The Labour Manifesto for the forthcoming election is remarkable in its complete lack of ambition

'... if the pollsters are to be believed this will happen at the forthcoming UK General Election when, after 14 years, the Labour Party will take the reigns [sic] of power. Will this mean that socialist vision becoming a reality? The Labour Party manifesto published yesterday sadly suggests not.' Well, Labour tried getting elected on a 'socialist vision' in 2017 and again in 2019, and the result was ... well, disappointing. So, given that politics is absolutely and essentially about getting your party voted into office, it's surely not wholly surprising that in the Starmer era Labour's sought to make a different offer to the voters.

There is so much on which I agree with Beth and much of her analysis is on the money. For example, the endless drive for economic growth which burns through our environmental capital at the expense of the Earth's living systems must end. The fact that this environmental capital and our labour is turned into wealth and assets that are owned and enjoyed, for the most part, by the few and not the many is an absolute outrage. Further, that Starmer's Labour does not present a viable solution to these difficult problems is not in question. So far, entirely on the money. Where we differ is on how Wales best moves in response. My personal opinion is that Beth is still wedded to the idea of Labour as a vehicle of progressive change. For me, Labour is a conservative organisation whose policies offer only a skin-deep alternative to the Tories. On three vital issues, they offer no change at all. That is: 1. No change to the constitutional model. 2. No change to the economic model. 3. No change to the political model. For me this is massively frustrating. For example, Beth bemoans the lack of redistribution in Labour's manifesto. But redistribution of what exactly? In the past, Labour's approach to this was entirely topological and easily reversible. Some will talk about the reform of the Barnett formula (my own party included). But this is a topological tratment. In fact, I find both the Left and Right's attitude on this to be paternalistic at best and at worst, gaslighting. Westminster is responsible for the macroeconomic terrain of the UK. Wales is fully integrated into this. That we are made poorer by it and then told we are beneficiaries/dependents of it is grotesque. We are the victims of its structural inequality. Barnett is a stop gap salve to a far deeper problem that no one will address. For me, the answer is democracy and a wholesale shift in the model of ownership of wealth and assets. For that to happen the UK must be replaced - now THAT is progressive. I am a constitutional progressive and a Cymro. How can I not support a Democratic Welsh State? How can any progressive Welsh democrat not support that in the face of all the evidence of the UK as an imperialist vehicle for the capitalist class of Britain? We won't change a damn thing until we dismantle their State. It is ironic that England's Right is split in two at this election. As usual, Wales' future is being decided by the electoral calculus of our neighbours. But it doesn't have to be this way. Wales' Left has long been split. It is time to set aside old dogmas, unite our Left as we did in the '97 referendum and come together to return a Plaid Cymru majority in Wales. Because the day we do that is the day we begin to unpick the Tory State and embark on a new journey to a renewed Wales and a new British landscape. So I call on Beth, and all those Welsh Labour members and voters who know that Labour has failed them and failed Wales, who share in our democratic and progressive values, to come and join us in Plaid Cymru and help bring about the change, the Wales we need.

Lack of ambition...matches the electorate, judging by the last half generation...

She could have also mentioned Lords reform which sounds like it will be kicked into the long grass again. According to the manifesto the 72 remaining hereditary peers will go, which I think Labour promised many years ago. They also say they are going to introduce a mandatory retirement age, which actually makes it sound more like they are going to be making room to appoint lots of new peers rather than it being an interim measure before replacing it with an elected second chamber.

Analysis of the Labour manifesto shows us Labour have drifted to the right and many social policies seemed to have been ditched. In the 7 party debates Plaid, the SNP, the LibDems and certainly the Greens appeared far more to the left than Labour. Yes, we need change but it will not come from this Labour government. If you are a floating voter reading this and want more substantial change - vote Plaid Cymru.

Union Flag waving UK Labour's manifesto is basically copy & paste Tory policies and to continue treating Wales and Welsh devolution with utter contempt. It's as you were Wales. No more devolution. Go to the end of the queue where you belong. England & Westminster power is our main priority.

Beth would be a wonderful addition to the growing Welsh indy movement. She has heart, she has experience, and she really does care about forgotten communities. I'd love to see her in the Senedd.

Labour moaning about Labour: this’ll be the shape of things to come. Maybe, Beth, you should worry less about the fictitious climate catastrophe and more about child poverty, the state of the NHS and Welsh school children being taught the ‘gender identity’ fairy tale as if it’s fact. Also, if Boris Johnson’s tenure was such a disaster then why do we have our own version of the clown as First Minister right now?

With a proper voting system both main parties can split so they offer voters a real choice. Then the voters can decide - and not party factions - which policies and politics dominate the agenda by deciding the relative weight of each in a coalition.

It is looking likely that Starmer's Labour will receive fewer votes and maybe a smaller percentage vote share than Corbyn's 2017 Labour. Albeit with mote seats due to the vagaries of FPTP. I have bookmarked the 2017 figures and I look forward to comparing them to 2024.