Thursday, November 30, 2006

Peter Black and Leadership Challenges

I am getting a few emails about Peter Black's Blog today and his encouragement to the winner of last night's 'Politician to Watch' oscar, Kirsty Williams to take the next opportunity to challenge Mike German for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats in the National Assembly. Mike must really love Peter. But it has started me thinking about leadership challenges. The National Assembly could be the first institution to go through the first decade of its existance without any leadership challenge of any sort. We haven't seen any sign whatsoever of the phemenon which seems to grip Westminster politics on a regular basis. Perhaps its a Welsh thing that we never challenge the leader, no matter what.

There have been leadership changes but nothing to do with challenges. Alun Michael was kicked out by the opposition parties, Rod Richards resigned as the result of a personal problem, Dafydd Wigley resigned as a result of ill-health and I never really understood why Ieuan resigned. Something to do with Dai Lloyd telling him that not everybody in his group thought losing 30% of Plaid's Assembly seats at one go was a 'gold star' performance. Anyway, once he'd recovered his balance, he realised that this Welsh loyalty thing would work in his favour and he unresigned himself. It looks as if Peter is impatient to see an internal party election - probably just to liven things up a bit. And it puts a bit of pressure on Mike German to deliver next May.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

And will it be Nick Bourne again for the conservatives? Or are there leadership ambitions floating around on that side of the chamber too?