Labour has enjoyed what it called a “stunning” night in Wales, claiming impressive wins in Cardiff, Swansea and Newport at the expense of the Liberal Democrats.
The party had been expected to take back former strongholds, including Newport and Swansea, but it had not been so confident of winning in the capital, where the Liberal Democrats have ruled for eight years.
Recounts were taking place in two Cardiff wards but Labour was satisfied it had won enough seats to seize control of the council and expected the Liberal Democrat leader, Rodney Berman, to be ousted from his seat.
Ahead of the count, Labour had claimed that voters who deserted the party at the height of Gordon Brown’s unpopular premiership were returning. As the night went on it began to look as if new voters had also turned to the party.
The Welsh Labour leader and first minister, Carwyn Jones, said: “The momentum is clearly with Welsh Labour. We are taking seats from every party across the country. We have reconnected with people and our community campaigning has resonated with voters right across Wales.”
Welsh Labour’s campaign was a two-pronged affair. It called on the electorate to make the vote a referendum on the Tory/Lib Dem coalition at Westminster. And it encouraged activists to prepare manifestos tailored to local needs, rather than publishing a national agenda.
Kirsty Williams, the Liberal Democrat leader, said the party had tried to fight the election on local issues and the record of its councillors. But she said Labour and the media had concentrated on what was happening at Westminster.
The Conservatives had a poor night, losing the majority in two of their strongest areas, the Vale of Glamorgan, west of Cardiff, and Monmouthshire. Peter Hain, the shadow Welsh secretary, said the Tory vote was softening and claimed Labour was persuading Conservative voters to switch.
Andrew RT Davies, the Tory leader in Wales, said the night had been a setback. Like Williams, he said Labour had succeeded in focusing on the Westminster agenda.
Plaid Cymru, under its new leader, Leanne Wood, suffered disappointments, particularly in Caerphilly, where the nationalists lost control of the council to Labour. A familiar figure, the former Welsh secretary Ron Davies who is now a member of Plaid, lost his seat. Plaid activists argued they were the victims of a UK-wide move towards Labour.
But as elsewhere in the UK, it may be Liberal Democrat losses that create the biggest headlines. They lost power — of various kinds — in the cities of Swansea and Newport in the south and in Wales’ largest town in the north, Wrexham. In Cardiff, the Lib Dems went into the election holding 34 seats to the Tories’ 16 and Labour’s 14, but saw their vote collapse.
Interestingly, council leaders lost their seats in Wrexham, Caerphilly, Ceredigion and the Vale of Glamorgan, possibly because they were so closely identified with cuts in services.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010
Forget Ron Davies he was a carpet bagger, the real story is Oakdale where Plaids former Council leader was given the boot, well done Oakdale good riddance to Pritch, Islwyn is nearly a Plaid free zone
Islwyn may almost be a Plaid free zone, but you still have David Cameron in No 10. Ron Davies, is and was, a local boy, the real carpet baggers are Wayne David and ex Militant Tendency Jeff Cuthbert, and you now have a Labour controlled council, which, based on past experience of Labour in power, closed Caerphilly Miners Hospital and built a £40 million cottage hospital in Ystrad Mynach with one extra bed, no effective A and E, and all major surgery being done in the Royal Gwent, are not the sharpest knives in the drawer, but hey, they cheated their way in to power, fighting local elections as a referendum on the Cameron Government, and ignoring local issues, people get the Government they deserve and boy do you deserve this bunch of no hopers.
The new Labour administration elected by the people will now have to come up with the goods they promised during the election, and, like it or not Ron the people gave a resounding NO to Plaid Cymru up and down the borough,
A much more important thing they will need to do is to try to separate reality from fiction in respect to the `smoke and mirrors` situation created by the last administration in respect to a number of important `pending` projects. The proposed new Caerphilly Library being just one. I am sure there other `project` lauded by Plaid which cannot become a reality and the new administration have to tell us all what they are.
I think it is totally disingenuous to suggest that people in Caerphilly Based their vote for Labour as a protest vote against the London Government, they are not that disjointed and disconnected to politics to think that by voting in a labour Councillor it will have any effect on the Tory Government, that suggestion is rubbish, it is local politics they want to change, but, if that is what those Councillors who were booted out by the electorate want to think in order to invent an ` exit strategy` then who are we to deny them that excuse.
The acid test is whether this Labour administration is better than the last Plaid Cymru one. I, for one, don't care which rossette the council leader wears. What I want to see is best use of the resources available for the benefit of this borough. To argue that this is somehow a vote against the Tory Government in Westminster is tantamount to saying the electorate are fools.
The people in this borough were obviously not happy with the way the council operated. A 'neck and neck' situation as we had in 2008 is not turned into an utter rejection of Plaid because of a protest vote. Both Labour and Plaid claim to be socialist (with a very small 's') so a vote for either would be seen as an attack on the Conservatives.
Well, Trevor you must be the only person in Britan thinking that. We ahd a couple of carpet baggers, Peter Hain and Ed Miliband, around selling snake oil. It didnt work, we still have David Cameron in No10, and the side effects are we have lost a good council in Caerphilly to be replaced by a know nothing bunch of Labour backswoodmen. Look at the Valleys decades of Labour hegemony have left us unemployed, poor, suffering more than the average ill health, housing and poor public services, its like they want to create a gaint Aneurin Bevan theme park reflecting the 1930s.
