Strange, but true

There's an interesting debate going on (I don't write that every day) about the new art in the Welsh Assembly.

The decision to hang a portrait of Margaret Thatcher alongside one of Aneurin Bevan in the new Assembly building has provoked predictable fury.

One Plaid Cymru AM described it as "an insult to Wales". There's no doubt Margaret Thatcher was a hugely divisive figure who generated rare loathing among her opponents and was at odds with the prevailing political culture in Wales.

But surely it is re-writing history to suggest she was universally despised by every voter in Wales for her role in the decline of mining?

That's being slightly economical with the statistics. Under Thatcher, the Conservatives won half a million votes, 8 seats and 30 per cent of the vote in the 1987 general election, the first poll after the miners' strike of 1984/85.

The Tories have never been near that sort of performance in Wales under her successors. They've rebranded themselves and ditched many Thatcherite policies but they'd kill for 30 per cent of the vote now.

So would Plaid Cymru - although they have progressed since 1987, when they won 7 per cent of the vote, less than a quarter of the share enjoyed by Thatcher's Tories.