My Ceredigion and Welsh Lib Dem Assembly Election Review

Well, it has been an emotional rollercoaster of a night.

A lack of sleep, nerves torn to shreds and a distinct lack of fingernails have all pointed to what has been a dramatic and indeed, for many of us liberals, a traumatic electoral evening.

Last night, before the polls closed, Daran Hill gave an excellent non-partisan look on the Wales Home blog here at what he knew would be a testing night ahead. He mentioned the essential humanity that is evident on these nights when friends from across the political spectrum witness their political stars rise or indeed, fall to earth with a shattering thump.

As he said: "My stomach is in a knot of both anticipation and worry. I am not looking forward to tonight because there will be losers as well as winners. And they are all real people who may, through just a handful of votes, see their careers end or their dreams begin".

So, it turned out.

As the night went on, it was clear from listening to our radios at the Ceredigion count in Aberaeron that all was not going well throughout Wales. Losing Wyn Williams in Montgomeryshire in the end didn't come as the greatest surprise because the pointers had been moving in that direction for some time but it was still a huge loss to us because Wyn would've been a great asset to the Liberal Democrat group in the Welsh Assembly. Then the news that we lost Cardiff Central by just 38 votes - again, Nigel Howells would've been another great addition to the Cardiff Bay team but by the smallest of margins, his magnificent campaigning team were pipped at the post. Then there was the loss of Veronica German on the South Wales East list. Again, with her expertise and knowledge, she had already in just a year in the Assembly, proven herself to be a formiddable opponent. Her experience will be missed.

Light at the end of the liberal tunnel
But something changed during the night. If Veronica lost out on the regional list, then what of Peter Black on the corresponding list in South Wales West? After 12 years in the Assembly, he admits in his blog post here this morning, that he'd began to mentally prepare himself for defeat when the numbers looked against him. But as that quirk of fate has it, whilst we lost that one battle in Cardiff by a wafer-thin margin, so it was that Peter held on to that 4th and final list seat by just 54 votes out of a regional total of 154,381 ballots cast. Incredible.

Then came the news that because of the Conservatives strong performance across the mid and west Wales region, their Assembly leader Nick Bourne had lost his seat to our very own Bill Powell who becomes the first Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for Mid and West Wales. This certainly gives us some respite after the loss of Montgomeryshire. Also the news that the flip side of losing Cardiff Central meant that John Dixon was elected on the South Wales Central regional list.

Then finally this afternoon the fantastic news that a stronger than expected North Wales regional vote for the party helped elect Aled Roberts to the Assembly. Aled, as the current leader of Wrexham Council, is a formiddable political operater with much experience in the Welsh and English media. He will stengthen Kirsty Williams' Assembly team immeasurably.

So having for a time looked as if we may sink to as little as just 2 or 3 members, we finally finished up with a total of 5 - only one down and certainly a good case of damage limitation. Certainly when compared to the relative decimation that the party has suffered in English city councils and up in Scotland where 16 MSP's have been whittled down now to little more than 5 or 6, we can say here in Wales that we held our own.

But we have lost ground across the country and a number of deposits (a bank sapping 17 if my tally is correct) and even in a handful of seats, fell behind the BNP. Clearly, the blame-game from the Westminster coalition has played a significant part but we must dust ourselves down, keep calm, move on and re-build.

The Ceredigion Experience
It certainly wasn't doom and gloom where we were in Aberaeron last night at the very least.

After what had been a spirited and enjoyable campaign with our fantastic and energetic candidate Elizabeth Evans, on a 3.5% swing from Plaid Cymru to the Welsh Liberal Democrats, we more than halved the Plaid Cymru majority from the 3,955 figure in 2007, down now to just 1,777. It must be remembered also that Plaid's majority in 1999 was a staggering 10,249 and in 2003 was down to 4,618 so we have continuously eaten into their majority over the past 12 years.

Our share of the vote held steady whilst Plaid's fell by 8% and it was a pshycological boost for us to mainatin a vote count of over 10,000.

It certainly demonstrates that in this old bastion of liberalism, which once shone brightly when the golden candle was reduced to only 5 MPs in Westminster in the late 1950s, that candle is still shining brightly.

Ceredigion does things differently. It's always a much more 'local' campaign here on the ground and the calibre of the individual candidates stands much greater scrutiny. I suppose the only other Welsh constituency that can share our maverick status is Anglesey which curretly returns an MP and an AM from different political parties.

I was happy with the result that we had on its own merit as we've now well and truly made this Assembly seat a 'marginal' for the future. But on witnessing the scale of the losses that the party were suffering across the UK, it struck me that actually, ours was in the circumstances, a herculean effort and Elizabeth, Mark Williams MP and our fantastic, enthusiastic team of volunteers, both young and young at heart, deserve great praise for their efforts.

It's been a challenging night for our party but we must fight on. Here in Ceredigion, we do so in great heart after another excellent performance which stands us in good stead for the future.

