These were events which prefigured and did much to shape the political battles of the last half century, the devolution half century in Wales. They shaped the non-nationalist, but distinctive Welsh social democratic preferences of the last sixty years. For anyone interested in the formative moments of today's Wales, this is both essential and highly entertaining reading." – Mark Drakeford, First Minister of Wales 2018-2024 It was a period of Welsh politics that has become etched in the collective memory. The rise of a Welsh independence movement and the first Plaid Cymru Member of Parliament. The Labour Party searching for a way forward in a political climate that was riven with dissension and eventual rancour. It was a fight for social democracy against the centralised power of the British state. The first battlefield was Carmarthen and the protagonists were Gwynfor Evans, the leader of Plaid Cymru and the young Labour hopeful Gwynoro Jones. Their rivalry lasted throughout the Seventies. They fought three elections and on one occasion the result was decided by just three votes. This book tells the story of a political rivalry which was also very personal. It was a local confrontation that drew on national battlelines. It was about Carmarthen and Wales. Both men had their vision of the Wales they wanted to fight for. These pages unfold the story from Gwynoro Jones' perspective for the first time, in an attempt to redress the imbalance of Gwynfor Evans' story dominating the narrative for so long. Drawing on an extensive archive, collected at the time, Gwynoro shows how the two fought their politics in the newspapers of the day and through speeches on constituency public platforms, where they argue about the Welsh language and devolution, Europe and agriculture. But they only ever actually met once. Gwynoro also reflects on how he views those turbulent years today. Through their wranglings, a picture is also painted of Welsh politics in the decade that led up to the referendum on devolution in 1979, as Plaid and Labour searched for a way forward. And ultimately, a generation later, to the creation of a parliament for Wales.
So whose Wales is it? There is a degree of ambiguity that runs through Welsh politics that in turn has hindered discussions of a clear Welsh political identity. Can any one party claim to have done more than any other in the fight for securing and then developing Welsh devolution? The track record of all four main players, Liberal, Labour, Conservative and Plaid Cymru, is looked at, from the time of Queen Victoria to these days of devolution and Yes Cymru. From one of the leading proponents of the devolution of Wales, Gwynoro Jones, and an award-winning author and former BBC journalist, Alun Gibbard, this well illustrated book looks at these often-bitter claims and counterclaims. Alun Gibbards' insightful documenting and analysis complement Gwynoro Jones' first-hand experience and knowledge in a project that is unique in its scope and structure. Between 1536 and 1542 the regime of Henry VIII incorporated Wales into England. Wales was to have no separate existence. Its language was banned from public life and its legal system abolished. It was meant to disappear. Yet here we are in the 21st Century with an increasingly self-governing Wales with a strong sense of identity and a pride in its language. Alun Gibbard and Gwynoro Jones have traced the revival of Wales from the industrialising country of the 1880s and the nonconformist consciousness that led to Sunday closing. They describe the bitter battles over devolution in the 1970s through to the small margin in favour of a Welsh Assembly in 1997 and on to the well-established lawmaking, tax-varying Parliament with solid public support that we see today. We were not meant to be here. This book shows how we survived. Carwyn Jones First Minister of Wales 2009-2018 The rhetorical question in the book's title, Whose Wales? echoes the kind of questions which historians and political commentators have raised over the decades, from Gwyn Alf Williams' When was Wales? to Dai Smith's enigmatic question in the title of his book on Welsh politics, Wales! Wales? Professor Sir Deian Hopkin.
These were events which prefigured and did much to shape the political battles of the last half century, the devolution half century in Wales. They shaped the non-nationalist, but distinctive Welsh social democratic preferences of the last sixty years. For anyone interested in the formative moments of today's Wales, this is both essential and highly entertaining reading." – Mark Drakeford, First Minister of Wales 2018-2024 It was a period of Welsh politics that has become etched in the collective memory. The rise of a Welsh independence movement and the first Plaid Cymru Member of Parliament. The Labour Party searching for a way forward in a political climate that was riven with dissension and eventual rancour. It was a fight for social democracy against the centralised power of the British state. The first battlefield was Carmarthen and the protagonists were Gwynfor Evans, the leader of Plaid Cymru and the young Labour hopeful Gwynoro Jones. Their rivalry lasted throughout the Seventies. They fought three elections and on one occasion the result was decided by just three votes. This book tells the story of a political rivalry which was also very personal. It was a local confrontation that drew on national battlelines. It was about Carmarthen and Wales. Both men had their vision of the Wales they wanted to fight for. These pages unfold the story from Gwynoro Jones' perspective for the first time, in an attempt to redress the imbalance of Gwynfor Evans' story dominating the narrative for so long. Drawing on an extensive archive, collected at the time, Gwynoro shows how the two fought their politics in the newspapers of the day and through speeches on constituency public platforms, where they argue about the Welsh language and devolution, Europe and agriculture. But they only ever actually met once. Gwynoro also reflects on how he views those turbulent years today. Through their wranglings, a picture is also painted of Welsh politics in the decade that led up to the referendum on devolution in 1979, as Plaid and Labour searched for a way forward. And ultimately, a generation later, to the creation of a parliament for Wales.
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