Welsh Journals

summary of the nature-the strength and weakness-of Lloyd George as a political leader: Basically Lloyd George still hankered after the presidential style. His premiership of 1916 to 1922 still offered the model for his view of leadership. But that premiership, as has been seen, was also his greatest handicap. Ideas and experts were not enough. He needed also supporters, organization, a party base-above all, public trust. These were assets which Lloyd George, however fertile in ideas and initiatives, conspicuously lacked. The insight so astringently demonstrated in this and other similar passages is the mark of a fine historian. H. HEARDER Cardiff. THE POLITICS OF RURAL WALES: A STUDY OF CARDIGANSHIRE. By P. J. Madgwick with Non Griffiths and Valerie Walker. Hutchinson, 1973. Pp. 272. £ 5.50. Students of recent Welsh history have long had a special interest in Cardiganshire politics, and they will not be disappointed by the publica- tion of The Politics of Rural Wales. This book is a landmark in the study of twentieth-century Welsh politics and a fine example of the work of the Department of Political Science at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. In a most skilful and readable manner, Dr. Madgwick and his colleagues have dissected the grass-roots political attitudes of the county. They interviewed in depth a large number of opinion leaders and also analysed decades of back numbers of the Cambrian News, from which they garnered a unique view of Cardiganshire's political history. The core of the research lies in the S.S.R.C.-sponsored opinion survey of over seven hundred electors in the county, using the best available sampling techniques and a carefully-designed questionnaire. This survey included some open- ended questions, and the large amount of information about prevalent political attitudes which resulted is analysed according to the class, politics, age, sex, location, religion and linguistic abilities of the informants. From this base Dr. Madgwick and his team discuss in turn the significance of denomination in county politics, the meaning of the Welsh culture, the importance of the language issue, the soi-disant 'radical' tradition, as well as the images attached by the electors to each political party and the nuances of the local government scene. Yet for all the thoroughness of the authors the survey data must be treated with some caution. Fifteen per cent of the original sample were unwilling or unable to be surveyed and, perhaps as a result of this, the sample used was biased towards the middle-aged at the expense of the young and the old, and in it Liberals and Plaid Cymru supporters were substantially under-represented.