This is a manifesto for the government of Wales that you can write yourself. You don’t have to be interested in party politics to have a view about how your country should be run. Post a ‘reply’ to propose a policy, principle or objective you want to be included in the manifesto or ‘quote’ to comment on a post someone else has made.

You can address in detail a single issue you feel strongly about, or describe in general terms the kind of society in which you’d like to live. Don’t worry about the costs of implementing your policy or objective for the moment. Once we know what people want, we’ll call on the services of an economist and other experts to help draw up the possible options.

Does that seem simple? Why should politics be any more complicated?

This reply is specific to a little seaside resort in Cymru Gogledd. Rhyl. My hometown.

Anyone who has been near Rhyl during a major international football tournament will know the place is awash with the cross of St George. Welsh flags are torn down, and cars bearing Y draig coch are vandalised. The Rhyl accent is Scouse. My brother who still lives there thinks he's English and that Rhyl is a bit of England nestled along the Welsh coast. Lots of other Rhylites think this too. Not all of them granted, but the majority are in some sort of state of denial.

This is because Rhyl has become a stomping ground for unhinged loons from the English North West, and also a graveyard for pensioners tottering over from the same area to die in sunny Rhyl.

In my school days any lingering elements of Welsh culture or language were squeezed out of my developing mind by this influence. The general consensus in my school was anything Welsh was square/uncool/boring/etc.

Only after I had escaped the violence, heroin, crime and anglo-spew of Rhyl did I realise The Red Dragonhood's slogan 'Mae'n cwl i fod yn Gymro Gymraes'. 'How cool it is to be Welsh!' Patriotism bloomed in me when I realised what a Frankenstein mess of a town Rhyl was, and not at all representative of our great land.

So I reckon a bit of good old Owain Glyndwr <myspace>style</myspace> burn the town to the ground and start again is in order.

I'll vote for anyone who wants to set fire to Rhyl.

Or Gruff Rhys, he'd get my vote too. He's a magician.

Maniffesto anwleidyddol ar gyfer llywodraeth Cymru

Mae hwn yn faniffesto ar gyfer llywodraeth Cymru y medrwch ei ysgrifennu eich hun. Does dim rhaid i chi ymddiddori mewn gwleidyddiaeth plaid i fod â barn ynglŷn â sut y dylid rhedeg eich gwlad. Postiwch ‘ateb’ i gynnig polisi, egwyddor neu amcan rydych am ei weld yn cael ei gynnwys yn y maniffesto neu anfonwch ‘sylw’ ar sail yr hyn y mae rhywun arall wedi’i bostio.

Gallwch gyfeirio mewn manylder at fater rydych yn teimlo’n gryf yn ei gylch neu ddisgrifio mewn termau cyffredinol y math o gymdeithas y dymunech fyw ynddi. Peidiwch â gofidio am gostau gwireddu eich polisi neu amcan am y tro. Byddwn yn galw ar wasanaeth economegydd ac arbenigwyr eraill i lunio’r union opsiynau posibl pan fyddwn yn gwybod beth yw dyheadau pobl

Ydi hyn yn ymddangos yn syml? Pam ddylai gwleidyddiaeth fod yn gymhleth?

Not a political argument, but I would like grandstand anchormen/women to be Welsh. That way we can have some bias for Wales rather than the current status quo. Oh, and status quo should be banned from Wales.

I think there is a definite need for some re-organisation with the Welsh Assembly and it's role in combination with the government. If there are powers for self-government, they should be utilised to there fullest extent for the good of our country, so far I see little that has changed other than now we have a fancy new building down the bay which went vastly over budget, money which could have been used to plough back into our hospitals and schools. Tired old story, but one which is true nonetheless.

So far I have seen no benefit (I may be being ignorant now) other than being able to say we are self governing, and have lessened some of the dependence on the 'English' government.

Usual stuff needs changing:
*More money for schools and eductaion
*More money for the NHS (although less for consultants, as recently announced they were given a £10k payrise despite declining appointments and proceedures).
*More NHS dentists
*More security for the armed forces, knowing they are not going to be disbanded and joined with another unit.

Problem with all of this is that it needs MORE money - we need massive amounts of external investment to rejuvenate our economy, rather than closing businesses as it's cheaper labour outside the UK.

We need a Welsh Republic, socialist and radical x x x

Socialism (Real), site is fab, medium and yes, suppose so ...

The points Rich has raised are those to which, it seems to me, the politicians ought to devote the majority of their efforts. Surely the objective of any government should be to improve the lives of the people it represents, rather than merely striving to perpetuate itself.

