In my book, the modern Labour Party and "progressive" do not appear in the same sentence. Also, overt collaboration with another party has been a factor in the public's loss of faith in us, as Peter Black has pointed out in a Liberator article. He also sees the influx of English residents as a large factor in Welsh Lib Dems' failure to recover lost ground in the recent Senedd elections. Naturally, the Welsh-based media (such as they are) have seized upon the latter point, which is only one of several, and made it look as if it were his main argument.As I have been advocating since 2018 - a #ProgressiveAlliance for me. pic.twitter.com/SMzQ4i0nj0
— Gwynoro Jones (@Gwynoro) May 30, 2021
My own view of the reason for the poor performance in Wales is that mistrust over the parliamentary party's entering into coalition with the Conservatives, and in particular our collaboration in the austerity programme starting in 2011, still lingers. As a result we became a minor party in Wales from the local elections in 2012 onwards and, just as nothing succeeds like success, failure is no success at all, to quote a coeval. People are less likely to support a party which has hardly any representation in the national assembly and no clear identity.
There are signs of recovery in England at least, as Liberal Democrats made net gains in the council elections, especially in the south of the country where Conservatives appear to be in retreat. One trusts that next year's council elections in Wales will provide a similar way forward, provided that local regions are not saddled with an inept campaign from the centre. A party which believes in trusting the people should apply the same principle to its own internal organisation.
2 comments:
Hoping the Lib Dems will do better next year in the council elections about sums up the situation they are in. Big falls in 2012 is only part of the picture in the three big city councils in south Wales where the party had significant numbers of councillors. In 2017 the LDs also took massive hits and in Cardiff and Swansea nearly lost half of their 2012 councillor base, while in Newport went from one to two councillors. In all three cities the fight is between Labour and Conservatives. In 2008 the LDs were a real force with 67 seats. Today they are down to 18 elected members and will probably have trouble defending that number as sitting members age and are sidelined by their reduced influence.
Hoping the Lib Dems will do better next year in the council elections about sums up the situation they are in. Big falls in 2012 is only part of the picture in the three big city councils in south Wales where the party had significant numbers of councillors. In 2017 the LDs also took massive hits and in Cardiff and Swansea nearly lost half of their 2012 councillor base, while in Newport went from one to two councillors. In all three cities the fight is between Labour and Conservatives. In 2008 the LDs were a real force with 67 seats. Today they are down to 18 elected members and will probably have trouble defending that number as sitting members age and are sidelined by their reduced influence.
Post a Comment