carmarthenshire, Adam Price said: “In many specialties Carmarthenshire residents are waiting longer for medical treatment than the rest of Wales. Our ambulance service is under immense pressure and has seen the worst response times in the entire country for several years. Close to a third of our GPs will be retiring in the coming years with little sign of anything being done to replace them.
“Our young people are leaving Carmarthenshire to study with few incentives to return home to utilise their skills and talent within our local economy and public services. The transport, connectivity and housing needed to help build sustainable rural communities all require a Welsh Government that will prioritise and invest in every corner of the country.
“Whether it’s 1,000 extra doctors, 5,000 extra nurses, free dementia care, tuition fee debt write-off for graduates, a record number of apprenticeships, free childcare, supporting our teaching profession, supporting our small businesses or delivering the largest investment in our transport infrastructure, we have a vision and determination to realise a new vision for Carmarthenshire and Wales.”
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