Bethan Jenkins AC/AM Blog

I think I’ve been suffering from bloggers block over the last week so apologies for my absence. Its not to say that I haven’t been keeping people updated on twitter of course, but blogging has undoubtedly been light. I’ve also promised to review Patrick Hannan’s new book for the blog Waleshome.org, but I am somewhat behind time on completing that one:-(

The Assembly’s in recess and as far as I’m aware, AMs are in their regions or constituencies getting on with their work (Although if you are Huw Lewis you are mapping out your Labour leadership campaign while Rhodri Morgan sits in his West Wales caravan.. and rumour has it that at least one AM has swine flu and so will inevitably be confined to reading reports from the isolation of his or her’s home. Tedious! ) Val Lloyd AM has decided that this is a good time to announce her retirement at the next Assembly election, and so there will be more vying for seats. I bet there will be another announcement before the end of recess. Got to keep the Welsh journo’s on their toes, don’t you think?!

And this was the week when the Labour party lost tragically to the Tories in the Norwich North by-election. This is a party, remember, that historically does not fare well in such elections. The Labour meltdown is clear to see for even the most unpolitical in our midst, and the same old Brown bashers are out vying for his blood- Charles Clarke, John McDonnell to name a few. But, the most important story from this was that Chloe Smith has stolen my mantle as the youngest parliamentarian in the UK by being elected to the House of Commons! An article in today’s Independent ( by a 26 year old male, I hasten to add) tells us how her being elected so young is not a positive thing. The claim is that she may have peaked far too young, just like William Hague ( excuse me while I vomit!) All I’ll say is if she can perform well, and do her job effectively then her age is neither here not there. You would expect me to say that, I can guess…

Nonetheless, I am not convinced that her success reflects a sea change in the attitude of the Tories towards women and their role in the party. If they want true equality, then they need to do a whole lot more yet. Nick Bourne has come up with some sort of attempt of late for enshrining equality in how Tories in Wales elect women and those from ethnic minorities, although I am a little cynical about his suggestion to place women at the top of regional lists, but not when there is a male incumbent. Self interest at work? Yes, definitely!

But no political party can claim to stand out from the crowd when promoting women in politics. So don’t construe this post as me taking the moral high ground in Plaid. Plaid, if anything, has gone back a step in progress. I am convinced there will be fewer female AMs post election in 2011.  At least the men will be happy again.
Another story of note this week has been the Lib dems u-turn on top-up fees. Now, everyone knows my opinion on this, and the arguments that I have had in Plaid over retaining our opposition to top-up fees. Yet what riles me is that the Lib dems tried to make political capital from this in Wales, and tried to take the moral high-ground. What we now see is Nick Clegg deciding to drop their plan to scrap University tuition fees as one of the party’s main objectives, in order to show how they will deal with potential cuts to public services. Not a good move for a party that relies heavily on student votes and activists. So the next time the Lib dems throw comments at me in the chamber about Plaid Cymru, I will remind them of Nick Clegg for sure.

So I will leave it at that for now, and return sooner than last time…promise!