Interview with leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Jane Dodds

Pre Senedd election interview with leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Jane Dodds

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
So I'm with Jane Dodge, the leader of the Welsh
Liberal Democrats Assembly. Well, the Senate elections, it's just around
the corner May the six. I guess you're hoping that
people will come out in draws and vote for the
Welsh Liberal Democrats.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, that's absolutely right. We are hoping that they'll vote
postly or go to the ballot station safely and vote
for the Welsh Liberal Democrats. We've got a great message
which is put recovery first, and that's our main emphasis.
There's nothing else that matters right now except the economic
recovery for mental health and recovery for our planets.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
It's been a very strange here obviously. We've seen a
lot happening, a lot of people that question the kind
of handling of the pandemic from national level Westminster to
Sennith level. What your kind of slant on it? How
how do you view the way that it's been handled,
could in hindsight, could things have been done differently right

(01:08):
at the beginning. Do you think lessons have been learned?
Or do you think we're still bumbling along so precariously
and you know, not really that keyed up on what
the future holds even.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Well, I think it's a really good question, and I think,
you know, hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn't it. You know,
we all look back at our own lives and history,
we could all do things differently. I think lessons have
been learned, and so for an example here in Wales,
in this lockdown, it feels like it's been taken very

(01:45):
slowly and the data has been analyzed and we've perhaps
changed tack positively. You know, if we look at even
today's announcement around the reopening of indoor gyms, well that's
because the world governments had access to the scientific data
which has said actually the infections are dropping. So I

(02:08):
think I think we have learned the lessons. But if
you were to say to me, you know, could we
have done things differently? I don't know. And I'm not
going to be criticizing either the Westminster government or Mark
Drakeford here. I just think it was a really impossible,
difficult situation and you know, nobody had a rule book

(02:32):
for how you could follow. So yeah, and I think
we're in a great place obviously with the vaccinations that's
really been amazing and that would be a real positive
The only thing I would say is, you know, our
care workers and our health workers, we really do need
now right now to be looking at their pay and conditions,

(02:57):
to really recognize the role that they've played, but also
to say a huge thank you and a voter of
gratitude to them, and to really say that we value them,
because I'm not sure that we did before the pandemic.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
We're seeing almost an emptying of the purse from the
Senate at the moment. Were you quite surprised at how
much money became available all of a sudden to hand
out really nearly.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Well, it's been really interesting to see what the political
will can do when it's needed. I mean, I'm not
sure that the money's been handed out willy nilly. I
think it's been really well measured. You know, we've had
the furlough scheme from Westminster which has really kept everybody

(03:45):
go in who have not been able to go into work.
We've seen businesses supported, but I think there should be
more support for them, particularly going forward to the future,
particularly our tourism and hospitality business. But I think you know,
they have made the money available, they haven't held money

(04:07):
back where it's needed. I just think that you know
right now. Going forward, I think there needs to be
a secure commitment to how much money is going to
be available, particularly to our businesses in tourism and hospitality.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
You're losing your one and only long standing MS in
Christy Williams. You lost your seat as the MP and
you lost the selection for the same elections. Have you
and the Welsh Lived Dems run your course in politics?

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Oh my goodness, not at all. We've been here in
Wales for a long time, over a century. We're not
going anywhere. The Welsh Liberal Democrats are here to stay.
We campaigning hards. We've been delivering in the last ten
days or so. We're able to start door knocking from

(04:59):
Monday and the Worlst Liberal Democrats are those pavement politicians,
the people who go out and really do meet people,
and we're looking forward to that. So we campaigning hards
and we're making sure we get our message out there,
which is put recovery first.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Your manifesto is extremely comprehensive and it's a hard read
for even the more seasoned political analyst. Do you think
the General Master of Orders in Whales will take time
to read that You have an abridged version which addresses
the main issues for million areas. We're concern for most
sort of working people in wheals. Is that something you'll
be handing out.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
We're absolutely looking at a manifesto launch which will include
a kind of sort of headline version. But there's two
bits always to a manifesto, isn't it. There's the detailed
costings and how we can implement programs, and there's what
we want to do for people, and what we want
to do for people three things economic recovery, mental health recovery,

(05:56):
and the recovery of our planets.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
You've used her. The next question, which is that you
have champions social issues and campaign for change putting laws.
So what are the three most radical changes you're championing
in for WILLS.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, no, good question. So we're looking at billion pounds
a year going towards the climate recovery, and that's a
costed billion pounds leveraging moneies from private and public schemes
as well as looking at how we can use them
money in a smarter way for green homes, for warmer homes.

