I have to be honest until I read Angela Elniff Larsen’s fascinating article on Merthyr’s political history over at the Institute of Welsh Affairs blog, I hadn’t heard of SO Davies, the former Labour MP for Merthyr Tydfil.
The article challenges the myths of Valleys Labour at least in Merthyr Tydfil, but the part that caught my eye was this ‘Throughout his parliamentary career, he was a great individualist, ever ready on occasion to attack the enactments of a Labour government. Consequently, on three separate occasions between 1953 and 1961 he was deprived of the Labour whip on issues concerning American bases in Britain, rearmament in West Germany, and opposition to the Polaris submarine programme.
S.O., as he was affectionately known, was also a fervent advocate of self-government for Wales, or Home Rule for Wales as it was known in those day — totally at variance with the official party line on the issue. He actively supported the tenacious Parliament for Wales agitation of the period 1950-56. In 1955, acting totally on his own initiative, and without even consulting his colleagues within the Parliament for Wales campaign, he introduced a Government of Wales bill in the House of Commons. Predictably, the measure floundered.'
It’s some proof for a cynic like me that not all Welsh Labour politicians or party members are one eyed tribalists, in hoc to the Trade Unions and incapable of independent thought and whose only interest is preserving themselves and their party in power at all costs here in Wales.Any source
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