Whatever happened to mature debate?

Little did I think when I drafted a paper on defence at the request of Plaid’s National Executive Committee that I would end up being called everything from “dangerous” to a “nutter” by Labour politicians.

It’s hard to believe that I am under attack for debating defence policy – one of the most important issues we all have to deal with, and St Athan - one of the biggest investments in Wales’s history, but not without controversy.

Plaid will have this debate at our National Council meeting tomorrow (Saturday), and after that we’ll be very happy to continue the debate in public, when I hope the media will continue their interest. My paper was written for the members - putting forward ideas and proposals for us to talk about before making policy decisions. It’s a pity that such documents get leaked to the press and misinterpreted.

It should be no surprise to anyone that Plaid would not be part of NATO or would scrap nuclear weapons. It’s been our policy for years. But in a changing Wales we have to look at our changing defence needs as a small European country. It doesn’t reflect well on the maturity of political debate when some politicians react with such hysteria to a genuine and important discussion.