Voting early and often

One of the affiliated groups taking part in the Welsh Labour leadership election has more than ten times as many votes as members.

The Co-operative Party has "somewhere under 1,000" members in Wales, but will have 10,000 votes in the electoral college that will choose Rhodri Morgan's successor.

Co-op deputy general secretary Karen Wilkie said: "In terms of the Labour Party, the Co-operative Party has always affiliated on behalf of the wider co-operative movement; our voting strength reflects this rather than our actual number of party activists."

Labour - whose 11,000 Welsh members have one third of the votes - said organisations decide the numbers to affiliate and their voting strength is decided accordingly.
Voting will take longer for some than others. By my reckoning, the former First Secretary, Alun Michael, has at least five votes - as an MP, a party member, a member of the Co-op party, the GMB union and the Fabian Society.

Greetings from Brighton

Another Sunday by the seaside. The circus has moved on, from Bournemouth to Brighton, for another of those crucial make-or-break, to borrow a cliche or two, political conferences.

This time the talk is of leadership, of this being possibly the last conference for someone who's been at the top for years.

But enough about Gordon Brown, apparently this could be Rhodri Morgan's farewell conference too.

As late as this morning, colleagues were in the dark about Mr Morgan's retirement plans. He had apparently considered making his announcement to delegates here but then thought an English gathering might not be the best venue.

It has been just like old times here in Brighton. Peter Hain has been impossible to avoid on air or in print.

He found time to offer advice via the Sunday Times to the Prime Minister: "He should have a chance to allow himself to sleep more and take a break a bit more."

When you get that sort of advice from a famously workaholic Cabinet Minister, not averse to e-mailing staff before the rest of us get up, it really is time to slow down.

Trainspotting

Gordon Brown let the train take the strain this morning as his Cabinet arrived in south Wales for their awayday.

The big announcement, trailed yesterday, is the go-ahead for electrification of the rail line between London and Swansea.

Everyone sees it as good news, although the Tories have questioned the cost - would they scrap the plan if they win power?

Plaid Cymru have been trying very hard - perhaps two hard - to persuade us that it was their Transport Minister, Ieuan Wyn Jones, who persuaded the UK Government to cough up the cash.

Mr Jones was at Cardiff Central for the arrival of the prime ministerial express, bearing UK Transport Secretary Lord Adonis.

The two enjoy a good working relationship and were soon deep in conversation on platform three. They'd left their anoraks at home but there was an air of trainspotters' convention about the meeting.

Any political trainspotters hanging around would have spotted Lord Mandelson and the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, getting off the train accompanied by various officials and spin doctors.

Gordon Brown left his carriage accompanied by Rhodri Morgan, a surprise to those of us who assumed the First Minister was based in Cardiff.

Apparently Mr Morgan was driven to Newport station this morning so he could have a chat with the PM on the train during the 17-minute journey to Cardiff.

Nothing to do with wanting to be captured on camera arriving alongside the PM.

I was on my best behaviour so resisted the temptationt to shout out: "Have you come far, First Minister?"

Marathon Men

Rhodri Morgan may not have made it as a Minister at Westminster but he left his mark in other ways.

Not just as the rebel without a pause in the lengthy debates over the Cardiff Bay barrage or his role as an effective opposition frontbencher, but his running has secured him a place in an unusual "hall of fame".

The Welsh First Minister remains the fourth fastest sitting MP in the London Marathon. Morgan completed the 26-mile and 385-yards course in a respectable 3hrs 14mins 44secs in 1988, at the age of 48.

He is 20 minutes faster than any other Welsh MP past or present. Chris Bryant, Alan Howarth, Alun Michael, Stephen Crabb, Albert Owen and Keith Best are among those to have run it.

Their efforts were celebrated at a dinner at a swanky London restaurant in January. Author and runner John Bryant reports: "And there was a toast to Mike Steele, who has run 11 marathons. An Australian who has worked as a journalistin the Westminster Lobby {largely for ITV Wales}, he is always talking another fresh-faced MP into tackling the greatest race on earth."

Mike has acted as unofficial "chief whip" to the running MPs - and also sorted entries for parliamentary hacks like me who lost out in the general ballot.

