New Year Message

12.00.00am GMT Sat 31st Dec 2005

2006 is that rarest of beast in the current political calendar - a year without an election. But I'm sure that won't mean a year without intrigue. Far from it.

For Welsh Liberal Democrats it is a year which echoes richly with the party's history.

Firstly, it will be the centenary of the Welsh Liberal Landslide of 1906. All 33 constituencies returned an MP who took the Liberal Whip. Only Merthyr Tydfil, which returned two MPs, elected a non-Liberal (Kier Hardie).

Too easily we forget that Wales has such a strong liberal tradition. Wales is, at heart, a liberal country. A country which shares the party's radical, non-conformist background. A country which shares its belief in fairness, and freedom, and a conviction that Wales can do more for itself.

One hundred years ago Wales was a Liberal Nation. But those Liberal traditions never died and the spirit remains. Mark Williams' General Election win earlier this year (2005), proved that it never died out in Ceredigion, and that it can be re-awakened in the rest of Wales.

The second big date this year is the 40th anniversary of creation of the Welsh Liberal Party. A Welsh party which creates its own policies, and sets its own priorities in the non-conformist radical tradition.

That non-conformist tradition in Wales is a rich one. In the city of Cardiff, the statue of John Batchelor (1820-83), 'The Friend of Freedom', stands in The Hayes, as a permanent reminder of that tradition.

John Batchelor was born in Newport but moved to Cardiff during the 1840s where he established a business as a timber merchant.

He saw people dying of typhoid in and around the city and the docks where he worked and knew that improving the sewerage system was the key to eradicating the disease. Every day, he would pin the names of the dead to the town hall door as a reminder to the authorities of the destruction under their noses. As a direct result, the sewers which to this day carry away the city's waste, were built, and the disease was defeated.

Those are the type of outcomes politicians should be aiming to achieve. There is much cynicism today about the motives of politicians. But there remains a need for great and lasting social change and that should be the aim of all of us in public life.

There is as great a need as ever for that non-conformist thinking in modern Wales. Labour's actions over the last 12 months have done a great deal to stifle the diversity of our country.

The fix over devolution - where Labour's interests where put ahead of the country's interests - is one example. The centralisation of bureaucracy as a result of the badly-handled scrapping of the quangos is another. Not forgetting the on-going attempt to impose of a single police force on Wales - regardless of the views of the people.

We need to alter the way decisions are made in Wales to ensure we all have a say: not just the Labour Party.

The balance of power in Wales has shifted towards the Assembly and to all-Wales decisions. What is often called the bonfire of the quangos, has in fact become little more than a power grab by ministers. The bonfire was intended to liberate us from the quangocrats. But rather than liberation, the danger is that the flames suck the oxygen of diversity out of Welsh public life, strangling variety and creating a mono-culture of conformity where only one idea is permitted: Labour's idea.

Yet, at the time when the Labour Party is building a more centralised Welsh state, the people are turning away from monolithic Labour rule - rejecting them in their traditional heartlands. In the last two years Labour has lost elections in Cardiff, Swansea, Bridgend, Wrexham and Blaenau Gwent.

Wales has been dominated too long by a single party which has built a ceiling over the ambition of our communities and individuals - preventing them rising to achieve their true potential.

As we start putting together a manifesto for the 2007 Welsh General Election, Welsh Liberal Democrats are looking for ways to drive out beyond that - break through the red ceiling - by giving people back control over their lives.

Power ascends from people - they loan it to politicians. We are there to serve, not to dictate.

But the present structures of governance often prevent people from exercising power over their own lives. While the Assembly's powers are growing over time, it is important that those powers filter down too.

In Wales we have a diverse society. We need diverse structures to meet the needs of diverse people and provide radical answers to the questions of the day. Our cities, towns and villages don't have to all look the same. Striving to make your area better means taking different directions.

Working together, and supporting each other, individuals can achieve great things. Take housing as an example. Self-support can produce better quality housing. Some of our council housing in Wales is in a terrible condition. We need to bring it up to standard, but if people can manage it themselves - with the proper help - they could see enormous changes, and access funding that councils cannot receive.

Our challenge is to ensure that people don't forget those liberal sensibilities - that there is an alternative to the authoritarian parties.

An alternative for people who don't believe it's right to lock people up without charge. An alternative for people who don't believe that a piece of plastic can prevent terrorist outrages.

An alternative for people who think children should be given help and support rather than being criminalised at the first opportunity.

In the coming year we will be building on our traditional commitment to the individual, to social justice and to civil liberties.

Our tradition of community participation, home rule and decentralisation.

Our commitment to public services provided to serve the community's greater good.

Here's to a liberal New Year.