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Adam Price has ‘no regrets’ for calling Westminster ‘the common enemy’

01 Dec 2021 3 minute read
Adam Price. Picture by Plaid Cymru.

Adam Price has said he has “no regrets” after he called the Conservative government in Westminster “the common enemy”.

The Leader of Plaid Cymru has dismissed criticism from the Welsh Tories, who had called for him to withdraw and apologise for the remarks.

He said: “In the 80s on free school meals with my father on strike the then Westminster Govt called my family ‘the enemy within’ then threw us on the slagheap. I have no regrets at all for calling them out for doing now to farming communities what they did then to us.”

Price was responding to an accusation from the Welsh Conservatives that he was dragging politics into the “gutter” with the comments, which were made as he criticised the UK Government during a debate in the Senedd.

The Tories also claimed that Price was wrong to suggest that the Conservative Party has “betrayed” Welsh famers.

Price told the Senedd that the Tory manifesto at the 2019 general election “would guarantee the annual budget of farmers in every year of the next Parliament”.

But he said the “opposite” had happened, adding that “Welsh agriculture allocation is going to be £248 million worse off”.

Adam Price told the Senedd: “We’ve even recently heard some Conservatives in this Senedd raising their voices against multinational corporations buying up Welsh agricultural land.

“It’s great to see the Tories as late converts against the unbridled operation of the free market, and I think Welsh agriculture, beset by all these pressures at the moment, needs a bit of a united front. But the wider attempt to present the Tory party as defending Welsh farming sticks in the throat of many farmers.

“When they were promised in the 2019 manifesto that the Conservatives would guarantee the annual budget of farmers in every year of the next Parliament, what have we had but the opposite: the promise of a cut every year in this comprehensive spending review?

“So much so that, actually, as the FUW point out, by 2025, it’s going to be—[Interruption.]—Welsh agriculture allocation is going to be £248 million worse off. I’m all in favour of finding common ground, but let’s be clear who the common enemy is: a Westminster Government that has betrayed farmers and farming in Wales time and time again.”

‘Yelling insults’ 

Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Equalities and Deputy Chief Whip, Altaf Hussain MS, said: “At a time when the country is trying to pull together to recover from Covid, the last thing we need is the leader of Plaid Cymru describing people as the ‘common enemy’ and yelling insults.

“We need to make politics better, not drag it into the gutter, and this language especially in light of the tragic murder of Sir David Amess has absolutely no place in our Senedd.

“Adam Price should remember that more people voted Welsh Conservative in May and in the 2019 general election than for his party by a significant margin.

“Whilst he might have given up on scrutinising the Labour Government at First Minister’s Questions, let’s hope he finds time to reconsider these remarks and apologise.”


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GW Atkinson
GW Atkinson
2 years ago

Do you know who else has no regrets in what Price said? The rest of Wales.

Mark
Mark
2 years ago

So according to the tories, Adam Price is dragging politics into the gutter, are they so up their own backsides they are unaware of the scandal, corruption and sleaze their party is presiding over in Westminster

Cai Wogan Jones
Cai Wogan Jones
2 years ago

Boris Johnson has been quite open about his hostility to devolution and to our democratic institutions in Wales.

The Tories have deselected candidates who have shown a willingness to engage constructively with the Senedd and Welsh Government.

Fair comment from Price.

Steve Duggan
Steve Duggan
2 years ago

Apologies to the Tories? It is them who should be apologising to Wales for the years of neglect. Reparations would not be out of order too!

Andrew
Andrew
2 years ago

Dragged upwards from the sewers more like.

Barry Pandy
Barry Pandy
2 years ago

Whenever a tory says “At a time when the country is trying to pull together to recover from Covid” you know very well that what they really mean is “just shut up and do what the tories tell you.”

Erisian
Erisian
2 years ago

They are demonstrably the enemy of universal sufferage, liberty and devolution.
They are in every way the English version of the GOP (Grubby Oligarch Party).

Gill Jones
Gill Jones
2 years ago

Da iawn Adam. Rwyt yn hollol gywir – y toriaid yw ein gelyn pennaf!

Grayham Jones
2 years ago

Kick all English party’s out of wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 we in wales have got to stop being little Englanders and be proud to be welsh it’s time for a new wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 start fighting for your children and grandchildren future in wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Adopted Cardi
Adopted Cardi
2 years ago

Well said Adam. Some of us, “the enemy within”, “the loony left” , etc. have endured 40 years of a rotten system that basically does not work. Following the Money God. I ask you! By whichever party in power. Whether its our families being chucked on the scrapheap, little kids around the world being blown to smithereens, or 1000s of needless Covid deaths through blind incompetence, greed and selfishness. Enough is enough. Wales can be an Oasis in the desert. To all right wing tories and labour alike I say this – you have had your own way 40+ years… Read more »

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
2 years ago

Totally agree with Plaid’s Adam Price. Westminster is the common enemy of Wales.

Their actions speaks louder than words. Who cannot forget the hostile legislation made to demoralise & degrade the Welsh & Wales. Be it the Act of Union of 1535- 1543. The Blue Books insult. Flooding of Tryweryn. The WelshNot campaign. And the banning of Welsh spoken in the HOC chamber etc, etc, etc…… All were passed in Westminster. Enough said. I rest my case

#YesCymru 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 #Ymlaen🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 #AdamPrice 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 👋

Last edited 2 years ago by Y Cymro
Rhosddu
Rhosddu
2 years ago

Their open hostility to devolution, and their attempts to override and undermine it since 2019, are enough justification for Adam Price’s description of them. He has no need to apologise, and it’s reassuring that he stands by what he says.

Attempting to change the subject by wheeling out some spurious “common purpose” in the face of Covid 19, and seems to be their new ploy, but it won’t work: Drakeford and Sturgeon were hoping for a common purpose when asking for a Cobra meeting on this, and were rebuffed.

Malcolm rj
Malcolm rj
2 years ago

I REMEMBER VERY WELL WHEN Margaret THATCHER CALLED THE MlNER’S THE Enemy within their jobs underground cost thousands of lives and many hundreds of miners that got killed in the mines are still WITHIN the mines that they got killed in what a wicked thing to say about the men that brought vast amounts wealth to the whole of the UK you Wicked Wicked Woman

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