Last weekend saw the culmination of the conference season here in Wales. As we all know, conferences are an opportunity to showcase who you are and what you stand for as a party. From what I saw and the feedback I received of the other conferences I think it’s fair to say that the press did get a good feel of where the parties are in Wales at the moment.
It started with the Welsh Conservatives proving yet again how completely out of touch they are with the people of Wales. They had a lavish looking set in an expensive venue with fine food and a champagne reception for delegates and members – and party bigwigs being flown in by a convoy of helicopters. It may come as a surprise to the Tories but Wales, along with the rest of the UK, is struggling with the economic downturn. People in Wales have to tighten their belts. The only tightening of belts at that Conference was the seat belts of their fancy limos.
As usual it had a very non-Welsh feel to it as nearly half of the Tory Westminster front bench gave speeches and mingled with members – it is quite clear that the Tories are not serious about Welsh devolution, something that is quite worrying if they manage to get into Downing Street.
Plaid Cymru followed with a conference that was hailed as ‘the most interactive Plaid Cymru conference ever’. Not very interactive as their delegates just sat listening to speech after speech – those who hadn’t been thrown out of the party for disagreeing with the those in power that is. No discussion, no debate. But as I said earlier, conference is a time to tell the people who you are and what you stand for.
Labour finished off the season with a conference that showed that they are on a very slippery downward slope here in Wales as well as in rest of the UK. Even after three leaders’ speeches, the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State and the First Minister, television coverage showed a lost and lacklustre member base. Labour is running out of steam and their time is rapidly coming to and end.
With Labour spinning out of control right across the UK, we are poised to take advantage of their fragile situation as we approach the European elections. To gain the must sought-after Welsh MEP we need to take votes off the Labour party. The swing needed by the Tories and Plaid Cymru is much too great for them to succeed in taking the fourth seat from labour and so this is our best opportunity yet to secure a Welsh Lib Dem voice in Europe.
We currently have a situation where the four Welsh MEPs we send to Europe only represent the three parties of Wales. But there are four parties who represent the people of Wales and we need to have a stronger voice in Europe.
Our challenge over the next few weeks is to get all those who voted for us in the Council Elections to vote in the European Elections. We have to tell people that a vote for the Welsh Lib Dems is a vote to send an authoritative, expert voice to Brussels. Our lead candidate is Alan Butt Philip and he’s serious about Europe.
Lib Dems are serious about working with other countries to achieve those things we can’t do alone. The global financial crisis, climate change; international terrorism and international aid. All the great challenges of our time are international and they know no boundaries. That’s why we need a constructive and authoritative Welsh Liberal voice in Europe as part of the solution to the great challenges we face.
By campaigning for Europe, we are also helping our own campaigns here in Wales, for the General Election and for the Welsh General Election. If you’re not campaigning for Europe in your area, you can rest assured that the other parties will be. Alan and our European candidates are putting their time, energy and expertise in to this campaign. If you can help them, with fundraising, organising or campaigning, then do it. If we can make it happen for Alan, we will be making it happen for this party to grow and prosper.
Kirsty Williams is the Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats
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One presumes that Kirsty would also have accused the Conservatives of being “not serious about Welsh devolution” had only a few of the Shadow Cabinet attended. Same old attack politics.
Does Kirsty welcome the offer from the likely future Prime Minister to put himself in front of the Assembly to be questioned, something which neither Mr Blair nor Mr Brown have done?
I cannot speak for Kirsty but my take on the Tory Conference and the promise by the likes of Cameron to come to the ‘colonies’ once a year is here:
http://peterblack.blogspot.com/2009/03/tricky-relationship-between-cardiff-bay.html