Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Plaid Cymru's summer madness
The post by the councillor who represents Penyrheol in Caerphilly read: “Ogmore-by-Sea tonight for a quick swim and make sure there wasn’t any English people trying to cross the channel”:
The Welsh Liberal Democrats called on Plaid Cymru to suspend the councillor, with a spokesperson stating that there was “a clear implication of violence and xenophobia in this post”.
“Whether or not it was intended as a joke or not, it is entirely inappropriate for an elected official to make such comments, when they should know better. With so much hate in politics the last few years we should be trying to build bridges, not stoke division further. Plaid Cymru must now do the right thing and suspend the councillor in question.”
This is not just an anti-English issue of course. With the Tory Party currently engaged in a race to the bottom over stopping asylum seeekers reaching our shores, including proposals to send gunboats to turn back refugees in the English channel, the imagery and sentiments attached to this post are entirely inappropriate from a member of a so-called left-of-centre party, or anybody else for that matter.
Plaid need to demonstrate that this tweet does not represent their own policy agenda.
