Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Kirsty Williams gives her keynote speech to the Welsh Conference today. She’s had a barnstormer of a week.
First of all, on Monday, she gave a speech to the Electoral Reform Society in Wales in which she called for more Assembly Members and for Assembly Members to be subject to recall, resulting in this very on message headline:
Her idea proved popular in this poll for Wales online
Then, the Welsh Liberal Democrats took their campaign to scrap the Severn Bridge tolls to the Senedd, Kirsty said:
First impressions do matter and if the lasting impression for many of Wales’ visitors is a less than positive one, then we should be doing all we can to address this.
Motorway tolls are not prevalent across the United Kingdom. So why on earth should people be forced to pay a tax to enter Wales?
Not only would scrapping the tolls boost Wales’ economy, but it would save the average commuter around £1,535 a year. This policy is an important step along the way to helping build a stronger economy, and also a fairer society.
I remember our campaigns up here to scrap the tolls on the Forth Road Bridge, Erskine Bridge and Skye Bridge and totally get where they are coming from.
Then, an expert backed Kirsty’s Bill for minimum nurse staffing levels as Wales Online reported:
A leading academic expert has travelled to Wales to back a proposal that nursing levels in hospitals should not fall below a legal minimum.
Professor Anne Marie Rafferty, of King’s College London, is recognised as one of the world’s top experts on nursing issues. She has co-written a number of papers which demonstrate links between the numbers of nurses on duty, their levels of expertise and mortality rates.
She came to the National Assembly to meet politicians and representatives of the Royal College of Nursing to discuss a proposed private member’s bill being launched by Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams next month.
At present none of the four UK nations places a legal obligation on their administrations to ensure that minimum nursing levels exist. Such laws do exist elsewhere – in California, for example.
Prof Rafferty said: “Research done by me and others demonstrates a significant link between nursing levels and mortality, as well as between the skillset of nursing teams and patient outcomes. Experience in California shows that such a law does not have to be inflexible.”
And Kirsty is again on the side of the people accrding to the poll:
And then she absolutely rocked on Question Time. Seriously, she was passionate, authentic and utterly reasonable. I liked it when she sounded angry at the prospect of Ched Evans going back to Sheffield United. She said it would be really uncomfortable if he ended up playing in Wales. Watch the whole thing here.
Kirsty is one of the brightest talents we have in this party. I’ve already said that if Paddy doesn’t have her on the telly every single day during the election, I will challenge him to a fight – and I will win. A foolish thing to say, perhaps, but that’s how strongly I feel about it. I’d love to see her in Westminster. I don’t see that as some sort of promotion. She already is a parliamentary leader, but I’d just love to see her more often on the UK stage.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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14 Comments
What a national party leader she would make, Come on fellow Lib Dems give us a fighting chance, Does the leader have to be a UK Parliament MP? Lets think outside the norm.
“she absolutely rocked on Question Time”. Yes she did, apart from the first question on the economy, when she dutifully trotted out the standard lines blaming Labour for the worldwide financial crash and accusing them (but not the Tories) of economic incompetence. The audience listened in absolute stony silence.
The next question was about Ched Evans. So Kirsty Williams threw away the official briefing notes and spoke from the heart, then and thereafter. Complete transformation in performance. Real human being, passionate and sensible, actually winning enthusiastic applause on several occasions – and it’s a long time since any Lib Dem has done that on Question Time. Will anyone else learn the lesson?
@ theakes
“What a national party leader she would make…”
She is already the fantastic leader of the Welsh national party and she would be a significant improvement as Federal Party leader.
Absolutely, the party has got to think more outside its own box and strive for the best. We do not have that at the present time. We need inspiration, drive, personality and a fresh image. It is time to change the Federal rule that the leader must come from the Commons. What happens if we have no MPS, the leader has to come from somewhere. The Greens and UKIP are doing okay with this system, so are the Scot Nats. Its time to change and have a leader the public can warm to. We are so stereotyped and dare I say it conservative with a small c in our attitude to some things.
Those ‘polls’ are utterly meaningless without knowing the number of people voting in them. Looks great having 80% support but if only 5 people voted, it doesn’t actually tell you very much.
these polls, MartinB are much more meaningful than the generality of polls that are quoted to us daily by the media, most of which are funded by our opponents and therefore suspect. But back to the thread…. Kirsty is a brilliant speaker, she moved me close to tears in her conference speech at Glasgow, and I think she would make a great Federal Leader. She may not be willing yet, but thankfully she has time on her side..
Firstly, if Kirsty is so brilliant, how come the LDs have resigned themselves to the loss of Brecon & Radnorshire (Kirsty’s constituency) at the Westminster election?
Secondly, all this talk of more Assembly members is fine, but the Lib Dems in Wales are going along with the Labour party’s plans to merge Welsh councils and significantly reduce the number of councillors! Something doesn’t add up.
ps Kirsty became leader in 2008, the last year the party won a council by-election in Wales.
@peter tyzack “these polls, MartinB are much more meaningful than the generality of polls that are quoted to us daily by the media”
No they’re not. In the interests of research I just voted no to AM recall half-a-dozen times (I don’t live in Wales and I am in favour of recall) and the split changed from 88:13 to 78:22. Calling these “polls” and citing them as evidence that Kirsty Williams is “on the side of the people” in a Lib Dem Voice article is ridiculous.
Kirsty Williams maybe talented, but have the LibDems ever been as unpopular in Welsh elections than they have been under her leadership? I’m not certain, but didn’t they finish 6th in the euro elections? Kirsty maybe one of the brightest talents in the LibDems, but she has a long way to go to be in someone like Nicola Sturgeon’s league. Now that is a lady all the parties would love on their side.
Tsar Nicolas –
What are you talking about? What evidence have you that ‘the LDs have resigned themselves to the loss of Brecon & Radnorshire’? I get the feeling they are rather confident.
and then you say she supports “the Labour party’s plans to merge Welsh councils and significantly reduce the number of councillors! Something doesn’t add up”
What doesn’t add up? In her speech, she says the number or councillors (and MPs) in Wales should be reduced.
Amusing that people are laying the unpopularity of the Lib Dems at Kirsty’s door. You don’t think being in coalition with the tories might be the reason for that?! It’s widely recognised that the party did comparatively well in the assembly elections in 2011, by losing 1 AM. Compare that to what happened in scotland!
@Lynn – the Party activists I have talked to in Brecon regard a loss as a certainty, as do the Wales-only polls.
As for reducing the number of councillors, how is wrecking local government in any way consistent with Liberalism, let alone the community politics which brought the party back from the brink of death in the postwar years?
She is just another central party apparatchik, only the central party this time is in Cardiff Bay not Westminster.
the loss of one seat in the 2011 Assembly elections reflects the fact that the Lib Dems only had six previously, and is also a reflection on the lack of proportionality in the Welsh electoral system.
Roll forward to 2014, and Welsh Lib Dems were on 4% and sixth place in Wales.
The bookies make the LibDems 2/5 to hold Brecon. They are not doing well in Wales, but I can’t see the bookies being that wrong.
The result in the Euros for Powys (which includes Brecon and Radnorshire and formerly Lib Dem Montgomeryshire) was:
Powys
UKIP (10412)
Conservative Party (10158),
Labour (5221),
Liberal Democrats (4865)