Thursday 16 June

Peace talks

posted by David | 1021 BST |

Hold the front page. Peace breaks out in Welsh Labour. As unlikely headlines go, it's up there with "United fans back Glazer" and "Brown urges Blair to carry on".

But the remarkable thing about the plans to increase the Welsh assembly's powers is that their launch avoided the traditions of these occasions - bitter internal disputes and feuds.

Peter Hain is combing two roles - Welsh Secretary and Northern Ireland Secretary

The closest thing to controversy (beyond the usual party political clashes) came when Welsh Secretary Peter Hain suggested that assembly members may have to "work harder" to cope with their increased workload drafting and scrutinising new laws.

Mr Hain pointed out that the "family-friendly" assembly sits in plenary session for around one quarter of the hours the House of Commons puts in each week.

He suggested that only the media-chattering classes were obsessed with constitutional change and that no voter mentioned the subject to him during the election campaign.

Hardly surprising perhaps given the intentional low profile Labour gave to the subject, although that also begs the question why he is now spending so much time on something he think voters believe is irrelevant.

Does he have a point about the media though? A report by a committee on the great and the good, much of which has been rejected by the government, got more coverage in some quarters than the white paper that will actually lead to change.

So how did Peter Hain succeed in delivering peace in his time within Labour at Westminster? Last year, 19 Labour MPs (more than half those from Wales) wrote to the Prime Minister to warn him against a transfer of "significant" powers to Cardiff without a referendum.

Either the MPs are convinced what's on offer is not a significant transfer of powers or they are re-assured by their retention of a case-by-case veto on Welsh legislation.

More work could move from Westminster to Cardiff Bay

Even the declaration by the assembly's presiding officer, Plaid Cymru's Lord Elis-Thomas, that the new powers create a parliament in all but name has failed to disrupt the new-found harmony on the Labour benches.

Perhaps they have been re-assured by the traditional cries of "betrayal" from elsewhere in Plaid Cymru - or the guarantee that, despite the reduction in their workload, there will be no corresponding cut in their numbers.

The assembly government has welcomed the proposals, even if they don't meet all its demands. It is also difficult to see how a Labour-run assembly could implement policies of its choosing via the new system if the Conservatives were in power at Westminster.

Protecting Wales from Thatcherism has always been a guiding light for the First Minister Rhodri Morgan, but Mr Hain has thrown him some red meat by holding out the prospect of full law-making powers within years.

But somehow the truce within Welsh Labour is holding. Peter Hain was always going to have his work cut out doing two Cabinet jobs - he is Secretary of State for both Wales and Northern Ireland.