The Ceredigion County Branch of the Unison trade union held its Annual General Meeting in Aberaeron this month. Its guest speaker was author and broadcaster Mike Parker. Originally from Kidderminster in the West Midlands, Mike Parker is standing as Plaid Cymru’s candidate for Ceredigion in the next Westminster election in May 2015.

Plaid Cymru’s MP candidate Mike Parker said,

"Recently, I was in Westminster and at Prime Minister's Questions. During PMQs, I saw and heard David Cameron say four times that "money is no object" when it comes to helping the victims of the floods in southern England.

“But money has been very much the object for the last four years of this Conservative-LibDem government. At the Lord Mayor's Banquet last November, Mr Cameron - in white tie and tails, and from atop a golden lectern - told us that 'We need to do more with less. Not just now, but permanently'.

“This is not about balancing the books; this is an ideological war on the public sector and all who work in it, or who rely on it. It is crude and ugly politics, attempting to turn sections of the community against each other - the oldest, and nastiest, trick in the book. We will fight it all the way.

“After all, any of us are only an accident, an unexpected illness or a stroke of bad luck away from needing the safety net that this government is so casually tearing to bits. We in Plaid believe in standing up for our hard-pressed nurses, teachers, carers and other essential public sector workers. This government has done all it can to belittle and demonise them. We will never allow such callous politics to go unchallenged."

Owain Davies, Unison branch chairman, said

“The Ceredigion County Unison Branch were very pleased to have Mike speak to us, many of the problems that our members are currently facing can be traced back to the decisions made by the government in Westminster and their obsession with running down public services and imposing an austere future on communities, such as our own, here in Ceredigion. Mike set out clearly and firmly his opposition to the politics of ‘austerity’ and his support for public sector workers in the County. The Branch thanks Mike for attending our AGM and wishes him all the best in his campaign to become the Ceredigion MP and we hope to work closely with him in the future.”