Clear Red Water - 100 Years of Welsh Labour

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BBC Radio Wales FM

Factual: Politics

A three-part series marking one of the most remarkable milestones of political dominance.

Rhian E Jones presents a three-part series marking one of the most remarkable milestones of political dominance in the democratic world.

BBC Radio Wales Extra

Clear Red Water - 100 Years of Welsh Labour: From The Ground Up - Mass Movement To Mass Party

From The Ground Up - Mass Movement To Mass Party

BBC Radio Wales - Clear Red Water - 100 Years of Welsh Labour, From The Ground Up - Mass Movement To Mass Party

Why has Labour been the biggest political party in Wales for the last century?

It’s 100 years since Labour first topped a Welsh election poll. Today they still dominate politics in Wales. Historian Rhian E Jones explores the secrets to their unique success.

It’s one hundred years since Labour first started to dominate the political landscape in Wales.  And they are still the country’s dominant political party after an unbroken record of winning the most seats – that is a story unique in the UK.  

How have they achieved this extraordinary feat, and what were the sacrifices, the compromises and the challenges along the way?  In Clear Red Water social historian Rhian E Jones tracks the fortunes of this mighty political machine, and finds out about some of the individuals (some of whom most of us have never heard of) who built it into what it is today. 

She finds out about the early days just after World War I, when Welsh working-class people defected from the Liberals to a party that seemed to represent better who they were and what they hoped for, and explores how Labour first really had power in Wales through running local councils in the dark times of the 1930s.  The dawn of a new age after World War II with Attlee’s reforming government thrust Nye Bevan and other Welsh MPs into the limelight. All along the way, there were constant arguments within the party over socialism versus pragmatism, Unionism versus Nationalism, some of which continue to this day.

This three-part series takes us through how Labour fared in Wales during the Thatcher era, and finds the threads of belief and experience which led to Labour’s almost wholehearted support for devolution by 1997.  

With historians and commentators, Rhian Jones takes a long hard look at this extraordinary century of political dominance, and asks “what has Labour done for Wales?”

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