Labour activists endure coalition

By Vaughan Roderick BBC Welsh affairs editor

Labour's failure to win an assembly majority led to coalition with Plaid Plaid and power, one year later

In the week of the first anniversary of the Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition in the Welsh Assembly Government, we look at how it has affected the various parties. Here, we examine how the deal has gone down with Labour supporters.

One year on from the stormy special conference that approved the One Wales deal, Welsh Labour activists have other things on their minds.

Disastrous local election results and abysmal UK polls probably worry most Labour members more than the successes and failures of First Minister Rhodri Morgan's coalition government.

There are gripes, of course. Talk to most Labour AMs and sooner or later they'll complain about Plaid ministers hogging the limelight and the comparative low profiles of some Labour's own cabinet members.

With Labour ejected from power in many local councils though, and with Gordon Brown's popularity plummeting, many Labour supporters are simply relieved to see the party having a relatively secure grip on the reins of power in Cardiff Bay.

'Necessary evil'

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The unpicking of the internal market in the health service and moves towards blocking tenants' right to buy their homes in some areas are probably as popular with Labour's grassroots as they are with Plaid's.

The underlying tensions within Labour have not gone away, though.

To many ordinary Labour members, Plaid remains a traditional enemy and nationalism an anathema. At best, for many Labour activists, the coalition remains a necessary evil to be discarded as soon as possible.

Those tensions are almost certain to resurface as Mr Morgan's promised retirement approaches.

He has indicated that he intends to retire in autumn 2009 and that could spark a second battle over the deal with Plaid.

Merthyr AM Huw Lewis will almost certainly stand for the leadership and, while he's unlikely to run explicitly as an anti-coalition candidate, his disdain for Plaid is well known.

The junior coalition party might well consider withdrawing from the coalition were Mr Lewis to win the leadership.

Were Labour to choose a continuity candidate as leader, the coalition would almost certainly continue, but tensions are bound to increase as the 2011 assembly elections approach.

With Plaid openly talking of leading the next assembly government, the feeling that Labour has handed its rival much-needed credibility might well increase.

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