One of those "fresh-faced MPs", Chris Bryant, is running his third marathon later this month. The deputy leader of the Commons is running this year to raise funds for the Army Benevolent fund and you can sponsor him here.

Fitness permitting, I'll be joining him on the streets of London for what will be my 10th (and, Mrs C tells me, my last) marathon. Next year, by way of mid-life crisis, I'll be saving up for the little red sports car and leather jacket.

They're not singing any more

Others have written at length about the new Labour website Aneurin Glyndwr - "definitely one to watch" as Labour's leader in Wales put it. (Definitely not one to listen to for music lovers)

If you thought that was an endorsement, Rhodri Morgan says you are being "naughty". The First Minister told reporters this morning that he had no prior knowledge of the site's content or style and had not approved it.

The site has now dropped its spoof Delilah video, it says in response to protests from opponents - although there were also murmurs of the Performing Rights Society taking an interest.

Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy was said by colleagues to be "furious" about the spoof, although those close to him pointed out that "fury isn't really Paul's style".

His endorsement was apparently confined to a website putting Welsh Labour's ideas into the blogosphere rather than the Delilah spoof.

Stability is sexy

Tony Blair's spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, once spun a line that "stability is sexy" and then laughed at all the newspapers who fell for it and dutifully ran the line the next day.

He was talking about the economy but a Welsh Alastair Campbell (Ali Ap Spin?) would probably be spinning the same line today in the political sense.

Even critics of the Labour/Plaid Cymru coalition government in Cardiff acknowledge that it has brought stability. At times it seems rather more stable than a Gordon Brown administration with an overall majority of 65.

But for one of the arch critics of the deal, stability isn't the point. Don Touhig, MP for Islwyn and former UK Government Minister, told me:

"I haven't been invited to the party, you might be surprised.....there's no doubt the coalition has brought a degree of stability in terms of the administration but so far as the Labour Party is concerned I warned a year ago that if we went into coalition with the nationalists they'd have their greatest advance in 50 years. That is what they have had.

"They've practically run rings around us politically. They've been very skilled, much more skilled at it than we have. They've exploited their position in the Assembly very well to make sure that the people believe that advances and changes and benefits to Wales are coming from them and not from the Labour Party. We're too dull, we haven't done that."

First Minister Rhodri Morgan says that's a million miles from reality. Mr Touhig says Plaid have been given jobs where they can spend cash and open railway lines funded by Labour (I paraphrase slightly), while Labour Ministers have the "bed of nails" portfolios of health and education.

This was a familiar complaint during the first coalition government in Cardiff, between Labour and the Lib Dems - that the junior partner took the credit for things that went right and blamed the bigger partner for things that went wrong.

Those nostalgic for the days when Lib Dems were in government (hello, Mike) can remind themselves of a previous first anniversary here.

I'm off to the Cabinet War Rooms to try to evoke even older memories of coalitions from days gone by. I'll try to keep the wartime metaphors to a minimum.

Influencing people

Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan will today receive a letter signed by more than "50 people of influence in Wales", a description chosen by the Gwlad Alliance in whose name the letter has been sent.

These "50 people of influence in Wales" are protesting at what they see is the Welsh Assembly Government's determination to expand windpower.

"We believe," write the "50 people of influence in Wales", this policy is misguided and out of date and does not take into account the wishes of local people.

You are doubtless on tenterhooks, anxious to know who these "50 people of influence in Wales" are.

They include broadcaster Sian Lloyd, the Archbishop of Wales, Ffion Hague, The Marquess of Anglesey, The Rt Hon Lord Howe of Aberavon CH, QC, Lieutenant Colonel Sir Geoffrey Inkin OBE DL and Lady Inkin, and The Viscount Tenby.

It will be interesting to see whether this collection of celebrities and titles succeed in changing government policy.

Sceptics may doubt the power of open letters from public figures but it is fair to point out that some of the "50 people of influence" fighting to protect the Welsh landscape do actually live there.

Runners and riders

"Too posh, too Plaid, too anti-Plaid, too boring, and too clever by half". That's the analysis of Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price on internal Labour assessment of the candidates to succeed Rhodri Morgan as the party's leader in Wales.

