Richard, who was Head of Communications for the Party, takes over from Joanne Foster, who left Wales for London to take up a new role as Deputy Chief of Staff to Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg MP.

Kirsty Williams said:

“It is with great pleasure that I can today announce the appointment of Richard Thomas as the Party’s new Chief Executive. We are delighted to have secured somebody of Richard’s calibre and experience.

“Richard brings to the role a lifetime of commitment to the Party, as a volunteer, campaigner and councillor. His strong professional background in communications and campaigning across all sectors will stand the Welsh party in good stead as we develop and face the challenges ahead.”

Richard Thomas commented:

“I am thrilled and honoured to be taking up this role at a very exciting time for both the Welsh Liberal Democrats and for Welsh politics. I am looking forward to be playing my part in the future growth and development of the party.”

Richard grew up in Swansea and joined the Liberal Democrats in 1990. He left Wales in 1997 (the day after the 1997 devolution referendum!) to take up a job with Simon Hughes MP and subsequently worked for Tom Brake MP and for a number of environmental campaigning organisations in communications and public affairs, including CTC, the national cyclists’ organisation and the Association for the Conservation of Energy. He was subsequently a public affairs consultant with Lexington Communications specialising in property and planning, before returning to Wales to take up the position of Head of Communications to the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

Richard stood for parliament twice in Lewisham, South London in 2001 and 2005 and was a successful councillor in Southwark, London for 12 years, playing a key role in winning control of the council in 2002 and twice securing the highest vote of any councillor in Southwark.

He was Executive Member for Environment and Transport for four years, During this time he oversaw a dramatic improvement in Southwark’s street cleaning standards and recycling rates. Subsequently he was the Executive Member for Regeneration, overseeing among other schemes the key Elephant and Castle Regeneration Programme.

Outside of work Richard enjoys cycling, photography, music and sport. He lives in Crickhowell with his family.

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This time last year, I was a few months away from leading my party into my first Assembly elections as leader. The media was predicting a wipe out for the Welsh Liberal Democrats. They were prophesying that we were only going to hold on to one seat. In media interviews, this dominated the agenda. We had to work hard to highlight what we would do to make sure that the NHS delivered better results, strengthen our economy and close the spending gap between Welsh and English pupils. It is frustrating for politicians, but most importantly, for the general public when some journalists just want to talk about processes, hypothetical situations and coalitions when the voters just want to know what answers we have to the problems we face in Wales.

The Assembly election results were difficult for all political parties in Wales. For us, while it was ‘a pretty creditable result’, according to the BBC’s official analysis, that does not mean it was good enough. Faced with difficult political decisions being made by the Westminster coalition, Labour espousing their mantra of ‘standing up for Wales’ against the ‘savage’ cuts and the majority of people in Wales receiving their news from the UK media, it wasn’t an easy ride and we had a few casualties along the way. However, we are currently a strong group of five in the Assembly, punching well above our weight, putting into practice what we campaigned for in the referendum.

On that Thursday in March, Wales said ‘yes’ to giving the National Assembly of Wales more powers to ensure that laws that affect only Wales are made in Wales. The Welsh Liberal Democrats can be proud of the role we played in the cross party campaign, up and down Wales. Polling shows that back in 1997 Welsh Liberal Democrat supporters were not as enthusiastic about devolution despite our long standing commitment to the cause. Fast forward over a decade later; Welsh Liberal Democrats voters were supportive of more accountability and responsibility for our National Assembly.

Liberal Democrats have consistently supported greater financial powers and it is a credit to the Coalition Government that they announced the Silk Commission after over a decade of Labour inaction. Wales’ devolution package is missing a critical element. Unlike most families and businesses, the Welsh government has the luxury of spending money handed out by others. Uniquely, Wales has no power to borrow or raise money. This lack of accountability for how money is raised breeds irresponsibility about how money is spent. The ‘yes’ vote took Wales to the next step of devolution however Labour hasn’t delivered what we, as political parties, promised the people of Wales in the weeks before the referendum. In fact, ‘delivery’ and ‘no more excuses’, Labour’s watch words of the fourth Assembly, have turned to vague promises and mud throwing at Westminster.

