Kirsty Williams came out fighting in a BBC Wales pre-election interview at around 15 minutes in.
The introduction contained a very gloomy forecast from an academic. Kirsty pointed out that they same forecasts had been made about our performance 5 years ago in the early days of the Westminster coalition.
She talked about how her group of 5 AMs had punched well above their weight in the last 5 years and cited times when they had stood up against the establishment, being the only party to vote against a pay-rise for AMs.
She talked about how she had had to “drag the Labour Party kicking and screaming” into putting money into a Welsh version of the Pupil Premium and how her Bill would ensure safe nursing levels on Welsh hospital wards.
She also talked about the abortive attempt by Plaid Cymru to form an electoral pact.
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5 Comments
Watching a passionate and hard working Leader like Kirsty having to deal with the terrible legacy of Clegg is painful. The Welsh Lib Dems do not deserve the wipe out that is coming and I wish things were different but this is the price being paid for Cleggs years in Government. Awful.
There is no getting away from it Wales is a nightmare for the LibDems. I know having Clegg as party leader didn’t help, but it’s Kirsty Williams job to persuade the people of Wales to vote LibDem and shes not managed to do that. If they poll less than the 6.5% they got in the general election – which looks likely – it will be a disaster.
Carwyn Jones does not inspire confidence, Stephen Crabb doesn’t seem to say anything outside the Tory party line whether it is benefiting or (more usually) either doing nothing for or crippling Wales, Leanne Wood is lovely but is not yet a leader the rest of the UK/Europe/World will take too seriously, despite the flirtation with UKIP the party should be insignificant in Wales and the fact that it’s not demonstrates here more than anywhere else that other parties are failing to make a connection. The only strong leader is Kirsty Williams.
If you count using the expression “punch above our weight” twice, you could say Kirsty came out fighting, but it really does sound like whistling in the wind to describe what she said as anything more than trying to make the best of a bad job.
On his “EU Ref Roundup: PM enters fray, Jobs, Sterling, India, Ryanair, Drugs, Birds…”Antony Hook writes of Cameron’s EU stance….
………As I’ve said before, “I’ve made it less bad” is insufficient to win……….
I agree! So why, oh why, do we use the phrase when we try and justify our years in coalition….