Welsh Liberal Democrats Launch Assembly Manifesto in Ceredigion

It's been a busy week. Amongst all of the campaigning, we hosted the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg MP to Ceredigion last week when he visited our candidate Elizabeth Evans' hometown of Aberaeron to meet local representatives of the local business community.

Today, we were back in Aberaeron for the launch of the Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Manifesto.

Kirsty Williams, our popular Welsh leader, officially launched the manifesto this lunchtime in front of the TV cameras (and Newsnight's Michael Crick!) and a gathering of supporters. Our Elizabeth Evans introduced Kirsty and the assembled media pack to Aberaeron and Kirsty's manifesto launch went out (so I'm told) live on BBC News 24.


Kirsty Williams launching the Welsh Liberal Democrat
Manifesto Today in Aberaeron

Kirsty Williams, in launching our manifesto said:

“This election is the chance for the people of Wales to set the direction of the Welsh government until 2016.

“My children are at primary school. By the time we next debate these issues at a Welsh election, by the time we next decide the direction of schooling in Wales, they will be kapproaching their GCSEs. For them and for thousands of other children, this will be their chance.

“This election is too important to allow the Labour Party to ignore Welsh issues. Labour and Plaid have left us with a weak economy, underfunded schools and an NHS that costs more but delivers less. The Welsh people deserve a proper conversation about how we in Wales address these issues.

“No more excuses. The Welsh Liberal Democrats believe that Wales can do better. That is why we are setting out a radical manifesto full of positive ideas to:

· Create jobs and improve our economy by offering companies £2,000 for staff training if they provide jobs to unemployed young people.

· Tackle the spending gap, providing more money for schools by targeting additional money at the 80,000 pupils who need it the most so that schools can afford to invest in the things that really matter, such as smaller class sizes or one-on-one teaching.

· Cut waiting times by cutting waste. We will improve healthcare by switching ineffective spending in the NHS to the frontline.

· Radically overhaul the energy efficiency of an extra 12,000 homes by doubling the money available for tackling fuel poverty.

· Make sure your council can deliver for you by cutting restrictions that stop them innovating and acting in the best interest of local communities.”

The fully costed manifesto gives the people of Ceredigion and indeed Wales more generally, an opportunity to support a party that wants to support enterprise and not hold it back. Here in Ceredigion, as the Deputy Prime Minister heard last week, that will be greatly welcomed.

It was great to have our launch, the day after Plaid Cymru had theirs, out in 'real' Wales. Plaid Cymru decided to hold theirs in the Cardiff Bay bubble but we rightly took it out into the country. Indeed, on asking the formiddable BBC journalist Michael Crick (who I can exlusively reveal, is partial to some victoria sponge), when did he last come to this part of the world, he answered by saying that this was the first time that he had visited Aberaeron and his last visit to Aberystwyth was some 10 years ago.

So it was nice to bring the media out of their comfort zone as well!

Now it's back to the door-steps to spread our message of optimism which can be read in the manifesto which Elizabeth and Kirsty launched today in the heart of Wales.

Wales Can Do Better - A Welsh Liberal Democrat Conference Review

It's been a great weekend in Cardiff at the Welsh Liberal Democrat conference.

I don't say this lightly or flippantly for the sake of it but because I know it to be true - after all, this was my 19th Welsh Liberal Democrat conference out of a possible 20 since my first one back in Llandudno in the spring of 2002. This, on top of my 14 Federal conferences out of a possible 19 since my first one back in Manchester 2002 means I've been to a total of 33 Liberal Democrat conference in all!

So I could be considered to be a bit of an 'old hack' when it comes to it. But it does give me an insight for one so (reasonably) young at the age of 28 to be able to take a side-ways on perspective of the weekend as I have a decent idea about what I'm talking about!

Biggest Welsh Lib Dem Conference Ever?
As far as the figures go, it was the biggest conference we've ever held. For the second time in 3 years, the Barcelo Angel Hotel in Cardiff hosted us which meant that, as is becoming the norm of late, we were able once more to host the entirety of the conference weekend festivities under one roof which makes it easier for us delegates to get about and see everything that is on offer.

The number of pre-registered delegates were the largest recorded (from what I gather) and for the first time in my memory, the conference dinner was sold out before the weekend had arrived. That meant no tickets available on the day for anyone who was going to chance it.

In my 9 years of conferencing, it really did show itself to be the biggest and best yet.

Security for the Deputy Prime Minister!
We even had on the Friday evening, the almost incredulous sight of security machines in the conference hotel for us to all check through! Why? Because Nick Clegg the federal party leader and now Deputy Prime Minister was to appear at our pre-conference rally.

It certainly feels like a long way forward since those cold and lesser attended conferences in Llandrindod Wells' Coleg Powys!

We've grown as a party and the level of debate has improved as we continue to decide on our party policy as delegates on a 'one member, one vote' basis. We saw that during the course of the weekend as the party agreed policies on education, health, rural affair and transport to name but a few.

