Alan Butt Phillip almost let the cat out of the bag when introduced to the press as lead Lib Dem candidate for next year’s European elections.
The first part of his campaign, he said, would be among party members. Those who recall past Euro-campaigns quietly added – among party members to ensure that they turned out to vote Lib Dem rather than UKIP.
For the Welsh party’s stalwarts among the farmers of Brecon, Radnor and Montgomery are, for some strange reason, rather opposed to Europe. Which presumably helps accounts for the party’s dismal result in the 2004 poll.
But Mr Phillip was trying to say that his task was to persuade party members to go out and campaign – which they don’t like doing.
Currently, the Euro-seats are split, with two for Labour, and one each for Plaid and the Tories. I suppose Mr Phillip’s main hope must be to take advantage of a Labour vote that is almost sure to collapse badly – hit by the combined factors of a worn-out party and, significantly for Wales, the retirement of Glenys Kinnock.
He also – rather forlornly – hopes to steal pro-Euro votes from Tories who believe leader David Cameron is somewhat anti-Europe.
Mr Philip is author of The Welsh Question, the first academic volume to lay bare the make-up of the entire political and social system in Wales, published in 1975. Currently, he lectures in Bath but is shortly moving back to Wales.
The second on the list is another name to watch in liberalism. Kevin O’Connor is one of the tiny Lib Dem group of councilors which is having such as effect on Merthyr, where they came from nowhere to win six seats and a place in the cabinet; he learned many of his political skills serving Cardiff Lib Dems as a full-timer.
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