Left-wing candidate Mark Drakeford has just been elected as leader of the Welsh Labour Party – and therefore as First Minister – with a 53.9% share of the vote.
Wales at last has a leader from the left – and the UK-wide party benefits as well, a Drakeford will be eligible either to sit on the National Executive Committee in place of Carwyn Jones, or to appoint a trusted representative.
As the SKWAWKBOX showed in an exclusive two-part interview, Drakeford is a long-standing supporter of party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The SKWAWKBOX congratulates him on a resounding victory – and Welsh Labour left on an excellent result.
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Good luck and well done Mark Drakeford.
Well this sounds good. Wales needs to build beyond the environs of Cardiff and I hope Labour when in government in UK parliament invests big time there. I wish Welsh Labour well
Its been a good few days for the left (Wins aplenty) –> https://twitter.com/RichardAngell/status/1069580459305242624
Congratulations. This is good news for Wales and good news for the labour party. Bit by bit Corbyns labour is spreading and the anti Corbynites are become more isolated. All good preparation
Did you here BBC Today program’s last question before the 8.00 news:
Interviewer: “So is Facebook a threat to our democracy?”
Interviewed: “Well yes it is”
Facebook was the main vehicle for Labour’s success in the last election and the conservative machine is determined to remove it before the next one.
Mazeltov Mark! We now need a programme of sweeping nationalisation, the introduction of mandatory reselection and zero tolerance of a second EU referendum, in order to eek the Blairites out.
This is far from the good result it is being represented to be. Mark was expected to sweep the board, whereas he crossed the threshold by less than 4%, and only then after the transfer of second preferences. Some of this may be due to the enthusiastic and competent phone canvassing for Vaughan and Eluned, I didn’t even get a call from Mark’s team, but I suspect that Welsh Labour membership may be a lot less left wing than we thought.
Still, we have the most competent politician in the UK as leader, which can’t be bad.
53.9% still beats 46.1% by 7.8% doesn’t it?
That’s how I count my chickens anyway 🙂
It is a strange thing that here in Wales, with its radical tradition and ‘clear red water’ even in Rhodri Morgan’s day, that Welsh Labour finds itself less left wing than UK Labour as a whole. Perhaps some of this is down to Plaid Cymru having radical left policies and being led by Leanne Wood and now Adam Price (both socialists). For myself, coming of voting age during the Blair era, Plaid was the only option. Huge fan of Corbyn though, always have been.
Hope Drakeford can use the support of Plaid Cymru in the Senedd to deliver a radical left agenda that works for Welsh people, and not pursue illiberal crap like banning vaping.
Be mindful of what you think you’ve got…
http://www.drsallybaker.com/uncategorized/news-flash-welsh-labours-new-leader/
(You’ll need to scroll halfway down)
We have to be cautious though there is still so much latent Labour – liberalism within so many areas of Labour.
Worth saying the 53.9% in the second round compares to 41.4% for Vaughan Gething due to the % being of the number of first round electors. AIUI it’s 56.5% of those who expressed a choice for the second round.