We had more training events (something that we never held even up to only a few years ago) to help campaigners for the weeks ahead and there were some fantastic fringe events held by external organisations who were there in good number - again, a much heartier number than I recall in all my years of conferencing.

Media Interest

Chairing conference with my aide, Rhys Jones

We've always been well served by the Welsh media at our spring conferences and this year was no exception. With Nick Clegg addressing us on the Friday and our Welsh leader Kirsty Williams doing the same on the Saturday morning before Vince Cable did so in the later afternoon, there was plenty to talk about.

My weekend was a busy one - particularly on the Saturday - and took in, as it often does, this media element to conference. I chaired conference in the mid-morning, covering the Local Government and Economy debates. It was in part during the morning, broadcast live on S4C.

I then followed that by immediately leading conference in the financial appeal for the first time. It was very much the 'warm-up act' for Kirsty Williams' speech in which I got the crowd laughing and smiling with my inimitable brand of humour whilst doing my best to get as much money out of them as possible for our campaign war chest. It went well and Kirsty then gave a great speech in which she outlined a positive Welsh Liberal Democrat alternative to the failing Labour-Plaid Welsh Assembly Government.

I was straight back onto the nation's TV screens after Kirsty's speech when I did a live sofa-based interview with Dewi Llwyd for S4Cs conference coverage. I did so alongside Gwynoro Jones, a former Labour and SDP MP and former Liberal Democrat member who rejoined the party last May because Nick Clegg 'had the courage to go into Government with the Conservatives to clear up the mess Labour had left behind'.

I've heard of the name before of course and indeed I recall him standing as an Independent candidate on the Mid & West Wales regional list in the Welsh Assembly election in 2007, but I've never met him before and I hadn't realised that he'd re-joined the party (even sporting a Lib Dem bird of freedim tie!). It soon became apparent that his re-joining the party had also evaded the knowledgable Dewi Llwyd's attention and he reacted with some incredulity in the interview by asking Gwynoro how a former Labour MP could re-join the Liberal Democrats for having the guts to go into coalition with the Conservatives! This all meant that my part in the interview was more of a 'bit-part' character than normal but that didn't worry me - it was one of the most amusing interviews I can ever recall participating in!

It can be watched here on S4Cs iPlayer coverage from 1hr 40min.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00fj1sy/Cynhadleddau_Gwanwyn_2011_Y_Democratiaid_Rhyddfrydol/

In the late afternoon, after I'd heard Mark Williams MP propose a 'call to arms' to members to now lead the way in securing a second referendum 'Yes' vote on AV on May 5th after our fantastic success of getting a 'Yes to Wales' referendum victory last Thursday, I took some time out by catching up with colleagues at the conference bar. At this time, some of our younger members from Ceredigion gave an interview to BBC Wales and it can be found here at 1 hr and 50 minutes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00zgvt8/Welsh_Liberal_Democrats_Conference_Spring_Conference_2011_05_03_2011/

Well done to Ollie Duckley, Greg Foster and Hannah Thompson on giving a great performance!

A Conference Dinner Success - with help from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales!
After Vince Cable gave another excellent and honest address to conference (the man really is one of the few people I know who makes economics sound interesting), I settled down in my fantastically close-by B&B for a breather before getting back to the Angel by 6.30pm.

One of the best bits about conference for me is the catching-up with old friends from around the country - the more informal kind of 'networking'. Well I had the chance to do that with the likes of Anders Hanson who was down from Sheffield for the weekend (having previously lived in Aberystwyth). It was during the pre-dinner drinks reception with Anders and our local MP Mark Williams, that a BBC National Orchestra of Wales string quartet started playing right alongside us for our pleasure. I can safely say that it was one of the most surreal conference moments of my life! Never can I recall a Liberal Democrat conference entertaining such a treat! But then, what's wrong with adding a bit of class to the proceedings?! I wonder what Peter Black AM would've made of it had he not have taken a rare weekend off from conferencing himself!

The dinner as already reported, was full and former MP Evan Harris gave another great speech to us as he did last Spring (he was that popular we invited him back!). I was even lucky enough to draw the first raffle prize after the dinner which meant I got first pickings at the prizes and I made the most of my good fortune!

Non-suit Sunday
Sunday was as ever a quieter affair after the manic-ness that is the Saturday at conference. With the media having pretty much all packed their cases and left, it meant that the final few hours could be enjoyed at a more leisurely pace as is usually the case. This can usually be seen through the more dressed-down vibe seen around conference and this year was no expception.

I had been put down to lead on a training module alongside good friend Cllr Nick Tregonning from Swansea but whether it was because they all knew it all already or because they had been out too late at the bar the night before, no-one turned up! But not to worry, Nick and I proceeded to chat the hour away by putting the world to rights!

Conference guided itself to a close in the afternoon. Our Ceredigion Assembly candidate Liz Evans proposed and summated on the transport motion before Welsh Party President Christine Humphreys closed the conference with her traditional address.