(06:37):
That's one so billion pounds for the climates recovery. Second
one is one hundred million pounds per year over five
years for our towns, So really investing in our towns
here in Wales. They've really kept us going, haven't they
during the pandemic those small businesses that are provided essential retail.

(06:58):
But we need to make sure that our towns and
our high streets are really there to thrive and to
go forward into the future. And I think a third
one is around our mental health services. We recognize the
COVID time has actually brought incredible loneliness and incredible mental
health pressures, and we want to see a twenty four

(07:19):
to seven mental health crisis response as well as having
community responders who would be funded and supported and be
able to meet the mental health needs of neighbors and friends.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
In order to implement a lot of what you're saying
in your manifesto, you would need to have a stronger
presence in Westminster and at the sin But looking at
the polls, that really isn't going to happen, is it.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Well, polls and polls of polls really, you know, polls
can be very wrong. We you know, if I spent
my life kind of thinking about the poels, I wouldn't
do anything. My view is forward looking and paign in heart.
We are getting our message out there and it's getting
a good reception. We're focusing on businesses, family businesses and

(08:09):
small businesses. We're looking at mental health, and we're looking
at our planet, and that is receiving a great reception.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
COVID nineteen has highlighted many things, inequalities, poverty, postcord lotteries,
lots of freedoms, et cetera. Your manifestor doesn't really allude
to COVID nineteen very much at all, But are you
concerned over some of the loss of liberties and the
hardline taken by government and police forces in Wills As
a liberal, we're.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Always alive to the issues around challenging our way of life,
our democracy, and the way that we can carry out
our normal business. But COVID has not been a normal time,
and it's an international pandemic, you know, it's I mean,

(08:58):
you know, none of us have experience anything like it before.
Probably the last time we had this kind of need
for a response was probably, you know, one of the
Second World War in terms of Europe. So really we
do need to be proportionate, we do need to be measured,
and I praise and the police. I think they've got

(09:21):
an impossible rowl sometimes and at the earlier days they
had been asked to do things even without protection and
without their own health being taken into account. They were
putting themselves at risk and sometimes they still are. So
you won't find me condemning the police. I support them
that the leadership needed needs to be really clear and

(09:42):
we need to be absolutely seeing that our right to
protest continues safely and that our rights to take part
in our communities is not curtailed in any way whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Looking at education, and Coat has attempted unsuccessfully almost to
outlaw homeschooling and not a very liberal approach. We didn't
see the same verocity of attack on homeschooling when most
people in Wales found themselves in the same shoes as
elective homeschoolers. I asked Lee what as recently, why Welsh
government we're not ensuring that elective homeschool children were provided

(10:19):
with the same financial and material benefits and opportunities of
children at school. His answer was, if you opped out
of the collective, you can't complain. What's your view on that?
I mean, have you been looking at the homeschool situation
in Wales, and you know, you have to look at
these people have been electively homeschooling for so long, they've

(10:39):
been demonized, and all of a sudden COVID comes along
and everybody's homeschooling and that demonization sort of vanishes. It
doesn't seem fair, is it.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
So? Homeschool then is a really important kind of part
of our community. Nobody should be demonized at all. What
we need to be making sure of outside of COVID
is that homeschooling is safe and the majority, the majority
of homeschooling is absolutely safe. You know, we've been in

(11:10):
an extraordinary time and we need to step back and
have a measured response that's proportionate to some of the
issues that have come out of COVID.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
You talk about federalism and greater powers for Wales rather
than decentralization. Why not independence going it alone like a
number of successful small countries.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
I understand totally why people want to see independence as
the answer to many of the challenges that we have
and what they saw and what they're seeing really as
a conservative Westminster government versus a labor Welsh government who
have responded in very different ways at times to the
COVID pandemic. But independence is not the answer, and right now,

(11:58):
with the recovery need from COVID, we cannot do anything
else but focus on the recovery. The idea that we
could have two referendums, which is what is being proposed
in order for us to get to independence, whilst we
need to look at the economic recovery, is foolhardy. We
cannot be diverted from looking at how we respond to

(12:22):
the pandemic. Right now, I've got time for one more question.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
We are the last one. If, as the poll suggests,
Labor loose seats and there is a possibility of a coalition,
would you consider Tony Heart in with the Conservatives and
abolish the Welsh Assembly to make up that coalition government.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
I am very clear that I am not favoring supporting
in any way abolishing the Welsh Assembly. My view with
the Welsh Center. My view is that devolution has worked
well in Wales. We need more devolved powers. We absolutely
need to see a progress progressive discussions with Westminster that

(13:00):
actually gives us more money and more powers here in Wales.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
That's great. Gen dos Welsh Liberal A Liberal Democrats leaders,
Thank you very much. For speaking to us,