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Baroness Eluned Morgan announces her resignation as leader of Welsh Labour at Ysgol Bro Teifi, in Ceredigion. Photo Ben Birchall\/PA Wire<\/p>\n Baroness Eluned Morgan announces her resignation as leader of Welsh Labour at Ysgol Bro Teifi, in Ceredigion. Photo Ben Birchall\/PA Wire<\/p>\n
Desmond Clifford<\/strong><\/p>\n The fall was brutal. \u00a0Labour was left for dead.\u00a0 Think Gettysburg, Hastings and the Battle of Marathon.<\/p>\n Imagine Pheidippides running 26 miles, say from Merthyr to Cardiff Bay, to break the news \u2013 the Persians are defeated!\u00a0 Exhausted by the effort, Pheidippides drops dead a happy man. King Xerxes, surveying the Persian army at the Hellespont, weeps in despair, overcome by transitory life and earthly power.<\/p>\n On the Senedd\u2019s steps, Rhun ap Iorwerth plays the Athenian. As Pericles, he addresses the metropolis, for the nation\u2019s capital is now a Plaid Cymru city.<\/p>\n The citizens sing Hen Wlad fy Nhadau, like a chorus from Sophocles.\u00a0 Rhun will be laurelled as First Minister subject to a Senedd vote, the King\u2019s signature and a right hand placed on the Beibl in front of a High Court judge.<\/p>\n But lo! who are these ragged and disparate soldiers, bloodied and weary, staggering into the capital from the smoking shires and valleys?\u00a0 I see Leonidas, Dan Thomas, general of the Spartans, fresh from Thermopylae and soaked in Persian sweat and tears. O Lacrimae Cambriae!<\/p>\n Enough!\u00a0 The practical impact of Labour\u2019s defeat is huge. They governed Wales since devolution began in 1999. The country is shaped by its imprint.<\/p>\n Every appointment, every public board and every programme was devised under Labour\u2019s gaze.\u00a0 National policy was shaped by them \u2013 schools, hospitals, forests, farms. Everyone\u2019s life has been affected by Labour\u2019s rule.<\/p>\n Shortly after Labour\u2019s first election victory in Wales in 1922, Plaid Cymru was founded by a small group of idealists. Their original mission was to save the Welsh language. For years they toiled without success.<\/p>\n Over time, Plaid developed a national agenda and gradually broadened its base. They could only win Wales by replacing Labour.<\/p>\n Until recently that seemed as likely as the sun forgetting to set on Cardiff Bay.<\/p>\n Labour has appointed Ken Skates as interim leader. He\u2019s personable and decent, and now has the gloomiest job in Welsh politics.<\/p>\n Keir Starmer can\u2019t survive long; it\u2019s surely only a matter of when and how. It would be best if he declared an intention to step down and a timetable for doing so. Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman, bizarrely appointed as advisors, aren\u2019t going to save him (Change?).<\/p>\n All the same, will Gordon Brown\u2019s \u201cReport of the Commission on the UK\u2019s Future\u201d now be adopted and implemented by the UK Government?<\/p>\n It recommends, among other things, a radical and \u201cirreversible\u201d shift of power away from Westminster to the nations and regions.<\/p>\n If the UK Government doesn\u2019t shift policy now that he\u2019s on board, there\u2019ll be some credibility issues for the widely respected Brown to address. Otherwise, what\u2019s he playing at?<\/p>\n Ken Skates\u2019 first job is to oversee enquiry into Welsh Labour\u2019s calamity. There\u2019s lots of talk about \u201clistening\u201d, so here goes.<\/p>\n You were in power for a long time and the ideas bucket was empty; in the end you were running on fumes.\u00a0 he leadership contest after Mark Drakeford\u2019s departure was a dog\u2019s breakfast. It led Labour into a muddy trench and bequeathed a time-bomb which detonated on 7 May.<\/p>\n The wider dysfunction of the Labour Party was exposed after the 2024 UK election. After an apparently stunning victory, loyal Labour voters in Wales, not unreasonably, expected to see a dividend.<\/p>\n They were told repeatedly by the First Minister to expect \u201ca partnership in power\u201d.<\/p>\n Eluned Morgan was unwise to place her fate, needlessly, in Keir Starmer\u2019s hands. He gave her nothing and his Secretary of State for Anti-Wales is a catastrophe.<\/p>\n Can Labour hope to recover? And what does \u201crecover\u201d now mean?<\/p>\n Honest inquiry<\/strong><\/p>\n The first challenge: is Labour even capable of honest inquiry into its defeat? If voters don\u2019t believe that Wales is your priority, they won\u2019t vote for you. Welsh Labour needs to be pro-Wales, or it is nothing \u2013 and nothing really is an option now.<\/p>\n When it created devolution Labour changed Britain; what it didn\u2019t change was itself.<\/p>\n Labour needs to shift from its centralised, Stalinist mentality. The Welsh party should be autonomous, forming its own agenda for devolved affairs which should be respected by the UK party in return for the support of Welsh MPs.