Onward to the door-steps...
So, it's been another excellent conference and it is fair to say that, whatever the media may say about our electoral hopes and apirations, our conferences are continuing to go from strength to strength.

So it's back to our homesteads and back to campaigning on the door-steps. It's always great to spend a few days in the company of politically like-minded friends and colleagues but it's good to come home too and to put the policies and ideals that we espouse, into action.

As our conference weekend slogan said, Wales Can Do Better. We now need to spread that gospel on as many doorsteps as possible.

My BBC iPlayer Appearance on S4C's CF99 (the Welsh equivalent to Andrew Neil's 'This Week')

I'm heading back west to Cardigan after a brief trip to Cardiff.

I was contacted by S4C a month or so ago and was asked whether I'd be free to appear on their weekly political discussion programme CF99 - our equivalent to Andrew Neil's 'This Week'. For the 4th time my answer was yes and it can be seen here on BBC's iPlayer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/cy/episode/p00f8jxq/CF99_Wed_23_Feb_2011/

I've been doing media work for the Welsh Liberal Democrats for almost 8 years now. I'd barely been a conference go-er for 12 months before I was asked to take part in my first media interview - a live discussion on Radio Wales' 'Good Morning Wales' programme during our 2003 Welsh Lib Dem conference in Swansea. As it happens, 2 days earlier, the UK and America invaded Iraq and so my first ever media appearance was about this issue. In this case it was a joint effort as I was sitting alongside our more experienced media man Phil Hobson from Monmouthshire.

Well the wheel has turned full circle because on Wednesday night, I was on CF99 discussing the current situation in the middle east. It's my 4th visit to the CF99 set in the heart of the Welsh Assembly building in Cardiff Bay. I've also been a panellist for the party on 2 occasions on 'Pawb A'i Farn' (the Welsh equivalent to Question Time) and have made countless appearances on the live Radio Cymru Friday afternoon political slot 'Dau O'r Bae'. Like with anything in life, I've had good media and days and not so good media days. I suppose it goes with the territory.

Well I classify my own performance on Wednesday night as belonging to the former category. But for those who can't understand the language of heaven, I'll comment briefly on what was said in the clips above, here in writing. Alongside Plaid Cymru's Heledd Fychan and former ITV Wales political columnist Gareth Hughes, I was the target being shot at as the first discussion revolved around the Welsh Liberal Democrat party's chances in the up-coming Welsh Assembly elections in May. I gave what I felt was a good, solid performance in rebutting the attacks and I went on the offensive more than is sometimes the case. I spoke of record numbers having pre-registered for our Welsh conference in a week's time, fought back against Gareth's unjust comments about our excellent leader Kirsty Williams and reminded Heledd Fychan that she shouldn't be chastising the current Westminster-based coalition government for not following through with the enirety of their mutual manifestos when Plaid Cymru themselves didn't do so when they entered a coalition with Labour in Cardiff Bay in 2007 - what did happen to that Plaid promise of giving every schoolchild a laptop?

The second half saw a swap as Gareth Hughes was subbed for Stephen Thomas who is an expert in middle eastern matters. Again, I gave what I hope was seen as being an honest and thoughtful response to the escalating problems currently occurring in Libya and across the arabic states more generally. I bemoaned the UN's willingness to only write of its grave concerns because what good will warm words on a piece of paper do for the people on the streets of Libya right now? I also spoke of the west's often two faced stance when calling for democracy and then disowning the result when it doesn't go their way as was the case with Hamas' victory in he Gaza Strip. I also commented that our propensity to sell arms to these Arab states doesn't help us when we're trying to speak from the moral high ground.

All in all, I've had good feedback from friends about my performance so I'm happier than normal to show it once again, here on my blog via the BBC iPlayer service!

The Welsh Referendum (Part 1) - What's it all about?

This is an article that I was asked to contribute for Liberal Democrat Voice and which was published on the site here yesterday.

It's the first time that I've been asked to write specifically for LDV and I'll be following it up with a second post on this referendum in a few weeks time.

I'm pleased to do so to highlight the Welsh liberal context on LDV to my fellow liberal cousins across the UK and beyond!

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There's much talk about the House of Lords on-going 'go-slow' with the legislation for the AV referendum. The latest obstacle thrown up being the 40% voting turnout threshold. Meanwhile, the 'Yes 2 AV' campaign continues with its ground campaign in readiness for the expected d-day of May 5th.

But here in Wales of course, we have another referendum on our mind - the referendum on further powers to the Welsh Assemby in Cardiff Bay.

Referendum Day - March 3rd!

The referendum was promised by the 'One Wales' Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition government within the 4 year life-scale of the current government. With only two months of that government to run to we finally get to have our say on the future of Welsh legislative powers. The 'Yes for Wales' campaign was officially launched in January as I blogged about here at the time.

