Catalonia is not Spain!

I've just spent a few days in Barcelona ( and arrived back today in the rain! A great welcome home to Wales!)

I thought that most would appreciate this picture of the Catalan Government's main building in Barcelona- the Palau de la Generalitat. As you may know, Catalonia has its own Parliament, and the Catalan people are renowned for their patriotism. There was even graffiti on a bin opposite the main Cathedral building stating 'Catalonia is not Spain!'

The question in relation to Wales is, how far off are we to achieving the aim of creating a legislative Parliament for Wales? If we take Cymru X's text referendum on a Parliament for Wales ( which took place in 2005) as anything to go by, there was nearly unanimous support for more powers for the Assembly. As a result, a campaign for a referendum on a Parliament for Wales should be acheivable before 2011....

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Rwyf newydd dreulio cwpwl o ddiwrnode ym Marcelona( nes i gyrraedd adre heddi yn y glaw! Croeso gwych yn ol i Gymru!)

O'n i'n meddwl basa llawer ohonoch yn gwerthfawrogi'r llun yma o adeilad Llywodraeth Catalonia- y Palau de la Generalitat. Fel yr ydych yn gwybod mae'n siwr, mae gan Catalonia Senedd ei hun, ac mae Catalanwyr yn cael eu hadnabod fel pobl gwlad garol iawn. Roedd graffiti hyd yn oed ar y biniau cyferbyn a'r prif Eglwys gyda ' Nid Sbaen yw Catalonia!' arnynt.

Y cwestiwn yng nghyd destun Cymru yw pa mor bell ydym ni o gyflawni'r amcan o greu Senedd Deddfwriaethol yma yng Nghymru?Os ydym yn asesu barn cyhoeddus yn ol refferendwm tecst Cymru X ar Senedd i Gymru ( a ddigwyddodd yn 2005), roedd canran mawr o bobl o blaid Senedd Deddfwriaethol i'r Cynulliad. O ganlyniad, dylai fod refferendwm ar Senedd i Gymru yn amcan credadwy, a hynny cyn 2011....

Calling all young people

So, young people of Wales, put your money where your mouth is, and get involved in politics! I for one do not want to enter the elections in 2011 ( if I re-stand anywhere!) with young people claiming that politicians don't listen to them, and that their opinions are worthless.
I want to help rectify the situation, and get young people involved in decision-making for young people. BUT I will need help. I can't do it all myself. ( I know that Funky Dragon exists, but this won't compromise that at all)

So, I want to test the waters here on the blog to see what we can do, who wants to do it, and how we go about it. Ideally, I'd like to get a cross party team of people with different interests and talents so that we can get the ball rolling.

If you are interested either email me or comment on this site and we can go from there.....

By the way, I think that 'young people' should be loosely classed as those under 30 years of age. Like our youth movement, Cymru X, you can be a member if you are under 30 years old..... If you have a problem with this, just say!

Young people at heart of Plaid Manifesto

I must say that I am quite annoyed at the Greens for attacking Plaid in the Evening Post for our Youth Manifesto. Yes, the Youth Manifesto does re-iterate some of what is said in our main Manifesto- but surely this is a good thing, of repeating key election messages for the electorate? It is a sign that Plaid is putting youth issues at the top of the political agenda. Not only that, but the Greens criticise us, only to follow on with a quote on how they would do it differently- introduce voting at 16, a policy which we included in our Youth Manifesto!

Of our main 7 4 '07 policies, many are youth orientated- laptops for school children, first time buyers grants, addressing the student debt issue. Not only that, but Cymru X, our Youth Movement, has organised campaigns throughout the year, and has organised events over Wales for young people.

Of course we must get young people making decisions for young people. By encouraging more young people to stand for election, and to vote, this will be a way of starting the process of engagement. It won't happen over night! I also think that there needs to be a total re-think about how young people can feed in to policy on a local and National level. How this is done must be decided upon by politicians alongside young people, as young people are often sick of being patronized and told what to do.

I'm disappointed with the Greens because I thought that they had more to offer than negative comments with regards young people. At the end of the day, all parties need to take a hard look at themselves and ask why only 16 % of 18-25 year old's voted in the last Assembly election, and how we can improve on this disasterous percentage to make sure that politics is something which is central to their lives.

