At last the 'Land of Our Father's' wait for a Welsh born Prime Minister are over. Although I see a few people including the BBC had taken the line that Julia Gillard was the first Welsh born Prime Minister since David Lloyd George, the famous Welsh speaking Prime Minister was actually born in Manchester where his father like many Welsh men was working at that time, in the case of William George as a teacher.
Ms Gillard was born in Barry, Glamorgan in 1961 and her parents migrated to Australia on the £10 immigration ticket as they were advised that their five-year old daughter who suffered bronchopneumonia would get on better in a warmer climate.
But earlier today (during the night UK time) she replaced Kevin Rudd as leader of the Labor Party and Prime Minister of Australia. A turn-around on a carbon trading scheme and a wrangle over a controversial mining tax had led to a vote ousting Rudd on Wednesday night. She was returned unopposed like a certain other Labour leader, but unlike Gordon Brown she knows she will have to take the governing party to the polls in October. She is also the first woman to hold the office in Australia and the first foreign born PM there since Billy Hughes in 1923.
She served as Shadow Minister for Population and Immigration from 2001-3 and Shadow Minister for Health from 2003-6 before becoming the Deputy leader of the opposition on a ticket with Rudd in 2006, again an election she won unopposed as Jenny Mackline the outgoing leader's deputy stood down in that contest when Rudd beat Kim Beazley in the contest.
The above mentioned Billy Hughes was also a Welsh-speaking Welshman born in England!
ReplyDeleteAnd funnily enough, the above mentioned Billy Hughes was also a Welsh-speaker born to Welsh parents in England!
ReplyDeleteLloyd George was Welsh but not Welsh born. He was born in Manchester.
ReplyDeleteThe UK has never had a Welsh-born PM, despite recent attempts by Michael Heseltine and of course Neil Kinnock.
Sorry, did not read the full article!!!
ReplyDeleteAnyway to compensate my mistake, I looked into Australian PM profiles courtesy of Wikipedia.
ReplyDeleteBy coincidence just roughly when DLG was PM (1916-22), another English-born Welshman was running Australia. William Morris Hughes was born in Pimlico but like DLG, when he lost a parent (in this case his mother) he was sent to live in Wales. He was raised in Llandudno and like DLG spoke Welsh and was a baptist