20th April 2009
Labour in the West: tired, divided and resigned
The rapid decline in Labour support in the Welsh-speaking south-west (the old Dyfed) – similar to Labour’s demise in the old Gwynedd a generation earlier – has taxed Labour’s minds a lot over the last few years. Cymdeithas Cledwyn – the ginger group set up by Eluned Morgan a few years ago now – announced last Summer that henceforth it was going to dedicate itself to winning the support back of Welsh speakers in the western half of Wales. Much the same has been said by Carwyn Jones in 2008 who urged the party to stop being anti-Welsh as did Rhodri Morgan six months later, and not long ago toured the west on what had originally billed a ‘taith iaith’, .
They must have been collectively hanging their heads in despair when the Labour PPC for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, Rhys Williams, (an otherwise engaging man who long before he became a trade union official and now press officer for Alun Davies and Nia Griffiths was, once, like Alun, a member of Plaid) told the world, in an article in the Welsh language monthly Barn, “why he hates Welsh speakers”. Insulting 60% of your electorate before you even begin campaigning would in most people’s books be considered a rather strange political stratagem.
Well-placed Labour sources have been briefing privately that Mr Williams has resigned for over a month but there has been no word officially up until now. I am not sure if these rumours were intended deliberately to undermine him and force the issue – but it would appear the Labour Party was trying to hold the story back until after their Welsh Conference. They have only now put out an official confirmation this afternoon after being confronted by a press enquiry. Meanwhile in the Llanelli seat next door, rumours also abound about what some might regard as a rather curious choice as Labour Assembly candidate. There is no way of knowing exactly as to the truth of these rumours as Labour in Carmarthenshire is so riven with factional in-fighting and is as leaky as a sieve.
But perhaps the most worrying – and for most of my constituents by far the most significant – example of Labour’s long march to obscurity is the increasingly dysfunctional leadership of the Labour Party at the local level. For the record I like Cllr. Kevin Madge, the Deputy Leader of Carmarthenshire County Council – but with leadership comes responsibility including a responsibility not to mislead the public wilfully for party political purposes. In his latest outburst, after a brief personal attack on me, Cllr. Madge claimed last week in a letter in the South Wales Guardian:
“that the Amman Valley has not received a penny of the convergence money whic has been available for two years” and that
“Rhodri Glyn, AM, has been briefed on these matters, but he has done nothing to bring the money down to us – and he is supposed to be in charge! Could he therefore inform us when the first project is going to start?”
Both of these statements are misleading – and one of them is defamatory. I was sat behind Cllr. Madge last Friday at a seminar organised by his own authority’s excellent Convergence Fund team where we were informed by the Wales European Funding Office that over a half a million pounds of REACT and PROACT money had already been spent in Carmarthenshireto help firms dealing withthe effects of the economic crisis. Furthermore, Neville Davies, head of the Council-run West Wales European Centre confirmed that three projects – with a combined budget of £36 million – have been approved. The £19 million SouthWest Wales Flexible Business Finance Scheme, for example, is already well underway with financial support already being given to SMEs.
By far the most serious charge though is that the local Plaid Cymru AM, Rhodri Glyn Thomas, had been told about Cllr. Madge’s concerns and had simply done nothing. This is a politically motivated smear which Kevin Madge would or should have known was untrue and demands a full and unreserved public apology.
The background to this is a rather extraordinary statement first made by Kevin Madge on the 25th of February in the Carmarthen Journal about local Plaid Assembly members in the context of Convergence Funding:
“We need to arrange a special meeting, a bit like the House of Commons did with the banks, and get them to apologise to the electorate and explain why they’re not delivering!”
Meetings were held withlocal Assembly members and following his discussion with the local Chief Executive, Rhodri Glyn Thomas convened a meeting between the Leader, the Chief Executive, the Director for Regeneration and Leisure and the Head of European Policy and External Funding of Carmarthenshire County Council with the Deputy First Minister, Ieuan Wyn Jones AM on the 25th March 2009. The executive summary of the meeting produced for the County Council’s Executive Board, dated April 15th, on which Kevin Madge sits concluded that the meeting was “extremely positive” and a number of improvements have already been made to the way in which project bids are processed – a fact confirmed by Carmarthenshire’s Head of European Policy, Neville Davies, at the seminar on Friday.
The long and the short of this is that the Leader of the Labour Group on Carmarthenshire County Council has misled the public and made false accusations about another elected member for purely party political ends. Cllr. Madge may think the electorate is stupid – but the fact that he only ever attacks Plaid Assembly ministers (Leighton Andrews, Ieuan’s deputy, is entirely innocent of any of the criticisms that Kevin makes, apparently) shows that this is all just about petty political tribalism rather than doing the job he and I and Rhodri were elected to do which is working with everyone (regardless of party) for the benefit of the people we represent.
The bigger picture of all this is that the Labour Party west of Swansea is in complete and utter disarray. Hardly any young talent – and by young I mean under 60 – is coming through the ranks. Among those that remain there is nothing but acrimony and tension. Kevin Madge has probably being goaded into these inflammatory and baseless attacks on Plaid because he feels is own position is under threat within a Labour group that is deeply divided. As far as the Westminster Election is concerned, I obviously wish Rhys well with his return to full health (the official reason given for his decision to stand down) – but I imagine that a lot of the stress that he has undergone has been generated from within the Labour Party. Their strategy to win back the West lies in tatters.
Update: The Labour Party has confirmed the former Carmarthenshire Director of Education, Keith Price-Davies, as their candidate for Llanelli in the next Assembly elections.
2 Responses to “Labour in the West: tired, divided and resigned”
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marcscaife says:
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Dear Adam,
You seem to have misinterpreted some of the statements made by our council leaders over the past few months, particularly Kevin Madge’s comments in the Carmarthen Journal on 25th February http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/news/Assembly-slammed-cash-holdup/article-728055-detail/article.html . Kevin’s request for a meeting was directed at all constituency and regional AM’s not just Plaid’s; it was interesting to note though that Helen Mary Jones refused to attend!
Your blog confirms that as a result of this request from Cllr Madge and others that finally some progress was made following the meeting on 25th March when Rhodri Glyn Thomas was spurred into action.
I feel that Cllr Madge should be commended on doing a good job here in challenging our elected representatives to deliver on promises.
Regards,
Marc Scaife
Adam says:
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:43 am
Marc,
Thank you for acknowledging that Rhodri has actually been active on this issue. The point that I am making is that the Deputy Leader of Carmarthenshire directly and explicitly accused him of doing nothing on this issue. That is a serious accusation that Cllr. Madge would have or should have known to be untrue. He needs now to apologise for that statement. If the Prime Minister can say sorry about entirely baseless smears then surely the same should apply to Cllr. Madge.