PLAID Cymru leader Adam Price launched his manifesto yesterday with an ambition to have achieved Welsh independent by 2030 – at the latest.
The party chief told supporters: “The answers for Wales won’t come from Islington, they won’t come from Bullingdon. The answers will come from us, from Wales.
“We can lead the way in a million small ways. This is the moment when we start to believe that our future won’t be written for us in the corridors of Westminster or the streets of Whitehall but by us in the valleys and villages.”
He said the manifesto contained “audacious” plans for independent Wales.
“We’re little over a month away from the beginning of a new decade,” he told supporters at the launch at a college in south Wales. “Let’s inject some hope back into our politics. Let’s set ourselves an audacious goal, as the Kennedy administration did with the Apollo programme.
“Let’s plant our flag not on the moon’s surface but here in our own land, not to escape our planet but to save it. Let’s make the coming decade the decade of hope and change. Let 2030 be the year of three zeros – zero carbon, zero waste, zero poverty.
“We have the power, we have the potential to create tens of thousands of new high-skilled jobs as Wales becomes the cradle of the green industrial revolution.”
Price also made it clear that if a minority Labour government wants the support of any of his party’s MPs in the event of a hung parliament then Jeremy Corbyn will need to back Plaid’s call for £15 billion Welsh Green Jobs Revolution to paid for by the UK government increasing capital investment for 10 years.
The party also wants the Treasury to increase the Welsh Government borrowing limit to £5bn.
They also call for the devolved parliaments to be consulted by the UK government before going to war.
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage insisted his party was still a potent fighting force yesterday, as he launched a slimmed-down manifesto calling for more Brexit and less immigration.
Despite winning more votes across than any other party just months ago at the European elections, the Brexit Party has haemorrhaged support in recent weeks.
The PA’s poll of polls putting them on just 4%.
Launching what he described as a “contract with the people”, Farage said his party would be here for the long run.
“Brexit, for us, is just the beginning, not the end, of a much-needed political revolution.”
He added: “Just eight months into our existence we have already changed the landscape of politics, and we will change it much more in the years to come.
“We need the Brexit party to hold Boris Johnson to his word. We need a Brexit party voice there, in the House of Commons, or we’re not going to get anything like what we voted for three-and-a-half years ago.”
Other policies in the manifesto included the ability to force referendums if five million people sign a petition. However, Farage added, this would not allow the same subject to be voted on within 10 years.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here