You can probably put faces to the labels yourself.......

Mr Price also dashed any hope that the Assembly Government might follow the example of the self-styled Scottish Government on Berwick and annex somewhere east of Offa's Dyke.

Oswestry, he says, is safe in English hands.

The smack of firm government?

Here's a Peter Hain story that doesn't involve donations.

The Welsh Secretary has told First Minister Rhodri Morgan that his Assembly Government won't be allowed to ban smacking in Wales.

Ministers in Cardiff had been examining ways of using the Assembly's new powers to go it alone and outlaw smacking.

Mr Hain, backed by the Attorney General, has now told Mr Morgan that this wouldn't be within the Assembly's competence.

A ban would intrude on the criminal justice system - which is not devolved. The proposed legislative competence order on vulnerable children, currently being negotiated in Whitehall, will be amended to remove any ambiguity about smacking.

So expect a rash of "slap in face for Wales"/"snub to Wales"/"Hain backs child cruelty"/"London calls the tune" press releases from suitably outraged politicians.

The Assembly Government tell us: "We have only just received correspondence from the Secretary of State on this issue, and will want to consider carefully all of the points raised."

Alternatively, they could just ask the First Minister, who was told this information by Peter Hain late last year and is, according to the Wales Office, "more than happy" with the advice.

Referendum fever, anyone?

Have you recovered from election fever yet? I'm getting there.

Gordon Brown's decision not to hold an election, having spent £1m of Labour Party money preparing for one, brought his honeymoon with voters to a swift end.

But for those of us suffering from withdrawal symptoms, help is at hand. Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan (with his Plaid deputy Ieuan Wyn Jones) has announced the name of the chair of a convention to plot the path towards a full law-making parliament for Wales.

The convention will be chaired by the diplomat Sir Emyr Jones Parry. Its make-up will be considered by a group of MPs and AMs.

The path to a parliament is subject to a referendum - and to agreement from Westminster. The convention will consider the date of any referendum.

Rhodri Morgan said: "It will be on or before the next election (2011). We can see no reason to depart from that commitment."

Not every Labour MP or indeed Cabinet Minister (I'm thinking Peter Hain here) shares his conviction that a referendum will be held before then.

Mr Hain welcomed the appointment but said: "the MP and AM group have yet to convene to decide the composition of the convention". That MP and AM group is likely to include such enthusiasts for devolution as the former Wales Office Minister Don Touhig.

But it would after all be totally unprecedented for a Labour administration to whip up excitement for a public vote only to decide not to hold one at the last moment. Wouldn't it?

Gordon's Gazza Strip

I've been too busy working to think at length about Gordon Brown's speech and his emphasis on Britishness - was it 71 or 72 references?

But the debate in the Welsh blogosphere is alive and kicking. Some think it's a direct response to May's elections. That may be true but Britishness has been a consistent theme of Brown's for a year or more - long before he became Prime Minister.

He's even been known to praise Paul Gascoigne's goal against Scotland in Euro '96 - something few of his compatriots would have the stomach to do.

The emphasis on Britishness may reflect his sensitivity about any possible English backlash to the idea of a Scot deciding public services in non-devolved England while his own constituents have their schools and hospitals run by an SNP devolved government.

Brown needs English votes to remain PM and is engaging in a far from subtle attempt to win over former Tory voters. (Bournemouth was abuzz with speculation about imminent defections by Conservative MPs.)

So Brown continues to bang on about Britishness - and has been encouraging members of his Cabinet to take up the theme.

Peter Hain needed little hesitation to join in. Welsh Labour leader Rhodri Morgan talked about "shared British values". One of those in the running to succeed him, Carwyn Jones, impressed MPs by talking up unionism at a conference fringe meeting. (A few future leadership votes in the bag there).

There is a danger for Brown that the Britishness appeal may backfire in England. As Frank Field has suggested, every time he opens his mouth to stress his Britishness he inadvertently reminds English voters of his Scottishness.

Clear red water

Bournemouth's Manchester Hotel has played host to the Wurzels, Little and Large, and Ken Dodd.

