The Welsh Liberal Democrats: From Government to Opposition and Then Back Again?

Abstract

For over 50 years from 1945 onwards, the Liberal Party and then the Liberal Democrats were either in decline in Wales or struggling to survive from election to election. Since 1997, however, there has been a steady evolution in the party's electoral and political strength. Over this past decade, the Welsh Liberal Democrats, as a state party, have experienced a change in electoral fortunes that has on occasions put them into national political power well in advance of their federal counterparts in England. As an autonomous state party within a federal structure, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have been able to take like a duck to water to the arrival of devolution in the form of the Welsh Assembly. This article examines how the evolution of the party has occurred and, in particular, the role that has been played by the Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Members in Welsh politics. The article also explores not only the strengths but also the weaknesses that still dog the Welsh party as it seeks once more to become a major force in Welsh politics.

Growing without Pains? Explaining Liberal Democrat MPs' Behaviour

“…It is over strategy that the climate of opinion in the extra-parliamentary party may have most influence, particularly when the question of coalition arises: this was evident both in the reaction of activists to Thorpe's discussions with Heath in 1974, but more recently at regional level in consultation over the formation of the first Scottish Executive (Roddin 2004, 30) and the Welsh party's objection to participation in the 2007 Welsh Executive (Deacon 2008).…”

Rhetoric and policy learning: On Rhodri Morgan’s ‘Clear Red Water’ and ‘Made in Wales’ health policies

“…1Morgan developed key parts of his administrative rhetoric between 2000 and 2003, when, as First Minister, he led a Lab-Lib coalition in the Assembly, and many of the policies Morgan discussed herein were drawn from the LibDem manifesto (Deacon, 2006: 172; 2007). The focus of interest here is not on the substance of the policies themselves, their effects, or their genesis, however, but the rhetoric through which they were articulated.…”