---
election_year: 1983
party_id: plaid
party_name: Plaid Cymru
party_leader: Dafydd Wigley
political_spectrum: centre-left
victory: false
government_outcome: opposition
document_title: The Only Alternative
edition: contemporary-summary
source_work: The Times Guide to the House of Commons, June 1983
source_url: https://archive.org/details/timesguidetohous0000unse
source_pages: "350–351"
sections:
  - economy
  - defence
  - foreign-policy
  - energy
  - housing
  - democracy-and-constitution
---

> This is a contemporary summary printed in *The Times Guide to the House of Commons, June 1983* (pp. 350–351). It is not the complete manifesto.

In its manifesto *The Only Alternative*, Plaid Cymru said:

The people of Wales face a straight choice—between the dead-end policies of the London-based parties, and the new hope and challenge presented by Plaid Cymru. Plaid Cymru believes that the people of Wales should accept the responsibility of self-government. We believe that Wales should be free to join the world as a nation in our own right.

Thatcher insists that “there is no alternative”, but in reality unemployment has not hit everyone as it has hit Wales. Small, self-governing countries like Norway, Sweden and Austria have contained the depression and maintained full employment.

Mass unemployment is nothing new for Wales. Overdependence on a few major industries, a dangerous reliance on branch factories controlled from outside Wales, poor roads and rail links have all damaged our country’s economic life. Plaid Cymru believes that the people of Wales should take control of our own economic life.

With the true level of unemployment in Wales now in the region of a quarter of a million people, Plaid Cymru calls for an investment programme by the next government of £2,000m, only twice the level of Wales’ contribution every year to British defence policy and arms spending.

London’s obsession with nuclear weapons makes Wales a certain target for Soviet nuclear weapons. While no country could isolate itself from nuclear conflict, a self-governing Wales would be a safer country as well as a voice for peace in the world.

Plaid Cymru rejects the idea that our economic life should be owned and controlled by absentee shareholders or by state bureaucrats. Our economic difficulties and industrial relations problems indicate that there should be a far-reaching shift towards decentralisation of economic activity and towards industrial democracy.

Plaid Cymru aims at greater European unity — but not by the methods employed by the EEC. Plaid Cymru believes in a Europe of the Peoples which accords a role to all the nations rather than being based on narrow commercial interests. We believe in a decentralised and nuclear-free Europe which is not part of any military power-bloc.

Wales remains one of Europe’s most energy-rich countries. Yet, despite these resources, Wales remains one of the most deprived areas of the British State, because we have no government of our own. Plaid Cymru has developed a comprehensive energy policy and demands the establishment of an Energy Authority for Wales to govern the supply and use of energy in Wales.

The spread of second homes has added to the cost of housing, especially in rural areas of Gwynedd and Dyfed. The present Tory government has wilfully intensified the colonisation of Wales by refusing to check the spread of second home ownership. The provision of first homes must have priority over second homes in the use of the community’s housing stock.