This is what the Welsh Liberal Democrats are for?

Written by Peter Black and published in Western Mail on Wed 29th Aug 2007

The outcome of the 2007 Assembly elections was both frustrating and disappointing for the Welsh Liberal Democrats. Despite increasing our vote share in the constituencies, despite fighting a very professional all-Wales campaign, we failed for the second time to increase the size of our Assembly Group past six.

I have no desire to re-open the debate that the party entered into following the election. The outcome of those discussions was that we voted to go into a rainbow coalition with Plaid Cymru and the Tories only to see the nationalists walk away and sign up to a deal with Labour. There are a few things that need to happen now, firstly the party needs to learn the lessons of the past few months, we need to regroup and then rebuild with the one clear aim of getting our message to the people of Wales.

Our problem last May was our failure to connect with voters. We failed to make it clear to them what it means to be a Welsh Liberal Democrat. We went into the election with a detailed manifesto containing hundreds of radical policies, many of which we shared with the other parties. Although we pulled out three particular policy areas to major on in the election, these issues were not presented clearly or effectively and they turned out to be the same issues that the other parties were promoting as well. We failed to make them relevant or unique to us because we did not relate our positions to the day to day experience of ordinary voters. In other words we did not use our manifesto as a campaigning tool.

One reason for that omission is that we have spent too long mistaking our activity in the hallowed corridors of the Assembly for campaigning. Whilst the work we do in the Assembly is important, for a political party it can never be a substitute for honest groundwork and visible local community involvement. In many cases we failed to get out into communities to deliver our message to voters. That has not been universal, because in those areas where we did work and where we did have a message that resonated with people, our vote not only held up but dramatically increased. It was the rest of Wales, the vast majority of communities where that did not happen.

Our elected Parliamentarians and Assembly Members should be taking a lead, getting out onto the streets with other activists to talk and listen to people about their concerns and ideas. We should be using the real experience of our constituents and framing our policies in a way that they can identify with.

In other words we need to put into practice on a national level what is at the heart of Welsh Liberal Democrat philosophy, devolution, localisation, community empowerment, real, genuine interaction with communities.

As a party we have to recognise the opportunities that now present themselves to us and make the most of them. The red-green coalition that has taken the reins of power in Cardiff Bay is based on a One Wales document that is vague in many parts and uncosted in others. It dodges important issues such as the future of nuclear power for the sake of political expediency. According to One Wales all the answers to Wales' problems lie with the government, not with the people who keep Wales going. It fails to address key policy matters such as class sizes for 7 to 11 year olds and the higher education funding gap between England and Wales. It relies shamelessly on gimmicks such as grants for first time home owners and free laptops for kids that do not deal with the problems they are intended for, whilst squandering vital resources.

We are in opposition, but we are far from insignificant. With 6 out of the 19 opposition Assembly Members we will have far more opportunities to scrutinise and to set the agenda both in the Assembly and in the press. We also lead four major Councils with a population of about a million people and are delivering improved services and better governance to them. That is a strong record to defend next May.

This is our chance to refine a distinctive, dynamic and radical message that will have wide appeal in future Welsh elections. At the heart of that message are the Liberal Democrat principles of fairness, honesty and justice. We are committed to tackling poverty and inequality, to taking the hard decisions that will improve our environment and our quality of life, that will remove barriers and offer people the educational and employment opportunities to better their lives and which will open up government and make it more transparent and accountable.

Despite not being in government the Welsh Liberal Democrats have a major role in prosecuting this agenda. It should form the basis of our campaigning and of our work in ensuring that the new coalition government is giving the best deal for the people of Wales. We may be able to agree with other parties on some common elements but taken as a whole this is a unique Welsh Liberal Democrat vision, which values the individual and the inter-locking communities we live and work in. It is about empowering people, not dictating to them, about using the levers of government to remove barriers and create opportunity, not to run things from the centre. It is about working with local people to take on vested interests where that is necessary.

It is our strength as campaigners, enablers, environmentalists, civil libertarians, federalists, and social reformers that define what the Welsh Liberal Democrats are. Our time will come to implement these reforms as part of a left of centre Assembly Government but in the meantime we should use our position in local government to promote this agenda, whilst using our ideas and principles to redefine the role of the second opposition party in the Assembly as the one that can best reflect the aspirations and needs of people in their communities.

Peter Black is the Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West. A former Deputy Minister for Local Government he currently speaks for his party on social justice, housing and communities.