Congratulations to a WalesHome.org contributor tonight
Jonathan Edwards: we'll be seeing a lot more of him
Jonathan Edwards, who wrote this excellent piece on the social cost of the recession for us, has been selected to succeed Adam Price MP as Plaid Cymru candidate for Carmarthen East and Dinfewr. And presumably, if the last two General Elections are anything to go by, its next Member of Parliament.
Jonathan is an intelligent, passionate and direct politician and is a good choice for Plaid.
We’ve had plenty of politicians write for us on WalesHome.org but this is is the first time a contributor has been selected to fight a contest as an AM or MP after they have contributed in a seat they will win. So a small first for us – but I’m also arrogant enough to anticipate this will not be the last time this happens.
Those who’ve been reading this blog for and can remember before we got “all Labour” in terms of Hearth coverage, may remember this early blog post on the obsession on other sites with this particular selection contest compared to the others out there. I still think this coverage was overblown. Not because it wasn’t worth reporting on but because there’s a deafening silence for so many other candidate selections. For example, the first person to find me a decent feature on the person selected to succeed Brian Gibbons AM in Aberavon gets half a shandy – and there’s no way I can think of anyone but Labour’s Mr X winning that seat in 2011.
But back to the main topic. Well done, Jonathan. And we’ve paid you the ultimate WalesHome.org accolade. You’ve now got your own tag on this article. I was so proud the day that other websites gave me mine.
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Well yes…congratulations indeed. A good successor to Adam Price.
Nevertheless, I worry that Jonathan’s opponents in the selection were of rather low calibre, so it was a no brainer really. To use a sporting metaphor, Team Plaid appear to have little or no depth of talent in the squad. When the time for a general election comes, the big game, then Plaid needs to find the political equivalent of Shane Williams (who incidently, is a Brynaman/Glanaman constituent).
Another concern, is the preponderance of public sector types all vying to get their snouts into the (another) trough – this is the last thing that Plaid Cymru or Wales needs.
If Plaid Cymru are to build, then the subtext to Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales needs to be rewritten … and soon.