Plaid have been seen off in national, Assembly and local elections, losing ground to the Conservatives in the General and Cardiff Bay elections. It's time they stopped deluding themselves that they offer some sort of creditable alternative for the whole of Wales and recognise their culturally devisive nationalism – which has placed independence at the forefront of its manifesto – means little if anything in the South Wales valleys, nor its seems to the greater part of Wales.
Plaid are not deluding themselves, they offer a credible alernative for the whole of Wales, they do. However, since 25% of the people living in Wales werent born here, and more than half of the rest are descended from 19th migrants to the iron and coal industries, the chances of them winning are small, because, as we have seen, the British Nationalists always vote "nationally", even in local elections. So it doesnt matter how good Plaids arguments are economically and socially they will lose. As a result the UK Government can decide, without any local input, because the last Labour Governmant WOULDNT transfer energy policy to Wales, to approve the largest windfarm in Europe, 75 400 ft high wind turbines between Aberdare and Neath, you wouldnt get it on the South Downs, but Wales doesnt count, it always votes Labour so why should any English Party care, thats the difference with Plaid, they do care, they may lose but they are on the side of the angels.
Ron James seems to believe that people casting their vote are influenced by where their great grandfather came from. Well that's a novel interpretation of a bad result for Plaid Cymru. I have voted for them in the past, this time I stood myself as an independent and voted accordingly.
My great grandfather, born 1856 by the way, came from Ynys Mon and my grandfather was born in Llechryd, Cardigan. They were both formidable men but their political beliefs have absolutely nothing to do with the way I vote at elections. Perhaps it is easier, and more plausable, to explain the Labour 'bounce' in terms of modern day mistakes by the Plaid Council and their campaign. We shall now have to wait and see if Labour can do a better job of council administration.
Welsh Politics 101
In the 19th century, in the age of iron, the vast majority of the population were Welsh, the Toffs voted Tory, and the emerging middle class, and those of the working class who had the vote, voted Liberal, indeed, voting Liberal was seen as a mark of Welsh identity. The development of the coal industry, saw a vast migration of English and Irish to the coal field, and the native population became a minority. This new raw industrial society saw the creation of a classic proletariat, who saw their identity as workers or working-class people, regarded collectively (often used with reference to Marxism). But, in Wales this proletariat, of diverse origins, didnt see themselves as Welsh, most werent, and saw their political voice, not in Marxism, but in the Labour Party, which formed their identity, the Liberals were still seen as a Welsh party. A hundred years later, deindustrialised South Wales still votes Labour, because their grand parents did, reminding them of their diverse origins, but now a virtual proletariat, with no work, which still does not identify with Wales. This is why in 2012, because of the economic history of South Wales, Plaid is never going to win.
An interesting view Ron James, well argued but flawed. Many of the people who voted Labour on 3rd May voted Plaid in 2008. They must have done, given the voting statistics, showing that the voters are voting according to their gut feeling at the time of the election. This is certainly what I found when I was canvassing, I did not meet a single person this election who said "I am Labour, like my father before me." People like this do exist but they are usually confined to the over seventies and are not representative of the current electorate.
This results in some bizarre votes, I saw many voting papers at the count (a three votes paper) that had crosses against; James Fussel (PLaid), Gareth Pratt (Lab.) and Richard Williams (Ind.) I lost count of the times I saw this sort of vote, or variations on this theme. These voters cannot be described as Loyal to any party but are picking the candidates they like best or voting for a random spread in the hope that no single group has too much authority in the council.
I agree with your final comment. Welsh Independence does not sit easily with Welsh voters because of economic reality. In 1890 Wales could, and should, have struggled for independence to enrich the country and stop the haemorrhage of wealth, from the coal and iron industies, to England. In the current economic situation a massive portion of the labour force works for the state. This is not sustainable and if independence was declared we Welsh would face economic collapse sooner rather than later. The economic migrants of the 19th century were hard working, hungry, aspirational and were coming to work in state of the art industries. Whether indigenous, descended from Somerset miners or (and this is more usual) a mixture of both, the modern day Welsh people face a difficult future and most see independence as economic suicide. Leanne Wood, to her credit, makes no secret of the fact that Welsh independence is central to Plaid Cymru policy. She has yet to persuade the voters that this is the route Wales should take.
If Plaid offer a creditable alternative why are they doing so badly? The argument about the genetic antecedance is verging on nonsensical and who are the British Nationalists exactly? The recourse to vague unproven historical anecdotes and limp wristed ascertions about why local elections have fallen foul of some generational mindset which places voters in the "can't think for themselves" category are laughable.
Waiting maderation? Censorship you mean, surely?
Surely its self evident,the British Nationalists are those who think they are "British", rather than "Welsh", or any other nationality, that lives on the Britsh Islands. When I was young, being British or English( for they seemed to be the same) was the norm, though I was brought up with this Marxist ideal of being an Internationalist (Workers of the world uite etc, and I knew every verse of the Internationale by heart), though this meant, in reality, an English speaking identity pushed by the Labour Party. My ephiphany came when I went to University in Bristol, and was called a Welsh B#######, every time I opened my mouth, so I thought if I cant join their club San Fairy Anne and I join my own.