Plaid Cymru seems to be the party of Welsh farmers rather than the party of Wales – or Welsh taxpayers. It favours a continuation of the CAP that keeps 80% of Welsh farmers in business with direct payments. That’s pretty blatant. Plaid supports a regressive form of income support funded by the rest of Wales (and the UK and the EU) so that hill farms, from the best to the worst, are maintained. Quite why disadvantaged ex-miners should be sending their money to hill farmers sitting on capital riches (relatively speaking) is not explained here.
There are three paragraphs devoted to protecting the natural environment – keep Wales GM-free and do something about non-native species.
Plaid is against fracking – even to the extent of saying that Welsh water should not be used to frack in England.
There is support here for renewable energy with a preference for tidal (a barrage half way across the Severn?) and hydro. There is a firm nod towards tidal lagoons (which could well be a good thing).
In a separate ‘farming manifesto’ Plaid spells out its support for using RDP funding for improving skills of farmers and agricultural infrastructure, removing red tape and improving broadband but nothing on water pollution, carbon storage, flood management or wildlife, maybe because those are not things that farmers are expected to provide in return for the cheques from the ex-miners.
Well, I can’t vote for them anyway.
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