Coming up in August: Guess who’s back?
A MONTH ago Welsh-born Julia Gillard became leader of the Australian Labor Party and Prime Minister of Australia. And next month WalesHome catches up…
About the author
David Taylor was Special Adviser to Peter Hain as Secretary of State for Wales until the last General Election. A former aide to Welsh Education Minister Leighton Andrews, he's worked on more campaigns for Labour than he can remember. He is currently in Australia trying to help re-elect Welsh-born PM Julia Gillard
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funny how, if Plaidies go off to Cornwall to help out, it becomes the ammunition for their own destruction. If Labourites go off to Australia to help out, they get their own column. Funny that…. :p
Other than the fact that Gillard is Welsh-born what is the relevance to Wales and Welsh folk of the Australian elections? Just wondering. Congrats on the multi-media move by the way.
Great to see he still makes the nats bite. They just can’t get enough of him
Good luck in Oz. Looking forward to the podcasts.
PS Gd luck to Plaid in Cornwall too.
We obviously did it because of its wind-up value. Stop asking difficult questions, Williams
Yeah, Rob, stop over thinking things. You know we love elections on this site. And because we’re basically a Labour front organisation, working openly with DT seemed a natural next step.
@DuncanHiggitt – The water goes down the plug-hole the wrong way in Australia, you know?
@DaranHill – I thought as much Hill, what with your deeply held socialist beliefs and all.
To be fair, I thought you was referring to Aneurin Glyndwr coming back.
Still, I think the Oz stuff will be interesting.
We’re changing the name of the site to OneWalesHome.
(I wish I could claim credit for that one, but sadly I can’t.)
Why wait until next month when through the wonders of the internet you can read all the Australian papers. I thought that Gillard would walk it but it looks as if the first week of the campaign has been a disaster because of a series of damaging leaks from within the Labor party. Her poll rating has fallen by 8% since the election began. Labor is now only 1% ahead of the Liberals. Could history be repeating itself? The last time the Australian Labor Party was led by someone with a Welsh connection, Billy Hughes led it to electoral disaster.
If David Taylor’s helping her, Gillard might as well pack up now… he’s got the Sadim touch. Excellent news for Welsh Labour.
Terry, not sure I agree with you there. The last 2 campaigns David worked on have been relatively successfully. He was part of Team Carwyn at the tail end of last year, and at this year’s General Election Labour did better in Wales than in England, only losing 3 seats. It also had by far the most consistent and effective messaging in Wales through Peter Hain, with whom David was working. It’ll be interesting to see what he learns in Australia, or what Australian Labor learns from him
If he’s superman, why isn’t he here, helping Labour rebuild? The words rat/ship spring to mind (which says more about the current state of Labour than about David, who can blame him?)
And yeah, she may have been born in Wales, but she is a tinny-cracking, barbie-lighting, matilda-waltzing, tangaroo-tie-me-downing Aussie now.
You can’t learn anything from Australia. It’s unique. Gillard has just said that she will get the rats who are leaking. The rats are of course fellow members of the Labor Party who have informed the press that privately she opposed two of Labor’s more popular measures in recent years. Someone else who believes that the King Rat and leaker is the former PM Kevin Rudd has just questioned whether he is a man and called him a snake. All great stuff. Gillard, who is a female Larrikin in the Bob Hawke tradition, can really dish it out. Luckily for her she went to Australia where they appreciate a politician with a bit of spirit. In the UK she probably wouldn’t have even got on the short list for a seat.
O god.
Why doesn’t Taylor’s bio mention Aneurin Glyndwr? Whatever you think of the site, it is the most high profile project he has led to date.
It might be a coincidence but David Taylor’s arrival in Australia has seen the Liberal/National parties overtake Labor in the latest opinion poll. It looks as if Ramsay Street could be a lot tougher than the Rhondda.