Neprimerimye

Plaid Candidate ex-Trot Shock!

Glancing through the incredibly uninteresting returns for the Welsh Assembly elections one name caught my eye. The name in question being that of Danny Bowles Plaid Cymru candidate in Swansea West. Danny is that unusual creature a Welsh nationalist from Engerland.

More importantly Danny has passed through a fair number of left groups prior to finding a home in Plaid Cymru. When I first met him he was a member of Workers Power and later progressed to being a member or at least organised sympathiser with Red Action. A little while later he was defintely in the Socialist Labour Party during which time he entered into a reasonably close relationship with the cpgb and certainly claimed that he was a member at one point.

The above are the groups I know for certain that he has been associated with but at different times he made claims to myself and others that he had been in the Socialist Party prior to the Poll Tax riot after which he quit 'cos they grassed people up' as well as the Socialist Workers Party.

Danny oscillated between a largely verbal leftism, dominated by his visceral and quite correct hatred for fascism, and a desire to work within the 'democratic' system. So enamoured with acting as respectably as possible he once argued in the SLP that all canvassers should wear suits or stay at home. naturally he did nt last long enough in that party to actually participate in an election but I know his thoughts were with us later.