<\/p>\n Welsh MPs should sit unambiguously at the service of the Welsh Labour Party. Wales has changed for good \u2013 whether Labour can change too is an open question.<\/p>\n A Labour commentator accused me recently of being \u201cobsessed\u201d with \u201cniche\u201d constitutional questions.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not offended but, Guys \u2013 Plaid Cymru just took all your seats! The only thing that\u2019s \u201cniche\u201d right now is Welsh Labour! Someone needs to smell the coffee.<\/p>\n Labour\u2019s long hegemony is over. They\u2019ll have better elections, yes, but things will never again be like they were.<\/p>\n Labour talent<\/strong><\/p>\n Labour stands in the market square now alongside the other parties competing for attention.\u00a0 On the plus side, the Senedd group has two new and talented members, Huw Thomas and Shav Taj, either (or both) of whom could be future leaders.<\/p>\n For now, they need to help draw a line under the past and develop a fresh voice for Labour.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Rhun\u2019s weekend appearance outside the Senedd in glorious sunshine, and the spontaneous national anthem, symbolised real change. This moment for Wales compares with the famous pictures of Blair arriving in Downing St in 1997.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a very long time since there was any joy in Welsh politics and it\u2019s good to see it, even for a fleeting moment. I was in Cardiff Bay for devolution\u2019s first day of business in 1999 and there was little sense of celebration, only the sound of no hands clapping.<\/p>\n How will Reform position itself? I bumped into James Evans MS at the weekend, and he said he\u2019d never even met most of his new Reform colleagues!<\/p>\n They\u2019re new to the Senedd and most are new to politics. James and Laura Anne Jones are the Old Hands now and will be showing Dan Thomas where to hang his coat.<\/p>\n Dan\u2019s refusal to take a call from Rhun at the weekend felt like an ungracious misstep though, in fairness, Reform and Plaid offer different accounts of what happened.<\/p>\n Discipline<\/strong><\/p>\n Can Reform become a solid and coherent block, and act with discipline?\u00a0 If so, they have the numbers to be an effective Official Opposition representing a broad opinion \u2013 something the Conservatives never managed.<\/p>\n The alternative is the spectre of UKIP whose Senedd group, elected in 2016, quickly foundered into faction, flakiness and downright weirdness.<\/p>\n As a new party, Reform says it has tried to vet candidates to screen out miscreants and nut-jobs. Time will tell how successful this has been.<\/p>\n Plaid has the numbers to form a strong administration, albeit in minority form. Rhun has already struck a positive note in reaching out to the other parties.<\/p>\n Labour was generally pretty good at this aspect of government and leaves a legacy of co-operation styles Plaid could usefully draw from.<\/p>\n Leadership qualities<\/strong><\/p>\n Government isn\u2019t a one-man show, of course. Rhun has demonstrated exceptional leadership qualities as party leader and his election as First Minister will add gravitas and the aura of office. Will his communication and motivational skills translate into executive ability? He\u2019ll find out soon, and so will we.<\/p>\n He\u2019ll appoint his Cabinet this week. Not every minister will be a star, but he needs a core of four or five top performers in the key profile jobs.<\/p>\n He has a solid Senedd team who did well in opposition and who should translate competently into office. There will also be fresh talent among the sea of new and, so far, unfamiliar faces.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been quite a weekend for Welsh politics.\u00a0 Everything\u2019s changed; changed utterly. The parties that were first and second are now third and fourth.\u00a0 From a standing start, Reform UK polled strongly and is the official opposition.<\/p>\n Plaid Cymru\u2019s glacial climb to power has come at last, after a hundred years.\u00a0 The world turns: Wales is turned upside down.<\/p>\n Support our Nation today<\/p>\n For the price of a cup of coffee<\/strong> a month you can help us create an
\n independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by
\n the people of Wales.<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Baroness Eluned Morgan announces her resignation as leader of Welsh Labour at Ysgol Bro Teifi, in Ceredigion. Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":953723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-953722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116558821390141174","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}