Only Labour can deliver for the people of Wales

By Ann Jones

This year promises to be a big year in Welsh politics with a general election on the horizon and the continuing battle against the recession. Welsh Labour is firmly focussed on leading the country forward. The party has been re-energised by a healthy leadership contest bursting with new ideas and we will look to use these ideas to drive forward the political agenda. We have a new leader in Carwyn Jones who will look to continue re-building the economy and promoting Wales as a dynamic, clever country.

Social justice will always be at the forefront of Welsh Labour’s agenda. As Carwyn has pointed out, this is the principle that we must abide by to ensure that genuine social responsibility exists in Wales.

We are not kidding ourselves – there are a host of challenges which the Welsh Government will need to face – but with Labour at the helm we are confident those challenges can be met. There are huge budgetary pressures but this presents an opportunity to improve efficiency across central and local government. And there is an opportunity to continue developing a “Team Wales” approach with the Welsh Government working alongside Welsh councils.

The Labour-led Assembly Government has long spoken of “opportunity in adversity,” a message that rings true in these difficult times. During the economic downturn we have used innovative policies such as ProAct and ReAct to help keep people in work and retrain. Wales really has lead the way with this approach. The Welsh Government’s Mortgage Rescue Scheme has also received much praise.

In comparison, opposition parties in Wales have offered no alternative policies and no new vision. In last week’s Western Mail, Welsh Conservative leader Nick Bourne claimed Wales was ready for a blue future. It’s all well and good for the Tories to claim Wales is a “true blue nation” but behind the bland, lifeless soundbites, the Welsh public know the Tories are only on the side of the ‘haves’ and would happily see the most vulnerable people in the country spiral into poverty.

It was a Labour-led Welsh Government that introduced free prescriptions. The Tories continue to oppose it. It was a Labour-led Welsh Government that introduced free swimming for schoolchildren and older people. The Tories continue to oppose that too. And it was a Labour-led Welsh Government that introduced free school breakfasts. And guess what? The Tories continue to oppose it.

The Welsh Conservatives will never change. They will never protect the vulnerable and give help to those who need it most. It is simply not in their DNA.

I find it incredible for Nick to accuse Welsh Labour of putting the brakes on the devolution process. This is coming from the man who lead the “No” campaign back in 1997. There were no leading Conservatives in the 1997 yes campaign and we must not forget those paranoid voices that suggested Welsh devolution would lead to the breakup of the union.

Welsh Labour has reaffirmed its commitment to a referendum on further powers. We have made it clear from the outset that Welsh Labour sees further powers as a means to build on the leaps forward we have already made.

Since 1997, Labour has introduced a national minimum wage, created jobs for more than 32,000 doctors and 85,000 more nurses, we’ve seen record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools, and lifted 800,000 children out of relative poverty. That’s how far we have come and that’s what we want to build on.

In Wales, we’ve introduced the pioneering foundation phase and we’ve doubled the number of apprenticeships available.

In my constituency, in the Vale of Clwyd, there are fantastic initiatives going on at grassroots level that have been funded by the Labour-led Welsh Government. Just last week I visited the Rhyl Youth Action Group which has used investment from the Assembly-led Strategic Regeneration Area to create dozens of jobs. That is community empowerment at its best.

These are real achievements to be proud of. The Welsh Conservatives are deluded if they think there is a “blue future” for Wales. Nick Bourne’s predictions are as airbrushed as his leader’s posters. The Welsh public know that his party relishes a programme of savage cuts that would look to seek and destroy our cherished public services.

Only Welsh Labour can deliver for the people of our nation – and we will continue to do so.