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Welsh Assembly election

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At the end of the day

  • Betsan Powys
  • 24 May 07, 04:13 PM

People have taken to calling the office to ask whether anything has changed in the last 10 seconds.

This is where the day ends. Rhodri Morgan will be nominated as First Minister tomorrow and everyone but Labour will abstain.

He wants his new administration to hit the ground running and has clearly got the group's blessing to talk in terms of 'reaching out' to 'progressive people in other parties', to 'move forward by consensus'. There was even an apology from him tonight if any of those 'progressive people' had taken offence at some of the harshest words he and others in his party had used.

He was pretty quick to point out mind you that they'd used some pretty harsh words themselves today - and aimed them at each other.

So what of the rainbow coalition?

For the Lib Dems Saturday's conference is the big one. IF the resurrected Special Conference sees them voting in favour of the rainbow coalition, IF the party is convinced that the deal should be done, IF they in turn can convince Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives that the support is stable, then it may yet have its day.

Weeks? No. Months? Maybe. For now we'd alll be happy to get to the end of the week.

Comments   Post your comment

  • 1.
  • At 02:19 PM on 25 May 2007,
  • BlueFlagRevolution wrote:

I think the current demise of the Rainbow Coalition or Accord is a real shame.

We could have had a Plaid First Minister, a Welsh government of diversity showing the rest of the UK how real negotiation is done, and we could have gotten rid of the cancerous Labour Party in Wales.

Now we have Rhodri 'Foot in Mouth' Morgan as our laughing stock leader of a country (Wales) that is perceived as being behind the rest of Britain. We are not! And I blame that on our First Minister. He must be one of the most inept and utterly moronic politicians in Britain. What an embarrasment. He should resign and emmigrate a.s.a.p.

  • 2.
  • At 02:59 PM on 25 May 2007,
  • A NON wrote:

get a grip blueflag

the 'cancerous' labour party in Wales?

labour are the ones who delivered devolution for Wales. And your comments about the First Minister are also unnecessary and in my view, incorrect.

If we are to be sensible, talk to each other, and work in partnership where possible for the good of Wales your sort of attitude, and petty promotion of personality politics is not helpful, or welcome.

  • 3.
  • At 03:17 PM on 25 May 2007,
  • John R. Walker wrote:

So what happened to Standing Order 36 then?

Based on his record of abject failure in almost every important area of policy and public service provision, surely the nomination of Rhodri Morgan as FM counts as frivolous...

Looking on the bright side, at least I probably won't have to apply for political asylum at Chester Police Station just yet...

  • 4.
  • At 03:37 PM on 25 May 2007,
  • Ali wrote:

Totally agree that Rhodri Morgan is just like Blair was a year back. The fact that he has announced he will be gone next year just shows that this minority government is in for more turmoil in the near future. This post-election period has shown that Labour really have treated potential partners poorly and then capitalised on the Lib Dem's inability to leave the comfy corner of opposition.

I just hope, having compared the rainbow manifesto and Labour's, that somehow the three parties can get together a few months later and oust Labour because I can't find anyone this afternoon who was cheering on Rhodri getting back in and especially this outdated and yes, tribal Labour party in Wales. As a young voter who is only just getting interested in politics I found it astonishing that apparently Labour hate Plaid in the Valley areas and hate the Tories in Cardiff and so on!

Thank goodness the Rainbow coalition is dead, hopefully Wales will not have the humiliation of being the first part of the UK to have the Tories back in government.

Welsh Labour needs to get Plaid and the Lib Dems onboard and form a centre-left progressive alliance, so that Wales becomes a nation of social justice, fairness and equality.

  • 6.
  • At 05:20 PM on 25 May 2007,
  • David Davies wrote:

‘’They let down the voters, led down the pupils, let down the parents.
That’s not the leadership our Assembly needs.’
Mike German – 2007 Conference speech on Plaid
‘They remain a wolf, however many layers of sheep's clothing they put on.
And however soft their woolly cloak, Wales will never forget how sharp were the wolf's teeth bit in Wales in the 1980s.
Wales has never been a Conservative country. ‘
Mike German – 2007 Conference speech on the Tories


Just how hypocritical will the Lib Dems look id they change their mind for a third time and vote for the rainbow on Saturday?

  • 7.
  • At 11:12 AM on 26 May 2007,
  • Anna J. wrote:

From Wikipedia...

"Each episode of Rainbow revolved around a particular activity or situation that would arise in the Rainbow House, where the main characters lived. Usually it would involve some kind of SQUABBLE or dispute between the (puppet) characters of Zippy, George and Bungle, and Geoffrey's (Rhodri's ?) attempts to calm them down and keep the peace!!!"

TRUTH IN FICTION!!!

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