At present the Welsh Assembly is able to pass primary legislation (called Assembly Measures) in the 20 Policy Fields for which it is responsible such as health, education and agricultural matters. However, it must first have the power to do so conferred upon it by the Westminster Parliament. Once the power to legislate in certain matters has been conferred, the Assembly has that power permanently.

The LCO (Legislative Competence Orders) process which currently exists to deal with this situation and which Labour brought into being with the 2006 Government of Wales Act, is protracted, bureaucratic and long-winded.

As an example, it has taken three years for the Assembly to get powers transferred from Westminster to reform the organ donation system to give a lifeline to people waiting for a new kidney. Even though the policy is widely supported in Wales the Assembly is still waiting for permission to act.

Why's it taken so long? Because this is the current drawn-out mechanism that it and other measures have had to go through...

• Internal discussion on the terms of a draft Order with the Wales Office and Whitehall

• Draft LCO published

• Pre-legislative scrutiny by committee at the Assembly

• Pre-legislative scrutiny at Westminster, usually by the Welsh Affairs Committee in the Houses of Commons and the Constitution Committee in the Lords. Each committee prepares a report and can propose amendments to the draft LCO, as can the Secretary of State if s/he wishes

• The Welsh Government considers the various responses, and prepares a formal LCO

• The proposed LCO is considered by the Welsh Assembly

• If approved by the Assembly, it is then considered at Westminster. It may be considered again by the Commons Welsh Affairs Committee, and will also be scrutinised by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments

• Both Houses of Parliament approve the LCO, or not. If approved, it then receives Royal approval.

Fallen asleep yet? Because it's this kind of 'cap in hand' government that this referendum hopes to do away with.

As First Minister Carwyn Jones said on Tuesday last week:

"The Assembly's present lawmaking system is like Warren Gatland having to send a letter to Martin Johnson asking if he can put Shane Williams in the Welsh team, and then having to send 14 individual letters for the other players as well".

So why do the Welsh Lib Dems Say 'Yes'?

The Welsh Liberal Democrats, ably led by Kirsty Williams, are supporting and campaigning for a positive result because it has been the long and proud tradition of Welsh radical liberals since the age of Lloyd George to support a full devolutionary settlement for Wales.

As a UK-wide party, we believe in federalism - a strong Wales playing its full role in a strong and united British framework. This doesn't mean independence for Wales - it if did, I wouldn't be supporting it and neither would Kirsty Williams and the Welsh Liberal Democrats! It means greater autonomy for Wales to deal with its day-to-day issues in the same way as we would wish local councils to deal with matters that are relevant to our communities at the ground level.

So we're busy campaigning for a 'Yes' vote in two referendums this spring! I will report back on the progress of this particular campaign in a few weeks time.

A Balanced Welsh Assembly Budget Response

I was pleased to see that Kirsty Williams' response to the Labour/Plaid draft Welsh Assembly budget today was a reasonable, measured one.

At the moment, the political debate nationally and in Wales, is rather loud, rather angry, and is some cases rather hypocritical.

The old Punch and Judy style politics of the old, despite the talk of a 'new politics', remains. That for me is down to the Labour Party who can not and will not accept blame for the economic mess that they bequeathed the country back in May. Until they accept responsibility (which of course they won't) then I will take anything that they say on the state of the economy with a whopping great pinch of salt.

Welsh Priorities
But here in Wales, they have got to set the spending priorities along with their Plaid Cymru coalition colleagues in the Welsh Assembly. They've done so today and they've been very reasonable I feel in spreading the pain across the various departments.

They have decided, quite rightly in my opinion, to not ring-fence any departments. The Welsh Conservatives are crying merry hell about this but it's pleasing to see that Labour and Plaid Cymru are in one with the Welsh Liberal Democrats on this. By not ring-fencing any department, it has given more flexibility. As Kirsty Williams said today: "It is encouraging that this year’s budget seems to be looking for the savings in administration and central bureaucracy that the Welsh Liberal Democrats have called for".

Her response has been measured but she has rightly stated where the Cardiff Bay coalition should have done better. She criticises the Labour/Plaid coalition on not bringing the Pupil Premium into place in a Wales where education spending, per pupil, is £530 lower than in England.

She also states that “Despite the drop in unemployment announced in today’s figures, the economic recovery is still fragile. In these circumstances, it beggars belief that the economy and transport department that should be driving the Welsh economic recovery has faced some of the biggest cuts".

I totally agree with Kirsty on this point particularly. What I am most concerned about from today's announcements are the significant cuts in capital and infrastructural spending. Without firm, economic building blocks, Wales' future will remain fragile. Here in west, rural Wales, it is a particular concern.

As Kirsty says, this is a missed opportunity. But as she concludes: “The Welsh Liberal Democrats will be seeking to work cooperatively with the government to address these concerns.” That's what people want - political parties working together and not heckling for the sake of scoring cheap political points. That's why the Coalition in London has been more popular than most would've expected. What isn't needed now is complaining that everything is 'London's fault'. We have been dealt a hand here in Wales and it is the Labour/Plaid Welsh Assembly Government's responsibility to decide how it spends the money it has been allocated.

