Kirsty WIlliams: One Year On

A week may be a long time in politics but doesn't a year just fly by!!

Twelve months ago Kirsty Williams was elected the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, the first woman to lead a party at the Assembly.

We went out to meet her in Ystradgynlais in her constituency to see how the year had gone and to look ahead to the General Election next year...



Y Dewis

Plaid Cymru - the party of "poodles"

So Plaid have done it. They've voted strongly in favour of Labour's plans to introduce top-up fees in Wales for Welsh students.

Today in the Senedd Peter Black called on the Assembly to reverse its decision to scrap the tuition fees grant.

Only two Plaid AMs voted in favour of Mr. Black's proposal. (No prizes for guessing who they were!)

This goes against what the party's membership had hoped for and asks more questions of Plaid's role in government.

"Compromise" and "pragmatism" - those are the two words Plaid's Chairman, John Dixon has consistently used in debates on this issue. "Propping up a Labour government" is the counter-argument.

Here's Kirsty Williams' response to today's vote:

"We proposed this motion today because we believe access to education is a principle worth fighting for. We know that many Plaid Cymru Assembly Members feel the same and that their supporters voted for them because they promised and end to top-up fees.

"Today was a chance for redemption, for Plaid to say sorry and back Welsh students. Instead they chose to play the poodle, to climb so far into bed with Labour that you wouldn't know there's two different parties playing under the sheets."

Here's what one of the Plaid rebels*, Bethan Jenkins, has to say on the matter:

"I recognise that being in government means making difficult decisions. Although I can see where the Government is coming from in this decision to an extent, I can’t support the ending of the tuition fee grant.

"While I understand that the majority of my fellow Plaid members will accept the constraints, and the need to compromise that comes with being a party in government, I am grateful that the group understands my position and have accepted that two of us will be voting differently on this occasion."

*Is it fair to call a politician who sticks to the party's manifesto and election commitments a rebel? Just a thought.

Dewi Dau

Picture used courtesy of Contadini @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/92305862@N00/422417777/

The Lib Dems: party poopers?

(Continued from previous post)

And surely we can forget about the recession as well, just for one day. Can't we Kirsty?

"10 years of devolution has been a step forward for Wales. We have moved closer to the people's parliament that Wales should have and the Welsh Liberal Democrats hope that this process can be accelerated in the near future.

But today is no day for backslapping and cosy congratulation. We're in the middle of a devastating recession and we face years of huge public spending cuts. After 10 years of rising budgets, building up public debt during the credit-fuelled boom years, this Assembly must now take a reality check."

And there's more:

"In assessing the success of the National Assembly for Wales we must examine the legacy that ten years has left: a legacy of the continued poverty for many welsh communities, of unaffordable higher education, of vital health service failures and a lack of resilience to peak oil and climate change.

It is the next two decades that will reveal the damage this legacy has done to Wales."

Ah well, never mind.

Dewi Dau

And in the yellow corner...

Picture the scene, a hall full of people (lets say 150 people - feel free to correct me), some music reminiscent of Rocky Balboa and a slideshow of Kirsty Williams doing her thing: Kirsty with some students, Kirsty at a hospital, Kirsty on the farm (you get the idea). The tension grows, which door will she emerge from?

To a rapturous reception the new leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats strides into the hall ready to deliver her first speech to the party faithful. If you didn’t already know, the introduction was making it painfully clear that the Lib Dems have a new leader and a new image. (So keen to impress this upon us there was an absence of a certain Mike German)

So with everyone ready, the room falls silent waiting for the messages to come - blow by blow. So what do we get, a new direction? Some new policies? Anything new? Something original?

Not so much, what we get is a speech that tells us “liberal principles are the answer to Wales' problems”. Now correct me if I’m wrong but haven’ t the Lib Dems been telling us this for a while now? So much for the new direction.

I may be over egging the pudding a little here but the point I’m trying to make is that throughout the weekend everyone was talking about Kirsty Williams' first conference, about her first speech. There was a feeling of a new direction, a new start for the party in Wales. Coupled with an introduction that was dramatically over the top, fireworks were expected. After all this, to then be told exactly the same thing that we have been told for the past however many years was a little anticlimactic.

