You can read more on it here: http://www.gambitcf.com/news.aspx?newsid=36

To expand and prosper, we need to cut the burden of the business rate. And secure a reduced level of corporation tax. Isn’t it ironic, Adam and Jeff, that Peter Hain, while Sec of State for Northern Ireland, advocated precisely that step for that province, yet he refused to raise a finger as Sec of State for Wales to secure the same essential lever for the economy of Wales. And it’s the old coal mining valleys of the south and the old slate quarry areas of the north that are paying the price for that economic incompetence.

The “Cocacolation” of Western Society, Roy? Which will probably end the theocratic dictatorship in Iran before sanctions , and why for the Castros the embargo is not such a bad thing.

Alternately Political Correctness?

Yes. Effectively, it saddled the coal industry with debts it had not previously held – government debt, really – and subsequently the industry had to reach certain targets in order to satisfy that debt. This made smaller pits less viable. Wales traditionally had smaller pits and, even though the anthracite and other variants found here were of a high quality, extracting them was usually more problematic, owing to the geology of both the South Wales and North Wales coalfields. This required a higher degree of pre-extraction investment, plus it put the pressure on when unforeseen developments occurred, such as the discovery of hard shelves of rock (very common in Welsh mining).

The pit closures that took place in the 1950s and from then on were in answer to this situation of being caught – quite literally – between a rock and a hard place. Of course, external factors, like cheaper imported coal and the coming onstream of North Sea oil significantly exacerbated matters.

Royston…what on earth does that even mean?

That idea doesn’t sound a million miles away (in practical terms, at least) from the London weighting that my wife and her colleagues used to receive when she worked as a nurse there.

Will go and look it up. Cheers.

Reductions in Corporation Tax obviously can make a region more attractive to the private sector but another way to reduce costs Wolf would argue is to have lower wages in regions where living costs are lower. I’ve never seen any Plaid paper on what wages should be paid in Wales if the Assembly had more powers. Would teachers, for example, given that supply exceeds demand in Wales, be paid less than their counterparts in the certain parts of the south of England where housing costs in particular are much greater?

Wolf’s pamphlet, which was published by a think tank with close links to the Liberal Democrats, uses the example of the individual pay bargaining established in Sweden partly as a reaction to the deficit reduction imposed by the Swedish Social Democrats in the early 1990s.

Yet one group that Plaid’s leadership has always been uncomfortable with is the southern working class (from which, incidentally, I am sprung) and this goes a long way to explaining Plaid’s consistently poor showing in the areas Jeff Jones refers to. It’s not difficult to explain this blindness, which is on a par with De Valera’s vision of a wholly rural Ireland populated by chaste maidens dancing and clean, muscular young men playing at the hurling.

Both Saunders Lewis and Gwynfor Evans are on record as saying that given the choice between an independent Wales and a Welsh-speaking Wales they would choose the latter every time. My interpretation of this sentiment is that both would have been happy to see my people live in poverty – as long as they spoke Welsh. This attitude, if muted, has permeated Plaid Cymru ever since, and goes a long way to explaining why so many in the party regard the south as De Valera’s supporters regarded the ‘Black North’. Ours, but alien.

Even when Plaid under DET tried to break with this De Valera-inspired vision it still had difficulty embracing the hwntw. Hippies were more acceptable. Nothing’s going to change unless Plaid changes – maybe a president who has never been to a noson lawen would be a good start. Because you know something is wrong when, in 2010, Plaid canvassers are still getting the doorstep response, ‘I can’t vote Plaid Cymru, love, I don’t speak Welsh’.

Plaid Cymru has nothing to offer most Welsh people. Despite recent advances at heart it remains Plaid Gwynedd. Until it can convince our people that it has something to offer them it will fail time and time again. And I am not advocating ‘reaching out’ to ethnic and other minorities but trying to make contact with those without whose support Plaid is nothing: the bulk of the population, living between Mumbles and Monmouth.

As for “immature comments regarding female members of Plaid Cymru”, unless it is personally and unnecessarily hurtful I will say what I damn well think and feel. I would rather be loyal to the countless millions who have suffered for freedom of expression than surrender to the post-’60s dictators corrupting Western life and values.