Welsh Liberal blogs

  Nick Ramsay, former Conservative Shadow Finance Minister in the Senedd has joined the Welsh Liberal Democrats.   He will be a candidate for the Party in the Monmouthshire Council elections this coming May. Nick Ramsay Nick says: “I have thought long and hard about the future of politics in Wales and the UK.  The Conservative Party is not the party I once joined.  They have lost the trust of the people, and are unable to manage our country.  They have failed the fundamental test of competence.  I can think of little of them with which I agree.”   “I have spent a long time examining the Liberal Democrats, and I find their underpinning values of fairness, community, and internationalism match my own.   The Welsh Liberal Democrats are the best way to achieve a new village hall for Raglan ,  support for struggling local businesses   and sustainable development for Monmouthshire, and I am pleased to be able to join them in their campaign to provide a better future for our county.”

 Report Wales Poc Monmouth AM Nick Ramsay kept suspended by CoA senior assembly member arrested on New Year's Day but released without charge remains suspended from the Conservatives as the party continues its investigations. Nick Ramsay is thought to be taking legal advice over the arrest. Party sources claim there have been several occasions when his behaviour after drinking led to complaints. Friends reject claims he has been spoken to about allegations relating to alcohol. They say the suspension process may be open to legal challenge. Mr Ramsay's friends also defended him and suggested he was the victim of a campaign against him by some in his local party in Monmouth. That claim is denied by the local party chairman, Nick Hackett-Pain. The Welsh Conservatives say an "investigation is underway". The party did not explain what the investigation is looking into. Mr Ramsay, a frontbench Tory spokesman in the assembly and