John Osmond (Cardiff, IWA): A coalition to run Wales of Plaid Cymru, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats moved a step closer late on Tuesday evening when, following a tense five-hour meeting, Plaid's Assembly Members (AMs) voted to break-off negotiations with Labour and concentrate on the so-called "rainbow" option.
This prompted an immediate split in Plaid's ranks when four of its AMs, led by Llanelli member Helen Mary Jones, signalled their opposition to any deal with the Tories. Nonetheless, the party's 15 AMs voted 10 to 5 in favour of pursuing the rainbow option. The next crunch in the tortuous progress to finding a Welsh First Minister and a stable cross-party government comes on Thursday evening when Plaid Cymru's Pwyllgor Gwaith (National Executive) has to approve a programme for government document currently being finalised between the three parties. If it passes that hurdle the decision goes before a meeting of the party's National Council, a large body of branch and constituency representatives, in Aberystwyth on Saturday.
Rhodri Morgan's Welsh Labour Party has been left reeling by these events. It had never believed that when it came to the crunch Plaid would go for a deal with the Conservatives. In its own negotiations with Plaid it had presented a 28 page document (opens in Microsoft Word) listing a series of policies where the two parties are close but refusing to offer a coalition that would involve Plaid Cymru Ministers in the Cabinet. Rhodri Morgan didn't help his cause when at the start of the negotiations three weeks ago he described his options as a choice between the 'unpalatable" (the Lib Dems) and the "inedible" (Plaid Cymru). A typical Rhodri Morgan line, it also reflected what is widely regarded as Labour arrogance after running Wales for the best part of a century.
Plaid Cymru was faced with a choice of making its leader Ieuan Wyn Jones First Minister at the head of a coalition with the 12 Conservative AMs and six Lib Dem AMs, or simply propping up the Labour party for another four years. For the majority this was a 'no brainer'. But it could still result in a split in the party with possibly one or two of its AMs resigning the whip. Rhodri Morgan is clinging to the hope that these might side with Labour when it comes to the crucial vote for First Minister in the National Assembly next Tuesday. If the Assembly fails to come to a decision by Wednesday, 28 days after the election, under the terms of the 2006 Wales Act there will have to be another election. Welsh politics have never been more interesting.
