Category Archives: Wales

Richard Thomas is Welsh Lib Dems’ new Chief Executive

By Helen Duffett | Published 3rd January 2012 - 5:32 pm

Richard Thomas started today as the Chief Executive of the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats’ former head of communications has been appointed as the party’s chief executive.

Richard Thomas takes up the post as the Lib Dems get ready for local elections in all Welsh councils in May.

He takes over from Joanne Foster who now works for Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

As well as his previous job with the party, he has worked for Lib Dem MPs and as a public affairs consultant.

Here’s how Richard shared the news on Twitter:

Today was my 1st day in new

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Also posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged jo foster, richard thomas | Leave a comment

Kirtsy Williams writes… Looking back at 2011 and looking forward to 2012

By Kirsty Williams AM | Published 29th December 2011 - 1:51 pm

2011 has most certainly been a year that has kept all of us busy – elections to the Assembly, referenda, journalists following us around making sense of it all and the people of Wales playing an active part in Welsh political life. As the Arab spring was sweeping through the Arab world bringing with it elections and democratic accountability, Wales was also playing its part in making its voice heard.

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 …

Also posted in Op-eds | 3 Comments

Kirsty Williams writes… The Welsh Pupil Premium

By Kirsty Williams AM | Published 28th November 2011 - 11:51 am

Last week I announced that the Welsh Liberal Democrats will be voting with the Welsh Labour government for the budget on the 6th December.

We have agreed to support the 2012-2013 budget on the basis that we will be introducing a Welsh Pupil Premium. This means that from April 2012, every child in Wales on free schools meals will recieve an extra £450 of funding – no matter where they live, or what school they go to. This is a total Pupil Premium spending of £32 million, of which £20 million is brand new money for the education budget.

Some …

Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged education, nick clegg, pupil premium | 2 Comments

Pupil Premium comes to Wales

By Mark Pack | Published 25th November 2011 - 5:55 pm

The Welsh Liberal Democrats report:

The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black has welcomed the budget deal between Labour and the Liberal Democrats that will deliver an extra £450 directly to local schools for each child on free school meals.

The total package will mean that schools in Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend will have an extra £5.8 million to spend from May next year, targeted on the poorest children, who are already under-achieving. This breaks down as £2.57m for Swansea, £1.53m for Bridgend and £1.71m for Neath Port Talbot.

Commenting on the outcome of the

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Also posted in News | Tagged education, peter black, pupil premium | 3 Comments

Kirsty Williams AM writes: Getting down to business in Wales

By Kirsty Williams AM | Published 15th July 2011 - 2:37 pm

The long running saga of the ‘Welsh Lib Dem two’ has now been resolved but not without some pain. While Aled Roberts was able to re-take his seat as an Assembly Member, it was clear in the National Assembly that John Dixon did not have the same support.

I would like to pay tribute to John Dixon. He has served the public diligently and with distinction on Cardiff Council. He would have been an enormously effective and hard working Assembly Member. He has paid a very high price and I would like to pay tribute to him for the dignity with which he has handled the situation over the past two months.

Aled Roberts too has had a difficult couple of months but he is now back in the Assembly where he belongs and we have wasted no time in getting down to business and I have been able to announce the team that will hold the government to account.

Tagged aled roberts, cabinet, coalition agreement, eluned parrott, farmer's union of wales, john dixon, lloyd george society, nick clegg, peter black, pupil premium, welsh assembly, william powell | 1 Comment

Lib Dem John Dixon will not return to the Welsh Assembly

By Helen Duffett | Published 5th July 2011 - 7:38 pm

John Dixon, the Liberal Democrat Welsh Assembly member who was disqualified in May, will not be reinstated after an investigation said he had not read the relevant rules for candidates.

He will be replaced by the next candidate on the party’s regional list: Eluned Parrott.

From the BBC:

Liberal Democrat John Dixon stood down after May’s election when it emerged he was a member of a public body to which AMs cannot belong.

On Wednesday AMs will decide whether to reinstate fellow Lib Dem Aled Roberts who fell victim to out-of-date advice.

Mr Dixon was elected for the South Wales Central region, but had to stand down because he was still a member of the Care Council for Wales, which regulates social care workers.

On Tuesday, a report by assembly standards commissioner Gerard Elias QC said Mr Dixon had not read the regulations on proscribed organisations for candidates.

“Perhaps because he was lulled into a false sense of security by his experiences in earlier elections, he honestly believed that he was eligible to be a member of the National Assembly,” the report says.

Mr Dixon, 46, a graphic and web designer, has been a Cardiff councillor for 12 years and had been an assembly candidate at two previous elections.

The report states:

Also posted in Election law, News | Tagged aled roberts, eluned parrott, gerard elias, john dixon, kirsty williams, welsh assembly | 3 Comments

Lib Dem Welsh AMs await their fate as report delayed

By Helen Duffett | Published 5th July 2011 - 8:53 am

John Dixon and Aled Roberts (the ‘dangling’ Lib Dem Two) may have to wait until next week to find out whether they will be reinstated following their disqualification in May.

WalesOnline reports:

Members of all parties were due to receive a copy of an Assembly report yesterday afternoon into the case of Aled Roberts and John Dixon, who are accused of breaching rules by remaining affiliated to organisations whose members are barred from standing for office.

