Tweedledum and Tweedledee

Tweet My Tory opponent tries to argue again this week in the letters column of the 'Carmarthen Journal' that the choice in this constituency is between Labour and Tory. I suppose I should at least acknowledge that he's no longer trying to base his claim on the mathematical absurdity that 1 is larger than 7.

Unsurprisingly, I still take issue with his claim.

Firstly, although I am not a great believer that either by-elections or mid-term opinion polls are accurate predictors of general election results, they can and do indicate a trend, particularly if they continue over a lengthy period. Volatility – or even collapse - in Labour support changes the nature of the coming campaign. And the Assembly result (the only other election fought on current boundaries) showed that this constituency can be seen as a three-way marginal.

Secondly, I really do challenge his assertion that Labour-Tory is any real sort of choice. Tories close rural schools; Labour close rural schools. Tories close 3,500 post offices; Labour add another 2,500. Labour launch illegal wars; Tories support them. Doesn't look like much of a choice to me. Given the Conservative reluctance to spell out what their policies are (on anything!) – and their refusal to commit to reversing any Labour policies – what is their basis for arguing that they will do anything different?

Finally, his suggestion that Plaid have only announced last week that we are in favour of Independence for Wales shows a lack of knowledge of Welsh politics which is truly staggering; although sadly not untypical of the English Conservative Party.

I doubt that anyone will be surprised if I say that my aim is to show people that there is a real alternative to either of the London-centric parties – and that is for us to take our future into our own hands by supporting Plaid.