The Maximum Wage

This weekend at their conference, Plaid Cymru members passed a motion calling for a maximum wage. The policy is one out of the Old Labour textbook, but is it really a considered policy or just another indication of Plaid being a left-wing pressure group. Poverty continues to be rampant throughout the United Kingdom. We can see it in the decay of our towns, the drug habits of our friends and neighbours, the continuing unemployment of an underclass. What we have is the end result of Thatcherism, a completely blind faith in market forces and a rejection of community and society. Today people often value their selves by the number of noughts on their bank statement, or its equivalent, fame and celebrity, rather than their education, family and acquaintances. The difficulty is over who we blame. My immediate response is Simon Cowell. Those in the City who are responsible for this short-termism that has lead to the crisis created an environment where they needed to make as much profit as soon as possible, even if it destroyed the business. It’s bonuses that have fuelled this business model, not high pay. In reality, the basic wages of City employees aren’t exorbitant relative to responsibility but bonuses and expenses are. In the news we have seen Alasdair Darling and his G20 colleagues strike a deal on bonuses. Today we hear of increased pressure from President Obama and Prime Minister Brown on banks over bonuses. Progress is incredibly slow, and in truth little has changed since the economic crisis, but those in power are doing their utmost to draw some fairness back into the world economy. What’s worrying about Plaid’s policy is that it comes from a party that is almost demanding to be left in charge of its own independent economy. The result of such a policy on the Welsh or British economy would be to marginalise business and isolate the market. The party still needs to learn that for such policies to work we must work together. United we stand, divided we fall is a phrase that all (well, most) Labour party members understand. Our history teaches us that we will succeed if we work together. People like me who look for a broad left coalition between Labour and Plaid in Welsh politics are left disappointed. Instead of capitalising on their electoral success and their term in government in Cardiff, they have chosen to continue as a pressure group with little regard for social, political or economic reality.