Lib Dem 2 – the latest

Assembly members will get the chance to vote on whether or not to reinstate the two disqualified Liberal Democrat AMs on June 29th. That’s the date when two motions – one relating to Aled Roberts and one to John Dixon – have been tabled to be discussed. The date is the latest possible under the [...]

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Election XIII – the Funding Gap

As political interventions go, this is one of the most intellectual: one of the UK’s leading scientists, backed by 60 other senior academics criticising all four political parties. What worries  Sir John Cadogan is that he says none of the parties in this election campaign is addressing concerns about the funding gap between our universities [...]

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Election VIII – Welsh Liberal Democrat manifesto

Day Two of manifesto week sees the Welsh Liberal Democrats set out their election promises. You can read the manifesto, which they’ve called ‘Wales Can Do Better’,  here. It’s main theme is tackling waste: money-wasting, time-wasting and wasting of the potential of people. That’s why the very first pledge you read is to Root out [...]

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Lib Dems say schools, colleges confused by Leighton Andrews’ debate

Education Minister Leighton Andrews said on Monday that he wanted to start a debate on whether or not school sixth forms and colleges are offering too many courses leading to quantity not quality. He said, It made me raise the question, should we be looking in Wales at a narrower range of subjects? That move [...]

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Coalition conference clash

Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers may be working together well enough in government at Westminster, but it seems that partnership doesn’t stretch to Welsh conference arrangements. Welsh Conservatives recently announced, with some pride, that the UK party is to hold its Spring Forum in Cardiff at the same time as the Welsh party’s annual conference. [...]

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Are Welsh Lib Dems more in tune with their party than Nick Clegg?

Following on from my previous post about where the tuition fees row leaves the Welsh Liberal Democrats in relation to their party’s leadership, it’s worth highlighting a flurry of comments and articles that may shed a little more light on what could be going on inside the party. In today’s Observer, the former director of [...]

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Resignation and Rebellion: is it enough to save the Welsh Liberal Democrats next May?

The decision of Jenny Willott to resign and join the other two Welsh Liberal Democrat MPs to vote against their government means that the Welsh wing of the party is pretty unified on tuition fees and at odds with the party’s UK leadership. Does that amount to a split ? The truth is, the Liberal [...]

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Lembit Opik (II)

Since my earlier post, the Liberal Democrats have announced that their jungle-dwelling former MP, Lembit Opik, is officially no longer there prospective Parliamentary candidate for Montgomeryshire. I hadn’t realised that party rules meant that Mr Opik remained the constituency’s PPC for six months after he lost the seat in last May’s General Election. The constituency [...]

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I’m a Celebrity star Lembit Opik doesn’t get Kirsty Williams’ vote

There was some light relief for political journalists in the regular Tuesday briefings in the Assembly. The leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams, was asked if she was supporting a previous Welsh party leader, Lembit Opik. The former MP for Montgomeryshire is currently in the Australian jungle taking part in the ITV programme, [...]

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Pre-budget politics

‘Apprehensive.’ That was the answer the Deputy Minister for Children, Huw Lewis, gave when I asked him how he was feeling ahead of the publication tomorrow of the Assembly Government’s draft budget. ‘Anyone who works in the public realm would be apprehensive about spending in the future,’ he added. I had been asking him about [...]

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