Recent GVA figures show that Wales is still the poorest nation/region in the United Kingdom and our education and health systems are, quite frankly, not good enough. Labour uses the language of equality but poor services do poor people down. If you fail to crack down on poor standards in schools, it isn’t the well-off that suffer. They can play the system, move house; they go private- whatever they need to do to get their kids the best education. It’s the poorest in our society, the people Labour profess to care about, who have to put up with poor services. Changing that is what motivates me now, as it did me when I first joined this party.

At the beginning of December, the Welsh Liberal Democrats agreed to support the Welsh Government budget on the basis that we introduced a Welsh Pupil Premium. Nick Clegg has persuaded the Tories in England of the importance of extra funding for our most deprived children. In Wales, I am proud that we have now persuaded Labour of the same. We may have a small group in the National Assembly, but our influence in these budget negotiations will have a big impact on the lives of the people of Wales.

Leaving 2011 behind, I am looking forward to 2012 and what it will bring. What I want to see more than anything is growth in the economy, growth that will reverse job losses and dire unemployment figures we’ve seen over the last few years. Constant and repetitive headlines of factory closures and record unemployment can often make us immune to what that actually means. Behind every statistic there is an individual or a family struggling and anxious about what the future will bring.

As a responsible political party, we will work with the Welsh Government to ensure that businesses get the best environment to thrive so that jobs can be created, but there is only so much we can do as opposition. The onus is on the Welsh Government to pull their finger out and start being pro-active. Businesses must be fleet of foot to survive so when enterprise zones and business rate relief extensions are announced months in advance in England, it is not surprising that our unemployment is higher in Wales than any other part of the UK as clearly business move to where the environment suits them.

The main big political ticket item in 2012 is going to be the local government elections. The Tories don’t believe in letting people make decisions on the issues that affect them locally and Labour cannot credibly use their ‘standing up for Wales’ in these elections after months of whingeing and inaction in Cardiff Bay. In areas where Labour were ousted in 2008, we can’t risk a return to poor services and high taxes. The result of our success in 2008 is that now Welsh Liberal Democrats are in power in places as diverse as Swansea and Newport, in Ceredigion, in Wrexham and of course in our capital city of Cardiff. We are defending a high water mark in councillor numbers but we will do it with confidence and pride. We have proved that we can deliver services for half the population of Wales with huge success, low council tax rates, improved educational outcomes and sensible financial planning.

We started 2011 with the media writing us off before the Assembly election and there’s no doubt they’ll do it again in 2012. However, we finish 2011 in better shape, showing ourselves to be a responsible, relevant and effective opposition party at the centre of political debate in Wales.

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They say that she will claim that children whose parents cannot afford to put them in private education or move house to a better school catchment area are being let down by Labour. And she will demand that Labour must narrow the £600-plus “spending gap” between pupils in England and Wales if it wants Lib Dems AMs to back its budget:

She will say: “Labour uses the language of equality but the poor services they provide do poor people down. If you fail to crack down on poor standards in schools, it isn’t the well-off that suffer.

“But this isn’t about Wales whingeing for others to deliver. It is about making a persuasive case with maximum support across Wales. I am already working with the leaders of all parties in Wales to build a coalition of support that demands the respect of politicians in Westminster.

Update: The full speech can be read here.

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The Brecon & Radnorshire AM will address the UK conference, which starts today, on Wednesday and she is adamant that the party must reach out beyond its core voters to show the British public that it is a force for good in government.

“He has to work with others and we are ready to play that constructive role if we feel the Labour party is serious about tackling educational outcomes, tackling the health service [and] making sure we’ve got good value for the budget that we’ve got.”

