Welsh Journals

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the existence of tension and friction in Welsh Liberal ranks-in spite of an eloquent speech from Lloyd George.153 'I expect you were amused by U.G.'s election speech in Cardigan', wrote Selby-Bigge to Herbert Lewis. 'He was quite in his old form but I don't think he will unite the Liberal party just yet.'154 In both Welsh and British politics the reign of Lloyd George had largely come to an end. His calls early in 1933 for a new radical party came to nothing, and the British 'New Deal' which he enthusiastically unveiled to his Bangor constituents in January 1935 soon proved be little more than a damp squib. AsT. Huws Davies put it in 1933 in his review of inter-war political life, What then of rural Wales? Nominally at present it is Liberal. Some people would say that this only means that parts of it remain loyal to Mr Lloyd George, while he is out of power and has no opportunity of giving effect to his advanced social and economic policy, and that the remainder considers that Liberalism and Conservatism in the new world mean the same thing, and, since a change of name might disturb the spirits of their ancestors, it is not worthwhile to change it.155 J. GRAHAM JONES Aberystwyth 153 See H.C. Jones, 'The Labour Party in Cardiganshire, 1918-66', Ceredigion, IX (1980-3), 156-57. 154 NLW, Sir John Herbert Lewis Papers Al/661, L. A. Selby-Bigge to Lewis, 24 September 1932. 155 The Welsh Outlook 1933, no. 12 (special number), 340.