Swansea-born Michael Heseltine, former deputy leader of the Conservative Party, and the man who sowed the seeds of Liverpool's long-term revival, has announced that he is voting Lib Dem in this month's European Parliament elections. He cites the "poison" of Brexit, and blames the Tories for becoming "infected with the virus of extremism".
I know that Sam Bennett, the Welsh party's lead candidate, has been campaigning hard in the city and it could well be that he converts Swansea as a whole to the Remain camp from its stance in the 2016 referendum. Indeed, given our perennial shortage of funds when Euro elections come round, the Welsh Lib Dem European Parliament campaign has been most impressive. I do not remember such an effort in 2009, when we should have ridden on the back of the national upsurge in Lib Dem support, or in 2014 - more's the pity.
Plaid Cymru, ever alert to changes in the public mood and able to react swiftly to them, has suddenly swung under Adam Price from being, like Welsh Labour, a party of managing Brexit, to being all-out Remainers. They have launched a charm offensive against known Remainers (how did they collect all our names and addresses? I foresee a demand for an Electoral Commission investigation, not least over the cost of the mail-shot.) with the aim of securing a second MEP seat. There are two flaws with their new stance: Welsh Nationalism is anathema to many voters, including most Conservative supporters; and it is going to estrange their hard core, who see the future of Wales as a free nation, independent of both England and the EU. So they may well lose more votes than they gain.
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