How to be Popular? A wicked Welsh issue indeed
How do you respond to populism? How can a Government of the left combine an ongoing sense of insurgency with the reality of making the compromises necessary with being in power? Wales offers something of a case-study in these universal dilemmas. The Labour Party has been the dominant party for 102 years, and for the last 26 years has been the main party of Government in our devolved parliament. Next year there will be elections under a newer more proportional system and for the first time Welsh Labour’s position as the largest party is being seriously questioned, and polls sugges t that we are within the margin of error of coming third. The Reform Party has the wind in their sails. It seems to matter not a jot that they don’t have a policy platform, an organisational network, or any local leadership. And this is not a uniquely Welsh phenomenon. As the FT set out in a series of end-of-year charts the trend across the developed world in 2024 was for incumbent governments to be...