Day 28
Message to Plaid Cymru - The clock is ticking!
Plaid Cymru has set out a bold plan for what it would do in the first 100 days of government — a plan built on one simple promise: to bring new leadership, new energy, and new ideas to Wales. Their vision starts with fixing the fundamentals — beginning with our National Health Service. In those first 100 days, they say they would begin the work of bringing down waiting lists, launch an independent review of NHS performance, and develop new surgical hubs and a fresh cancer plan. Not overnight solutions, but the start of a long-overdue recovery.
They also put families at the heart of their programme. Plaid Cymru has pledged to tackle child poverty and ensure every child gets the best possible start in life, alongside plans to expand free childcare. Education, too, is a cornerstone. They promise to raise standards by introducing a new literacy and numeracy plan, improving school conditions, and exploring steps to create better learning environments for young people.
Plaid Cymru’s first 100 days are now about setting a direction, rather than any result!!!
Torfaen tells residents they cannot have any expectation of having a home or seeing a doctor!!!
THE public can have unreasonable expectations of support and services available from local authorities, a top council boss has claimed. Simon Rose cited demand for public housing and the ability to see a GP immediately as examples of what he considered unrealistic expectations. Torfaen Borough Council’s housing and prevention manager was addressing councillors on an early intervention and prevention approach the council has put in place to try and manage demand, reduce the strain on frontline services and better refer people to support. r Rose said as part of that effort the council, which doesn’t provide its own housing but has a duty to support those presenting as homeless, is going to schools to try and manage potential demand for social housing which is provided through housing associations in Torfaen and across much of Gwent.
Mr Rose told the council’s adults and community scrutiny committee: “In health we all expect to see a GP when we want to see one on the day, do we? Probably not. All of us probably understand that better than people in the community.
Councillors to get pay rise whilst you get reduced services
For the financial year 26/27 Councillors will get £21,044 per annum this is a 6.4 increase whilst those who contribute the economy (like Working) receive only a third of that?
Senior roles will get over £78,000 per annum and Community and Town Councillors of which there are 700 in Wales will receive £156 towards utility bills!!!
My reply to the statement from Torfaen Council
What is being presented as a realistic adjustment of public expectations risks sounding, instead, like an official acceptance of diminished standards. When limited housing support and delayed access to healthcare are framed as ordinary constraints to be managed rather than failures to be addressed, the burden is subtly transferred from institutions to the public they are meant to serve.
That is the deeper problem with this line of argument. It implies that, even as costs rise and public contribution increases, people should become more accommodating of reduced access to basic support. Housing becomes something to stop expecting, and prompt medical attention something to stop assuming. What is described as pragmatism can too easily become a language of managed decline.
A serious public discussion should begin from the structural limits in provision, but it should not end by asking individuals to lower their sights. If supply is constrained, that is a policy challenge. If services are stretched, that is a matter of public administration and political priority. Recasting these pressures as problems of expectation risks excusing the very shortcomings that require scrutiny.
In the end, the message conveyed is difficult to ignore: the public may be asked to contribute more, expect less, and treat that imbalance as reasonable. That is not merely a bureaucratic warning about scarcity; it is a political statement about what level of service people are now being told to accept.
Ian Williams - Political Commentator