The dream has died
Looking back at the end of the week, the dream has died at least for the time being and it looks as if Labour domination of the assembly will continue. Of course I wish Ieuan Wyn Jones well, but I know that Plaid Cymru will be up against it faced with the unremitting remorseless machine which is the Labour Party.
In causation terms and as a lawyer I am afraid my training dictates that I look at it in causation terms, the immediate event which prevented the rainbow alliance was the abortive Liberal Democrat meeting in Llandrindod Wells where a handful of Liberal Democrat activists effectively killed off the Rainbow Alliance. Coincidentally just an hour before my own party had endorsed the document unanimously - I remain very proud the mature and responsible way my party approached this whole episode in Welsh politics.
Sadly some of the wilder shores of the Liberal Democrat as well as the Labour party seem to believe that Welsh Conservatives wanted to push young children up chimneys. I suppose every party has it’s eccentrics but it did seem extraordinary that the party whose raison d-etre is coalition politics at that stage did not want to do a deal with anybody!
By the time the Liberal Democrats had tried to put the train back on the tracks the Labour Party had a slow dawning realisation that the shape of Welsh and quite possibility British politics was about to change decisively. They then reacted with more realism than they had shown and persuaded Plaid Cymru that their joint alliance was more sustainable than the Rainbow Alliance. Plaid Cymru were persuaded of this largely I suspect because of the fragile nature of the Liberal Democrats at this time. I think it is a historic mistake by Plaid Cymru. I believe a great opportunity will be missed.
Throughout this process I have nothing but praise for MG and IWJ. It was a fruitful and productive process and I still believe that the All Wales Accord presented a brighter future for Wales than the Labour - Plaid deal, which I fear will ensure the continuance of Labour dominance in Wales.
My party now looks forward to constructive opposition in the National Assembly for Wales and certainly has not given up on developing a non-Labour alternative in Wales.
