Welsh Journals

THE LIBERAL PARTY AND WALES, 1945-79* 'To a marked degree, Liberalism and nationalism were fused, and in a real sense the Liberals were the party of Wales and the vehicle for its growing national consciousness.'1 Professor Kenneth O. Morgan's graphic words convey the intrinsically close relationship between the Liberal Party and Welsh issues and aspirations from the 1860s until the First World War, since the growth and success of the party in Wales at both parliamentary and local level had coincided with the evolution of a powerful sense of Welsh national identity. From the 1880s onwards in particular, it was the Liberal Party which had taken up Welsh issues-land reform, temperance, education reform and, above all, the disestablishment of the Welsh Church. The Cymru Fydd movement, which attracted much attention and support to Welsh home rule for a decade from 1886, remained throughout its life an integral, unquestioned group within the wider Liberal Party, perhaps a major reason accounting for its eventual downfall and failure. During the 1920s all this was to change. The impact of the depression, particularly the ravages of unemployment and social deprivation, which hit south Wales so hard, made traditional Liberal issues appear anachronistic. Moreover, the acrimonious split between Asquith and Lloyd George in 1916 lived on in the post-war world, particularly in rural Wales. The Liberals' failure to evolve relevant economic, social and international policies in the early twenties, above all the post-war coalition government's failure to implement the majority recommendations of the Sankey Coal Commission in favour of nationalising the mines, drained the party's dwindling support in south Wales, and made it appear an increasingly rural movement, constantly harking back to nineteenth-century issues and controversies. The decline of the Liberal Party in Britain between the wars was an intermittent process, subject to varying influences in different regions. In Wales, the party sharply retreated to the rural mid-, north and west of the country. The formation of the National Government in 1931 saw further dissension and fragmentation within Liberal ranks nationally, reflected in rancour and disarray in Wales. The 'doctor's mandate' election of the following October saw the return of four Simonites, almost indistinguishable from the Conservatives, four mainstream Samuelites, who were in the event to leave the government in I am most grateful to Professor Kenneth O. Morgan for a great deal of assistance in the preparation of this article, and for a number of most helpful suggestions. 1 Kenneth O. Morgan, 'The new Liberalism and the challenge of Labour, 1885-1929', ante, VI (1972-73). 290.