Exam question for Pembrokeshire

Politicians hate elections. They think of them as the equivalent of end-of-term exams. They swot up, of course, but fear the unexpected questions. They dislike being judged on what they have achieved. They worry about the results and whether they will match up to what is expected of them.

But just as exams concentrate the minds of students so, too, elections are good for politicians. If they are to be successful they must develop an intimate knowledge of their constituency - its needs, worries, hopes and fears. More than anything else, elections force politicians to come up close and personal with the people who might vote for them.

 

Withybush - first question on the exam paper in this election

In the process, the politician learns what is uppermost in the minds of their electors. In Pembrokeshire there is no doubt about what that is. I have been walking the streets and lanes of this fair county for weeks now, pushing leaflets and letters through doors and in the process encountering a diverse range of people.

I say I am calling by because there’s an election for the National Assembly on 5 May and that I’m hoping they might support me as Plaid Cymru’s candidate. Invariably, I’m told about experiences they or their friends or relatives have had in relation to hospital services. More often than not these relate to having to travel out of the county to Glangwili in Carmarthen to be treated, with all the attendant dangers and inconvenience.

“My daughter had problems when she went into labour and was taken up the road,” one lady in Milford told me. “My grandson is lucky to be alive.’ Another woman, in Haverfordwest, told of a neighbour who had a heart attack and had to wait hours for an ambulance. He also ended up in Glangwili and he, too, is “lucky to be alive”.

Just below the surface in the voices recounting these experiences is suppressed fear and anger. ‘Those people in Cardiff Bay think Wales ends at Carmarthen,’ a man in Uzmaston said. “It’s as though we don’t exist for them.”

‘What can you do about it?’ I’m asked regularly, to which I reply, “It’s what you can do about it is the real question and this election is the opportunity. It’s the one chance we have to make the change we need. If Plaid wins in Preseli as well as in Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, Labour can be forced out of power in Cardiff. Then we can put a different government in its place, one that has an awareness of the realities of living in rural west Wales.”

This is what Plaid’s leader Leanne Wood has stated: "I can commit that Plaid Cymru – The Party of Wales will restore the 24 hour, 7 days a week Accident and Emergency Department at Withybush hospital, including consultant led maternity services and consultant paediatrics. I have listened to the people of Pembrokeshire who depend on these services which have been removed by Labour, and I think it’s vital that Withybush is upgraded for the sake of the safety and care of the local community."

I reckon that, on this basis, Leanne deserves to pass her exams in Pembrokeshire at this election.