Plaid Cymru leader to spell out her ideas at Cardigan public meeting

She will be speaking at a public meeting in Cardigan Castle on 15 February at 6.30pm to outline these ideas and hear from people in the area about their aspirations for Cardigan and Wales.

A wide-ranging pamphlet, with ideas covering topics from from education to enterprise to democratic reform, emphasises giving people a greater say over the matters that affect them and their communities.

Ms Wood says it's vital to re-engage individuals with politics and challenge the despair that has dominated in light of a decade of cuts and the vote to leave the EU.

The Plaid leader states that the Tories and Labour present a false choice between top-down, increasingly regressive right-wing politics, and the latter’s London-centric agenda with its stubborn refusal to yield power from Westminster or Cardiff.

The public meeting will be the local launch of the pamphlet as Ms Wood embarks on a tour of Wales hosting public meetings to discuss the ideas contained in the pamphlet and engage with people on a grassroots level.

Ms Wood said: “I want people throughout Wales to consider how we can lift up our country by taking responsibility for our own affairs and our own lives, and on how we can start a debate in Wales about ending our dependence on others.

“I have analysed the challenges facing our country: challenges from within the UK, challenges that following the Brexit vote, not least the risk an extreme Tory Brexit poses to Welsh jobs and services, as well as the challenges we face from global developments.

“Decisions about Wales should be made in Wales. Self-determination means that we should choose which powers we want to share with other countries or with Europe.

“Yet neither an intensification of neoliberalism, nor the resurrection of British state socialism will provide the solutions that are needed to solve our economic challenges and turn Wales around.

“Both visions offered by the two largest Westminster parties marginalise our specific needs as a nation.

“We need to get out there and show people how the core weakness of Labour’s paternalistic, centralising socialism is its democratic deficit. It will neither enable people to own their own resources nor run them democratically. It won’t empower people because it doesn’t trust people.

“We should look at locating new institutions outside where they are concentrated already, as Plaid Cymru has advocated for the new transport authority, football museum, national development bank and other bodies.

“We want to see more powers devolved within Wales to ensure places like Ceredigion see the benefits.

“It means ensuring that the poorest areas of the country can benefit from a sustainable regional approach to economic development.

“This is about levelling up and treating geographic inequality as a problem to be tackled in the same way as other inequalities.

“For my party, it means we would legislate to ensure that legal safeguards were in place to fairly share public investment across the country, leaving no community behind.

“I also want to see a minimum set of social rights for all, such as to life-long learning, a decent home, a high standard of health care and a clean environment.

“Other principles here include using public money for public good; maximising people’s participation in democracy; co-operating as individuals instead of competing with one another; and learning from our history to look forward with hope, instead of backwards with nostalgia.”

Ceredigion MP Ben Lake added: "I'm delighted to welcome Leanne to this part of Ceredigion to meet people in Cardigan. The pamphlet is a common-sense approach to improving and empowering Wales, its people and its communities.

"People want a radical political voice that represents all parts of Wales and that's what Plaid Cymru can provide."