Education offers people a way out of the shit and a skilled workforce brings economic benefits. We need to spend money on rewarding the most talented teachers - people who can inspire our kids - not on compiling statistics that make politicians look good. The notion of applying market forces to education to stimulate underperforming schools to do better, as the alien body snatchers known as ‘New Labour’ have done, is just plain stupid.

I would like to see more effort devoted to helping kids who are not academic or whose educational needs are not conventional. There has got to be a way out of the spiral of hopelessness that exists for so many kids in the valleys and elsewhere in Wales.

The government, someone in government, needs to put in place a strategy that will enable Welsh business to compete in a global marketplace. Our labour force is no longer cheap in global terms so it needs to start producing stuff that will command a premium price. (Not Burberry polo shirts, obviously!)

As the Billy Crystal character says in the Princess Bride, “If you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything.” (I may be the only one to have been inspired by that film.) Again, why are we creating a ‘market’ in health services based on spurious statistics when people simply need fast, efficient access to high quality healthcare and an ambulance service that comes when its needed.

The fact that dentistry has been privatised and effectively taken out of the NHS is a scandal. Everyone should have access to the best dental care.

I mentioned the Princess Bride, which is a wonderful feel-good film. An inspired Welsh government would devote resources to making people happier. It may sound daft, but recent scientific experimentation and the experience of Denmark suggests that a huge amount can be achieved by a small, happy population.

How do we pay for it? Lets start by getting rid of a layer of government, Westminster, for instance. Let’s stop contributing money and the lives of Welsh soldiers to England’s wars. War has an extremely debilitating effect on all aspects of civilised society not least of which is the obscene cost (Bush and Blair have obviously not read Sun Tzu). I am not suggesting we should not act responsibly in world affairs but let’s not pay for more Trident missiles that we’d only ever be able to launch when it served American interests. (The Americans effectively keep the keys.)

Let’s put Welsh interests first, something that Westminster is not able to do because of conflicting needs in England. An example might be the international airport project proposed for Newport that was kicked into touch by the Department of Transport after lobbying by BAA which was worried it would take business away from Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

The utility industries have all been privatised. Fine. Let’s start charging Liverpool and Birmingham for the water. Let’s start using our remaining coal reserves to finance investment in alternative energies and so on.

The idea that Wales would not be economically viable without England is a lie. We need brave politicians who will serve the people before themselves. We need leaders that will grasp the nettle and set about making our lives better.

I'm not a nationalist, and I like to stay quite 'apolitical', as I don't belive in political parties because they're all pretty much the same, and I'm dubious of most politicians. I think that our government(s) biggest downfalls are:

- Most (not all of them!) politicians are over 35 (there is an exact percentage figure for that, but I don't remeber it) and usually come from well-educated backgrounds such as expensive private schools and universities that are well out of the reach of the majority of people. They are almost an elitist group of individuals who never actually live the lives they're trying to govern, and have no real perspective on society.

-The beauracracy of making and enacting any political decision is laughably over-complex and archaic (unless you're secretly planning an illegal war)

-The vast amount of money that is squandered every year on wrong and uneccesary policies - it seems to never be channelled in the right place. The rich are still getting richer and the poor are still getting poorer.

-Politicians ALWAYS lie.

and the worst of all - Politicians DON'T listen, ever. 1, 000, 000 people march in protest of the war, and we're still there. Jubilee 2000. No to Trident. Live8 (tenuous) and the G8 protests. - they stuck they're fingers in their ears and went lalalala. There are so many more examples.

It's nice to see someone (i.e. Red Dragonhood) taking advantage of one of the greatest tools of communication ever and opening up a forum for us to discuss our political gripes, and then taking note.

Here's a few ideas, in no particular order, that I think are always overlooked in Wales (and the rest of the UK):

- Improving and preserving parks and 'Green spaces', and redeveloping on sites that already exist.

-Reopening the canals system in South Wales and maybe build more. It's a great tourist attraction, an alternative transport system, and it's very beautiful.

-Take control of the water and reservoirs in Wales, Nationalise it, and charge the English cities that use it a little bit more for the convenience. (That one's a bit sneaky maybe, but it's would be an amazing source of income for our Government.)

-There are many ways to help solve drug problems in Wales, just not the way the government does it now. Throwing you in Prison and putting you in a prison rehab scheme means that you're doomed, because you're permanent record shows that you're a criminal. There are many effective programs and orginisations out there that know how to help solve this problem, and they've been doing it for years. They need money, and more powers.

