Bethan Jenkins AC/AM Blog

I saw this on the news this morning and was fascinated. Basically, 3,000 amateur and professional musicians from across 70 countries auditioned on youtube to take part in this venture- mainly orchestrated (!) to get more young people to enjoy classical music. The players then auditioned online, and 15 million viewers then chose the members of the Orchestra. The first concert was last night in New York, and obviously people at the concert were not banned (as they usually are) from filming it, given that this was a youtube venture.

I’m not sure whether they will be touring, but they sounded fantastic given that they’ve only had a few days to practise together as an Orchestra! It made me wonder, however, if such auditions would be a good way to elect the dream team at the National Assembly for Wales?! What would 60 people elected solely by youtube do, and what would their manifesto be? Could be an interesting experiment….

 I am quite surprised to see that Gordon Brown has publicly apologised for the emails sent by McBride in an attempt to smear key Tory figures. It was quite some time coming, I have to say. Even the content of the letter that he wrote to those involved did not include the word ‘sorry’ as I understand it.

I believe Derek Draper has also apologised for his role in it all too by now. Brown was ‘horrified and shocked’, and he wants to make sure that ‘everything is done to clean up politics in this country‘, and he assures us that ‘this can’t happen again.‘  Well, I jolly well hope so too, although I don’t believe that this type of thing will disappear from politics ever.

At least he’s apologised now, which is more than his predecessor Tony Blair could muster when he took us in to an illegal war in Iraq.

I only wanted to do a short blog on the whole McBride/ Draper smear email affair to say that I think that it is just so sad to see a political party so desperate as to come up with this type of negative, nasty campaigning. It does show that Labour on a UK level has stooped to a new low, and I don’t think this will reflect well on them in future elections. Its even more sickening as this has been orchestrated by one of Gordon Brown’s special advisers- from the heart of the New Labour government in Westminster. Special advisers have strict rules to keep to in terms of performing party political activity. McBride knew full well that what he was doing was unacceptable from the outset. Time will tell now whether any Ministers, or Gordon Brown himself will be implicated further in all of this mess.

Even if it was all to be orchestrated from the sidelines from a relatively unknown Labour party member, I could understand that a little bit more than it coming from the Government- they should have much more important things to do with their time than think of ways to ruin people’s careers. I always think that when people start to attack others on a personal level that they lose the argument straight away. Most people have little time for that type of action.

Where are the high level political debates? We are in the middle of a recession for pity’s sake! If this is Labour’s way of trying to divert attention away from  economic problems, then this should be flagged up at every opportunity. People want to know about how the government is going to help people out of their financial difficulties, how they will help industry recover -not about their efforts in trying to smear high profile opposition politicians.

I’ve just read Nadine Dorries MP’s blog for the first time. She says this in one blog post-

‘Easter just hasn’t happened.

Spent most of it feeling sick, anxious and worried that any of my friends or family might think that a single word of what was in the emails was true’.

I do feel sorry for her having to fire fight, and to justify herself, and I believe that she is now taking legal action. McBride etc were obviously not thinking about the people behind the politicians. If they had done that for a second even, then they would not have even considered pressing send on those emails. Its OK for people to read about all of this on blogs and in the papers, but we forget how hard this is for those involved on a personal, practical level. I think I’ll end by linking to this article on the Independent’s website today. Says it all really.

Before I say anything else- let’s get things straight. I am by no means an authority on Moldovan politics. I’ve only been there once ( so far..), and the National Assembly for Wales hopes to establish links with the country and with the National Assembly of Gagauzia. I am posting on this issue as I am genuinely interested in what is happening there, and am eager to introduce readers who potentially may never have heard of Moldova to that which is happening in the country. Right, that’s off my chest.

