Amongst Labour’s impressive gains in last June’s general election were a number of rural and coastal constituencies. David Drew re-took Stroud and is now serving as a Shadow DEFRA Minister, and my good friend Tonia Antoniazzi won the Gower constituency back for Labour. Not only does this bring us closer to delivering a Labour government…
Constituencies like the Vale of Glamorgan are exactly the sorts of seats Labour needs to win for Westminster – a mix of town, coast and country; of retired, working and not; of high skilled manufacturing, of city commuting and of local jobs. Labour needed to engage with seats like this in 2015, while the impending boundaries…
One of the familiar strap-lines of the Scarlets; and an oft repeated remark of my west coast friends and family. Last weekend saw a significant pick up in the campaigning for the Welsh Assembly elections. We joined comrades on the Gower, in Llanelli and in Ogmore to support their respective AM West is best candidates – Rebecca Evans…
Sunday lunch-time of the first day of Conference 2015 saw over 40 members from across England and Wales gather to reflect on what next for Labour in communities of coast and country. After moving to a larger room to accommodate everyone more comfortably, a wide ranging discussion occupied those present for almost two hours. That discussion…
Sadly it isn’t a journey of engagement with a Labour led government, but a renewed period of opposition – lets hope it doesn’t become unduly introspective as we all endeavour to work out what worked, and what did not – and more importantly what’s required to win in 2020. As a Co-Founder of Labour: Coast…
The delightful counties of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire contain four parliamentary seats, all of which have been Labour, which we need to win again if we are to have a good chance of achieving a majority government in 2015. Taken together these seats are perhaps a microcosm of the challenge we face to win a majority…
In considering the particular needs of rural communities and individuals, the Labour Party must appreciate that these are as much in and of the mainstream as city-dwellers. We share the same concerns for the big issues of the national economy, defence, jobs, immigration etc. A Rural Manifesto focused solely on our special issues would be…