-Legalisation of Cannabis. Don't just consider the psychoactive drug side of the argument. Cannabis can sustain many different new industries such as paper and wood pulp, medical industries, oils and fuels etc. that are beneficial to the economy, creating new jobs and opportunities. Tourism would gain a boost (we'd be the only other place in the world next to The Dutch), and, hopefully, would actually improve the drug problem like it has in Amsterdam.

-Binning the current school cirriculum. It's unaccpetably out-of-date and the examination process is completely unfair. I think the main reason we get a lot of 'detgenerate' young people today is because of poor upbringing and the fact that school failed them.

- Promoting and funding the culural industries, not just building expensive opera houses.


That's about all I can think of at the minute apart from the obvious public transport, hospitals etc. etc.

Cheers!

Just another quick note:

I think that Welsh people are proud, Intelligent, interesting and eager. We've always wanted something great, but we're also a bit modest and our efforts have always been trampled.
I think that we are ready, unlike some other countries, to embrace a bold new Wales that is unique, but fair and welcoming like the people I love so much.
It's a beautiful land, and it would be nice to be able to truly call it our own. Let's reawaken the spirit of Owain Glyndwr.

Learn to live together, Live to learn together.

why don't we just turn ourselves into a tax free zone ... it's worked quite well for that other Principality Monaco.

I can see myself tooling around Barry Island in a Bently...

seriously though, Imagine the investment we'd get.

ha ha... tax free... sweet. Unfortunately, we ain't as rich as Monaco....

Sorry if I seem to be hogging this forum, but I've only just realised that I've actually got quite a lot to say... but I'm usually to lazy to think up large manifestos all in one go.

I've got to tell you right now that I'm pretty messed writing this, but if I don't write it now I'll never remember it, so apologies for anything that needs apologising for.


This is something we should all consider: If we all had a basic educational understanding of agriculture then wouldn't it be possible to teach people how to tender SMALL pieces of land such as allotments, back gardens or public parks/gardens that would support a small localised 'indusrty' of fruit/vegetables/cereals/herbs/dairy/seafood/meat?

This is the age of the 'Organic' obsessed consumer, and now is the time to introduce this kind of 'teaching', to introduce a true understanding of the dynamics of producing and consuming FOOD.

People WANT to be Greener, we're not fucking stupid! We've finally realised that many of our ways are flawed. We know we want change, and we keep asking for it, but nobody seems to listen, do they?

The truth is, we don't NEED anybody 'up there' to listen. We can do it ourselves. It's not as if they've got fucking chains around our ankles is it?!

This is an on the spot opinion, and when I read it tomorrow I'll probably realise how much shit I'm talking. I'm kind of hoping there's some wisdom here.

If every adult Welsh citizen was allocated a small piece of land:- either an allotment if they had no home address or were homeless in any sort of way - or part of their small gardens/balconies; Or if a homeowner has a certain <myspace>size</myspace>d garden/plot of land, then it should be dedicated to encouraging 'Home Farming' for whatever they wanted to grow or farm (within reason) to either keep for themselves to consume or trade for another item a nieghbour might have grown, or to sell at a market for money.

(I had to re-read that last paragraph about twenty times to see if it made sense...)

This could only happen, however, if everybody had a basic understanding of gardening/farming/agriculture. So maybe a consideration could be introducing it as part of a new cirriculum.

Localised 'micro-industries', connected nationally by a government that works to make sure that these sources of revenue are protected, may be possible. Surely?
We are already living in the age instantaneousness and worldwide communtication.


Wales is lucky because we've been part of the western boom of the last howevermany years, the 'Western age' let's call it, that seems to be grinding to a halt and crumbling like wet chalk. There's many resons for that, but there's no need to explain them. We all know what they are. The point is we're bordered with a country (London. London is pretty much it's own country) that seems to hold a lot of power politically and economically across the globe, and we've been put into a position where we can finally take advantage of what we have. If Wales was an independent country then I genuinely think we could be an (almost) self sufficient country. Sweet.

Nationalise green energy! If we had a resposible body with a true understanding of how to combine all the green and sustainable forms of energy into one national power supply then we'd probaly be the most energy efficient country in the world.

Actually, if we had canals, trams, more efficient trains, localised small scale agriculture and a national 'green power source' then we probably would be...

I'm probably starting to sound like an idealist hippie type now aren't I?

Well, no. I'm not.

LYME.fm wrote:
why don't we just turn ourselves into a tax free zone ... it's worked quite well for that other Principality Monaco.

I can see myself tooling around Barry Island in a Bently...

seriously though, Imagine the investment we'd get.

