For Professor Richard Wyn Jones of Cardiff University, Welsh Labour’s 100 years as the nation’s dominant political force makes it the most successful party in the democratic world.
It would be foolish to belittle the scale of such an achievement and Welsh Labour certainly has much to be proud of.
But having a single party in such a position for so long inevitably raises questions about whether such a situation is desirable or somehow diminishes the integrity of the democratic system within which Labour has been so successful. Understandably, Welsh Labour itself is celebrating.
Llafur100, a project developed with the National Library for Wales’ political archive, has chronicled the breadth of policies, people and places that have contributed to Labour’s success over the entire period.
Pictures, memorabilia, stories and the personal recollections of key local and national figures have been brought together on a digital timeline in a unique collection of political history which can be accessed at llafur100.com.
The project has received the enthusiastic endorsement of First Minister Mark Drakeford and has been led by Health Minister Eluned Morgan, who has coordinated the numerous events which have taken place over the course of the year.
Mr Drakeford said: “Labour has much to celebrate by being the most successful political party in Wales and indeed in the democratic world. Even when the party had difficult times across the UK, in Wales support remained solid especially at the local government level.
“A part of the reason for that success is because we have never been complacent and we do not take the Welsh public for granted. Our politicians are rooted in our communities and we retain a strong link with our trade unions which gives us a real sense of what the public wants.
“Our work is never complete and we will continue to fight for social justice at every opportunity adapting to the demands of a changing society.”
In the last quarter of a century, the focus of Welsh Labour has shifted to the Senedd, which it has led from the outset.
Mr Drakeford said: “We must never forget that Labour is the party of devolution. Without Labour, and without our massive election win in 1997 and the involvement of Welsh Labour voices in the Yes for Wales campaign, we would not be where we are today.
“Never has there been a more important time for us to have our own Parliament, with the ability to make our own laws and the opportunity for Welsh people to create the democracy and society we want in the years to come with the immense challenges that confront us.”
Welsh Labour puts some of its electoral success down to its ability as a party to adapt to change while remaining true to its founding values and principles.
Eluned Morgan said: “Identity politics is a recently coined phrase, but throughout the last 100 years, Labour’s unique identity in Wales has meant we’ve built and maintained that special connection with the electorate.
“We haven’t always got it right, but we are big enough and representative enough to reflect upon the times when things have gone wrong and sought to put them right. It isn’t always easy, but we have done it at election after election.”
Referring to the coalitions and lesser deals Labour has made with other parties in the Senedd, she added: “We have also demonstrated that above all we are pragmatic and practical politicians who will compromise and work with others if it helps us to achieve our political ambitions.."
Former Bridgend council leader Jeff Jones, who joined the Labour Party in 1968 as an 18-year-old sixth former, reflected on Welsh Labour’s century of dominance and what it had meant for him and communities like Maesteg, where he was born and where he lives now.
He said: “The key member of the 1945 Labour government was Nye Bevan, whose background in the Valleys drove him to seek improvements in people’s lives not just in terms of health care through the creation of the NHS - something that is always mentioned - but also in terms of their quality of housing.
“The social housing programme he promoted built homes that were far superior in many cases to those built by the private sector. They were well constructed with gardens in the front and at the back.
“The politician everyone forgets was Jim Griffiths, the MP for Llanelli, who as the Minister for National Insurance in Attlee’s post-war government was responsible for the beginnings of the kind of welfare state we have today.
“He had seen what poverty had done in the 1920s and 1930s to the communities of south Wales and wanted to make practical improvements to people’s lives.”
Mr Jones believes that key roles were also played by English politicians who came to represent Welsh constituencies like Michael Foot and Jim Callaghan, the latter becoming “Cardiff through and through” despite coming originally from Portsmouth.
Labour-controlled local authorities have also been hugely important in improving people’s lives, said Mr Jones.
“Things as simple as street lighting and decent roads made life easier for everyone, and the giants of Welsh local government like Llew Haycock and Phil Squire realised that people wanted practical improvements in their communities rather than some vague and unachievable utopia,” he said.
“Also look at all the leisure centres across Wales that have been built by Labour councils.”
Even when Labour was doing badly in the rest of Britain - as at the last general election in 2019 - it easily retained the majority of seats in Wales.
“The manifesto in 2019 was actually a good programme for government and polls showed that most people agreed with the policies,” said Mr Jones.
“The problem was that much of the media had demonised Jeremy Corbyn so he couldn’t be elected. Even so, Labour still won in Wales.”