With a constructive, open and workmanlike attitude, it is our responsibility in opposition as Welsh Liberal Democrats to state where we disagree and what we would do differently. I'm pleased to see Kirsty Williams doing this in such a way today.

A Welsh Lib Dem Assembly Candidate!

I've deliberately kept away from blogging about my recent campaign as a Welsh Liberal Democrat candidate for the Welsh Assembly's Mid & West Wales regional list until now, because it may have been construed as an active campaigning tool.

But now it's all over, I can blog about it!

4 Candidates, 4 Hustings!
I decided to stand for the party on the list as the Mid & West Wales region as it encompasses the entirety of my life. I was born and bred in Pembrokeshire, educated in Carmarthenshire and have been living for the past 10 years in Ceredigion since originally going to Aberystwyth to study as a student.

I've been a Councillor now for 6 years but this is the first time I've put my name forward as a candidate for the Welsh Assembly. It took in 4 hustings across the region - in Builth Wells, Newtown, Narberth and Aberaeron. There were 4 candidates - myself, Bill Powell, Ed Wilson and Steffan John.

The hustings were well attended and were certainly something slightly new to me! A quick 5 minute pitch from each of the candidates seperately was then followed by a Q&A session between all the candidates. I felt the level of debate and engagement was excellent and the four of us did the party proud during the entire process.

We all got on as well. Kirsty Williams AM, our party leader, appeared in the audience during the first hustings (as if we weren't nervous enough!) and made the good point at the end, that it's an odd and difficult experience when standing against fellow party colleagues who most often than not, are good friends. She's quite right.

The Result
After weeks of campaigning and canvassing members around the region, we got our result on Monday. I was pleased to have finished a strong second behind Brecon & Radnor Powys Councillor, Bill Powell. Bill was our lead candidate for the region the last time in 2007 and I look forward to campaigning alongside him and all of my colleagues in the months to come.

It was a fantastic experience and I would recommend those who want to have their voice heard to do so and to put their name forward to stand - be it a local government, or national level.

Conference Blog: Day 4 (Monday)

We've been in government now for just over 4 months. In a way, we've got used to this very quickly. As a party and as members we've had to get ourselves into this new mindset and we have done so. So much so in fact, that, and particularly to newer members who know little else, we almost take the fact that we're in this position with a pinch of salt and just get on with it. But, taking a step back, yesterday was actually an incredibly historic day for our party. Monday 21st September 2010 was the day that Nick Clegg MP, Liberal Democrat leader, first addressed his conference as the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdon of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Really? After all these years of opposition, of mergers, of false dawns and dashed hopes, we're actually there. In goverment. In control. It really is an amazing thing.

Morning Media Mayhem!
I got up early at 6.40am to get to the media centre in the Echo Arena to hive a few interviews on Welsh Radio. On arriving I realised that I'd left my security badge back in the hotel room but thought that they'd probably be relaxed enough about it and just let me in. Not now that we're in government! All change! I had to dash back to the hotel, then dash back knowing full well that I may now miss the live slot. As it happens, when I came dashing into the media centre, Oliver Hides the Radio Wales presenter was introducing the package on the Lib Dem conference and Jenny Randerson AM who was being interviewd with me, frantically pointed in my direction behing Oliver's back to let him know that I was in the building! He was barely 30 odd seconds away from introudcing us when I took my seat! Never a dull moment! The interview went well and at 7.45am I repeated it with another in Welsh for Radio Cymru alongside Myrddin Edwards.

Academies Bill & the West Lothian Question
After a break back in the hotel, I made my way back to the conference centre and sat in on an excellent debate in the main hall about the Academies Bill. The party are against the policy and there's much discontent that the coalition have moved ahead on this issue even though it wasn't in the coalition agreement. So it was an unsurprisingly lively affair and I was rather pleased that the 'rebels' won and voted down what was seen by many as a 'wrecking amendment' put forward by the leadership. The motion was passed comfortably to the approval of many there. It certainly proves that conference can be as awkward as ever!
I actually decided not to use my vote at the end of the debate as the Academies Bill is only applicable to England and not Wales due to devolution. So, in the light of the 'West Lothian Question', I felt it right that I don't interfere as a Welsh member in a matter that only involves England. After all, I wouldn't want the English telling me what to do!

Kirsty Williams

We then had a barnstorming speech from Welsh Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams and we were all there as 'Welshies' to support her. It was very well received by conference and afterwards I was told by our media man Richard Thomas that her reference to Richard Livsey in her speech as a 'gently giant' came directly from my blog post that gave him that name. I was pleasantly surprised and pleased to have played a small part then, in what was an excellent performance by our Kirsty.

Lib Dem MP Bingo!

