Wales is mugged by Millbank

Our Cardiff correspondent reports on the angry reaction to attempts to foist Alun Michael on Wales.

Ron Davies may or may not have been mugged on Clapham Common - and the CPS decision not to prosecute his alleged attacker means that we will probably never know the truth. What is clear, though, is that Mr Davies was mugged when he went to Downing Street on the morning after the night before.

Ron Davies left Clapham Common minus his wallet. He left Downing Street minus his job as Welsh Secretary and with his political reputation in tatters. As far as Labour's control freaks were concerned, that was meant to be that. Blair's trusted valet from his days as opposition spokesman on Home Affairs Alun Michael was appointed to the Welsh Office, even before Davies' forced resignation.

That though, was not the end of the story. What Millbank apparently overlooked was that whereas Davies was appointed by the Prime Minister to his job at the Welsh Office, Ron Davies' putative role in the Welsh Assembly was by virtue of his election by Labour members in Wales. Blair could not sack him. In fact, there was no such procedure in place.

Crude attempts to foist Alun Michael on the Wales Labour Party provoked a fierce reaction. People formed the view that Rhodri Morgan, runner-up to Ron Davies in the original election for the leadership, should be given the chance to lead Labour in the Assembly.

The Wales Labour Party Executive recently decided to postpone an election until next February. The longer the delay, the greater the opportunity for Michael to establish himself and greater the chances for the Party apparatchiks to scupper Rhodri Morgan's chances.

Morgan has been portrayed and certainly likes to portray himself, as the firebrand outsider - listening to ordinary Party members and speaking up for Wales. Morgan has even been characterised as Wales' own Ken Livingstone.

Unlike Livingstone, Morgan is actually the consummate insider. He was the Harvard-educated EU man in Wales. His 'Kia-rdiff boot boy' image is a cultivated affectation. It is one, though, that will serve him well.

People in Wales actually believed Tony Blair when he said that devolution of power would mean something, that it would give the people the opportunity to challenge the debilitating social problems which have gripped Wales for generations. They believed it would have given people the chance to attack poverty, unemployment caused by industrial illness and the lack of educational opportunity for children from working-class backgrounds.

How, people say, can Blair and his acolytes talk up devolution, when Blair can't even trust the Wales Labour Party to pick its own leader? There is a sense of betrayal - an uneasy feeling that, yet again, Wales is the victim of other people's decisions.

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