For Jeff Jones, the general election result from 1950 in his home constituency of Ogmore speaks volumes about how Labour has managed to retain its dominance in Wales.
Walter Padley, an Englishman, was selected by the party to contest the seat after the previous Labour MP was deselected. Although unknown locally, Padley was elected with more than 35,000 votes while Ithel Davies, a barrister and activist who stood for the Welsh Republican Movement, a group that had split off from Plaid Cymru, received just 631 votes. There was no Plaid candidate.
“This showed the great strength of the Labour Party in Wales - that it could pile up the votes while the support for Welsh nationalism was insignificant,” said Mr Jones.
“Even today there are many places in Wales where most people wouldn’t dream of voting for Plaid Cymru. To a very large extent, their appeal remains restricted to their core areas where the Welsh language is strong.”
Like many people, especially in the Valleys, Mr Jones sees his life as having been framed by the Labour Party and the public services it provided: “ I was born in 1950, not in a terraced house like my mother and father, but in a maternity hospital,” he said.
“I went to local authority schools and on to university where I received a free education with no fees and a maintenance grant. Glamorgan County Council even paid my fares to travel to the London School of Economics from Streatham, where I was living.
“Glamorgan County Council, which of course was Labour controlled, built up a capital fund which was used to fund projects instead of having to borrow from external sources.
“The Tories destroyed Glamorgan County Council and Mid Glamorgan County Council which succeeded it in two local government reorganisations in the 1970s and the 1990s.. They did so because they hated such Labour-run authorities that they could never win control of.
“Ken Morgan, the historian, said in his book on the inter-war years that Labour councils in Wales acted as a shield against cuts that were imposed by Tory governments at Westminster.
“Things don’t change. In the Thatcher years and again since 2010 when the Conservatives returned to power, all they have done is impose austerity cuts on local government relentlessly.
“They’re planning more cuts now, which Labour council leaders have been speaking out about, warning of the devastation they will cause. They’re doing so because they care about their communities and know that people will suffer.”
Explaining why he believes Labour has retained power for so long, Mr Jones argues that Wales remains largely a working class nation and that many continue to see it as the right party for working class people to support.
“Even though the numbers of people voting Labour have declined over time, the other parties have also seen their votes go down,” said Mr Jones. “Labour has managed to stay in front because the other parties don’t have a narrative that is more appealing.”
But the ex-council leader is also aware of negative consequences arising out of Labour’s long period of dominance.
“I think the one-party state syndrome is damaging,” he said. “The worst of it is that Labour in Wales hasn’t, in my view, developed a culture of self-criticism. People within the party will have action taken against them if they are openly critical, and that goes on today.
“A lot of people decide to say nothing even when they know something is wrong. I think anyone in power needs to be challenged when they make wrong decisions or do something that is wrong, and the culture within the party should allow that to happen.
“It’s also the case that in Wales many organisations are reluctant to be critical of the Welsh Government because they depend on it for funding and are worried that if they step out of line they will be punished by having their grant cut.”
As someone who has frequently criticised politicians in his own party, Mr Jones said there were instances when people in power did not live up to Labour’s principles and ideals and made decisions that went against the wishes of communities.
“I often wonder whether those who make bad decisions would have joined the Labour Party if they lived in Surrey, where they would have no chance of being in power,” he said. “I very much doubt it.”
He said another area of concern to him was the tendency for the Welsh Government to blame everything that goes wrong on Westminster.
“To govern is to choose, not to pass the buck,” he said. “If you are constantly telling people that Westminster is stopping things from being done, people will start questioning the point of your existence.”
He said another danger for Labour now and in the future is that its agenda could get hijacked by minority groups who want all the attention to be on their issues.
“Labour needs to concentrate on the basic issues that concern the majority of voters like education for their children, jobs and improving the health service,” he said. “That’s the way for the party to maintain its success in the future.”
Some political theorists argue that democracy provides better governance because parties alternate in power.
Yet, as Mark Drakeford has pointed out, people aren’t forced to vote Labour and the fact that the party keeps winning elections is hardly its fault.
All governments need good quality opposition and Labour’s success says as much about the inadequacies of the parties that oppose it as about Labour itself.
On the other hand, Labour has been accused by Plaid Cymru of stealing some of its best policies and presenting them as its own.
Indeed the very brand “Welsh Labour”, with its associated “nationalist-lite” rhetoric, can be viewed as offering a softened, less threatening kind of patriotism than what’s available from Plaid. But that’s politics.
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