It must be three to four years since a young lad walked into my office in Welshpool, and announced (or at least his mum did) that he was interested in helping me and the Conservative Party. Now this was pre-Cameron days, so it was the political equivalent of hailstones in July - not unprecedented but noteworthy. When he told Pam, who runs the place, that he was a whizzo on the computer, the political career of Craig Williams was born. Last week he was elected to represent the Pentyrch ward on Cardiff City Council.
It was a very good result for Craig. The seat had been won by the Conservatives in the Council Elections two months ago - by just 47 votes. I thought it would be a tough ask for a new candidate to hold on, against the same Labour candidate who fought the May election. Craig increased the Conservative vote from 478 to 554, even if his majority was cut to just 12. His Labour opponent, Christine Priday will have been disappointed not to have won but pleased that she increased her vote from 429 to 542. More significantly, the Plaid Cymru vote crashed from 275 to 129 and the Lib Dem vote also dropped from 110 to 97. These drops are worse than at first they appear because in May an 'Independent' also took 99 votes. Do I hear Plaid activists wailing "We're doomed. Where's our Alex Salmond when we need him?"
The point of this post is not to niggle all those Plaid bloggers which are supposed to be dominating the Welsh 'blogosphere', but to highlight the arrival of Craig Williams of Welshpool on the Welsh political scene.
7 comments:
Great news, Congratulations Craig, woz really pleased to read of your success.
Glyn, I agree success in Cardiff is definetly worth noting. Having met Craig on a number of occassions I can honestly say he is a really nice, honest, kind guy and I have no doubt he'll do the electorate proud.
Great to see young people getting elected..so well done Craig.
However your attack in non-party or Independent councillors - well I wonder what ever happened to Independent Montgomeryshire councillor Glyn Davies?
Not blinded by the bright lights of Cardiff Bay?
Russ and Sarah - well said.
anon - What on earth are you getting at. You will never have heard me attack 'independent' councillors. For the whole of my local authority and quango career, I was an Independent myself - and proud of it.
perhaps now that he is a Councillor, Nick Bourne can start writing his own blog.Perish the thought!
Congratulation to Master Williams, we shall watch his career with great interest. It is a pity you have no other youngsters in Montgomeryshire to take his place.
Roman - But I think we do have others, not quite as young as Craig. Over recent years Montgomeryshire has produced Simon Baynes, Dan Munford, Suzy Davies and Craig plus six new councillors, some of whom will be making a mark.
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