One Wales?

While May’s election campaign may have been more interesting in Scotland it seems that its Wales may also have produced an interesting result…some 2 months after the election.

About a month ago I posted on the Welsh situation (here and here). To give a brief run down of the story so far…

Before the election Welsh Labour slam the BBC for suggesting they’d do a deal with Plaid Cymru. Threatening to take there complaint to the highest levels of the corporation.

After the election Labour begin to negotiate with the Lib Dems. The Lib Dems pull out of the negotiations and say they’d rather take part in a tripartite coalition with Plaid and the Conservatives to get Labour out.

Labour enter into negotiations with Plaid, but Plaid pull out due to Labour’s lack of enthusiasm – put down to many that the Lib Dems would get back onboard.

Plaid start negotiations with the Lib Dems and Conservatives. A rainbow agreement is reached. A timely agreement as the 28 barrier for forming a government after the election was fast approaching.

Welsh Lib Dems’ NEC vetoes the deal – assumed to be the influence of the hoped for cabinet seats for senior Lib Dems in a Gordon Brown administration which has been alluded to by GB. Plaid and Conservatives are pretty furious.

As 28 days deadline approaches Labour are installed as the minority administration with Rhodri Morgan as First Minister.

The following day Welsh Lib Dem ordinary members force a vote on the proposed coalition deal against the wishes of the NEC but very much with the wishes of Welsh Lib Dem AM leader Mike German. The vote passes and the rainbow deal is back on.

Too late, too late was the cry as the government was now in place and a no-confidence motion would be needed to remove it.

Morgan though still wanted a majority so re-opened negotiations with Plaid – who were negotiating from a position of considerable strength as they had the option to fall-back to lead an alternative Welsh Government.

Labour conceded lots of ground, including holding (and importantly canvassing in favour of) a referendum for ‘full powers’ for the Welsh Assembly – essentially what the Scottish Parliament currently has plus a few bells and whistles. This commitment to advance the powers of the assembly through a referendum appears to be what made the deal (along with Labour backtracking on some of their plans in the Welsh NHS).

The ‘Red-Green’ agreement is found in the ‘One Wales’ document.

Its not over yet of course, the agreement still has to be ratified by special conferences of both parties. Large sections of the rank and file won’t be happy but should be persuaded by the primary arguments put forward by each party (Labour – to keep the Tories out, Plaid – to get more powers for the Assembly and tie Labour to it to prevent the UK government from stopping it).

It will be interesting to watch how this uneasy alliance gets on, especially when so many Labour MPs are so clearly against it.

I`ve been greatly amused to hear some Labour activists here saying that Plaid aren’t like the SNP as they don`t want Welsh Independence. So it’s ok to work with them but never with the SNP. I`m sure that this would be news to Plaid who has a clear commitment towards “the constitutional advancement of Wales with a view to attaining Full National Status for Wales within the European Union…. and to attain membership of the United Nations”.

Perhaps this will mean that Scottish Labour will stop recoiling in horror when Scottish Independence is even mentioned by the SNP since their own party is sharing a government with another party whose aim is just that for Wales.