So, reports today state that the OSCE are generally pleased with how the elections were run. This despite what I have said in a previous post about individual members of the OSCE voicing their misgivings. What is true however is that there has been a hard line response to alleged Romanian involvement in the protests that took place in Chisinau- Moldova has imposed a visa regime on Romanians, is expelling Romania’s ambassador, and entry to Romanian journalists. From this website(Association for Participatory Democracy) we are told that-

‘The Party of Communists (PCRM) won the April 5, 2009 parliamentary elections with 49.48% of the valid votes cast. Central Electoral Commission (CEC) made public the official results on Wednesday, April 8. The same data shows that three other political parties have passed the electoral threshold of 6%: Liberal Party (PL) with 13.14% of the valid votes cast, Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM) — 12.43% and the “Moldova Noastra” Alliance with 9.77%. Voters from abroad had other preferences. Thus, out of 16 914 Moldovan citizens who voted at the 33 polling stations opened within the Moldovan diplomatic missions, 45.51% chose PL, 24.88% voted PLDM, PCRM took 8.53% and AMN — 7.92% of the votes cast. The remaining electoral contestants have gathered less than 6% of the votes cast. PSD got 3.7%, PPCD — 3.03%, PD — 2.97%, UCM — 2.75% and MAE — 1.01%. For the remaining political parties and independent candidates have voted less than 1% of electors. A total of 1 555 577 voters out of over 2.5 million eligible voters took part in the voting. 61 votes of the members of Parliament are required to elect the new president of the country.’

..which means that the Communists will need to gather support from other parties to elect a President, which may be hard given that they are contesting the result. My sources in Moldova ( no- not via twitter or Facebook) tell me that the votes will be recounted, and that there will possibly be a second election.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International has waded in to the affair, by stating that  ‘civil society activists should not be held responsible for the rioting that took place the day after a peaceful youth protest action on 6 April in the Moldovan capital of Chişinău. If found guilty, they could face up to eight years’ imprisonment. Read the whole article here.

I’ll continue to watch what is happening in Moldova via twitter, facebook, the web, news articles- all of which provide information on the situation from differing angles. I believe that another protest is being organised tomorrow, which organisers are calling the ‘Flower Revolution‘ as they are asking people to turn up with flowers in their hands to show that their protest is nonviolent. The comments section of the blog organising the protest has already attracted some negative comments- they are accused of being naive if they expect the protest to be peaceful. Nevertheless, people wanting to attend are being warned on twitter to ‘stay away from provocations’….

Here are a few links to the news articles on the protests in Moldova against the election results and the use of twitter by young people who attended the protest. I’ve been following what is happening by following twitterers in Molodova- Mihai Moscovici amongst others. They also have a searchable tag on twitter (hash pman) so that you can see instant updates, uploads of videos and pictures from the scene- ranging from furniture and books on fire outside the parliament building, to protestors standing on the ledge of the Presidential Palace, to information on possible political negotiation amongst leaders, and calls for more action. I am fascinated about how it has happened, and how it seems to have had little mainstream media attention. This is despite the fact that the blogosphere is buzzing with news on events, and how young Moldovan people who are based in other European countries are stating that they are being blocked from entering Moldova. Two youth movements, Hyde Park and ThinkMoldova are thought to be the organisers of the protests, and it was all organised online in one shape or form.

From what I can see now from the live updates, there are pro and anti communists protests being initiated in other parts of Moldova- in a nothern town called Sorco. Voronin meanwhile has reportedly blamed Romania for speerheading the protest, and has told the Romanian ambassador to leave the country, although Romanian leaders have been quick to deny such accusations, stating, ‘ It is not acceptable that the communist power in Chisinau transfers responsibility for the Moldovan Republic’s domestic problems onto Romania’.

