Plaid are dupes says Bourne

Mar 1 2008 by David Williamson, Western Mail

WELSH Conservative leader Nick Bourne will today launch a strident attack on the coalition Assembly Government, accusing Labour of placing Wales in a “time warp” and branding Plaid their “lap dogs”.

And in a wide-ranging speech to his Welsh party conference, the former opponent of devolution will outline his belief Conservatives should support the creation of a Welsh parliament.

Today, Tory leader David Cameron will also rally the party faithful at its Llandudno conference ahead of the May local government elections. Mr Bourne, regretting that a “rainbow coalition” deal with Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats crumbled when the nationalists entered power with Labour, will tell the conference that Plaid AMs have changed from “attack-dogs to lap-dogs”.

He insists key Plaid goals such as a referendum on law-making powers would have been achieved in the coalition he championed.

“I think they are the losers in this alliance [with Labour], I have to say,” he said. “They are the dupes. I always thought this would be the case. I thought they would be sucked in and would find it very difficult to walk away.”

Despite his disappointment that the Conservatives remain in opposition, he says the fact his party was considered a credible partner in government by the Plaid leadership is evidence a fundamental transformation of Welsh politics has taken place.

Meanwhile, the former law professor also believes the likelihood of a referendum before the next Assembly election in 2011 is receding.

He said, “It’s becoming increasingly obvious that that’s not going to happen and [Plaid leader] Ieuan Wyn Jones having marched his troops up to the top of the hill is now saying, ‘It’s not important; it doesn’t have to be before 2011.’ Well, I don’t know what Plaid activists will think of that.

“In the area I live in, I don’t think they’ll be too pleased.”

Mr Bourne won the backing of the party’s high command to pursue this unprecedented coalition strategy. Change, he argues, is in Conservatism’s DNA.

“We’ve changed more than any other party,” he said. “I’ve never really understood this caricature of the Conservative party as being unwilling to change.

“If you actually look at the history of the Conservative party it’s the oldest, most successful party anywhere in the world in terms of survival and winning elections and doing things for the country.”

Admitting that many Conservatives will not campaign in favour of a Welsh parliament, he said, “I think when this referendum comes you can expect to see Conservatives on both sides of the argument. One’s got to be grown-up about this.”

A supporter of US Democrat Barack Obama, he has little in common with the neoconservatives who have had such influence on the Republican party.

“We’re not a dogmatic party, he said. “We are really not an ideological party.

“We don’t believe in revolutionary change, nor do the British people. We believe in evolutionary change.

“Parties need to change to meet changed circumstances. That’s what David Cameron’s been about; that’s why I’ve been proud to support him throughout.”

His attitude to devolution was transformed more than a decade ago, he claims, when Yes campaigners won a narrow victory in the 1997 referendum.

“I knew Welsh politics would never be the same again and British politics would never be the same again,” he said. “We were going to have a Welsh Assembly and I wanted the Conservatives to be part of that.

“Certainly, that view has been consolidated over a period of time and I’ve realised we need additional powers and we are not there yet.”

His frustration with the current constitutional arrangements and the continuing Labour leadership is tangible.

He describes the current system by which the Assembly can request powers from Westminster as a “Peter Hain sticking plaster”.

Welsh democracy missed the chance to mature, he argues, when Plaid chose not to lead the three-party coalition.

“Labour, let’s face it, is in electoral decline,” he said. “They’ve been the establishment party here, they’ve not delivered and I think people are ready for a change.

“I don’t think devolved government in Wales is properly tested until we have a government that isn’t Labour or Labour-dominated.

“For people to accept an institution they have to see there is the possibility of changing the government.”