Tonight, over a buffet of chicken wings and vol-au-vents, it hosted Rhodri Morgan, Paul Murphy and around 60 delegates to the Labour conference - at a fringe meeting that resembled a polite inquest into last May's Welsh Assembly election results.

Morgan and Murphy were brought together by MEP Eluned Morgan, who took the chance to criticise Rhodri Morgan's approach of claiming to put "clear red water" between Labour in Cardiff Bay and Westminster.

Speaking hours after Gordon Brown told the conference about plans for a personalised NHS in England, she called for a more aspirational route from Welsh Labour to follow the New Labour approach.

Eluned Morgan said Labour had to face up to the fact that in some areas "people simply don't like what we are doing".

She added: "We should not be tiptoeing around the nationalists despite being in coalition with them."

Former Secretary of State Paul Murphy told the meeting Labour should resist the possibility of "an obsession with identity in Wales".

(Assembly) Leader of the House Carwyn Jones said Labour should proclaim its unionist beliefs more - a move welcomed by one devosceptic MP.

Former first secretary Alun Michael said the Assembly should be increased to include 80 members, two per constituency, with no regional list AMs. He also suggested a Northern Ireland-style power-sharing deal in which all parties would share responsibility for making devolution work.

Two MPs told me privately afterwards that many of their party colleagues are still in denial about Labour's poor results, blaming Tony Blair's unpopularity rather than problems with the NHS, particularly in the western part of Wales.

I think this inquest could have some distance to run.

A spinner repents

Readers of Peter Hain's now defunct blog may remember this from April: "BBC Wales was running a story - which was utter rubbish - claiming that Labour would go into coalition with Plaid Cymru after the Assembly elections on May 3rd.

"As I have made clear in the past, party members simply wouldn't wear a deal with the separatists. So the BBC Wales claim is flatly wrong.

"Many of my colleagues believe that nationalist sympathies are rife in the BBC Wales newsroom, and such blatantly and unjustifiably pro-nationalist coverage will have done nothing to assuage their concerns."

Five months on, with Labour now in coalition with "the separatists", here's an extract from Wales United: Partnership for Progress: "The BBC embodies the values of inclusion and fairness, with Welsh-produced success stories like the BBC's Doctor Who and Torchwood showing not just what Wales is contributing to Britain but how Britishness contributes to Welsh success."

It's only fair and inclusive to point out the joint author of that paragraph, although you've probably guessed by now that it's one of the two mates above.

News from the bunker

Greetings from Bournemouth, where the BBC is operating from its traditional base of the conference centre car park.

I may not see daylight again before Thursday as any Labour conference news struggles to compete for airtime with Charlotte Church giving birth.

Labour are using the conference to launch a pamphlet arguing the case for Wales remaining in the UK.

Authored by Rhodri Morgan and Peter Hain, it states: "Ten years on since the referendum in Wales, we can rightly celebrate both the successes of devolution and the economic, social, cultural and political ties that bind together the countries of the UK - which are stronger than ever before."

Political ties stronger than ever before? With nationalists in power in Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh?

In the next paragraph, they add: "Plaid Cymru's new role in the Welsh Assembly Government has not at all dented their separatist aspirations."

Discuss.

Agas 4 All

There was a time when all you needed to make it in Welsh politics was a CND badge, a slightly shambolic dress sense and a vague commitment to social justice.

No longer. As revealed earlier this year, a posh cooker is an essential ingredient in the hinterland of any ambitious politician.

Having alerted readers to the Agas 4 Socialism movement, I have now discovered that Peter Hain is not the only leading politician to swear by his Aga.

Step forward the slightly unlikely gourmet Rhodri Morgan, First Minister. Thanks to the South Wales Echo, a paper almost as good as the days when I delivered it five nights a week, Morgan's closet flirtation with New Labour tastes can be revealed.

Put on the spot to reveal the contents of his fridge, he says: "Corn on the cob from Riverside market is the best bargain - half a dozen for £3.

"You just put them in the Aga or microwave until the leaves turn brown - talk about instant food!"

Admittedly, this is a belated discovery for me - as readers of Wales on Sunday will have spotted months ago.