The BBC has also reported today that Baroness Emma Nicholson who was on the OSCE panel monitoring the elections, has said that she has found it “difficult to endorse the very warm press statement’ by the OSCE as this does not reflect her experience. Again, events continue, and I will keep an eye on the ins and outs…

I realise that lots of bloggers have linked to this video already, but I think it’s important that as many of us show this video as possible, and reiterate the need for an inquiry into the actions of the Metropolitan Police in this instance. News programmes today reporting further on the incident suggest that Ian Tomlinson was ill, and that the ‘excitement’ of the event, as Sky News describes it, may have led to his heart attack. Whether this is the case or not, this does not however excuse the police for acting in the way that they did. Ian Tomlinson had his hands in his pockets, and did not pose a threat to the them from what I have seen from the videos. Even if Ian Tomlinson was on the protest, and was exercising his right to campaign, this does not mean that the police can treat citizens in this way. Even when he fell to the ground, not one police officer went to offer him support. People will be put off from using their democratic rights to protest peacefully in the future.

The police have been filming protestors at rallies and demos to use for intelligence purposes for a while now. But they must be aware that with the rise of applications like twitter, youtube on mobile phones and cameras, protestors and the public at large can now film events as they happen, and such behaviour by the police, who command the respect of the public, cannot be tolerated. Evidence from such videos will be key in the case of Ian Tomlinson- changing the way that such investigations would have happened ten years ago.

It appears from press reports that the Communists will be taking control of Moldova after winning 61 of the 101 seats in the Parliament. The final votes, however, are believed to be finalised on Wednesday. The Lib dem poster campaign ‘Stop Communism’ that we saw plastered on street walls in Chisinau recently seem a little ineffective in hindsight, but given that there are three liberal parties in Moldova, this may not come as a surprise to the people of Moldova. The website for Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty states that the Communists are ‘poised to set a record for Communist parties in the post Soviet era’- winning three consecutive elections.

Voronin, the former Prime Minister is expected to stand down after two terms in office, but its clear that he will still be very influential within the party. We talked to people in Moldova who are fearful that the drive towards European integration will be hindered  for as long as Veronin is in such a position of power in Moldova, and who say that despite his pro European rhetoric on occasions, that he is still very much a close ally of Russia.

The article suggests that the Communists did not adhere to OSCE election rules, and it appears that the other parties are to lodge a complaint about the actions of the Communists during the elections. When we were in Moldova recently as part of an Assembly delegation, we were informed that many of those who oppose the Communists are young people who have left the country to find jobs, and are hard to track down to vote. That, coupled with the fact that they can only vote in Embassy buildings does not make the elections very accessible to those wanting to vote abroad.

There is more information on the election and the future of Moldova on the BBC news website here, which sets out some of the issues that we were informed of while in Moldova- the lack of a free press, corruption, the impact of the Russian relationship with Trans- Dniester, and the weak economy. 

It is unclear what will happen next. Reports show that Veronin has no intention of forming coalitions with opposition parties, and given that there were protests yesterday in Chisinau (reportedly around 100, 000 attended) to voice their opposition to the Communist victory, and with the Liberal Democrats threatening to call for more public protests against the result there is a much more to unfold as part of this election yet… ..In the last hour alone, the Associated Press has reported that the Moldovan parliament and the presidential office have been occupied, and protestors have set fire to furniture. An Associated Press reporter saw the windows smashed on two floors of the presidential office, and more than 30 people have been injured according to the BBC. It reports that students initiated the protests, and they are demanding repeat elections. I met a few of the student groups of political parties while I was out there via the New Democratic Institute, and many were frustrated at the lack of transparency in the political process. I will keep an eye on how events progress….

Conference is over. The display stands are down, the leaflets distributed, the empty coffee cups are on the tables. It was a great Conference actually. I really enjoyed myself. I didn’t manage to live blog as many of the speeches as I would have liked, but I must say Aileen Campbell MSP spoke brilliantly, with a short video introduction from her leader Alex Salmond. Ieuan’s speech was well delivered, and he expanded on how Plaid are performing effectively in government to weather the economic crisis. I liked Jill Evans’s speech about her role as an MEP and the forthcoming European elections, specifically her question as to whether there would be an economic crisis now if women were in charge of the economic structures- what about Lehman Sisters anyone?

