The toxic entitlement of Labour

Ben Wildsmith

How times change. The last I remember, Nation.Cymru was being condemned in the Senedd as a Pravda-style mouthpiece for the Labour government, whilst Plaid Cymru’s Senedd cohort were the toothless handmaids of its agenda.

Martin Shipton, Adam Price, and Mark Drakeford were equal partners in a bicycle repair business that was set to cash in on a 20mph tyranny over Welsh motorists.

Chinking glasses of Chablis as they smiled contentedly over Cardiff Bay, the triumvirate conspired to deny plucky Andrew ‘Real Ting’ Davies his seat at the table. Muwahahaaaaa!

So, what’s going on by here now in a minute?

First off, let’s raise a cap to Hannah Blythyn and Lee Waters. Objecting to your boss by pulling a sickie is the most authentically working-class action conceivable.

I’d be disappointed if they didn’t treat themselves to a pub lunch after croaking their apologies down the phone.

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Understaffed

There’s nothing quite as enervating as a suddenly understaffed workplace. Everybody must rush around picking up unfamiliar tasks and speaking to people they know don’t know. In Labour’s case yesterday, that meant the people of Wales.

‘Hello, I’m concerned that the First Minister is only in place because of questionable donations from a convicted criminal whose wealth derives in part from loans the First Minister facilitated.’

‘I’m terribly sorry, we’re understaffed at the moment, but it says here that you’re a racist.’

‘Good morning, is it right that the First Minister lied to the Covid Inquiry about deleting messages it had asked for?’

‘I haven’t read the notes so I’m going to assume that you are a Tory who wants eight-year-old children to be forced down the mines. Thank you.’

‘Hello, I’ve never called in before but I’m worried that the dignity of Welsh democracy is under threat and…’

‘Will you shut up, it’s D-Day for God’s sake!’

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Media pressure

Labour has never come under this sort of media pressure before in Wales and its fragility was on full display on Wednesday.

Hefin David MS has spent the week flouncing around like a grounded teenager, issuing preachy tweets with the replies disabled, and insinuating that any dissent must be grounded in prejudice.

Mike Hedges MS appeared so broadsided by events that he relinquished syntax in favour of an incoherent soundtrack to his mimed outrage.

When no Labour members of the Senedd agreed to appear on BBC Wales, Stephen Kinnock MP stepped in to instruct the nation that Vaughan Gething was a man of integrity and honour.

The cumulative impression given by Labour figures is that commonplace scrutiny is an impertinence. By yesterday evening, the wider Labour family was joining in.

Todays vote was a desperate gimmick to distract from the Tories & Plaid Cymru’s faltering election campaigns

With two Senedd members on the sick, this was always a cheap political trick https://t.co/5unYXBNIqE

— GMB Wales & South West (@GMBWSW) June 5, 2024

Tweets like that attracted dozens of outraged responses which went ignored. The institutional pillars of Labour: the MSs, MPs, union officials and party workers were content to pronounce and then leave their statements to stand alone.

Well, they would, wouldn’t they? The entire civic structure of Wales has been moulded by Labour over the last century. Anybody who works for the government, most councils, the charitable sector, the media, and, increasingly, private business, knows their position exists in relation to its monolithic presence in national life. I’m on the committee, Butt…

Entrenched

The Labour establishment in Wales seems as entrenched and interdependent as the public school mafia in England.

So, when Adam Price reflected the ghost of Aneurin Bevan back at the Labour benches during yesterday’s debate, it was received as heresy.

‘Shame on you!’ called the Gething loyalists.

On telly, Kinnock denounced Plaid Cymru as being ‘in bed with the Tories’ in this ‘gimmick’, this ‘stunt’.

Specific objections, it seems, can only be part of a juvenile and partisan hostility to the governing party.

An overwhelming Labour majority seems inevitable in Westminster and the party in Wales needs to buckle up.

With no Tory overlords to blame for hospital waiting lists, exam results, potholes, or endemic regional poverty, the automatic moral superiority implied by a red rosette will be revoked.

The Senedd has no confidence in its leader. That is a hard fact, not something that can be politicked away. The people telling us to ignore it are also insisting that clever men from London are required to represent our parliamentary constituencies.

The toxic entitlement of the Labour Party in Wales is creating a vacuum in representation last seen by Scotland during the Blair years. If it refuses to listen, then it must be made to hear.