Meet the grassroots contenders forWelsh Lib Dem leadership
Chief reporter Martin Shipton looks at a party leadership contest which is taking place under most people’s radar: the election of a new leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats
THE bookies aren’t offering odds, and before I contacted the party, no reference to it appeared on their website.
But having lost their last MP in Wales at the General Election – and with only one remaining AM at the National Assembly – the Welsh Liberal Democrats are in desperate need of a break.
Electing a new leader gives them the opportunity to renew their offer to voters.
The trouble is – and neither of the candidates will take this the wrong way, I hope – the party is desperately short of big-hitters. They have no alternative, it’s true, but it’s quite embarrassing for a party with such a distinguished lineage that its leadership election is between a councillor from Aberaeron and a grassroots activist from Welshpool.
The mechanics of the contest were decided at a behind-closed-doors conference earlier this month – a party event said to have been described by its new overall leader, Sir Vince Cable, as the most depressing one he’d attended during his recent tour of Britain.
Nevertheless, Ceredigion county councillor Liz Evans and former Montgomeryshire candidate Jane Dodds are both adopting a positive approach towards the contest they have both signed up for.
Ms Evans, who has been defeated twice in successive Assembly elections by Plaid Cymru’s Elin Jones – now the Presiding Officer – used to manage the office of former MP Mark Williams, another casualty to Plaid.
She said: “We’ve been forced by circumstances to widen the election to include people who are not parliamentarians. Kirsty Williams is our only AM, and she’s doing a great job in the Welsh Government as Cabinet Secretary for Education.
“Me and Jane – we’re activists used to door-knocking. I think there’s a need for the party to build up its volunteer base. We’ve got the membership, but we need to convert more people into volunteer activists. That’s the way to rebuild the party from the grassroots.
“Also, we need to be clear about where we stand as a party on what matters to Wales. I’m not a nationalist, but a federalist, and I believe in self-government for Wales within a federal UK.
“We need to set out a clear vision of how we want Wales to go forward, and how prosperity can be achieved.”
Ms Dodds, a social worker who has been a party member since 2006, and who has stood unsuccessfully both for Westminster and the Assembly, agreed that it was important to reinvigorate the party’s grassroots.
She added: “I think we need to look at some new ideas, like the universal basic income. I also think it’s very important that we develop new policies on housing. One idea would be to scrap stamp duty for older people living in big houses so they could more easily downsize and free up larger properties for families.
“We also need to consider ways in which people in social housing can move into smaller homes, cutting back on under-occupation.”
She was not, however, prepared to say which way she would vote on the Welsh Government’s proposal to scrap the “right to buy”. She said it was a very complex issue and she would “take advice on it”.
Speaking more generally, Ms Dodds said: “We need to re-ignite our curiosity. That’s the way to engage people. At present there is too much going over old ground, and people aren’t inspired by that.”
The party’s recently elected president is William Powell, a former AM who lost his seat last year but who remains a county councillor in Powys.
He said: “I’m not endorsing either of the candidates. What I do know is that they are both extremely hardworking.”
Mr Powell said he wasn’t sure why the recent party conference had not been open to the media. He reaffirmed his commitment to openness and transparency.
The result of the leadership contest will be declared on October 28.