Lee Waters

I was puzzled by the relevance of an anonymous message about Lee Waters, who I knew had moved from Sustrans in Wales to be director of the Institute of Welsh Affairs. (He is of course not the Lee Waters of UKIP, though this web page appears to be confused.) Then I saw from today's South Wales Evening Post that he had also been selected as Labour candidate for Llanelli.

The anonymous tip? It was:

In 1997 the Welsh Tories went down all hands on deck. William Hague, that prototypical Tory Boy, shut down the Young Conservatives.

But it is claimed that there was one small corner of Cymru fach where the blue flame flickered defiantly against the gathering gloom before finally being extinguished. And of all places [...] that was in Ammanford where, according to former school friends, Lee Waters enthusiastically embraced the Conservative and Unionist cause in a town reeling from the effects of Thatcherism.

Some will say this is a rare case of moving from right to left in political views, whereas most people become more conservative as they age. I believe rather that it is yet further proof that there is little to choose between the Labour and Conservative establishments.