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In an e-mail to Party Officers Ms Foster, wrote:

“After almost four years with the Welsh Lib Dems I am very sad to be leaving but I will not be going too far!

I will be taking up the post of Deputy Chief of Staff to Nick Clegg in the Cabinet Office.

I will miss the Welsh Lib Dems and have enjoyed every minute of my time working with you all. You have given me a huge amount of support over the years and I am very proud of what we have achieved together. We confounded expectations in May and that is down to the hard work of everybody past and present. It has been an enormous privilege to work for the Party and Assembly Group and do what I love for a living. I will take what I have learnt with me.

Kirsty, John Last and Mark Stephens are making plans to recruit my replacement and they will be in touch with you soon with news about interim arrangements.

Many thanks for all your continued friendship and support.

I look forward to Autumn Conference and to thanking many of you in person for the support you have given me.”

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It was not a unitary vacancy on the County Council but a victory in the Rheidol Ward by-election for Aberystwyth Town Council is nevertheless a welcome thing.

Majority – 28

Congratulations to all concerned.

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Kirsty Williams AM: Leader, Health and Social Care

Peter Black AM: Local Government, Heritage, Housing and Finance (Business manager)

Eluned Parrott AM: Enterprise, Transport, Europe and Business

William Powell AM: Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs

Aled Roberts AM: Children, Education and the Welsh Language

Kirsty Williams said:

“The new Welsh Liberal Democrat group in the Assembly will bring their experiences from different parts of Welsh society and provide an effective voice for the people of Wales in the chamber.

“William Powell is best placed to represent rural Wales and the environment as he has his roots in the rural community.

“Aled Roberts takes on the education portfolio following his leadership of Wrexham Council’s continuing success at raising GCSE rates in the county.

“Eluned Parrott, with her experience working with the higher education and research sector will take on the business and enterprise portfolio.

“With years of experience in local government, Peter Black takes on that portfolio and I take on the health brief to ensure that I speak up for the people of Wales if the Welsh Government leads the NHS down the wrong avenue.

“We will be ready to support the Welsh Government where common sense and value for money prevails however we will also be a critical but constructive opposition when the Welsh Government gets it wrong.”

Committees:

Kirsty sits on Health and Social Care Committee and Standards of Conduct Committee

Peter Black sits on Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee and Finance Committee

Eluned Parrott sits on Enterprise and Business Committee and Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee

William Powell sits on Environment and Sustainability Committee and chairs Petitions Committee

Aled Roberts sits on Children and Young People Committee and Public Accounts Committee

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Our manifesto supported both Barnett reform and tax-varying powers, as being proposed for Scotland. In contrast Labour stood on an election manifesto that was, at best, ambivalent on increased financial autonomy. Carwyn Jones now appears to have performed an about turn.

Requests for further powers can not be conceived as part of a short term political tactic to blame all of Wales’ woes on the Westminster Government.

For over a decade, the Labour government in Westminster refused to countenance the devolution of any financial powers whatsoever, happily bestowing on local councils powers that it would not contemplate for the National Assembly. Now, for the first time, there is a government in Westminster who is willing to consider positively the case for further financial powers to be devolved to Wales.

It is important that Wales makes a strong case for financial powers. This case needs to be based on evidence and have maximum support across political parties and across Wales. Today, Carwyn Jones must make the leap from short term opportunist leader of the Labour Party to become the First Minister for all of Wales with an agenda that commands respect. He must set out with clarity and intellectual rigour an approach to financial powers that is designed to build a coalition of support in Wales and that demands the respect of politicians in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Westminster. If he does that he will have the full support of the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

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In fact the Welsh Liberal Democrats proposed a number of Welsh Bills during the election campaign, in programme far more radical and comprehensive than anything the Labour Government has announced so far.

These include:

· A Local Economies Bill to help drive the economic recovery and create jobs.

· A Teaching Standards Bill to put in place new streamlined structures for the training and development of teachers.

