Saturday, July 02, 2005
Labour lose control
The Western Mail this morning reports that the ramifications of Peter Law's victory as an independent in Blaenau Gwent continue to reverberate throughout that constituency. An Independent candidate has won a landslide victory to deprive Labour of their majority on Brynmawr Town Council for the first time in living memory.
Some pundits are taking this victory as an indication that Labour has lost its grip on the area and that the voters are prepared to abandon old allegiances to support the candidate rather than the party in future polls. I was speaking to somebody who has strong connections to the Labour Party on Tuesday night. He predicted that Peter Law's agent would contest and win Blaenau Gwent in the 2007 Assembly elections. On the basis of this result he may well be right.
Meanwhile, a longstanding Labour member from neighbouring Islwyn has lost her appeal against expulsion from the Labour Party. Elena Evans' crime was to write to the Western Mail advocating choice. Yet, National Labour HQ has taken this as a sign of support for Peter Law and have rejected pleas for a rethink from her constituency party and her local MP, the former Wales Office Minister, Don Touhig. It seems that freedom of speech is not something that is tolerated witin the Labour Party anymore.
The Western Mail believes that the decision to expel Elena Evans will trigger more resignations from the Labour Party. My contact on Tuesday believes that supporters of Peter Law will now field an independent candidate in Islwyn in 2007, effectively handing that constituency back to Plaid Cymru. We will see if that proves to be correct, but the one thing that is clear is that things are not looking good for Labour in the Gwent valleys at the moment.
Some pundits are taking this victory as an indication that Labour has lost its grip on the area and that the voters are prepared to abandon old allegiances to support the candidate rather than the party in future polls. I was speaking to somebody who has strong connections to the Labour Party on Tuesday night. He predicted that Peter Law's agent would contest and win Blaenau Gwent in the 2007 Assembly elections. On the basis of this result he may well be right.
Meanwhile, a longstanding Labour member from neighbouring Islwyn has lost her appeal against expulsion from the Labour Party. Elena Evans' crime was to write to the Western Mail advocating choice. Yet, National Labour HQ has taken this as a sign of support for Peter Law and have rejected pleas for a rethink from her constituency party and her local MP, the former Wales Office Minister, Don Touhig. It seems that freedom of speech is not something that is tolerated witin the Labour Party anymore.
The Western Mail believes that the decision to expel Elena Evans will trigger more resignations from the Labour Party. My contact on Tuesday believes that supporters of Peter Law will now field an independent candidate in Islwyn in 2007, effectively handing that constituency back to Plaid Cymru. We will see if that proves to be correct, but the one thing that is clear is that things are not looking good for Labour in the Gwent valleys at the moment.
