THE LIB Dems seem terrified that the expected referendum on extra powers for the Assembly will be lost unless a unified Yes campaign is able to concentrate fully on that issue and not be distracted by an election, writes Clive Betts from the Assembly press gallery.
The party has indeed been concerned for some time that the Labour Party’s unwillingness to commence organising at the earlier time possible – ie, some time ago – an all-party Yes campaign will lead to a referendum defeat.
That was the line continually spun by the Welsh LD party’s previous leader, Mike German.
Now we have a variation on that tune. This time it comes from Peter Black, the party’s AM for South West – and voice for present leader Kirsty Williams in the land of hard-spun policy.
Mr Black was playing hard-ball at his party’s weekly press briefing. If the coalition parties, Labour and Plaid, did not give assurances that the dates of the referendum and the 2011 election were not separated, the LDs would refused to vote for the trigger-motion that would enable the referendum to go ahead.
Few journalists believed that the LDs would, in fact, stick to their guns when the time for next week’s vote arrives. The party are just too pro-devolution.
It’s true that it seems likely that the LDs would be willing to accept a weaker form of promise on this issue than would the Tories – who are taking a very similar line.
Speaking to the press, Mr Black was very convincing on why the referendum had to be split from the election. Basically, an election is the time when parties maximise their differences with every other party.
It’s hardly the sort of time when your campaigners would either want to – or be capable of – start talking about how much they agree with aspects of another party’s policies,
But then another issue has perhaps to be brought into the reckoning. This is the issue of who in fact wrecked the planned rainbow coalition alliance between Plaid, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems immediately after the last Welsh general election in 2007.
The Western Mail reported that former Plaid parliamentary candidate Sian Caiach, of Llanelli, stated in her letter resigning from the party that one of the reasons she was quitting was because the party had turned their back on the rainbow alliance.
The party had decided to link with Labour because, she claimed, senior figures in Plaid were unwilling to see Ieuan Wyn Jones become First Minister.
Now, that’s a very, very interesting story. And there could well be a lot of truth in it.
Except for the fact that the rainbow deal collapsed because the Lib Dems walked out – to the not-inconsiderable fury of the party’s two former ministers in the coalition they had once run with Labour – Mike German and Jenny Randerson.
After the Lib Dems had done the dirty, a deal with Labour was all that was left for Plaid to enter into. For some reason the Western Mail didn’t tell us that.
Perhaps that was because they couldn’t remember. Or the reporter couldn’t find the file of the story in the paper’s library. Or because the paper didn’t even have an Assembly reporter at the time.
But why did the Lib Dems walk out ?
Because of a demonstration outside a meeting of the Lib Dem’s Welsh executive being held in Llandrindod.
The demo was in opposition to the planned rainbow coalition.
I don’t think we ever discovered the precise reason. But it was said at the time that the basic reason behind it was opposition by some prominent Brecon and Radnor Lib Dems to any close link with the Tories.
The reason for that was purely local constituency concerns about the contest with the Tories at subsequent elections. In other words, local concerns killed national policy.
The local Lib Dem AM is of course Kirsty Williams. She has indignantly denied allegations from inside her party that she was a driving force in that demo.
In any case, she is now facing her first big national test.
Which may be why she – in the form of Peter Black – is threatening to act so strongly against both the election and the referendum being on the same day.