Well, yeah, apart from the fact that Monaco is a deeply unpleasant place dominated not by Prince Albert and his cohorts but by the Russian mafia and various other criminal organisations dedicated to the exploitation of ordinary working people. A more extremely right wing place you couldn’t imagine. Step on the wrong toes in Monaco and you’ll get a bullet in the head. Talk in manner that a traffic policeman deems impolite, as I did (poor French/little Italian), and you’ll get a night in the cells for your troubles with no right to a phone call or legal advice. No wonder everyone keeps themselves to themselves, venturing outside only to stroll in the ornamental gardens.

Imagine a town united only by the motivation to avoid paying tax for the common welfare of the countries from which its population have exiled themselves and convince me that would be a good place to live.

I don’t want to live in a Principality anyway. I want to live in a free Welsh Republic.

Look, we’re being brainwashed into believing that money is the font of everything and that what you do for work defines who you are. Add accommodation costs back into the price index and you’ll find that we live in a state with galloping inflation. The only way to pay for our mortgages (which may be relatively cheap in terms of interest but are potentially ruinous in terms of the amount of average capital borrowed) is to work harder and for longer hours, or to win the lottery or appear on Big Brother. We’re driven by fear; of immigrants, of women in black veils, of lack of pensions, of global warming, of time running away so very, very fast. You can’t ignore it. We do only have one life and this is no way to live.

If we aim for a better all round quality of life, then wealth, health and happiness will follow. Look at the Scandinavian countries, all of which, like Wales, have small populations that are more easily managed and you can see what life could be for us. Although the divide between haves and have-nots is much narrower in Scandinavia, people are far more politically motivated than us. They make sure they protect the joy of living they have built for themselves. (Don’t try to tell me about suicide rates without checking the facts first.)

I’m sorry that sounds very dismissive of your point. I don’t mean to come over all self-righteous and I don’t pretend to have all the answers.

Anyway, the United Kingdom is the world's leading tax haven now. Don't believe me? Take a look at the latest 'rich list', published today. The Duke of Westminster is now the only leading billionaire who was born in the UK. The wealth of the UK's wealthiest 1000 people grew by 20% last year. Did your wealth go up by 20%? Is this new found wealth apparent in Wales?

The UK gets plenty of inward investment; it's top football clubs are owned by foreign billionaires intend on finding new tribes to milk, and its utilities are being plundered by overseas conglomerates. EDF Energy, for example, is really French government-own Electricite de France.

The Labour Party has let the capitalist running dogs off the leash. The free market rules! Anything goes now so be prepared to sell yourself cheap to survive. Either that or grab everything you can before it's too late. I'm not being entirely serious, obviously, but there's a serious issue here, if you can be bothered to find it.

Jammin wrote:
I'm not a nationalist, and I like to stay quite 'apolitical', as I don't belive in political parties because they're all pretty much the same, and I'm dubious of most politicians. I think that our government(s) biggest downfalls are:

- Most (not all of them!) politicians are over 35 (there is an exact percentage figure for that, but I don't remeber it) and usually come from well-educated backgrounds such as expensive private schools and universities that are well out of the reach of the majority of people. They are almost an elitist group of individuals who never actually live the lives they're trying to govern, and have no real perspective on society.

-The beauracracy of making and enacting any political decision is laughably over-complex and archaic (unless you're secretly planning an illegal war)

-The vast amount of money that is squandered every year on wrong and uneccesary policies - it seems to never be channelled in the right place. The rich are still getting richer and the poor are still getting poorer.

-Politicians ALWAYS lie.

and the worst of all - Politicians DON'T listen, ever. 1, 000, 000 people march in protest of the war, and we're still there. Jubilee 2000. No to Trident. Live8 (tenuous) and the G8 protests. - they stuck they're fingers in their ears and went lalalala. There are so many more examples.

It's nice to see someone (i.e. Red Dragonhood) taking advantage of one of the greatest tools of communication ever and opening up a forum for us to discuss our political gripes, and then taking note.

Here's a few ideas, in no particular order, that I think are always overlooked in Wales (and the rest of the UK):

- Improving and preserving parks and 'Green spaces', and redeveloping on sites that already exist.

-Reopening the canals system in South Wales and maybe build more. It's a great tourist attraction, an alternative transport system, and it's very beautiful.

-Take control of the water and reservoirs in Wales, Nationalise it, and charge the English cities that use it a little bit more for the convenience. (That one's a bit sneaky maybe, but it's would be an amazing source of income for our Government.)

