The party apparently received £1m in donations in 2008 – more than half of that came from wills.
By comparison, the Liberal Democrats received just £5.4m throughout the whole of the UK – with Labour and the Conservatives taking in more than £30m each.
The credit crunch not hitting too hard then...
The BBC are reporting that Plaid haven't spent all of their £1m yet – they still have £300,000 in the war chest to spend in competitive seats...
(Ceredigion and Ynys Mon look out!)
Dewi Tri
5 comments:
But seeing as Plaid Cymru disgracefully leapt in to bed with Labour after saying how bad, wicked and London-based they were in a very good series of Party Election Broadcasts, after the Assembly elections, why don't Plaid Cymru do the decent thing and just wire all their money over the the Labour Party in Wales?
Then everyone would know that a vote for Plaid Cymru really is a vote for Labour. Saves all the bother of listening to Party Election Broadcasts, reading Election Manifestos and the like.
They won't get a penny out of me.
thatsnews- we are in coalition with Labour. Coalitions happen the world over. Read Waleshome.org for an analysis on the future of Wales and coalition building. This is the reality of the electoral system. We did not have the option or the liberty of choosing to stay in opposition in 2007.
@Thatsnews
I think you are missing an important point. The NAfW has an electoral system that makes it difficult for a single party to get an overall majority, it's more proportional than, say the FPTP used for the House of Commons. That means Wales will more often than not be run by coalition or minority governments.
Plaid can make the argument that because they are in coalition with Labour, they can have a big influence on outcomes, and curtail the more excessive instincts of Labour. Or to put it another way, the Plaid/Lab coalition is not the same as a Labour government would be.
Being in coalition government with labour means that Plaid can have a significant influence on policy, something they could not do as an opposition party.
Working in coalition does not mean that the party has to agree to all of Labour's policies. Pretending that the coalition government is no different to a Labour government is to miss the nuances of coalition government.
On a final note, it is in Plaid's interest to show that they are a responsible party that can be trusted in government. They have never governed before, if the electorate of Wales see that their ministers are competent and provide good services, then that could well boost Plaid's electoral chances in the future.
I think Plaid made a good decision to go into coalition, Wales has a more stable government because of it, and it has Plaid keeping Labour in check as well.
Grown up politics in Wales demands that the tribalism of the past is forgotten. Given that the choice was a coalition or a minority Labour government then to go into opposition would have been to ignore the political reality. It would have been an act of political cowardice.
The Lib Dems had shown that they were not able to commit to a coalition and Plaid bravely (in my view) took second place to Labour rather than try to lead a rainbow coalition. That is putting the needs of the country above the needs of the Party. A very brave and proper decision in my view.
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