The Welsh Assembly Government Morgan leads has already introduced free breakfasts in schools. Can it be long before no state primary is complete without its own Aga?

(The photograph of the First Minister and the MP for Cardiff North produced gratuitously above comes from Paul Flynn's blog)

What's in a name?

Names and titles are important in politics as today's politicians strive to create tomorrow's history.

The SNP administration in Scotland has rebranded itself as The Scottish Government, although legally it will remain the Scottish Executive.

Gordon Brown is said to be relaxed about the change, although his officials still refer to an executive.

Tony Blair's Downing Street was less relaxed a few years ago when a Labour-led Scottish Executive suggested introducing the word "Government" into its official title.

The feeling then in No 10 was that it would be confusing for the Scots to have two governments and the idea was dropped. At the same time officials were content for the executive committee of the National Assembly for Wales, as legally it was, to rebrand itself the Welsh Assembly Government.

Perhaps they had greater faith in the ability of the Welsh to spot the difference, or at least not confuse Rhodri Morgan's administration with the UK Government.

Only since last year's Government of Wales Act was passed has the Assembly Government legally been able to describe itself in that way. Welsh Ministers were originally Secretaries, a distinction senior figures in the Blair Government chose to make to reflect the differing powers of the devolved administrations.

A nationalist-led administration in Cardiff Bay would presumably rebrand WAG the Government of Wales, a title many in Plaid Cymru have used since 1999.

By royal appointment

Reshuffles are great fun for journalists, not so much fun for the victims.

Political correspondents work themselves up into a lather about who's up, who's down from a cast of characters barely known outside the Westminster or Cardiff Bay bubble.

We breathlessly report how someone you've never heard of has been sacked from a job you didn't realise he was doing until he was fired.

I do (almost) feel sorry for those Ministers who beaver away in unglamorous roles for years, making the news only when they are appointed and/or sacked.

Like me, you probably haven't been able to sleep for the excitement of waiting to hear Rhodri Morgan's new Labour/Plaid Cymru line-up in the Welsh Assembly.

Apparently, we won't get the names until they've been approved by the Queen. Welsh Ministers are now Ministers of the Crown, which means that, formally at least, they can't be appointed until Buckingham Palace signals its agreement.

Somehow I can't imagine Her Majesty pondering a list sent by Rhodri Morgan, checking it for balance and possible future coalition tensions, before sending it back with one or two alterations.

At Westminster, the Queen is often the last to hear reshuffle details which leak (sometimes inaccurately) in the run-up to changes, but the Assembly Government is playing it by the book in respecting the protocols introduced by the latest Government of Wales Act.

Apparently we won't get the names until they've been rubber-stamped by the Palace. Devolution may or may not have weakened the Union but it certainly seems to have strengthened the monarchy's role in Wales.

The Welsh patient

Let's hope Peter Hain isn't the squeamish kind. The Welsh Secretary had a telephone chat with Rhodri Morgan this morning and enquired after the First Minister's health after his heart operation.

"He was on bullish form", reports Mr Hain, "telling me all the details about his operation with his encyclopedic ability to remember every tiny detail, including the exact diameter of the stems that were inserted into his arteries, which was absolutely fascinating."

Mr Morgan may have been less cheered by what Mr Hain had to say about the prospect of the Welsh Assembly gaining full law-making powers within four years.

The Labour coalition agreement with Plaid Cymru talks of holding a referendum "as soon as practicable, at or before the end of the assembly term (in 2011)".

But Mr Hain has re-assured his party's MPs that may not happen.

"I don't think we would win a referendum in the immediate future - the conditions are not right for that."

He added: "I am rather doubtful about whether it could be achieved."

He was equally sceptical about plans by AMs to re-open the issue of how the Welsh Assembly is funded - the so-called Barnett formula.

"Public spending per head is £1,000 higher than in England and English MPs are aware of that. I think that this is a potential Pandora's box for the Welsh budget and it has to be approached with a lot of care.

"We have got no plans as a Government to change the Barnett formula."

Mind you, he did rule out a Labour/Plaid Cymru coalition last March.

"I was very happy with what I said then," he told reporters today.