-There are many ways to help solve drug problems in Wales, just not the way the government does it now. Throwing you in Prison and putting you in a prison rehab scheme means that you're doomed, because you're permanent record shows that you're a criminal. There are many effective programs and orginisations out there that know how to help solve this problem, and they've been doing it for years. They need money, and more powers.

-Legalisation of Cannabis. Don't just consider the psychoactive drug side of the argument. Cannabis can sustain many different new industries such as paper and wood pulp, medical industries, oils and fuels etc. that are beneficial to the economy, creating new jobs and opportunities. Tourism would gain a boost (we'd be the only other place in the world next to The Dutch), and, hopefully, would actually improve the drug problem like it has in Amsterdam.

-Binning the current school cirriculum. It's unaccpetably out-of-date and the examination process is completely unfair. I think the main reason we get a lot of 'detgenerate' young people today is because of poor upbringing and the fact that school failed them.

- Promoting and funding the culural industries, not just building expensive opera houses.


That's about all I can think of at the minute apart from the obvious public transport, hospitals etc. etc.

Cheers!

Oh brave new world that hath such people in it. (It's a shame in a way that Huxley used Miranda's joyful, innocent outburst from Shakespeare's Tempest as the ironic title to his nightmarish vision of the future.) I mean to use the quote as a present-day compliment. Anyway, yours is exactly the kind of free thinking I hoped would result from this exercise and it's precisely what you won't find in the manifestos of the political parties. (I don't mean this as a criticism of anyone else's ideas - I just think yours are the most exciting so far!)

I want to take up all of the brilliant issues you've raised but I've got to finish a short story and do some designs and sell some T-shirts so I'll tackle just one point first:

THE WELSH ASSEMBLY, POLITICAL PARTIES AND THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM

To me, the first and most fundamental problem is the electoral system in Wales and the system of representation itself, which politicians have constructed to serve their own interests ahead of that of the electorate.

Rhodri Morgan reminds me of the character Zaphod Beeblebrox in Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Beeblebrox becomes President of the Galaxy, a role that involves no power whatsoever, but merely requires the incumbent to attract attention so no one wonders who's really in charge. That would seem to sum up Rhodri’s position rather well.

Irregardless of the outcome of this week’s elections, the resolutely middle class Labour leadership in London will still be in charge in Wales, exercising its control over and above local party level, imagining a world formed in its own likeness.

If, as seems likely, the vast majority of the electorate demonstrates its disenchantment with the party political system by simply not voting on Thursday, the politicians will choose ignore the serious political message it actually represents and they’ll just carry on squabbling amongst themselves in the way they did before.

This is not democracy. True democracy is dead in Wales because politics has eaten itself. The Assembly has no legitimacy because it is not representative of the will of the people and, sadly, this would still be the case if most of the electorate were to vote.

In elections to the Welsh Assembly, we each have two votes. We cast the first for the candidate we want to be the Assembly Member for our community and the second for a political party or independent.

If our candidate wins, our first vote is effectively deemed to be for that candidate’s political party. If our candidate loses, we might as well not have bothered voting since we will not be represented unless we cast our second vote for one of the parties from whose ‘top-up’ lists ‘additional members’ are appointed. Additional members are deemed to represent constituencies used prior to 1999 in European elections. Well, that all makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? No?

Applying the d’Hont system to the second vote results in those parties that fail to contest more than half the seats having no right to additional members. Additional members are there to correct proportional imbalances caused by the vagaries of the first past the post system. The whole setup assumes, you see, that we vote for party political dogma rather than for individual people.

Now, even though the majority of us are still likely to have voted against it, the party with the most assembly members is presumed to have a legitimate mandate to form a government. It has the right to select a First Minister even though he might not have won the majority of the vote in his own constituency, let alone in the country.

Who would come up with such an unrepresentative, undemocratic system, and why does it work in such an illogical manner? Surely the Westminster government wouldn’t impose such a system to further its own interests by perpetuating the status quo? After all, the Welsh Assembly was only intended as a sop to devolution, heading off the nationalists by promoting a fireless dragon with no powers to make laws or to raise taxation. (I know the Assembly is due to get greater powers but they fall well short of full executive government.)

In their desperation to get elected, politicians now ensure that there is no discernable difference between them. Rather than candidates standing on principles, the parties use sophisticated techniques to establish the issues that are least likely to be contentious. Thus they approach elections with limited social ambition and that’s why we’ve got the situation we have now.

So, the big question is, what should we do instead?

I have some ideas to suggest to you but, as I said, I have a short story to finish, some designs to do and some T-shirts to sell. I promise to post an outline proposal before Thursday!