 There really was a vibrancy about the conference this year, and I hope its a clear sign of things to come. The staff did a sterling job, and they deserve time to relax a little after this!  I went to the Cymru X fringe meeting this evening, and there was a young 10 year old girl who is a school councillor in Barry who wants to set up Cymru X activities in her school- s0 we are quite literally preparing for the next generation of Plaid leaders!

Right, well I’m off to get ready for the Conference dinner. I have to show my SNP guests how we do social events in Plaid Cymru aswell, don’t you know….

Warm welcome from conference to Adam… Adam starts by saying that he was in DC earlier this week, but that he could not get his ‘Obama moment’ as Obama was in London at the time!

One thing that he has learnt from Obama is that elections do matter, that things can change. The World is changing rapidly and we have no choice but to change with it. Are we confident enough as a Nation to accept challenges and chart our own course? Adam says that we must make choices to shape our Nation. What is a Nation? A Breton political thinker said that it was a daily referendum. 

Gwyn Alff said that Wales exists only if we make that choice. A future Independent Wales will be no Utopia. The crucial factor will be that we will make our own mistakes. We will be the author of our own destiny. There is nothing anti English about this, but no other country ruled another country well. London is the only part of the UK where unemployment has fallen, while in Wales we have seen a rise. The policies of the UK government favour London more than they do Wales. They have done nothing for our car, or steel industry says Adam.

The needs of Wales are never high on the list of London. The report on the Severn Barrage by Price Waterhouse Cooper doesn’t even mention Wales! And any benefits thereafter will be given to the London Government. Our environment will bare the costs, but London will gain financially. We cannot allow another Tryweryn to happen Adam says emphatically.

In Sardinia, our sister party is a member of the governing coalition. They say that Sardinia is a Nation with aspirations. He has obviously read Gramsci! They have powers that we in Wales can only dream of. 

It changes to Welsh now…. 

Mae Adam nawr yn trafod Llydaw a’r sefyllfa gwleidyddol yno. Nawr mae’n mynd ymlaen i drafod Cernyw, a’f ffaith y mae’n mynd i greu un haenen o wleidyddiaeth yno. Bydd Cernyw yn un unwaith eto, ac mae Adam yn estyn lwc i’n chwaer blaid yno.

The 19th century saw the springtime of Nations says Adam, and we are seeing that again now. Spain for example, where Catalans are taking to the streets to demand a referendum on the constitutional question- such is their passion for their rights.

Galicia is now the point of discussion, and the fact that teaching Galician in schools has been termed ideological. 

No Nation or party can be without disagreement. Lets not confuse arguments over policy with issues or problems over leadership. To those who are disheartened that our government is getting things wrong- don’t get angry, get even! Submit your motions, stand for election. Leaders need and deserve our support, especially when times are tough says Adam.

We cannot resign our responsibilities as a Welsh Nation as patriots and citizens. This is not a time to be disheartened. We have our destiny within our own hands. Not to demand a referendum will be a vote of no confidence, not in our government, but in our Nation. 

Do not let the fear of our yesterday snuff out the hope of our tomorrow emphasises Adam. 

Gosh, we are having a roundabout trip of the World, Palin style with a bit of politics thrown in for good measure! Adam has ended up in Greenland, now Sri Lanka, now West Papaya…. Their courage inspires us is Adam’s reasoning for this- in their fight for their rights as a people.

Www mention of Eluned Morgan now, and her retirement with the karaoke machine. There are those Labour politicians who will support Independence movements anywhere in the World- apart from their own country ( big clap from audience!!)

Peter Hain supports Independence…but only in the 15th Century…. and a referendum? Labour wants to turn people in to Nationalists by supporting Glyndwr, but they have been doing that for that last 70 years says Adam.

(My battery is running out, but I hope I can finish the speech!)

Adam Price is now talking about Plaid and the new logo that was introduced 4 years ago now. We want to be members in our own right of the great European family. Let’s fight our election beneath this flag( adam holds a flag with EU flag, but with Plaid poppies on it)

Big round of applause and now Plaid’s EU candidates are on stage holding the flag….End of speech! phew! Well done!