Lib-lab coalition - a backwards step for Welsh Labour
The politics of the National Assembly for Wales took a sharp twist on Thursday October 5, with the announcement that the ruling Labour group is to enter a coalition with the Liberal Democrats
Labour has governed as a minority since the first Welsh general election in May 1999 gave it only twenty-eight of the Assembly's sixty seats.
This meant that Labour had to make ad hoc agreements with at least one of the other parties - usually Plaid Cymru - if it was to ensure that it could win votes on controversial issues, and avoid a humiliating defeat like the no confidence motion that forced the resignation of Blairite First Secretary, Alun Michael, earlier this year.
Now, Michael's successor, Rhodri Morgan, has drawn up a 'Partnership Agreement' that seeks to guarantee 'stability' by giving the Liberal Democrats two seats in the Cabinet, with Liberal leader Mike German becoming his deputy.
The agreement, set to run until the next election in 2003, was agreed by an emergency meeting of the Welsh Labour Executive Committee on Thursday night, and has to be ratified by a Liberal Democrat conference on 14 October if it is to go ahead.
The Partnership Agreement has been generally welcomed by Labour Assembly Members, who see it as a necessary step to ensure that the Assembly can deliver policies that they say will benefit the people of Wales and enhance the body's own standing in the process.
The Agreement contains over one hundred policy commitments, including the promise of substantial sums of money for health and education, to cut hospital waiting lists and school class sizes.
While the Liberal Democrats are claiming credit for these pledges, almost all of them are in keeping with the aspirations of mainstream Labour opinion.
Most are unexceptional, if positive, but a few stand to distinguish the Assembly's programme from that of the Westminster Government: for example, an independent review of student funding whose proposals could see Wales, like Scotland, offering a element of financial support for students that is unavailable in England.
Other policies that Labour would not have promised include reviews of the powers of the Assembly, and of the electoral system for local government.
The fact that these initiatives are welcome in themselves does not at all justify the coalition that has put them on the agenda. The bitter irony, that it has taken the Liberal Democrats to initiate a process that could at last distinguish the Assembly's politics from those of Westminster, is merely a reflection of the political timidity of the Labour group.
In fact, Labour could have produced proposals like these itself and demanded support from both the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru, with no strings attached, which would have been forthcoming in most cases if the parties had wanted to retain their progressive credentials.
The defeats inflicted on Labour in the past - most spectacularly the removal of Alun Michael - have been a response to the administration's control by Blair, who effectively imposed Michael against the wishes of Labour Party members and a majority of the Welsh people.
Plaid is to the left of Labour on a whole series of issues, and it is unfortunately significant that this deal has been struck not with them but with the Liberals.
For, however progressive the Partnership agreement, a Lib-Lab coalition will ultimately pull Labour to the right.
The process by which the deal has been agreed also suggests a worrying move away from the Labour Party democracy that Rhodri Morgan supposedly embodies, in contrast to his predecessor. Labour AMs, outside the cabinet, were not even told about the deal until the day that it was publicly announced - by which time a detailed pact had been drawn up with the Liberal Democrats.
They therefore felt bounced into agreeing the deal, and while four AMs reportedly opposed the proposal as such, unease about the procedure is far more widespread.
The Welsh Executive was treated with even more contempt, being asked to endorse the proposals after they had been publicly announced, and therefore given the choice of falling into line or publicly humiliating their own leadership.
Labour's minority position is a consequence of the unhappiness of large sections of the Welsh electorate about the politics of New Labour.
Rhodri Morgan's administration should be seeking to demonstrate that it is in touch with grassroots Labour supporters, and by extension with the majority of the people of Wales.
Instead, it has signalled a move towards the politics of backroom manoeuvring, out of sight of the people.
Left Labour activists should work for the dissolution of this partnership and for Welsh Labour to demonstrate the genuine political independence that is necessary for the Assembly to become the tribune of the people of Wales.