Welsh Journals

THE RADICAL TRADITION IN WELSH POLITICS: A STUDY OF LIBERAL AND LABOUR POLITICS IN GWYNEDD, 1900-1920. By Cyril Parry. University of Hull (Occasional Papers in Economic and Social History, No. 2), 1970. Pp. 89. £ 1.25. This short book by Cyril Parry is an example of local history at its best. In telling the story of political development in three north Wales counties at the start of the present century, Mr. Parry has contributed greatly to our understanding of Gwynedd, whilst at the same time he has raised questions and sustained conclusions that should be of considerable interest to historians, both of modern Wales and of modern British politics. The book successfully illustrates the necessity of looking at regional examples, so that one may escape from the generalizations that characterise attempts to chronicle national developments, and in particular it should serve to remind the increasing number of labour historians that to understand political traditions and development one must first attempt to understand the society in which these emerged. As far as the Labour Party is concerned, Mr. Parry's thesis is that in Gwynedd 'Labour politics worked themselves out within a framework of liberal standards for the politics of conflict were alien to this area'. Labour politics in this area have to be studied, then, very much within the context of Gwynedd radicalism, at least until a new type of labour leader emerged in the new circumstances of the 1920s. We are reminded of Gwynedd's isolation and of those factors which moulded an indigenous political tradition, but this thesis is one which has a great deal of relevance for those interested in similar changes in Britain as a whole. The issues may be more clear-cut in Gwynedd, but an increased emphasis on the significance of a radical tradition would not be out of place in many other areas of Great Britain. All too often in labour history, ideology, discontinuity, and heroic industrial conflicts have been emphasized at the expense of an understanding of the culture in which the I.L.P. and the Labour Party developed. 'The Rise of Labour' was a national phenomenon-it was not limited to Tonypandy, Clydeside and the East End-and in many respects Gwynedd may be nearer the norm than we think. Above all, Mr. Parry's book should set one thinking about the break-up of Liberalism in Wales and in Britain generally. Naturally he stresses the significance of the war years, but he also points to other factors which contributed to the way in which Liberalism surrendered its mass support. The 'middle-class caucuses' which controlled Welsh Liberalism were made up of men who often showed considerable apathy towards labour questions, excessive conservatism in the selection of candidates, a complacency in their failure to maintain local party organizations, and a depressing tendency to forget the problems of their constituents. In arguing that these years saw one political elite replacing another within a wider tradition of radicalism, Mr. Parry has written a book that should prove useful to Welsh politicians as well as to Welsh historians. PETER STEAD Swansea