Plaid Cymru don't want to help

One of the most important roles we have as constituency Assembly Members is the casework we undertake for our constituents. Every day I and my office are working on a wide range of cases for on behalf of people in the Rhondda. It is absorbing work, and people are usually very appreciative of our efforts.

Plaid Cymru seem to take a different view, according to today's Western Mail.

One of their Assembly Members has said there's not much point in doing casework, complaining that when Plaid Cymru held the Rhondda Assembly seat from 1999-2003, not many of the people whose cases they took up actually voted for them. The actual words were:

A very small proportion of those people indicated that they would be voting Plaid Cymru in telephone canvassing. This begs the question, 'is casework the best use of any AM's time'?

This is an appallingly cynical view, of course. Casework is an important part of our job as Assembly Members, not something to be done just to get votes. That's why I employ a full-time caseworker in the Rhondda.