The report, by Gerard Elias QC, the Assembly’s Commissioner for Standards, was sent to party leaders over the weekend, and was due to go

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Also posted in Election law, News | Tagged aled roberts, gerard elias, john dixon, welsh assembly | Leave a comment

Electoral Commission apologises for misleading Welsh candidate

By Mark Pack | Published 30th June 2011 - 12:23 pm

WalesOnline reports:

THE Electoral Commission expressed its “regret” yesterday as it admitted providing the wrong information to one of the Liberal Democrat AMs disqualified from office …

Mr Roberts said he was given incorrect information by the Electoral Commission, whose official guidance for candidates said he could not stand if, at the time of the nomination, he held an office which was mentioned in the National Assembly for Wales (Disqualification) Order 2006.

The Order that the Electoral Commission referred to was not the most up-to-date, and did not include the Valuation Tribunal for Wales as one of the bodies. That was added

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Also posted in Election law | Tagged aled roberts, electoral commission | 5 Comments

Police decide not to charge Liberal Democrat Assembly members

By Mark Pack | Published 25th June 2011 - 7:54 am

The BBC reports:

Two Liberal Democrats who were disqualified from the Welsh assembly for being members of prohibited public bodies have been told they will not be charged.

Aled Roberts and John Dixon were told on Thursday that no action would be taken following a police inquiry.

The two were forced to give up their seats for being members of public bodies to which AMs cannot belong…

The party has blamed an “honest mistake”.

The Assembly’s Commissioner for Standards, Gerard Elias QC, will prepare a report on the two men’s cases so AMs can decide whether they should be allowed to be seated

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Also posted in Election law | 2 Comments

Welsh Local Government Boundary Commissioners sacked

By Mark Pack | Published 24th June 2011 - 7:18 pm

Welsh Local Government and Communities Minister, Carl Sargeant, this week told the Welsh Assembly that,

In December 2010 I announced a decision to establish an independent review of the timetabling and quality issues associated with the electoral review programme by the Local Government Boundary Commission for Wales and to identify actions required to ensure the delivery of the reviews in good time for the 2016 elections …

I fully accept the findings of the report which contains lessons for all of us, including the Welsh Government, concerned with the process of electoral reviews.

The most concerning finding, however, is the conclusion reached

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Also posted in Election law | Tagged carl sargeant | 1 Comment

Kirsty Williams writes: Slow progress in Wales

By Kirsty Williams AM | Published 21st June 2011 - 3:25 pm

We are six weeks from the elections and the Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Government getting on with the job they were elected to do – governing and legislating. The Scottish Government is demanding more fiscal powers and they are rocking the constitutional boat. Whether you agree with the SNPs policies or not, they are doing something. The story in Wales is different.

The first major government announcement in Wales came on Tuesday when the First Minister rose to his feet to outline his Welsh equivalent of the Queen Speech. This should have been a momentous occasion since the people …

Also posted in News, Op-eds | Tagged aled roberts, john dixon, rhodri morgan | 3 Comments

Opinion: A guide to fighting list seats

By Peter Black AM | Published 11th June 2011 - 8:54 am

In writing this article I do not claim any great wisdom in how to fight list elections. In fact the fact I survived the latest Welsh Assembly poll has more to do with the decline in the Plaid Cymru vote than anything I did, though the amount of effort and targeted work we put in must have had some significance in securing a 54 vote majority.

This is what I did. It may not be appropriate in other areas and it may be fairly obvious to any experienced campaigner. Inevitably there were things I could have done better or did not …

Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured | 4 Comments

Two Lib Dem Welsh Assembly Members step down on technicality

By Helen Duffett | Published 18th May 2011 - 1:41 pm

The BBC reports:

Liberal Democrats John Dixon and Aled Roberts have had to step down as it emerged they were members of organisations the law does not allow AMs to be part of.

They have resigned respectively from the Care Council for Wales and the Valuation Tribunal for Wales.

The pair expect to be readmitted to the assembly following a vote on Wednesday.

Under the National Assembly Disqualification Order 2011, AMs are not permitted to be members of certain organisations to avoid conflicts of interest.

A spokesperson for the Welsh Liberal Democrats said:

“Two assembly members had positions with outside bodies which technically disqualified them

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Also posted in News | Tagged aled roberts, john dixon, welsh assembly | 7 Comments

Ouch! Lib Dems suffer first anti-government backlash in 80 years

By Stephen Tall | Published 6th May 2011 - 8:50 am

The words ‘Good morning’ may seem overly ironic if you’re a Lib dem waking up this morning to the news of the party’s pretty awful 2011 election results. Here’s a quick round-up for those who’ve avoided the media so far today…

Scotland: a huge night for the SNP, with the Lib Dems and Labour both suffering a rout at the hands of the nationalists. With 59 of 73 results declared, the Lib Dems have just four seats, a loss of seven. It sounds like the party will end up with six MSPs, down from 16.

Wales: a good night for Labour, who …

Also posted in Local government, Scotland | 80 Comments

The LDV election results open thread

By Helen Duffett | Published 5th May 2011 - 10:20 pm

Here are the starting positions (as Stephen’s already described):

Scotland: the party is defending 16 seats (11 constituency MSPs, and five regional list MSPs), which was a drop of one compared to 2003. There are 129 contested seats for the Scottish Parliament.

Wales: the party is defending six seats (3 constituency AMs, and three regional list AMs), which was the same as in 2003. There are 60 contested seats for the Welsh assembly.

In the English local elections:

1,876 of the 3,948 Liberal Democrat councillors (48%) have been defending their seats today in –

Also posted in Local government, Scotland | Tagged av referendum, leicester south by-election | 29 Comments

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