A few days ago, I authored an opinion piece examining the measures the Welsh Liberal Democrats must undertake to avert total defeat in the 2026 Senedd elections. This piece advocates for a renewed emphasis on federalism, and as one commentator articulated, “Devo-Maxing” (a term I have come to employ quite frequently).
In this article, I intend to investigate an alternate approach that embraces the principles of social democracy.
It is widely acknowledged that Wales embodies a social-democratic ethos. Since 1999, it has consistently elected Labour into government, routinely repudiating free-market rhetoric in favour of left-of-centre ideals, regardless of whether a Conservative or Labour administration presents the rhetoric. From David Lloyd George’s People’s Budget, the establishment of the welfare state and pension schemes, to Nye Bevan’s implementation of Beveridge’s concepts to realise the National Health Service, to Rhodri Morgan’s notion of “clear red water” distinguishing Welsh Labour from Tony Blair’s New Labour, social democracy intricately permeates the fabric of Welsh identity.
It is, therefore, quite remarkable that only one Liberal Democrat leader has ever addressed the Trade Union Congress: the late, esteemed Charles Kennedy.
Mr. Kennedy delivered a speech at the conference on Wednesday, September 11, 2002, following the address by former TUC general secretary John Monks at the Liberal Democrat conference held on Wednesday, September 20, 2000.
During his address, Mr. Kennedy articulated how some of the earliest trade union members in Britain were affiliated with the Liberal Party and emphasized that Beveridge posited that liberty transcended mere freedom from governmental control; it included liberation from “economic servitude to want and squalor and other social evils.” He highlighted that the Liberal Democrats champion dialogue and cooperation with both sectors of industry, acknowledging that, while disagreements with union perspectives may arise, we remain committed to listening and addressing their concerns.
As we transition to contemporary Wales, we observe that Welsh Labour have significantly diminished from their former stature. Current First Minister Eluned Morgan was compelled by her party to condemn the UK government’s decision to reduce support for the most vulnerable, lamentably stating that voters were “taking Welsh Labour for granted,” and employed fear tactics regarding the potential termination of free prescriptions should another party assume power.
It appears that Labour may have overlooked the foundational history of the Liberal Democrats, born from the merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Alternatively, they might cling to the misconception that they embody the essence of social democracy, despite the SDP’s inception by the Gang of Four following Michael Foot’s inability to persuade the nation to accept what he coined the “longest suicide note in history.”
The evidence is unequivocal: Welsh Labour have strayed from their path, Plaid Cymru remain overly consumed with their campaign for Wexit, and the Green Party lacks the strength necessary to counteract the right-wing populism of Reform.
This situation creates an emerging vacuum within the centre-left. Welsh social democracy requires an entity to assume this responsibility and advance it, with a focus on strengthening the rights of Welsh individuals, revitalising Welsh industry, safeguarding workers’ rights, reassuring the most vulnerable, ensuring state protection, and resisting the encroachment of Reformist regressivism. The Welsh Liberal Democrats must rise to the occasion and take up this vital mantle.
* Jack Meredith is a Welsh Liberal Democrat member. He is the spokesperson for Centre Think Tank on Social Security.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Hilaire Belloc's persecution of Charles Masterman
Finding your moral compass
Live in the sky with Liverpool Labour's pie in the sky housing policy
Cheney Payne re-selected for Cambridge
Electoral register update
Unions and campaigners opposing ban on Palestine Action
Craig Levene
Tim Rogers
David Le Grice
Tristan Ward
Jack Meredith
13 Comments
The party should fight the Welsh elections and indeed all future elections with a bold progressive set of politics to transform society.
It is many decades since Jo Grimond talked about the need for a non socialist force on the centre left to replace Labour.
The opportunity is there before us if we want to take it!
Jack, you’re claiming that there’s a hole in politics on the centre left, but it doesn’t look that way to me. Labour firmly inhabit the centre left and you even acknowledge in your article that Welsh Labour have even disagreed with the national Government from the left. You dismiss Plaid Cymru as remaining overly consumed with their campaign for Wexit yet Plaid’s what we stand for page (https://www.partyof.wales/policies) doesn’t even mention independence – instead it calls for increased spending and generally centre-left policies. And the Greens meanwhile remain firmly on the left.
