Autumn 2016
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The Welsh Nation Forward. Stronger. by Leanne Wood, Plaid Cymru Leader
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his autumn we will gather once more in Llangollen for our National Conference. Party members will come together in a spirit of defiance and resilience as politics continues to shift following the referendum vote this past summer. The vote to leave the European Union makes Brexit the defining issue of our times. For the moment, we are still in the EU, and the UK Government has yet to trigger the ‘Article 50’ process. We accept that a narrow majority of the people of Wales gave the UK Government a mandate to withdraw from that union. Plaid Cymru now has a duty to help secure the type of withdrawal which best suits Wales’ interests. We know that a ‘Hard Brexit’, whereby Wales and the UK leave the Single Market as well as the EU, is not in the Welsh national interest. 200,000 jobs in Wales are related to the Single Market and these must be protected as our first priority. Membership of that market through the European Economic Area (EEA) or European Free Trade Association (EFTA) would represent the best currently available deal for Wales considering the challenging circumstances in which we find ourselves. And what about the future of the United Kingdom? If people in Scotland choose to leave, the state will cease to exist. In that scenario, all options must be available for
Wales. And it must be people in Wales who decide on our future. Decisions about Wales should be taken in Wales. Some, emboldened by the referendum result, now hint that Wales should move closer to Westminster. That would be a mistake. No self-respecting country should question its ability to govern itself. We can and should do more for ourselves. We can and should move towards more independence, not less, in response to the UK leaving the EU. We’ll be making this case to people as part of a new campaign which we’ll be launching soon and I would urge all of our members to get involved. Get out on the streets, talk to people about democracy, the future direction of our country. It will also be linked to our local election campaign. You may be aware that the minority Labour Government joined UKIP, supporting a Conservative motion effectively advocating a ‘Hard Brexit’ position. Wales’ economic and cultural interests are in the hands of a government which has no plan and
no clue as to how to deal with the new political context. The only way we can guarantee that people know which party is working hard to represent their interests, given that Welsh matters are all too often ignored by the media, is to tell them directly. That’s why the outcome of our National Conference must be to get organised, mobilise and take our message out to the people. Changing Wales for the better is our mission and we must always remember that this change starts at the local level. It starts in your community. On your street. It starts with you. So let us meet in Llangollen in the spirit of unity and commit to move Wales forward. Stronger.