General election: Plaid Cymru calls for Wales to be 'cradle of green industrial revolution'
Leader Adam Price is pushing for a "final referendum" on Brexit, saying: "We must defeat the hope-crushing wrecking ball."
Friday 22 November 2019 15:32, UK
Plaid Cyrmu has put plans for a "green industrial revolution" at the heart of its election manifesto.
The pro-Welsh independence party wants significant investment in rail and bus travel, three tidal lagoons, a barrage and a new offshore windfarm.
It is also pushing for a new national energy company and the UK government to spend an extra 1% of gross domestic product (GDP) on investment, equal to around £15bn more in Wales.
Leader Adam Price launched Plaid Cymru's manifesto at Coleg y Cymoedd college in Nantgarw near Cardiff, saying Wales was the "cradle of the first industrial revolution" in a message to voters ahead of the 12 December election.
"Just as we were the first time, we can be the cradle of another revolution, a green jobs revolution, creating tens of thousands of green collar jobs and seriously tackling the urgent climate emergency we face," he said.
Mr Price promised Plaid would invest £20bn over the next 10 years from a national reconstruction fund, which would include the electrification of all mainline rail lines.
To fund the projects, he vowed to press the Treasury to raise Wales' borrowing limit from £1bn to £5bn.
Mr Price added his party would also fight to remain in the EU in a "final referendum", saying: "We must defeat the negative, hope-crushing wrecking ball that is Brexit.
"And if you want the people to have their final say then we must encourage as many of them to say loudly and clearly in the days ahead this Brexit is not for us, it never was and never will be."
The idea of tidal lagoon power plants in Swansea Bay, Cardiff and Colwyn Bay was said by former one of Theresa May's former Downing Street policy aides, Will Tanner, to be impractical.
"When I was in Number 10, we tried hard to make the sums for a tidal lagoon stack up," he tweeted.
"It has huge salience in Wales and in theory offers stable, renewable energy.
"But it just doesn't work: so expensive and riAG百家乐在线官网 to require an exorbitant strike price, and very limited export potential."
Plaid Cymru's manifesto also re-stated the case for Welsh independence, promising that if it wins a majority of seats in the Senedd in the 2021 assembly election it will produce a self-determination bill, aimed at a referendum on the issue by 2030.
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