In contrast, on the right, you have Reform tacking very strongly right, and the Conservatives apparently following them. Which means no party is seeking to represent centre-right voters.
Now obviously, electoral strategy must be lead by principles as much as figuring out what is likely to work. But claiming that there is a vacuum on the centre left just waiting for us to fill doesn’t seem to me to match reality. There certainly is a vacuum in politics, but it’s not on the centre-left. The question is, can we take advantage of that while remaining true to our principles and advocating something workable for Government?
@ Simon R
Your comment assumes that Labour is centre left. But they look much like the Tories used to before they went Brexity. So I think they are centre or centre right. Now you might argue that centre right is the place to win elections, but I think most people see LDs as to the left of Labour, if not very far to the left. But sensible, fixing church roofs etc. so disaffected ex Tory voters can vote LD without too much grief.
The Welsh Lib Dems do not make the political agenda. But they do need to respond to it. Plaid Cymru does not include independence in its policies as it is the first Aim in its Constitution. https://www.partyof.wales/constitution
Labour, the Conservatives and Reform are Unionist Parties and Plaid Cymru and the Greens are pro Independence. There is little point in being the third Party of Independence or the fourth Party of Unionism as the poor 2021 Welsh Senedd Election showed. The Party must revert to its pragmatic position of only considering their position on independence when a Referendum is proposed and the details are known. It is similar to the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland’s position on a referendum on joining the Republic. When the Party is clear on this then it can build policies on rock rather than on shifting sand.
@Simon @ Jenny
” Labour firmly inhabit the centre left”
No longer I’m afraid.
” most people see LDs as to the left of Labour, if not very far to the left.”
This is true. However there’s not much in it.
“……{Labour} are………centre right.”
True. As are the Lib Dems too.
“And the Greens meanwhile remain firmly on the left.”
Just about on the centre-left maybe?
https://www.politicalcompass.org/uk2024
I don’t get why people imagine Labour is not centre left. In their first year of (Westminster) Government, they’ve started renationalizing the railways, put up taxes, with a particular emphasis on putting up taxes that are paid by businesses. They are legislating for more workers’ rights in the workplace and are moving towards more infrastructure investment and more government planning. These are all the kinds of things that you’d normally expect left wing parties to do and right wing parties not to do. The only big thing they are doing which you’d normally think of as right-wing is they are cutting some welfare benefits. And there’s a reasonable argument there that they are constrained by huge budget deficits – something that even social democratic Governments across Europe had usually recognised as something to dealt with. Overall Starmer is leading a Government that looks very much social-democrat / centre-left to me.
And of course this discussion is about Wales, which has a Labour Government that arguably is somewhat to the left of the UK Government.
@ SimonR,
“The only big thing Labour are doing which you’d normally think of as right-wing is they are cutting some welfare benefits.”
There are a few other things Labour, under Starmer, Reeves, Lammy and Kendall, are doing too!
1) Their foreign policy, especially on Israel and Palestine, is well to the right of even most commentators on LDV .
2) They have accepted the right wing argument that increasing taxes, such as on wealth and land, on the rich is undesirable.
3) Their economic policy is very much “trickle down” and neoliberal. Rather than addressing inequality directly they claim that economic growth alone will solve the problems of poverty. Though just quite how they will achieve any significant growth whilst applying a straightjacket of self imposed fiscal rules has yet to be explained.
4) All previous Labour leaders, even Blair, accepted the “broad church” of the Labour Party. Under the present leadership we’ve seen purges of the left, at the same time as former Tories are welcomed aboard.
5) Even their leftish sounding policies, such as the establishment of Great British Energy, are more about guaranteeing the profits of the private sector. See the article by Daniela Gabor below.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/02/labour-plans-britain-private-finance-blackrock
@Peter. Taking each of those issues:
1) To my mind, left tends to mean supporting bigger Government, more intervention, more social support, and more openness to cultural change. Which side (if any) you support in the Israeli/Palestine conflict seems irrelevant to that, so I wouldn’t say the Starmer Govt’s policy here is either left or right.
2) Yes I might give you that one as more of a right wing approach. 🙂
3) I don’t think it is. Their argument seems to be that public finances are a mess and we need growth to fix the finances before we can afford more welfare. That’s not the same as the right-wing belief that wealth trickles down even without welfare.
