The Plaid Cymru and Labour Executives have finally reached a deal on a future coalition Government for the Welsh National Assembly and have already produced a joint document detailing their vision for Wales.
The "One Wales – a Progressive Agenda for the Government of Wales" document is an ambitious endeavour and outlines how the Welsh and English languages should have equality parity in the future. Some other features of the pact involve:
Giving Welsh official working status at the EU level The right to receive consumer services through Welsh Increase the supply of affordable housing Drawing down legislative power to the Assembly in order to suspend the Right to Buy in areas of housing pressure A commitment to support a daily Welsh language newspaper Carrying out a referendum on full law making powers for the Welsh Assembly Creating a .cym domain name Developing an all-Wales 'green' jobs strategy Creating a Commissioner position to investigate language rights abuse
The document also set out that Labour First Minister, Rhodri Morgan, will remain as the First Minister of Wales with Plaid's Ieuan Wyn Jones taking the Deputy First Minister position.
In a communication with the Celtic League however, Aran Jones, the Chief Executive of Cymuned, the Welsh housing and language campaign group stated:
"There are some good ideas in the One Wales accord which, if implemented, will make a positive difference. However, we remain concerned that discussion on the housing market still revolves around unsustainable attempts to provide new, affordable housing, instead of the creation of a secondary and sustainable local housing market (an approach which is already working well in parts of England). We will be continuing to call for discussion of a local market, and will be providing evidence to the Housing Measure committee in support of this approach."
The Plaid/Labour pact and the coalition deal will first have to be agreed to by the Plaid's national council on the 7 th July in Aberystwyth and at a special Labour conference this month and it has been speculated that there will be some dissenting voices. For many years there has been bitter rivalry between Labour and Plaid grass roots campaigners and it is still unsure what the reaction will be. Labour sources in London's Guardian newspaper have said though that they are very confident that a deal will go ahead as planned and Wyn Jones has officially stated that:
"This will be a historic agreement, and its time for the Assembly to govern for Wales."
Commenting on the Plaid - Labour deal Celtic League Secretary General, Rhisiart Tal-e-bot, said:
"Developments in Wales will be followed with interest, especially in the Celtic countries of Kernow and Breizh. In addition, language activists in the north of Ireland will also be keen to know what language rights will result from a Plaid/Labour coalition Government. If further rights are granted in Wales, it will make it more difficult for Stormont to refuse the demands of language campaigners in the six counties".
The "One Wales" document can be found by following the link below:
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
02/06/07
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