Wednesday 10 February 2010

Herald of Doom


The Druid returned to his Druidic Residence yesterday to find this lying on his Druidic Doormat:


At first he thought it was a new free-paper but on closer inspection it turned out to be a mailer from Plaid Cymru complete with endless photos of Plaid's Ynys Mon candidate, Dylan Rees, standing in front of things. The Druid's favourite is this one of Dylan on the riverside terrace of the House of Commons:


Perhaps he was picking out his spot for after the election? After all the bookies already think his victory is a foregone conclusion

However, the Druid personally thinks that Rees is entirely unsuitable for the role. Anglesey has lost three thousand jobs in a very short period of time, the future of Wylfa B is uncertain, council tax is planned to rise 15% over three years, agriculture on the island has been decimated, inflation is about to let rip - Ynys Mon really is staring at economic catastrophe. 

What the Island needs now is jobs - lots and lots of jobs - and somebody with the experience and vision to help create them. Yet the depressing fact is that the odds-on favourite to win the seat is Dylan Rees - a man who has spent his entire career working in the public sector as first a Policeman and later as a Homelessness Officer for Anglesey County Council. Every single pay cheque he has ever received has come courtesy of you - the taxpayer. He has never started a new business, he has never employed anyone, he has no knowledge whatsoever about how business works.

On his flyer Rees says that "New jobs the top priority" and pledges "to make job creation his number one priority". Tellingly however we have to wait until page 4 (i.e. the last page) to learn about this 'top priority' and only after endless nonsense about how he wants Anglesey to be the first zero-carbon zone in Wales and how he attended the "wave protest" in London (calling for, amongst other things, £150bn a year to be given to poor countries to help them cope with climate change. Who's paying for that?). And this is not the first time he has got his priorities wrong.

Is this really the man to rebuild our Island?

Note: I'm not saying that the others are any better (Albert Owen is a sailor who later worked in the Citizens Advice Bureau and the Druid is not even sure what Anthony Ridge-Newman does) but I am particularly highlighting Rees's background as he is the front runner and Ynys Mon is in danger of sleep walking into electing him without any real scrutiny of his complete lack of business experience - and right now Ynys Mon needs business experience.
   

4 comments:

Jackie Knowles said...

You're not sure what Anthony Ridge-Newman does? Perhaps the words 'lap dancing' will ring a bell.

Jackie Knowles said...

How wrong can you be? The lap dancing Tory was the one in Wrexham of course.
'Tory hopeful strips bare family values'
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/columnists/2010/01/24/spin-doctor-tory-hopeful-strips-bare-family-values-91466-25670644/

Paul Williams said...

Jackie - you're right, Ridge-Newman is definitely NOT that one.

Chris Jones said...

Anthony Ridge-Newman does research in social science, according to his website. Does that make him a socialist Tory? But then it says he has worked in business too, so perhaps not.