*Pictured above The Baroness Morgan of Ely, AM for Mid and West Wales, with Lord Neil Kinnock, Sir Keir Starmer and Lord John Kerr
‘Brexit: One Year On’
The conference welcomed a raft of senior Labour Party figures, representatives from business, the trade unions and academia as well as representatives of Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Liberal Democrats.
On Saturday 24 June 2017, our local High School played host to a conference organised by Eluned Morgan Labour AM for Mid and West Wales.
The conference was held a year and a day after the historic decision taken on the 23rd June 2016 for Britain to leave the European Union.
The morning session featured a talk and Q&A session from Sir Keir Starmer, QC, MP, who is Shadow Secretary of State for BREXIT, Lord John Kerr, former head of the FCO and author of ‘Article 50’ of the Lisbon Treaty which triggered our count-down to EU departure. Joining them in the morning session was Lord Neil Kinnock former leader of the Labour Party and MP for Islwyn from 1970 to 1995 and later the European Commissioner for Transport. The European flavour was added by Michiel Van Hulten, a Senior Fellow at the LSE European Institute, and former MEP who later went on to become the Chair of the Dutch Labour Party.
The afternoon activities were divided between a talk on ‘What BREXIT means for Wales', chaired by David Rees AM, Chair, BREXIT Committee of the National Assembly for Wales. He was joined by Mark Drakeford - Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Welsh Government, Katherine Finn - Head, PWC Wales and West and Helen Birtwhistle – Director, Wales for Europe.
The later sessions included a ‘Women and BREXIT’ talk, chaired by John Osmond, former Director of the IWA and a former Plaid Cymru candidate; a work shop on ‘Getting rid of red tape – threats and opportunities’ chaired by Wiliam Powell, Welsh Liberal County Councillor for Talgarth and Liberal Democrat member of the Welsh Government’s EU Advisory Group. Further discussions included ‘Fake news and the future of democracy’ and ‘The Choices facing the UK – Three Briliant Women’ chaired by Jo Stevens – Labour MP for Cardiff Central.
The event which ran all day and included lunch, was fully subscribed. FYI Talgarth attended the morning session, and it has to be said the quality of the content and debate was engaging and provided an interesting platform for a balanced debate and insight in to the views of the speakers attending the conference. Head of Gwernyfed High School John Williams was also in attendance and felt that it showed the school's ability to host key events in the local area.
Our local Councillor William Powell had this comment on the day: ‘The decision to exit the EU taken in last year’s Referendum was historic. However, the form that Brexit takes will be crucial for our area, for Wales and for the whole UK in the time to come. It is widely accepted that the quality of debate on both sides in the Referendum campaign and thus the level of understanding of what life outside the EU would look like, was shockingly poor. This makes events such as #Brexit1YrOn all the more important. I am grateful to Eluned and her staff for the time and trouble taken to set up the conference. It was a privilege to play my part.’
FYI Talgarth would like to thank Baroness Eluned Morgan for the invite.
Sir Keir Starmer
Lord John Kerr
Lord Neil Kinnock
Michiel Van Hulten, a Senior Fellow at the LSE European Institute, and former MEP who later went on to become the Chair of the Dutch Labour Party.
Pictured below Sir Keir Starmer reflects on the conference
Photos courtesy of http://www.anndierikx.com
We now included a transcript of the speech given by Lord Niel Kinnock at the conference.
{pdf:/static/user/289/636358280815772850/lord kinnock speech for gwernyfed brexit confernece .pdf:View PDF}
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