Old News
Authors Too blogging on.
Old news examined with old people in mind.
Thursday May 3 is Election Day for the National Assembly Government of Wales.
Authors Too have been looking at the fliers from the main parties. Who will get our vote? We are the pensioners, the "grey"vote, and we carry a considerable weight.
Traditionally we have been supporters of Labour, and we have been voting for them for so long that it is difficult for us to stop for a moment and think.
If we do, we see that Labour is dead. What is very much alive is New Labour, a party that has killed off the old socialist sentiments that we, the ordinary people created, and to whom we showed our loyalty in election after election.
New Labour is a new party, and under this new party us pensioners are worse off than we were last year. So before voting for New Labour we owe it to ourselves to stop and think.
We have never returned the Conservative Party and Authors Too see no reason why, even under their new leadership, why this should change.
So we move on. As the Party of Wales we would have expected Plaid Cymru to have gained a far greater following than has been seen by way of votes cast. Why is this? Are we, in the valleys, afraid that we will have to learn the language? We shouldn't be because we don't have to. What is important are the policies.
And what of the Liberal Democrats? Historically they increase according to the other parties' decrease. Having come into existence only comparatively recently they have never had a standing of their own. We have never given them strong support.
And the Greens? Strange how we all lean toward green ideas but never vote for the party. We wonder why that is? Is it because the Greens are new and we are stuck in the mire of of tradition?
Finally the Independent candidate, for whom the vote is almost entirely a personal one. In a government, introduction of policies depend on numbers and the Independent member is almost always a lonely individual.
In the end how do we decide? If Authors Too were betting people we would say the running would be between New Labour because too many people will vote in the traditional fashion mistakenly thinking they are voting Labour: and Plaid Cymru for those who pause and think.
What concerns us pensioners most are firstly, the fight for a decent pension, and two, because we rely on it more than most, The National Health Service. After ten years under New Labour two and a quarter million of us pensioners are living in poverty. And despite the money New Labour says it has poured into the NHS ,the truth is that services have been cut. This applies to all positions, from posts in Nursing and Midwifery, down more than 20%, to all other training groups down by roughly the same amount.
But Plaid Cymru we say is untried. True. So it is up to you to make up your mind. Old News has no axe to grind. Its only purpose, between the spin and the jargon, is to try to get as near the truth as is possible - and for ten years New Labour has frequently been a stranger to it - just think of Iraq.
So do we believe now what they are saying and give them another chance? Or will we say that we are Welsh and vote for the party who claim to be the party of Wales.
Authors too have already decided which way they will vote, but because we have the privelege and protection of a secret ballot we will keep it between ourselves and the ballot box.
Oops! Sorry! Secret ballot? Not if you use the postal vote. If you vote by post you will have to sign your name and give your date of birth. Why should postal voters, usually old people like ourselves, have this privelege and protection taken away?
Still to come. An open letter to NPT MP & the new AMwho do not seem to know of the scandal of the bedsit council tax.
Blogging off, Authors Too for Old News.
PS. Rhodri Morgan is telling us that we are all better off by£5000.00, yes, five thousand pounds, since the Welsh Assembly government has come into being. From Authors Too,
no comment.
