Talk:Robert Jones (Labour politician)

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NAME OF THIS ARTICLE - Robert Jones or Robert Thomas Jones.

I am not convinced that this article should be renamed 'Robert Jones'. The Dictionary of Welsh Biography and the National Portrait Gallery both use 'Robert Thomas Jones'. One standard way of referring to him in his own time (particularly in trade union contexts - he was a member of the General Council of the TUC during the 1926 General Strike) was "R.T. Jones". Hansard is in a small minority in using the form 'Robert Jones'. One advantage of 'Robert Thomas Jones' is that it links more easily to 'R. T. Jones' than 'Robert Jones' does. For an example of the 'R.T. Jones' form - see the front page of the Daily News for 13 May 1926, listing the members of the TUC General Council. For the use of 'Robert Thomas Jones' by the Dictionary of Welsh Biography and the National Portrait Gallery see the links in the article. Gwedi elwch (talk) 02:16, 21 August 2018 (UTC)Reply

The change from 'Robert Thomas Jones' to 'Robert Jones' was made at 11:04, 25 March 2017‎ by MapReader, with the explanation - (MapReader moved page Robert Thomas Jones to Robert Jones (Labour politician): WP:COMMONNAME as cited in UK Parliament's Hansard)

I have since come across another recent example of this type of change - from 'George Maitland Lloyd Davies' to 'George Davies'. March 2018 - Necrothesp moved page George Maitland Lloyd Davies to George Davies (pacifist): common name.

RATING FOR THIS ARTICLE WITHIN WIKI PROJECT WALES - IS THIS WHERE I RAISE THIS POINT ?

Currently 'low' importance. I think it should be 'mid'. Although this is certainly a stub at the moment, I think it falls within the criterion for 'mid-class' ('This article is relatively important to this project, as it fills in some more specific knowledge of certain areas.') on a number of grounds. Jones was probably more important as a trade unionist than a politician - (1) He was the central figure in the development of the North Wales Quarrymens Union into an effective union. His life is therefore central to an understanding of the slate quarry industry in Caernarvonshire and Merionethshire - which had a huge impact on the economy of this part of Wales. (2) He led the NWQU into Ernest Bevin's Transport & General Workers Union, and became a T&G representative on the General Council of the TUC for over 10 years, including the period of the 1926 General Strike. He was also important in the context of the state's management of labour relations during WW1. Here his life is important for an understanding of the process by which the relatively isolated quarry communities (prior to WW1 overwhelmingly Welsh speaking - the NWQU maintained all its records and conducted its meetings in Welsh) opened to the general trade union movement, and indeed to the general economy. (3) That is not to underestimate his importance as a politician - he was central to the break between the Liberal Party and the 'Labour interest' in North West Wales - a rupture which led to the Labour Party supplanting the Conservative Party as the Liberals' challenger in both the Caernarvonshire and Merioneth parliamentry seats, and finally in Labour taking and holding the seats (from 1951 to 1974 in Merioneth's case; from 1945-1974 in Caernarvonshire's case). Gwedi elwch (talk) 03:04, 21 August 2018 (UTC) aReply

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