Ioan Bellin – Plaid Cymru List Candidate for the European Parliament elections 2019

Below is our candidate Q&A – we have approached all parties asking them to circulate our questions to candidates – you can see more replies and details on the election on Wrexham.com/european-elections-2019/ ! All answers are from the candidates and are unedited.

Q1 Are you able to tell us a little about who you are, and what skills you can bring to the MEP role?
Ioan Bellin: I was born in Reading, of Welsh parentage. My mother is from a farming family from Lixum, Flintshire and my father is from Caerleon, near Newport in the south east.
At university in Aberystwyth I studied politics and history including European Union integration which developed my interest in European matters.
I’ve worked as a journalist and broadcaster in Wales and in Belfast, so I would want to use my communications experience to try to ensure as many people as possible know about what goes on in the European Parliament.

Q2 How did you vote in the EU membership referendum in 2016, and what are your thoughts on how the outcome of that vote have progressed?
I voted remain. During this campaign listening to people who voted leave and remain they tell me they are sick of Westminster politicians’ squabbling with each other, Wales is being left behind. At this election we can begin to take our future into our own hands and make Wales matter by voting for Plaid Cymru.
Plaid Cymru is standing united for a final say referendum and for Wales to remain in the European Union, making the case for Wales to have its own voice in Europe as a member in our own right.
While Labour try to put a ‘remain’ suit on until the European election on Thursday 23 May, but it is doesn’t fit a Brexit party in all but name. There is only one party that has been consistent, and has spoken with clarity for remain is Plaid Cymru.
All you get with Labour is fudge. In this Westminster nightmare it seems they are the sous chef of Theresa May’s Brexit

Q3 If elected what do you see your role as MEP entailing?
To represent the people of Wales to the best of my ability and to make sure the voice of Wales is heard during the whole Brexit shambles.

Q4 You are standing for the ‘Wales region’, how have you engaged with constituents to ensure you understand their issues to then represent them?
The Plaid Cymru team of candidates has been knocking doors and listening to people. I’ve been to constituencies where a majority voted leave like Llanelli, Newport West and Blaenau Gwent. I’ve also been to areas like Cardiff Central and Pontypridd where there was a majority for remain. My colleagues have been taking part in husting debate events and doing radio phone-in programmes like Stephen Nolan on BBC Five Live. Plaid Cymru is fortunate to have such a strong team of candidates, elected members, and party members across Wales working together to make Wales matter at this election on Thursday 23 May and in future elections to come.

Q5 What would be your personal priority if elected?
Ensuring a Green New Deal for Wales. It has been inspiring to see school children coming to our Senedd in Cardiff Bay to protest for action from politicians to act on climate chaos. To to get to grips with the defining issue of today –we must respond to the call’s from the young people of Wales to tackle the climate breakdown. That is why I’m campaigning for a Green New Deal – moving to 100 per cent self-sufficient Wales in renewable electricity by 2035, a £3 billion home energy efficiency programme to create jobs, reduce fuel poverty and cut carbon emissions.
While we can do some of this by ourselves, being part of the European Union makes it easier to grasp this issue. Climate chaos is a global problem with a need for a global solution. If we leave the European Union, it will be harder for international cooperation to solve the most crucial issue facing us today.

Q6 Wrexham / Deeside are in the north east of Wales, what are the key issues relevant to your possible position as MEP, and what will you do about them?
I would say jobs, jobs and jobs. Airbus, which employs 6,000 people in Broughton has declared Brexit will threaten future investment decisions and job prospects. In total we calculate that at least 200,000 jobs in Wales are dependent on our trade with the EU. This is why Plaid Cymru will be leading the call for a five-year £5 billion European Union Transformation Fund for Wales to tackle social inequality, and to spread prosperity, investment and opportunity to every party of Wales, form our cities and towns, to our valleys, rural and coastal communities.

Q7 You are standing to be part of something Wales on the whole, and Wrexham and Deeside also voted to leave, were the majority of those who voted wrong?
As Plaid Cymru Leader Adam Price said the Brexit vote in 2016 provided the wrong answer to the right question. It was the right question because it addressed decades of neglect and underinvestment in our poorest communities across Wales. There is no question that many people living in the so-called ‘left-behind’ areas saw the 2016 referendum as an opportunity to give the Political Establishment, the source as they saw it of many of their ills – whether in Westminster, or Brussels – a wake-up call. They were right to do so. Nevertheless, the debate over the past three years has revealed that leaving the EU will not provide an answer to those difficulties. Instead, it will only make them much, much worse. The most immediate threat is to jobs, especially manufacturing jobs.

Q8 Turnout is notoriously low in EU elections anyway, why should people vote in these elections?
Wales has been ignored in the Brexit process, and then we’ve seen a power grab from Westminster using the process to steal back powers devolved to Wales.
This election is a turning point, and our nation has a choice: more of the same chaos with the Westminster establishment, or a bright future for Wales as an independent European nation with Plaid Cymru.
At this election, unlike Westminster’s broken first past the post system – wherever you are in Wales in Deeside or Wrexham if you vote Plaid, you get Plaid representation.
At this election you can vote Plaid Cymru for the only real remain party that can win in Wales to send the Westminster politicians a message that Wales does not want to be left behind. Lets take our future into our own hands on Thursday 23 May and make Wales matter with a vote for Plaid Cymru in this election.