Рональд Дэвис: Уэльс саяхатшысының өмірі мен саяси жолы

Welsh politician

Ronald Davies (born 6 August 1946) is a retired Welsh politician, former Secretary of State for Wales, former Member of Parliament and former member of the Welsh Assembly. He describes himself as a politician belonging to the "traditional left" who had "spent his life looking for a socialist progressive party". He was a member of the Labour Party (until 2004), and then of Forward Wales (2004–2009); he was subsequently an independent candidate and eventually joined Plaid Cymru in 2010. He is credited with being the "architect of devolution" in Wales and led the campaign to create the National Assembly for Wales. He became the first Cabinet Minister to resign from Tony Blair's Cabinet, in 1998, following what became known as a "moment of madness" when he was mugged at knifepoint after agreeing to go for a meal with a man he had met at the well known gay meeting place of Clapham Common.

Born in Machen in the Rhymney Valley in Monmouthshire, he was educated in Bassaleg Grammar School before graduating in Geography at Portsmouth Polytechnic. Davies was first elected as a Councillor in 1969 to the former Machen Urban District Council at the age of 23. A year later he became the youngest council leader in Britain at the age of 24. After local government re organisation in 1974, he continued as a leader of the newly constituted Rhymney Valley District Council and led a campaign for a Fair Rents Act against plans by the Conservative Government of Edward Heath to increase the amount of rent paid by council house tenants. However, in Labour circles it was well known that he wanted to surrender to the government, but was voted down by the local party management, led by Ray Davies. (source needed)

After training to be a teacher at Cardiff University he spent two years as a school teacher before becoming a Tutor Organiser for the Workers' Educational Association, succeeding Neil Kinnock in 1970 when the future Labour leader was elected to Parliament. He went on Further to become Education Adviser for the Mid Glamorgan Education Authority from 1974 until 1983, when he was elected to Parliament as the Labour MP for Caerphilly. Davies was married to fellow Welsh MP Christina Rees; the couple divorced in 1999 and have one daughter, Angharad. He subsequently married his third wife, Lynne Hughes, they met on a Welsh language course, marrying at a register office in Caerphilly on 5 August 2022.

On 19 September 1998, Davies defeated Rhodri Morgan to become Labour's candidate for First Secretary of the Assembly at a special Welsh Labour Party conference in Newport. Just over a month later on 29 October 1998, he resigned this post – two days after resigning as Secretary of State for Wales on 27 October 1998. He stood down citing "an error of judgement" in agreeing to go for what he said was a meal with a man he had met while walking on Clapham Common in London, which is a well known gay meeting place. He was mugged at knifepoint. The full details of the incident (which he infamously called a "moment of madness" at the urging of Tony Blair's Press secretary Alastair Campbell) have never emerged. He later acknowledged that he is bisexual, and was receiving treatment for a personality disorder which led him to seek out risky situations. He stood down from Parliament at the 2001 general election.

On 30 January 1999, Davies was selected as a Labour candidate for the first elections to the National Assembly for Wales. He was elected on 6 May 1999 as Assembly Member for the Caerphilly constituency, and initially chaired the Economic Development Committee after Alun Michael refused to appoint him to his Cabinet. Further revelations and disagreements with the Labour leadership resulted in his resignation from the chairmanship of the committee. He is known for the phrase "Devolution is a process and not an event", by which he meant that the settlement he introduced in 1997 would not be the final one, and more powers would accrue to the Welsh Assembly over time. He wrote a pamphlet for the think tank the Institute of Welsh Affairs with the same title in 1998. Shortly before the 2003 assembly elections, The Sun revealed that Davies had been visiting a well known cruising spot near a motorway lay by. When challenged as to what he had been doing there, Davies initially denied being there, then told reporters that he had been going for a short walk, adding: "I have actually been there when I have been watching badgers". Davies was forced by his local party to stand down as Labour candidate in the election.

Davies resigned from the Labour Party in 2004, citing opposition to the Iraq War, the party's stance on university funding and worries about the competence of Welsh Labour. He subsequently joined the new Forward Wales political party, and stood for election to the European Parliament in June 2004 as a candidate of that party, but failed to be elected. He then stood unsuccessfully in the 2007 assembly elections as an independent for Caerphilly, placing third behind Labour and Plaid Cymru. In the 2008 local elections he was elected to Caerphilly County Borough Council, as an independent councillor for the Bedwas, Trethomas and Machen ward. He also was the Cabinet Member for Regeneration. paving the way for him to stand as a Plaid Cymru candidate. Davies appeared at a Plaid Cymru rally in Aberystwyth during the 2010 UK general election campaign. He joined the party later in 2010 and stood unsuccessfully as the party's candidate in Caerphilly in the 2011 Assembly elections. In 2012 he stood as a Plaid Cymru candidate for Bedwas, and was defeated.