A passion for principles
Bubble — By Willy Nilly on July 13, 2010 2:00 pm
Huw Lewis has seldom enjoyed the backing of the Welsh Labour hierachy
EXACTLY what is it about Huw Lewis that appears to prompt such strong reactions within the Cardiff Bay bubble? To some, especially among the next generation of Welsh Labour Party politicians and stalwarts, he is a passionate, radical and modernising voice. To others, he is a divisive, sectarian and temperamental figure.
The problem may be that Huw sits awkwardly in the double axis of Welsh politics. This is not the left v right and libertarian v authoritarian scales as it tends to be in British politics. Instead Welsh politics splits along consensual v adversarial/devolutionist v centralist lines. Huw manages to be both adversarial and devolutionist. Home rule for Wales with the parties in their trenches is his approach.
This is confusing, because if you believe in the former you should reach out from the latter, according to many. It doesn’t endear him to opponents, and members of his own Labour Group have found it a difficult mixture at times, particularly when Labour’s less than commanding position called for a cuddlier approach than he is inclined toward. His role in backing the doomed Alun Michael, meanwhile, left him with a Blairite tag somewhat at odds with his core convictions, and which only the gradual replacement of the 1999 intake by newer blood is easing.
But Huw is undoubtedly a passionate politician, who believes in the causes he espouses and the place – Merthyr Tydfil – he represents. The latter credential has been harder to justify than it should be given his decision to school his young children, and thus effectively make his family home, in Penarth. But nobody should confuse this decision for a less than enduring and undimmed loyalty to the town of his birth, and the South Wales Valleys. When he is at his best he combines this passion with shrewd political calculation. His work from the backbenches on child poverty demonstrated this skill, and applied effective pressure on the government that, as a junior Minister, he must now take forward.
Sometimes, however, the passion overwhelms the calculation. In a decade or more of plenary debates, Huw is the only AM to have invited a fellow legislator to take an argument outside, a call he denies was an invitation for a punch-up. His resignation from government over the issue of sheep carcass dumping in his constituency enraged the then Rural Affairs Minister Cawyn Jones. He may well regret his decision to oppose the alliance with Plaid when it was first mooted, a decision that resulted in yet another defenestration and renewed the bogus anti-devolutionist tag.
Yet through this controversy, Huw Lewis has succeeded where other AMs have perhaps not. He has carved for himself a place as an ideologue – someone who believes in a programme for government derived from a set of principles, grounded in a fierce and authentic passion for social justice. You don’t have to like him, but it is difficult to believe that he lacks conviction.
Tags: Assembly, Huw Lewis
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9 Comments
Can’t take issue with this assessment – balanced and fair.
I didn’t support Huw in the recent Welsh Labour leadership election. But my respect for him, as an individual and as a leader of Welsh Labour, grew throughout the campaign.
Huw brought new thinking, commitment and passion to the debate and, for me, hugely enhanced his stature in the Party. Few members I talked to doubted that Huw emerged from the Welsh Labour leadership contest as a likely leader in waiting.
I do hope this encomium hasn’t marred his chances …
Politics grounded in social justice…but conditioned on not challenging New Labour on any single issue.
Where was Huw’s social conscience when Labour first brought in welfare reform? I vividly remember it was Leanne Wood and Dai Lloyd arguing against it, with Huw nowhere to be found. Unsurprising seeing as Leane actually lives in the Rhondda an Huw is a champagne socialist setting up his “20/20 think tanks” from the comfort of the Vale the wealthiest area in Wales. It’s easy to fight child poverty from the towers of privelege, much less so when you’re fighting against the complete sell out of the Labour party.
You’ve got your genuine socialists in Welsh Labour like John Griffiths, Christine Chapman, Jane Davidson and even Carwyn Jones, I am completely assures by the political evidence that Huw in fact made a convenient conversion to fashionable left-wing politics once Labour looked ready for opposition.
An interesting contribution, Partisan. Do you say that Leanne Wood is less privileged than Huw Lewis because she lives in the Rhondda?
No I do not. I say she lives in the territory she represents (indirectly through her regional seat- or directly in terms of it’s the political territory most often associated with her). To put a spatial context on advocating for your community. I was also constructing a wider metaphorical point – there is much about Huw Lewis’ public identity that is oppositional to socialist politics. I think welfare reform would be far and out the best illustration of that.
Balanced, my backside!
This has to be the worst of these profiles to date.
I’m glad to say Gez wasn’t alone there. Partisan’s ‘name’ should have given me a clue about the tone of his article. But perhaps his or her surname is Petty “It’s easy to fight child poverty from the towers of privelege” – what a ridiculous statement, Huw is hardly from a privileged background, and I’d rather focus on the qualities and values that his work shows rather than make small-minded smart alec comments about postcodes. I really think we need to ask ourselves about the parochial nature of some of our debate in Wales. What would have happened if the people who selected past greats like Hardie or Foot had’ve turned up for the selection meeting with such narrow minded cynicism rather than with hope and open minds?
Not neccessarily on this article specifically but on WillyNilly’s series as a whole, I like his anti-cynicism stance. I also find it very funny that the usual hoard of Nats with a laptop and lots of time to fill always moan about the style and content of these pieces, accusing them of being unbalanced and fawning… until it’s a Plaid AM, in which case the piece is, of course, entirely reasonable.
“accusing them of being unbalanced and fawning… until it’s a Plaid AM, in which case the piece is, of course, entirely reasonable.”
Sorry Anthony. Please find evidence of ‘nats with a laptop’ praising the style of the WIlly Nilly pieces when Plaid AMs are featured?
I generally avoiding commenting on the pieces, because I said my piece on the initial one. I disagreed with the ending of having named by lines, the editors chose – it is their right and I respect it. Why would I repeat that argument on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th pieces?
I don’t think Anthony’s quite hit the nail on the head here. Where he’s right is that we deliberately went for pieces that displayed an “anti-cynicism stance.” Where he’s wrong is that I don’t think Plaid activists online particularly defended their own and condemned everyone else.
If there was any trend – and this is admittedly a very small sample of 4 Labour, 3 Plaid, 2 Conservative and 1 Lib Dem AMs – it seemed to me that the Labour politicians had the hardest time in terms of the comments that came in. Which surprises me, as I would have anticipated the Conservatives might have got the bigger kicking.
Marcus wrote: “I generally avoiding commenting on the pieces, because I said my piece on the initial one. I disagreed with the ending of having named by lines, the editors chose – it is their right and I respect it.”
Indeed you did, Marcus.
I have been asked today whether Willy Nilly will come back. It was always intended as a short series rather than an exhaustive look at 60 members, but I think we succeeded in our intention to do something different with a fresh tone, even it it wasn’t to everyone’s taste.
Time will tell whether Willy Nilly is revived and characters as dubious as Nerys Evans, Ann Jones and David Melding are given the anti-cynical treatment. Nobody has yet lobbied me or the other editors for such preferment…
Daran,
An idea I thought would be to get AMs to interview each other, from different parties. S4C did try something along those lines, with mixed results, but might be worth a punt.