IT IS little wonder that for so many, not voting is seen as a better expression of democratic preference than participation when a false choice is presented.

People are increasingly told to pick from four subtly different shades of Westminster grey.

Between four party leaders who look, sound and act alike.

Three of whom are dancing to the tune of the one most mesmerising from the media’s point of view.

This false choice is no choice at all and, ironically, it isn’t the right that has made the forthcoming British general election a multi-party affair — it is the unprecedented democratic earthquake that erupted in Scotland through the inspiring grassroots Yes campaign.

And outside of Scotland too it is increasingly being articulated by those who are fed up with being told that austerity is the solution to our economic, social and political woes.

People will remember the promises made and the like-for-like counter-promises between the Westminster parties — austerity and “tough choices” in order to balance books and protect jobs and avoid economic collapse.

People will remember being told that bailing out the bankers and neglecting the people was essential.

But what has the austerity experiment delivered?

Record numbers relying on food banks. People who are ill and those with disabilities terrified into humiliating back-to-work tests. Years of pay cuts or freezes putting pressures on people’s budgets. The closure of community assets like libraries and leisure centres. The withdrawal of front-line services.

All this and yet the government books are still not balanced.

Britain is in debt to the tune of over £1.3 trillion and rising.

Among the few things back to pre-recession levels are bonuses and growth in the financial services sector — rewards for the very people who brought us all down in the first place.

So the austerity experiment has had its time.

It has failed and an alternative exists — a real alternative. That alternative in the forthcoming election could be decisive.

There is every chance of a hung Parliament after next May’s election.

Plaid Cymru will maximise for the people of Wales the opportunities that could come with holding the balance along with our colleagues the SNP and Green Party.

People across this state are searching for an alternative to the broken Westminster system.

Plaid Cymru’s alternative to more of the same centres on our determination to rebalance power and wealth in Britain. 

The deep imbalance of power and wealth have been hallmarks of Britain through times of economic growth and through the downturn.

Those communities that have been neglected since their intentional deindustrialisation in the ’80s have never fully recovered.

Plaid Cymru’s plan to rebalance power and wealth amounts to a permanent restructuring of democracy and economy that will outlive and outlast economic cycles.

The Party of Wales wants to bring our government home to Wales so we have the powers and levers that at least put us on a par with our neighbours.

There can be no justification for Wales’s nationhood being classified as second or even third rate behind Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Wales must have powers over its own natural resources, its criminal justice and policing system and our government must be made accountable to the people for the money it spends on their behalf through transferring significant fiscal powers to Cardiff.

Economically, wealth must be distributed on the basis of equality of treatment for all communities and countries in the British state.

Much has been said and written about Wales’s historic underfunding. It’s time the chatter ended and gave way to delivery.

We can only imagine the scale of the difference that could be made to the day-to-day lives of our people, in classrooms, in hospitals, across Wales if we were funded to the same level per head as people in Scotland.

There must also be an in-built mechanism that ensures that major investment projects that tend to favour London and the south-east of England then result in automatic equalisation to the benefit of neglected communities that are crying out for infrastructure investment.

We all know that this isn’t as good as it gets.

We’re being held back by an economic and political imbalance that disadvantages us and a government in Cardiff Bay content to use our democracy as a political football in their wider Westminster election fight with the Tories.

Plaid Cymru will fight to ensure that Wales gets the equality it demands and as our own general election approaches in 2016, we’ll use the tools we have to build our own new, unique brand of economic sustainability, social solidarity and political equality.

Plaid Cymru leads in building that progressive alternative and we appeal to all those who share our vision of a future based on hope, not division, to join us.

Leanne Wood is leader of Plaid Cymru.