"Clear red water"
The ´óÏó´«Ã½'s boffins are now predicting that the Labour Party will fall well short of the 30 seats needed for it to be able to control the Assembly on its own. Indeed, we are forecasting it will win no more than 26 seats, two less than it secured in the debacle of 1999.
Plaid Cymru are predicted to retain second place, though with 14 seats the party will still be below the 17 that it won in 1999. Nevertheless, the Tories will be disappointed at having failed to oust the nationalists from third place. At 22%, their vote is up just a couple of points on 2003.
The Lib Dems is expected to emerge with one more seat than it has at the moment and is likely to be called upon by Labour to help it form a majority coalition.
It's been a bad night for Rhodri Morgan and not the predicted vindication for his strategy of keeping "clear red water" between himself and Tony Blair.
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Comments
The Conservatives cannot expect to gain many more votes in Wales as they are not integrated with Welsh speaking people, they are seperate and to the Welsh speakers are often considered as foreigners because of our differences. Why vote for foreigners (people who seem to us like foreigners) when we can vote for people who act and speak like we do? For example, Cheryl Gilligan is surely a nice person, but she's not Welsh. David Cameron, you can't expect to gain support in Wales without allowing a Welsh language political culture to assert itself within the Conservative party (i.e. kill off support for Plaid by gaining cultured Welsh speakers as members).
In response to Gwenllian,
I would suggest that it is you who is not integrated, using words such as 'foreigners' hardly endears you to anyone who was not born in Wales.
From my understanding of the amount of Welsh people who actually speak Welsh it is you who is in the minority, so I suggest that you take issue with your so called 'Countrymen/women' first.
In North West Wales - Anglesey, Gwynedd etc, if you are a politician and can't speak welsh you will find the going very tough. The bottom line is that he day-to-day use of the welsh language is on the up right across the whole of Wales and in some parts, such as the North West and the Central areas, is fast becoming the language of first choice. Despite the increase of schools that only teach in the welsh language, there are still not enough places for the number of people who want their children to be educated this way.
Cymru Am Byth
Plaid Cyrus are predicted to retain second place, though with 14 seats the party will still be below the 17 that it won in 1999. Nevertheless, the Tories will be disappointed at having failed to oust the nationalists from third place. At 22%, their vote is up just a couple of points on 2007.