A gang of us decided on lunch at the Albert Docks and whilst we waited for our food, we decided to test oursevles on how many of the 57 Lib Dem MPs we could name without the aid of google or wikipedia. We actually did very well and named about 52/53 of them. I then decided to use this information and play 'Lib Dem MP Bingo' to see how many of thoe 57 I could spot in conference! I've spotted a good few of them in previous days of course but for the remainder of conference, I'm making a particular effort of keeping an eye out for those I have yet to see. I suddenly took great delight during the afternoon when I spotted such MPs as David Heath, Malcolm Bruce, Mark Hunter and John Leetch simply because it meant I could cross them off my list! I'm currently on 35 and would hope to extend that into the 40's before the end of play on Wednesday!

The Main Event - Nick Clegg's Speech
I've been to plenty of conferences in the past to know that you need to get your seat in early for the leaders speech.We arrived in good time yesterday but already the auditorium was filling up. It wasn't long, when, to my amazement, the whole room was full. In 15 UK-wide conferences, I have never seen delegates being turned away from the auditorium because there's no room left! Instead, they used an 'over-flow' room with a live link for other delegates to watch Nick's speech. I gather that even that was over half full!

So, indeed, here we were listening to the Deputy Prime Minister address us as our leader. We really have come a long way as liberals over the years.
His speech was surprisingly short at a little over 35 minutes (Charles Kennedy's speeches used to last for 50 minutes to an hour). But I thought it was a very well crafted affair and went down well with delegates in the hall. One of the biggest rounds of applause came when he reminded conference that the new coaltion goverment is scrapping ID cards - damned right! He also got a good yelp of approval when he maintained that the Iraq war was illegal. So it was a good speech and there's no doubt in my mind at least that it was well received by the members.

Socialising
After changing into my evening attire back in the hotel, the rest of the day went by in a relaxed manner with the only desire being one of catching up with old friends around the conference bar (and tracking more faces to cross off on my Lib Dem MP Bingo of course!). After a very nice reception given by Park Printers, we went to the annual official Welsh Lib Dem Night at the Cornmarket in the city centre where I gave another clip (but this time pre-recorded) for Radio Cymru. I bumped into one of our Ceredigion supporters Kathy Bracy who was with friends in the city for a PCS Union gathering. It was good to catch up with them during the evening.


The Randomness of Lib Dem Conferences (No.1)
I do enjoy the quirky occurrences that often happen in Lib Dem conferences and the people you meet who have random associations with others! Well, back at the conference bar in the Jury Inn last night was no exception. I found myself talking for some time to a pleasant enough chap from Portsmouth. It turns out that his uncle was Ray Crawford who was a member of the Ipswich team that won the league title under Alf Ramsey in 1962, won 2 English Caps and scored 2 of the goals in the giant-killing FA Cup shock of 1971, when, now playing for Colchester, they beat Don Revie's Leeds United 3-2! I must admit, it tickled me!

I also had a real in depth conversation with a really nice guy about faith and human motivation. He's a Hindu and he had what I thought was an excellent outlook on life, despite having had some tough life experiences to deal with including losing his mother when he was just 18.

It was also great to catch up with Rhiannon Wadeson again in the conference bar and to remind ourselves of our fantastic birthday trip in Latvia back in 2008!

It's the mixture of the surreal and the profound which we find at conference like this that just makes it so unmissable!

The Randomness of Lib Dem Conferences (No.2)
I had the interesting experience also, after the Nick Clegg speech, of bumping into the Times journalists Daniel Finkelstein and Matthew Parris in the hotel lift and then at the conference bar in the evening, I bumped into Tory MP Nigel Evans in the toilets. These really are bizzare times in which we live!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11382182

Revenge on McDonalds
The bar finished relatively early I felt and before we knew it we were the last there (quite a fete in itself!). So an eclectic group of 5 of us decided to walk down to the nearby McDonalds for a 'drive-thru' early breakfast. With it being just a few hundred yards away for where I'm staying, this seemed ideal. So we walked into the drive-thru to make our order. There we were confronted by a rather embarassed young man who told us that he couldn't serve us. The reason? We weren't in a motorised vehicle! Apparently, on health and safety ground he couldn't serve us as the drive-thru was for those in 4 wheels only and not on two feet! We tried to make him realise that at 5.30am, there was no real danger of us being run over by an errant car whilst being served by him - but he stood his ground! He did seem pretty embarassed at the fact that he wasn't able to take our money for an order because of this technicality but not to worry, we had a cunning plan!

Nick Love decided to go to the main road and hail down a taxi. On doing so, we all went around the corner from the drive-thru jumped into the aforementioned taxi, drove back through the drive-thru, and ordered our meals from a dumbfounded young man! For the sake of paying the taxi driver the cost of driving through the drive-thru, it was worth it for the 5 of us just to get the reaction from the McDonalds staff!

Suffice to say the actual food itself was pretty hopeless, so with our hotel breakfast bar nearly open, Nick and I decided to wait until 6am to get a proper breakfast, before going to bed!

