On 16 May, Christina Rees (the latest Neath MP and Shadow Secretary of State for Wales) published a stinging response to Plaid Cymru's manifesto launch for the June 2017 election.

I have absolutely no idea what rift she is referring to between Plaid in Westminster and the Plaid leadership in Cynulliad but could it be connected to the fact all three Plaid MPs voted against the Brexit Bill? I do have difficulty following many of the arguments put forward by some of our Welsh Labour MPs. But whatever the supposed rift, how about this. It was posted the very same day as Ms Rees' tirade against the Plaid manifesto, bad timing as you will see:

The bloke with a head like a Martian (thanks, MP) is Geraint Davies, MP for Swansea West. This is a nice photo of Ms Rees offering her support with his canvassing. Now Geraint happens to be one of those Welsh MPs who voted against the Brexit Bill. In fact he'd like to see a second referendum taking place. Other Welsh Labour MPs who opposed the Brexit Bill were:

Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West); Chris Bryant (Rhondda); Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley);  Stephen Doughty (Labour Co-op Cardiff South and Penarth); Madeleine Moon (Bridgend);  Owen Smith (Pontypridd); and Jo Stevens (Cardiff Central)

Curiously enough, on the very day Ms Rees was railing against Plaid for an alleged Brexit split among its politicians, she was also retweeting messages in support of Kevin Brennan, Geraint Davies, Stephen Doughty (twice) and Jo Stevens. Those names familiar to you from that list above? Bang on. Every one of them is out of kilter with the support that other Labour MPs and the Labour leadership gave to the Brexit Bill. So, Ms Rees looks a bit of a bloody idiot making this point about a Brexit rift in Plaid, don't you think? As well as a prize hypocrite for happening to personally support all those Welsh Labour anti-Brexiteers, all in a day or two on Twitter. She never struck me as being the sharpest tool in the box so it's probably understandable.

Let's do the next one. "This General Election is a straight fight between Welsh Labour and the Tories". I assume she's talking about within Wales. What conceit is that! She's basically saying there's no point in voting for any other Party. It's not a straight fight between these two at all. Plaid Cymru MPs have been shown to be among the hardest working in Parliament. Labour are NOT going to be in government after the election, no matter if the people of Wales return 40 Welsh Labour MPs out of the 40 seats available. A Plaid MP, just like ANY other, will carry the same weight in terms of a vote in Parliament as one from any other Party - including Ms Rees' fear-talking Welsh Labour Party.

Plaid "cannot win the election" .....and voting Plaid "could hand victory to the Tories". Well with only 40 seats in Wales, Plaid have never been able to "win the election". You need 326 seats to do that. But neither can the SNP - so go and deliver that message to them and see what answer you get back. Hopefully the people of Wales will deliver the same answer to these arrogant, out-of-touch, Welsh Labour politicians who continue to peddle the politics of fear (of the Tories), not hope.

I could go on. I could dissect every empty and spiteful statement Ms Rees has made but I think you get the drift. It's all designed to drive fear into the electorate and to send the message only Labour can be our salvation. Same old crap I've heard for decades but regretfully some old donkeys are still gleefully taking the carrots they hand out.

Then have a read of this recent tweet put out by Welsh Labour, retweeted to give it legs by Ms Rees.

Note how all these social media statements came about within a few days of each other. Again, a pack of lies and BS, negative campaigning at its best and if you looked up the original tweet you'd see the responses were overwhelmingly highly critical of it. Leanne Wood tried to put the Tories into government in Wales - twice. That kind of guff is an insult to people's intelligence - even those who are Welsh Labour supporters. I'm beginning to think that Welsh Labour and its politicians see Plaid as the threat to its future, especially post-Brexit and once the futures of Scotland and Northern Ireland are resolved.

Welsh Labour is in a hole, it's in a dilemma. It's support is dwindling, no the donkey vote is galloping away. And it doesn't know quite how to deal with the Corbyn phenomenon. So it's trying to tread a careful path, keeping some distance from him but not cutting all ties, patently. If Corbyn makes a decent fist of it, they'll claim the success with him. But if he does badly they'll try to increase the gap between them and will again stick the knife into him - probably in the front next time and not in his back.

Who knows, will Welsh Labour even try and go it alone, desperate for survival in any form? Maybe the first move towards this is that they have even turned Carwyn into a cult for this election. Glad I typed that correctly, or then again, maybe I didn't, heh, heh! Imagine hitching your wagon not to a man of vision and principle like Jeremy Corbyn (whether you agree with him or not) but Carwyn Jones. I've seen Corbyn speak live and boy, is he worth listening to, no matter what your politics. I've heard Carwyn speak and if you could bottle his "charisma" you'd make a fortune selling it as a sleeping draught. Mogadon in action.

Anyone that thinks their future in Wales and Neath is better served by voting for Welsh Labour and Ms Rees, that's your democratic right, naturally. But consider this. Welsh Labour has been in power in the Assembly since it started in 1999. Labour was in power in Westminster for 10 of the 17 years since the turn of the millennium and 3 years immediately before that. And we've had a Labour run local council and a Labour MP in Neath forever. If you're still satisfied that's the best we deserve, go ahead and give them your vote. Me, mine will go elsewhere. Yes, I'm not stupid and I know Ms Rees will still be my MP on 9 June. But at least I'll be able to hold my head up. I'll have voted for Change, and I'll have voted for Hope. Because once you give up on that, you may as well become part of the problem, not its solution. And that problem in Neath means either continuing to vote Welsh Labour or in too many cases not voting at all.

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