· A Health Spending Bill to establish an independent waste watchdog to examine the way money in the health service is spent.

· A Public Transport Bill to create Joint Transport Authorities and re-regulate bus services.

· A Community Bill of Rights and Localism Bill to strengthen the powers the ability of local authorities to deliver public services by giving them a power of general competence and introduce fair votes for local elections.

We are not expecting an apology from Carwyn Jones.

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It was not a day without disappointment. Cardiff Central was lost by just 38 votes to a concerted Labour campaign, Montgomeryshire fell to the Tories again and although we halved Plaid Cymru’s majority in Ceredigion we still missed out gaining it by 1700 votes. We also lost Veronica German in South Wales East.

The compensation lay in the regional seats. In Mid and West Wales Bill Powell was elected, whilst John Dixon took a seat in South Wales Central. In my own region I held on by 54 votes out of 154,000 after a difficult campaign in a solid Labour area. Kirsty Williams also held onto her Brecon and Radnorshire seat comfortably.

If our resilience was simply a matter of being saved by the electoral system then the Liberal Democrats would not have done so badly in Scotland. Instead there were three factors that assisted the party in holding on.

The first of these was the strategy of concentrating resources and work in our strongest areas so as to bolster our core vote. It worked in South Wales West where the results in the three Swansea seats were just enough to counter poor outcomes in the valley areas. It worked too in North Wales where predictions that we would lose our regional seat to UKIP were proved wrong.

The second factor was the campaign itself. In Kirsty Williams we have a charismatic and talented leader, who effectively won the leaders’ debate. It was just a shame that it was screened late at night on a bank holiday.

We took a decision that whatever the issues with Nick Clegg and the party as a whole being in government, seeking to distance ourselves from them was a recipe for disaster. We would still suffer from protest votes whilst offering no reason to those who wished to give us the benefit of the doubt to come out and vote for us.

Instead we promoted our achievements in government, countering the negatives about tuition fees and being in government with the Tories, by proclaiming the 50,000 Welsh workers who no longer pay tax, the 1.1 million who will have a tax cut, linking pensions to earnings and extra money for tax credits.

We also adopted a major principle of good campaigning, keep it local and keep it relevant. We produced a costed manifesto with strong campaigning themes, highlighting the failures of Labour and Plaid Cymru on education, the economy and health. We supplemented these messages with our own policies: an innovation fund to grow new businesses, a training grant for firms who take on new permanent employees, a pupil premium and a pledge to start closing the £604 per pupil funding gap between England and Wales, and a promise to investigate claims by professionals that one fifth of the health budget is being misspent. We hammered home these messages wherever we could.

Finally, the last factor that helped us was the decline in the nationalist vote. On a constituency level Plaid Cymru were down 3.1% on their 2007 result. That compared with a drop of 4.2% in the Liberal Democrat vote and an increase of 2.6% for the Tories. In the regional vote Plaid lost 3.1% of their vote, not far off the decline of 3.7% for the Welsh Liberal Democrats. The Tories were up 1.1%.

Plaid Cymru’s campaign was a mess. They attacked Labour’s record in government without once acknowledging that they were there with them and had collective responsibility for it as well. They did not have any clear message and as a result Labour, with their theme of standing up for Wales against the Westminster Government, took a huge chunk of the nationalist vote. Plaid Cymru had the worst result on the night of any party, losing four seats and their status as the second largest group.

There is no doubt that this loss in support for the nationalists helped me hold on in South Wales West, assisted us in holding our North Wales Regional seat and in taking the other two regional seats in Mid and West and South Wales Central under the D’hondt top up system. The full impact can be seen here

Our job now is to rebuild for the local Council elections next year. We cannot fool ourselves that our great escape is a sign that everything is OK. We still lost 17 deposits and a huge amount of support. Intensive campaigning and ruthless targeting is vital if we are to buck the trend again in 2012.

This article was first published in the Liberator Magazine.

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