Dismayed by Labour’s inaction over Burberry

I’m surprised and dismayed that the Assembly Government has failed to apply to a special European fund to help offset the loss of the Burberry factory in Treorci - despite the fact that I wrote personally to the minister in March to highlight the establishment of the fund.

I wrote to the then Economic Development Minister Andrew Davies when Burberry went ahead with the closure of the factory in Treorci, pointing out that the European Union has recently established a Globalisation Adjustment Fund to provide funds for workers for training and preparing for alternative work. The idea is to counterbalance the effects of businesses moving from the European Union to places with cheaper labour such as China and India .

It would be invaluable for the Burberry workers hoping to establish a cooperative to take over the Treorci factory.

Although in most cases the fund is available in situations where more than 1,000 workers are made redundant there is a clause which takes into account cases where a community is affected by a closure as it is a major employer in the community, as in the case of Treorci.

Now I learn that there have been just two applications to this 500m Euro fund, and both have been from France.

Bearing in mind that I wrote to Andrew Davies in March, there was plenty of time before the Assembly elections to start the ball rolling. The French government have clearly seen the merits of the fund as they commented that it was there to help people get jobs and get back on their feet.

It is vital that the Assembly Government makes an urgent, albeit belated, case to the UK Government to request funding from this European fund for the former Burberry workers.

No to coalition

I would like to declare my opposition to the proposed coalition between Plaid, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats in the National Assembly.

I have direct experience, both of negotiating to form political groups in the European Parliament and of the way coalitions are formed in other European countries. Successful coalitions can be formed between like minded parties with shared values and principles. By no stretch of the imagination are Plaid and the Tories “like minded”. On the contrary, we are at opposite ends of the political spectrum.

In the past weeks I have made my opposition known to the Executive, to Ieuan Wyn Jones and to the members of the Assembly group. I now feel it is important for those of us who see the dangers in this course of action to make those views known to the party members. It is the members who will decide on Saturday and I will be urging them to reject coalition.

There will be no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.

Mobile Phone Roaming

After a very long debate there at last seems to be agreement on roaming charges for mobile phones which will mean lower prices for millions of customers who travel and use their phones abroad.

The European Parliament has been trying to protect consumers and stop them being ripped off by mobile phone operators. The result is not as strong as I would like to see, but it would still be a significant improvement on the situation we have now, including a cap on the charges for incoming and outgoing calls. Consumers can opt in or opt out of the new charging system. If all goes well this proposal could come into force in the next few months.

Making a difference

I’m writing this on a very bumpy flight back from Brussels. This week was the 50th anniversary of the founding of the European Community. The European Parliament met on Wednesday to mark the occasion. I suspect it went unnoticed in Wales.

The focus here, of course, is on who’s going to be the next Assembly government. Labour’s disastrous results mean they don’t have enough members to form a government on their own so there’s a lot of talking going on. Plaid had a brilliant election night, winning back Llanelli and Aberconwy and one more regional list seat. The Rhondda vote increased to over 30 per cent - a good basis for winning next time round. I had a fantastic election team and really enjoyed the campaign. Thanks to everyone who voted Plaid. It made a difference.

And everyone can make a difference again by supporting our campaign to ban old fashioned light bulbs in Europe by 2010. Cuba, Venezuela and Australia have already done it. 80 per cent of light in homes is produced by the old incandescent light bulbs. If we used energy efficient bulbs we would save billions of pounds in energy bills and also 20 million tons of CO2. If you support the campaign please let me know.