It’s the Welsh Lib Dems’ conference this weekend and Kirsty Williams will take the opportunity to argue that a “crucial turning point” has been reached, reports BBC News:
At the conference in Cardiff, Ms Williams will claim the fact the Lib Dems retained third place in the Cardiff South and Penarth by-election last November, albeit with a much reduced share of the vote, was a “sign post that things were changing” for the party.
“Eastleigh was a turning point,” she will say. “Yes, the criticisms of our opponents have been relentless, strong and unyielding. It knocked our confidence. It knocked my confidence. But the reason we won Eastleigh, and the reason we held our own in Cardiff South and Penarth is because members rediscovered their courage to get back out there and knock on doors and talk to people.” …
The Welsh Liberal Democrat leader will contrast a Labour Welsh government “bankrupt of ideas” with her party’s “sensible and practical” policies. She will say Labour ministers had agreed to introduce schemes to help home buyers and poorer school pupils to secure Lib Dem support to get the Welsh government’s budget through the assembly.
But Ms Williams will say the New Buy scheme had been “abandoned” whilst the “pupil premium” had not been given the funding increases that apply across the border in England.“Right policy, wrong government,” she will argue.
On Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg insisted the UK government would not “lurch to the right” in the wake of Lady Thatcher’s death and called for a “proper debate” on devolving more powers to the Welsh assembly.
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3 Comments
Cardiff South – vote share down 11%
Eastleigh – vote share down 14%
Certainly a signpost of something. But not of holding our own.
@Kirsty Williams:
” the reason we won Eastleigh. . . . . is because members rediscovered their courage to get back out there and knock on doors and talk to people.”
To deliberately misquote the immortal words of John Patrick McEnroe:
“She cannot be serious!” 🙁
Of course, Eastleigh brought out a lot of ‘outside help’ for our friends in Hampshire but some of us have never lost that courage. Because some of us have never stopped campaigning in our areas for the things which Liberals believe in and engaging with our communities. Perhaps those who allowed the’relentless criticism of political opponents’ to seriously change their political approach should reconsider their involvement in politics.
The reason we won Eastleigh is because the constituency was one of half a dozen in the entire country where the continued relentless work by the local party despite the vacillations of the Coalition Cabinet meant that the local people (or just enough of them: see Hywel’s posting) retained slightly more than vestigial support for us. We would also not have won that by-election without the UKIP ‘surge’ splitting the Tory vote.
When will this elite club cease to constantly seek to re-interpret reality in accordance with a scriptlet of fiction which they wrote themselves two years ago and which would be closer to reality were it written by Jonathan Cainer? The ‘smart betting’ is on ‘discovery day’ happening in the second week of May 2015. My own ‘outsider’ bet is ‘never’: some of the attitudes presently being ‘pitched’ remind one of the granite mantras of David Owen.
Kirstie desperately needs to take a reality check, if she is to lead the Welsh Lib Dems anywhere other than to the disaster Nick Clegg is leading the national party to.