After the Fall of Welsh Labour

The crowds on the steps of the Senedd on the morning of Saturday May 9th throbbed with emotion. As Plaids new members of the Senedd arrived, an emotional former Plaid Leader Leanne Wood addressed them with a speech charged with excitement and hope. A Hegelian moment was here symbolised in scenes that could not have been envisaged or imagined a brief five years ago. Were the ghosts of Labour’s victory in 1922 downcast, eyes averted and ashamed of what Welsh Labour had become? 

The valleys of Wales, the political stage of Kier Hardie, Aneurin Bevan and Michael Foot had a complete absence of any Labour representation. The percentage of Labour’s vote was lower than that of the Labour Representation Committee in 1906 when it was still part of the old Liberal Party.  40% of Wales is without a Labour Senedd member and the first First Minister of a devolved Parliament had lost her seat and as the first Female First Minister another grim historical disaster for Welsh Labour. Her speech was emotional but controlled as she took on responsibility for the defeat and called for Welsh Labour to reconnect with the concerns and hopes of the Welsh people. She uttered the words I had almost forgotten hearing from the voice of a Welsh Labour figure the saying long exorcised in the time of Starmer the words ‘ working class’. I thought as I watched the speech it’s too late Eluned, far too late.

And as I watched the tributes paid to Eluned Morgan today I heard the Welsh Labour’s spokesperson amend the words she spoke to the bland Starmerite phrase ‘working people’ they couldn’t even get her words right or even mention class. Welsh Labour is passing away like the mists on the Celtic hills. They can’t use, envisage or even imagine the hopes, desires and aims of the first Keir as the second Keir who now leads them into the dustbin of history.

Plaid was established 101 years ago at the Eisteddfod in Aberystwyth and now it prepares like Labour in 1923 to take power as a minority government. The ironies of history do not escape me as I speculate on the tragic farce that has enveloped Welsh Labour. And yet still they talk of midterm blues and organisational necessity without looking at the long-term trends hidden behind the Drakeford and Corbyn revival of the last ten years.

And as the Senedd prepares to meet we find that of the ninety-six members, sixty-three are new, inexperienced and without the understanding of the last thirty years. The election of May 7th had the highest turnout yet of any Assembly or Senedd poll. 

The thirty-four Reform members will bring over a million pounds to swell the coffers of Farage PLc. The SPADs and staff employed by the Senedd, Reform members will use to campaign for next year’s Council election across Wales and for the General election of 2029. 

And yet the diversity of Plaid in its representatives across gender, ethnicity and age along with its youthful supporters offer hope. Two Greens elected in Cardiff bring hope with a widening of the political spectrum across Wales. Yet too we find elements of the Far-Right intermingling with the Reform leadership and Senedd members. 

Plaids’ squeeze across Wales cost the Greens dear in the final week, it brought near extinction to the Liberal Democrats and made explicit the rottenness at the heart of Labour that was hidden for so long.

And now Wales completes the revelation that all of three nations of these islands are ruled by parties seeking to end the union through independence or reunification. The strange death of Labour Wales is made clear and beyond doubt. Yet like Cassandra London Labour, the Welsh members of the PLP and the remnants of Welsh Labour understand not what is happening or why. Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad. Did the old Liberal Party in 1922 think as Welsh Labour do now? I wonder as history repeats itself first as tragedy and then farce and those of us who know history and doomed to watch it whilst those who know no history are doomed to repeat it…

Plaids emergence comes at a time when great hope and action is needed. The Welsh public are still naked people under an acid rain. What say you Gwyn Alf Williams…what happens next? If Plaid fails another moment in history will be here. I shudder and end my musings… and worry about my grandchildren…if Plaid fails…. après mol le deluge?