ABSTRACT
‘The handwriting is already upon the wall’. So thought ‘Cymro’ who was writing in the Labour Leader in the summer of 1906. ‘Cymro’ had read the handwriting correctly, for just a few months later the miners balloted on affiliation to the Labour Representation Committee and in south Wales 41,843 voted in favour as compared to 31,527 against. The grand argument had been won but the pay-off could only come when the rhetoric, conventions, institutions and images of the Labour Party had been more fully worked out. In particular names and faces would have to be made familiar. In south Wales the Lib-Labs survived the coming of the Labour Party and, with the exception of the ageing Mabon, they were to survive the “Great Unrest” of 1910 to 1913. The Lib-Labs always enjoyed emphasising the careerism of Labour politicians in contrast to their great experience as professional representatives of labour.
