A new party for Wales?

John Marek, the former Labour AM who was elected to the Welsh Assembly as an independent as the last election, is talking about setting up a new left-of-centre party for Wales. Interestingly, the meeting he's holding to discuss the idea is being addressed by Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan, and one would expect that the name 'Welsh Socialist Party' would be the logical name for the new party should it be formed.

It'll be interesting to see if a 'WSP' can have the same impact on the Welsh political scene as the SSP has had in Scotland. Any new party in Wales would have the same advantage as the SSP in having a well-known leader to rally round (Marek in Wales, Sheridan in Scotland) but it would face the same problems of having to break into a very solid Labour vote, persuading some of the die hard Welsh Labour voters to shift their votes. However, as the Plaid Cymru surge at the 1999 election showed, that is certainly possible.