Cymru X gigs

Gigs Cymru X yng Nghaerfyrddin, Llanelli a Rhydaman.

Cysylltwch ag anthonyjohnrichards@hotmail.co.uk am fwy o wybodaeth.

Cymru X gigs in Carmarthen, Llanelli and Ammanford.

Contact anthonyjohnrichards@hotmail.co.uk for more information.

Cynhadledd Plaid Conference

Rwyf yn mynd i Gaernarfon heno, felly fydda ddim yn gallu blogio tan dydd sul yn anffodus heblaw bod e-cafe rhywle yn agos i'r Galeri yng Nghaernarfon. Rwy'n edrych mlan i'r Gynhadledd gan fydd e'n rhoi hwb ychwanegol i ni ddod nol i'n hardaloedd i ymgyrchu hyd yn oed yn galetach yn arwain at yr etholiad ym mis Mai.

Mae gig heno gyda Brigyn yn y dre a sesiwn trafod ffilm Al Gore ar yr amgylchedd. Rwyf ar banel 'O blaid y Gymraeg' ar brif lawr y Gynhadledd ar y dydd sadwrn yn trafod ein rhwymedigaeth i Ddeddf Iaith Newydd, a statws swyddogol i'r iaith. Mi fydd hi'n drafodaeth ddiddorol, yn sicr.
Mae Cymru X a cwpwl o syniadau cyffroes ar gyfer y Gynhadledd hefyd. Byddech yn darganfod mwy am hynny cyn hir.

Mwynhewch y penwythnos.

I'm off to Caernarfon tonight for our Spring Conference so I don't think I'll be able to blog until sunday unless there's an internet cafe somewhere close to the Galeri in Caernarfon. I'm looking forward to this Conference, if only to come back here with the energy and drive needed to carry on with the positive local campaigning in the run up to the Assembly election.

There is a gig tonight with the band Brigyn in Caernarfon, followed by question and answer session on Al Gore's film on friday. I am taking part in a panel discussion on the Welsh Language at Conference- discussing Plaid's commitment to a New Welsh Language Act, and equal status for the language. I'm sure it will be an interesting debate.
Cymru X have a couple of suprises up our sleaves as well, but you'll find out about them at a later date.

Enjoy the weekend.

Inter Isles Forum Part 2

I've just got back from the Inter Isles Forum. I am so tired it's unbelievable! It was a very eventful weekend. The discussion on faith and the state did succeed fully in being dominated by the Irish delegates. No surprise there then. The discussions were very interesting and lively, and other Cymru X delegates, namely Steffan Lewis, managed to live up to expectations by sparking a few contentious arguments;-)

In the afternoon session, the delegates visited differing places of worship. I visited the 'Church of Scientology'. I must say that it was an interesting experience considering that I knew nothing about Scientology before the visit. I didn't meet TomCat unfortunately.

The social side of the weekend lived up to it's guaranteed political boffin discussions at the local bars, although we were limited this time round being that all pubs in Westminster where we stayed closed at a mere 11pm.

Wales is set to host the Forum next year, I believe. Let's hope that more Welsh delegates attend next time! Perhaps Independence should be the topic of the day. That would be another lively discussion, for sure.

Inter Isles Forum

I'm going to the Inter Isles Forum on Friday. I'm really looking forward to it. Basically, it is a Forum organised by St Columb's Park House that brings all youth wings of political parties together from across the Isles to discuss a certain topic and to share ideas. Last year's event was at Edinburgh, and all representatives prepared a paper on the differing models of democracy in their countries/ regions. It was great to meet people from other political parties, and fascinating to watch the tensions develop in the Sinn Fein vs Unionist discussions! Cymru X has kept in touch with some of the youth groups, but mostly Young Scots for Independence and the Scottish Nationalist Student Federation. We've shared ideas on our text referendum for a Parliament for Wales( they organised a text referendum on Independence after our successful campaign), and we've also been to each other's Conferences to pick up on new ideas.

This year, the topic of the Forum is religion and the state, which I'm sure will create much lively discussion again. There will be guest speakers from different faith groups, and workshops on the main themes. I'm sure we'll all get a chance to socialise but I'll report on the weekend when I get back from London Sunday evening! I don't have a laptop, so blogging on the go is not a possibility, unless I am donated one under Plaid's new free laptop scheme, that is;-)