Latest news - 1st February 2012

01/02/2012    Plaid proposed energy revolution - Labour and Tory MPs team up to vote it down

Extraordinary scenes as labour block devolution of energy powers to their own Government

Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards yesterday repeated calls for energy powers to be transferred to the Welsh Government, currently run by Labour - but his motion was defeated by Labour MPs, who teamed up with Conservatives MPs to stop their own party in Wales taking these powers.

Jonathan Edwards hoped to introduce a bill in Westminster which would give the Welsh Government powers over energy generation in Wales – something supported by both Labour and the Conservatives in their Welsh general election manifesto last year, where they argued that there should be an increase from the present 50MW limit.

Mr Edwards argued that the proposal would lead to equality with Scotland and Northern Ireland and that it would allow Wales to better fight fuel poverty if we had responsibility for our own resources.

01/02/2012    Welfare Reform is an assault on the vulnerable

Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood AM has said that the UK government’s Welfare Reform Bill is no more than an ideological attack on benefit claimants and some of the most vulnerable people in society.

In a Plaid Cymru debate in the Senedd to highlight the effects that the UK government’s policy is having on people in Wales, Ms Wood said that benefit reforms are affecting Wales disproportionately, and said that the case for the devolution of the benefit system is clear.