Plaid has subsisted on a diet of tokenism since the likes of DET and IWJ compromised so much just so they could sit at top tables and mix with the faux intelligensia of modern dim witted Britain. They just haven’t got a clue on race as they have swallowed so much “modern theory” while ignoring the needs and aspirations of most ethnic families. Something in which they are at least consistent because they have also ignored real aspirations and needs of ordinary white native Welshies. As for women well they have really shit all over their blanket. Pursuing hare brained blinkerd policies was one thing then the migration to a uncompromising attitude on gender/transition without acknowledging its complexity was something straight out of a juvenile play book. 2 major reasons why Plaid will never be a majority party here in Wales.

Dig it out Jac. Dai’s input is always good entertainment even if it fails the test of reason and logic.

So sorry, David! It slipped into the spam folder.

Women.
Plaid Cymru has a problem with women in the form of tokenism and it has been manifest on a number of occasions. When Bethan Sayed (nee Jenkins) AM was found guilty of drink driving it would have been usual for her to be expelled from the party but because Bethan comprised of the ‘female contingent’ no effective action was taken. When Simon Thomas AM was convicted of child sexual offenses, the ‘next on the list’ was Helen Mary Jones, who by that time was no longer a party member, but slotted in as it made a female quota. It was also a reason why the popular candidate in Llanelli, Sean Rees, was evicted in favour of Mari Arthur. It was ‘female quota’. This must have appeared as bizarre to women in y fro as it did to the Rhondda women stalwarts. The bizarre situation where a female party leader, Leanne Wood was instructed what to do by an executive cabal led by Alun Ffred Jones. Women in Plaid Cymru are seen structurally as pieces of flesh to be used as quota leverage.

Race.
In the battle to diversity the candidature, traditionally off-territory in inner city Cardiff and Newport Plaid Cymru elevated individuals which were clearly suspect. The classic examples are Muhammed Islam (who ended up in Ukip) and Mohammed Ashgar (who ended up with the Tories) and the anti-semitic Sahar Al-Faifi. It was a case of brown skin put them on the candidates list. Substitute for actually engaging with the communities concerned. I found this quite bizarre as in Cardiff these is a significant ethnic (by colour) community educated through Welsh medium education in the city who were members of Plaid Cymru but were ‘overlooked’ because they were not connected with the standard political spheres of trendy left of British based ethnicity. They were just Welsh with different colour skin.

Plaid Cymru have not learned from these failures and now seek to formalise this tokenism into the electoral system.

OH JACO !!!!! NO printing of my follow up comment….”Jubilee…what Jubilee??? Disappointing !

I’ve probably said as much elsewhere, but the culture and dialects/language of England is as sacred as our own and one I am myself enamoured with. I am an unapologetic anglophile and while there’s a long conversation to be had as regards the relationship between the two members of this island family of nations, the corollary of Britishness as defined by Empire and the C+U Party is that it snuffs out England in all its distinctiveness and greatness, subsumed under UJ-bedecked, homogeneous bollocks.

Of comical note is that in my town, an ex-army thicky known locally as Dave Mong, for good reason I gather, is planning a Jubilee fest at the local football clubhouse, complete with bouncy castle, hog roast and turd in bowl bobbing. Said same imbecile has taken to flying the Russian flag in lieu of his normal UJ flown proudly from his garden, despite obvious animosity between the UK as a member of NATO and Russia. I knew the lower echelons of the forces were the final recourse of the pathologically thick after school but this lunatic takes the biscuit.

Putin ? Some of us might see that as preferable to the Biden or Boris version which boils down to shifting things around after the poll has happened ! Frankly anything blessed by Drakeford and Price must stink to high heaven.

“The system favoured by Vladimir Putin” will really sell it to the Welsh public!

With a closed list you can order by dint of internal party favouritism. Integral to the Plaid/Labour proposal is a cervix check (alternate women of list) and skin colour measure in the form (diversity percentage) on candidates in the list. The reason they want it closed. This is demeaning (tokenism) to women and introduces a colour bar to certain shades of ethnic minorities (those of Arabic, Jewish or Hispanic heritage as opposed to the British definition of Black and Asian). It’s also the reason why Vladmir Putin introduced the closed list for election to the Duma in Russia. He gets to order the list to determine who gets elected. Grace and favour.