Welcome to the web site of the Lloyd George Society

The Lloyd George Society is a loose combination of like minds that meets in Wales for a weekend school on topical subjects, historical issues (particularly those relating to David Lloyd George) or interesting questions affecting Welsh life and culture, all from a liberal perspective. The Society usually meets once a year in February, avoiding the dates of rugby football internationals.

The schools have been taking place for over 50 years. Originally designed for Welsh Liberal parliamentary candidates to debate policy and topical questions, to help them prepare for the election trail, the schools have developed away from this specific purpose and now provide an informal forum for participants to hear interesting talks, take part in discussions and meet friends, old and new.

The schools have always tried to attract speakers expert in their field to provide plenty of food for thought and a leavening of controversy but the schools are best enjoyed for their good fellowship with many members who have attended regularly for decades.

Despite the origins of the Society, we are not formally affiliated to the Liberal Democrats. We welcome supporters and speakers at the weekend school who belong to other political parties or anyone who has an interest in Wales, history or current affairs. Obviously however, our liberal history strongly informs the range of topics on the school's agenda. In addition our Vice Presidents are Liberal Democrat parliamentarians.

New biography of Lloyd George to be launched on 26 June Tue 22nd Jun 2010 David Lloyd George was a Liberal leader in a coalition government of Liberals and Conservatives. He was a radical Welsh nationalist, advocating 'home rule' for Wales. He was the master pragmatist, always believing that getting things done was preferable to opposing from the sidelines. These are highly contemporary themes for Liberalism and for Wales with the post-election Conservative/Liberal coalition government in Westminster and with the National Assembly firmly established at the heart of Welsh governance and looking set to get more devolved powers. All this makes the publication of a new biography of the Welsh Wizard by Dr J Graham Jones of the National Library of Wales, timely and exciting.

Visit the North Wales Agricultural Show in Caernarfon - 3 July 2010 Wed 9th Jun 2010 Lloyd George was of course Member of Parliament for the Caernarfon Boroughs from 1890-1945. In his time he would have visited and supported hundreds of local events in his constituency. The North Wales Agricultural Show (sometimes called the Caernarfon Show) was probably one LG attended at some time as it was founded as long ago as 1881 and has been running ever since. Any Society members in the area on Saturday 3 July are welcome to tread in the great man's shoes and visit the show, with its many animal and other attractions.

All those Liberal ministers - the Lloyd George connection Thu 3rd Jun 2010 Since the general election and the formation of the first peacetime coalition government in Britain since the National Government in 1931, there has been a lot of looking back. Much of the history keeps coming back to Lloyd George.

Victory Vince: Cable Wins Channel 4 Chancellors Debate Mon 29th Mar 2010 The first ever TV debate between the three candidates to be the next Chancellor has seen Lib Dem Vince Cable win a clear victory. In a Channel 4 on-line poll carried out immediately after the debate, Vince out-polled both Alistair Darling and George Osborne.

Ask the Chancellors: Live debate on Channel 4 Sun 28th Mar 2010 At 8pm on Monday 29th March, Channel 4 will stage a live debate between the would-be Chancellors, Liberal Democrat Vince Cable, Labour's Alistair Darling and Conservative George Osborne. Krishnan Guru-Murthy will be asking the questions.

Another successful weekend school Fri 26th Feb 2010 This year's weekend school, again held at the Hotel Commodore in Llandrindod Wells, was much enjoyed by another healthy attendance with fascinating insights into economics, history, Lloyd George and current political affairs given by guest speakers.

Final programme for 2010 weekend school sent out Fri 12th Feb 2010 Here is the final programme for the Lloyd George Society's weekend school to be held from 19-21 February 2010 at the Hotel Commodore, Llandrindod Wells:

Some snippets about David Lloyd George Sun 10th Jan 2010 There have a few stories in the press recently mentioning David Lloyd George.

Act now - Lloyd George Society on the new Lib Dem social networking site Wed 25th Nov 2009 The Liberal Democrats have launched a social networking site, very similar to Facebook, as the latest part of the party's online strategy. And the Lloyd George Society has created its own group on the site to encourage interest in what we do, as well as to try and attract new members to come to the weekend schools.

19th century Welsh Liberal MPs - a chance to own a piece of Liberal history Wed 4th Nov 2009 In 1894, T Marchant Williams published a book containing pictures and biographies of all the Welsh Liberal MPs of the time, 34 in all. Those were the days. The book was published by Daniel Owen of Cardiff. The portraits are black and white drawings by Wil Morgan similar in style to those published in Vanity Fair, with accompanying 'biographical' stories of each MP.

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