4) That implies Labour’s social democratic wing are currently intolerant of the socialist wing, but how left or right you are is measured by your policies, not by how tolerant you are of disagreement.
5) So if I’ve understood this right, they are seeking to reorganising an already privately owned industry. No change in the public/private status of that industry, so neither nationalization nor privatisation. That seems neutral from a left-right perspective.
Still looks to me like the Starmer Govt is doing much more that is identifiably ‘centre-left’ than ‘centre-right’.
If you read the Conservative Home website, after a while you will notice that many of the commenters declare that the 2010 to 2024 Tory government (ok with rather right wing LD input 2010 -15) was left wing. I think that says more about the political position of the commenters than the actuality.
Jenny ; Those comments on CH mainly surround the fact that the Conservatives rhetoric didn’t match their actions in Government. They presided over the most liberal immigration system in 60+ years , despite repeated promises to the electorate of the opposite. The same could be of their strong fiscal ‘management’…
Eventually it caught up with them in 2024 GE .
A damaged brand – how damaged only time will tell. It’s a long way back that’s for sure. How far it’s fallen will be more clear next year in the Senedd elections, there’s a potential for it to collapse even further.
This post is not necessarily about who’s left or right but ‘How should the Liberal Democrats fight the Senedd Elections’! I live in Gwynedd and can only comment on challenging Plaid Cymru.
I’ve supported PC for most of my life but I can no longer support them. As for ‘Reform’, one nationalist party in Gwynedd is enough! I was disappointed to see no Welsh Liberal Democrat representatives on the Llandudno ‘Question Time’, as for me and possibly many other patriotic Welsh people, they could be the alternative party for Wales, as they encompass many of the Welsh values. Dafydd Wigley was elected as a Plaid Cymru MP for Caernarfonshire in 1974 and since then they have failed to attract businesses and investment to the area. This is their ‘Achilles heel’. They may attract support for a while but people will begin to realise that they are often undemocratic and their ideology is not encompassing of all the electorate within our nation. I’m a town councillor at Porthmadog and the PC majority refuse to have a bi-lingual Town Council web site or even bilingual minutes for our monthly meetings. Is this democratic or acceptable to our electorate?
I want to see progressive changes and whilst I haven’t yet joined the party, I believe the Liberal Democrats shouldn’t be afraid to confront Plaid Cymru on their door step and judge them on their track record for the past 50 years. Thank you for reading.
@ Jeremy,
There is a big difference between a right wing nationalist party like Reform and social democratic parties like PC and the SNP. Both are more to the left than the Lib Dems. You say that PC has failed to attract new business to the area. However there is a limit to what the Senedd can do. The abilities of local councils are even more limited. The real power still lies with Westminster for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Probably, Wales gets a worse deal than both Scotland or NI due to the way the Barnett formula is “tweaked” to class some infrastructure spending as “England and Wales” even though it doesn’t extend into Wales. The Oxford and Cambridge railway line being the latest example of this.
I doubt Devo-Max would stop the “tweaking”. The real choice for all devolved govts is to bite the bullet and go it alone with a separate currency and laws etc or make the best of it as a part of the UK.
@ SimonR,
Just a quick point on our admittedly slightly off topic discussion. Foreign policy such as support, or otherwise, for South Africa under apartheid is/was a left/right issue too. It’s not just about the size of government.
It wasn’t the left who called Mandela a terrorist!
Simon R 8th Jun ’25 – 9:08am:
That’s not the same as the right-wing belief that wealth trickles down even without welfare.
Where do rich people have their wealth “trickle down” from? Where did Elon Musk’s wealth “trickle down” from? Mars? “Trickle down” is a left-wing trope, a straw man. It’s the direct opposite of what actually happens in the real world: opportunities trickle down and wealth trickles upwards, if at all. Many economists have explained this over the years, but non better than Thomas Sowell in his book, “Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy“. Here’s the relevant extract…
‘Thomas Sowell on the “trickle Down” Myth: Workers Are Always Paid First and Then Profits Flow Upward Later – If at All’:
https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/thomas-sowell-on-the-trickle-down-myth-workers-are-always-paid-first-and-then-profits-flow-upward-later-if-at-all/