Nothing Has Changed - The 2017 Election Diaries

In his role as Political Editor for ITV Cymru Wales, Adrian Masters was there for that pivotal moment at Gresford and at other crucial points throughout the campaign. His unrivalled experience, access to insiders and many contacts with people at all levels in all parties gives him a privileged vantage point. This is the account of a unique eye-witness to an extraordinary moment in political history. -- Publisher: Parthian Books
The 2017 general election campaign was one of the most unexpected, unnecessary and volatile in our history, called in the wake of a brief holiday undertaken in Snowdonia by Theresa May during the recent Easter recess. An apparent likely landslide victory for the Conservatives saw the gap between the two main parties narrow considerably during the course of the campaign, along with the fortunes of the party leaders Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, with the two parties almost neck-and-neck at one point, and the Tories narrowly failing to secure an overall majority on 9 June. In this diarist's pithy words, '2017 has shown that anything can happen and long may that last'. As Political Editor for ITV Cymru Wales, with twenty-five years' experience as a political journalist and broadcaster, Adrian Masters was in a key position throughout the frenzied campaign. He was present at the village hall at Gresford when Theresa May launched the Welsh Conservative manifesto, and Masters, to his great personal delight, was granted a five-minute interview with Mrs May and was present at almost all the key turning points in the Welsh campaign. His diary entries published here, spanning the period 18 April to 9 June 2017 (and complimented by a section of pensive reflections headed 'Afterward' penned the following October), are based on an array of personal contacts together with e-mails, texts and tweets received during these frenzied, exciting weeks, and supplemented by hurried, often difficult to decipher notes scrawled at speed in an array of red notebooks. The great advantage of daily diary entries is that they were originally penned without the benefit of hindsight and sober reflection. Adrian Masters was 'in the most privileged position, a close eye-witness to events with the opportunity to hear what's happening directly from the mouths of those shaping, or trying to shape, the action'. His personal experiences were enhanced by the observations and opinions of colleagues who attended events which Masters himself was obliged to miss. Since the end of the election, the diarist has also conducted personal interviews with many politicians and activists whose observations have much informed this account. And the diary entries themselves are supplemented by introductory sections in italic type reflecting on the course of events. The most compelling theme throughout is the way in which a perceived likely Conservative majority even within Wales, where the party was winning 40 per cent of the popular vote in the opinion polls (and the Labour Party just 30 per cent), suggesting a Tory majority in Wales for the first time since 1850, never materialised. At the beginning of the campaign Jeremy Corbyn, visiting marginal Cardiff North, was hailed as a quasi-pop star iconic figure. Indeed, the individual personalities of the two main party leaders came to dominate the campaign in an unique way, potently reminiscent of presidential candidates in the USA. And fascinating insights emerge along the way of the launch of the party manifestos, the successive television leaders' debates and vastly contrasting opinion polls, the strengths and impacts of individual candidates, the roles of the party leaders within Wales, especially Carwyn Jones and Leanne Wood. Her leadership came increasingly under scrutiny during the campaign and was eventually saved to some extent by the sensational capture of Ceredigion by the 24-year-old Ben Lake, an event given much prominence within these diary entries, and contrasted with the rather lack-lustre campaign of Ieuan Wyn Jones in Ynys Môn. Other marginal divisions are also discussed in these captivating diary entries. And, at the height of the campaign in the middle of May, the unexpected death of former First Minister Rhodri Morgan came as a major bombshell, and is discussed at great length in this volume which quotes sincere tributes from across the political spectrum in Wales and beyond. This attractively produced volume benefits from the inclusion of well-chosen photographs of many of the leading lights and most prominent events from this enthralling general election campaign. Sadly, there is no index, a common weakness in many volumes published these days. -- J. Graham Jones @ www.gwales.com