A historic day came to an end then with a characteristic liberal rebellion against authority!

Conference Blog: Day 3 (Sunday)

Never before in a Liberal Democrat conference have I ever felt let down by former F1 World Champion Damon Hill - until today!

The enjoyment levels of the night before at conference can usually be tested by whether I've been able to make breakfast the following morning. Well, yesterday morning I failed and the same can be said for my room mate Ali Goldsworthy. So we both put up a forceful show of unity in having a much needed lie-in!

Damon Hill Let Me Down!
I decided that my first main event of the day would be one that I've been looking forward too ever since the conference directory landed on my doorstep a few weeks ago - the Motor Sports Association fringe! It was in the Hilton Hotel so, along with Nick Love from York Central Lib Dems, we made our way through blustery rain and past the uninspiring group of demonstrating Union activists towards an event that was advertised as having both Damon Hill and Tony Jardine present. As a big F1 fan, this was exciting stuff! So imagine my disappointment, when, having arrived early to beat the expected masses, we found that neither were present! Admittedly we had the very fine replacement of 2 time Le Mans 24 hour winner Allan McNish to listen too but no mention at all of the fact that two of those who were in the original line-up weren't there - no apology or anything whatsoever! Perhaps in an odd way it was a good thing. As it turned out, only about 25-30 of us were there in total. Had we known that those originally promoted as being there wouldn't turn up, the figures could've been even worse!

Nick Clegg Q&A
It was a quick dash over to the Echo Arena for the first time in the day at 2.30pm for the afternoon session of conference and the Welsh Liberal Democrat presentation. There were a few technical glitches but what stood out for me was the excellent performance made by our Welsh Assembly candidate for Montgomeryshire Wyn Williams. It was the first time I've heard him speak at a conference and in front of such a large crowd, I thought he did a smashing job.

We then had the informal but popular, Nick Clegg Q&A Session. The autitorium was full and there were some good questions asked of Nick by members (and some bad ones). Notably, there were good questions asked about pensions, Pakistan and the future direction of the party - all of which Nick answered well. He was in feisty but amusing form and was very well received by delegates. It was good to see Nick also field questions from the audience that hadn't been pre-selected by the conference committee. One of those asked off-the-cuff was by one of our Aberystwyth students Rory Roberson who got a question to Nick about FE funding. He asked the same question of Vince Cable the night before so he's had a good and productive weekend fair play!

Lunching with the English Defence League
Having not eaten all day, I decided to join the student gang who had already gone over to our adopted 'local', the Baltic Fleet for a late afternoon lunch. I'd watched a BBC4 documentary about food in the North recently and noticed that the word 'Scouse' comes from a local dish served in these here parts. It's basically a kind of meat stew/broth/cawl with red cabbage and I decided that I wanted to try some whilst I was in Liverpool. Well, here was my chance, and it must be said, it went down very nicely indeed. Less so were the group of 20-30 or so members of the Merseyside branch of the English Defence League who were eating/drinking/generally making some noise in the room next to us. The police had been tipped off and were keeping an eye on the pub as we arrived. I hope they didn't think that we were with them!

Awards from Nick Clegg
After a break back in the hotel, it was time for the annual Campaign Department's 'Oscars' awards ceremony. Every year the department gives awards out to local parties and campaign teams who have made a significant contribution during the year. Last year, I was delighted to receive an award on behalf of Ceredigion from Nick Clegg, and this year again, in front of our peers I was delighted to do so once more. Nick gave us a bottle of House of Commons champagne for having the best Poster/Stakeboard effort around the country (which I later found out at the bar annoyed our colleagues in Cornwall!). A group of around 15 of us huddled around Nick for a photo and it was great that the whole team that have made it here to conference could share in the event. It's very nice to be appreciated by your colleagues and this annual event is always a pleasant opportunity to celebrate the best practise of local parties the length and breath of the UK.

The Celtic Fringe (with Nick Clegg...again!)
Considering the fact that Nick Clegg will be going to the UN later this week and will be missing the end of conference, we really have been spolit rotten in having his company today! First there was the Q&A, then the much more intimate gathering of senior campaigners at the 'Oscars' ceremony and now, last thing at evening after a group of us 'Welshies' had had a Pizza Express evening meal, we had a joint Scotland/Wales social in the good company of the main man himself as well as Kirsty Williams AM and Tavish Scott MSP (kindly sponsored by the good people at ASDA). We've rarely had an opportunity to get together in such a way in conferences past in my memory so it was good to get the 'Celtic representatives' together in one room for an hour of bonhomie.

After an hour or so at the conference bar afterwards, I went back for an uncharacteristically early night at 1am to prepare for live radio interviews this morning. But as is ever the case, it was great to see some old and familiar faces during the evening. But there's still a few I haven't seen who I know are lurking around here somewhere so one of my mission's for these last few days will be to find them!