The whole event felt a little staged, I wrote on my notepad that it was very “Eisteddfodol”, which some of you may understand. This feeling came from the dramatics at the start, the wooden pleasantries, the communications director giving signals from the back of the room and a tone of voice that was more akin to someone addressing a football stadium rather than a room of roughly 150 people. Now of course I know all these things are stage managed in microscopic detail but the trick is surely to try and make it feel real, honest and engaging.

Now to the content. One of the headlines from the speech was that the Lib Dems in Wales would lower taxes for middle and lower income families. This principle is all well and good but why spend time in your first speech to conference as leader to spell out a policy that the Assembly doesn’t have the power to implement? And surely everyone knows this already about the Lib Dems, so why spend so much time on it?

In saying this there was also some clear timely messages put forth by Kirsty Williams - help people not banks, time to move away from sleazy politics, time to believe in Liberalism in Wales, time for greater elected accountability.

I ask myself whether I was expecting too much? I also ask myself does a leopard change its spots? It seems to me that Kirsty Williams needs more than 4 months to forge a new direction, a new image and a new future for the party.

Thoughts?

Dewi Un

Sgwrs efo Kirsty - yn y 'gym'!

Deg munud o rwyfo, chwarter awr ar y peiriant rhedeg...a darlith gan aelod o'r Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol!

Dyma syniad Kirsty Williams o sesiwn yn y gampfa! Mae arweinydd(es) cyntaf unrhyw blaid gwleidyddol yng Nghymru'n gobeithio dyblu cefnogaeth ei phlaid drwy annog pob aelod presennol i sgwrsio ag etholwyr eraill - mewn canolfannau hamdden, y tu allan i ysgolion ac yn ein tafarndai.

"It may be stating the obvious but if every one of us signed up just one more member, this party would double in size. That’s my challenge to you – to persuade one person you know to join.

"There must be someone in your street, your family, your local pub, at the school gate, at the gym, wherever, who shares your beliefs, my beliefs, our beliefs in a better future for Wales."

Rhaid edmygu brwdfrydedd Ms Williams, sydd ei hun yn honni i fod yn ffan o nosweithiau 'Pizza a gwleidyddiaeth'. A phwy a wyr, os yw ei chynllun yn enghraifft o'r hyn sydd i ddod o'r blaid ar ei newydd-wedd, efallai nad yw 'prosiect 31' Kirsty yn rhy uchelgeisiol wedi'r cyfan!

Amser a ddengys pa mor lwyddiannus fydd Ms Williams yn y Senedd, ond yn barod mae hi (a'i jins) yn gadael'u marc.

Dewi Dau

Here Comes the Girl

So it’s official, I couldn’t predict the outcome of a race between a tortoise and a hare! More importantly Kirsty Williams has been elected the leader of Welsh Liberal Democrats and by a far larger majority than ever expected (60%).

I would like to point out at this stage that Politics Cymru were the first to break the story (check our Twitter feed!) I hope this reassures you, dear reader, that we have our finger on the pulse of Welsh politics.

What does this mean? Well first thing's first, the Liberal Democrats have elected to go for youth over experience. The decision to elect Mrs Williams as leader is a clear statement of intent from the Lib Dems to try and rejuvinate the party and focus on attracting younger voters. We witnessed a lot of this strategy during the campaign with both candidates using social networking sites like Facebook and Youtube to drum up support.

But what impact will this change have? Well some people that I have chatted to today have unkindly likened the outcome to putting a featherweight boxer in the ring with a heavyweight, and two middleweights (you decide who’s who), but I suppose that we will only begin to realise the impact of this historic decision when Kirsty Williams actually starts work as leader, so not long then (tomorrow's First Minister questions).

There is one topic that I would like to open up for wider discussion, many of Kirsty Williams' supporters have claimed that she is youthful but also experienced, bearing in mind she has been in the Assembly since 1999. My question is, does the fact she’s been there from the start matter more than what she’s achieved? For example the oldest team in the football league is Notts County (1862) but they have achieved far less compared to Liverpool, Man Utd etc. Your thoughts are welcome on this point.

Anyway Welsh politics has changed and we are all witnesses to a new dynamic in the Senedd, I for one am waiting to see what will happen next.

Dewi Un

(P.S apologies for all the sporting analogies)