Carwyn goads Tories on their election failure

FIRST MINISTER Carwyn Jones visibly relaxed when asked at this week’s press briefing how his party had fared in last week’s election, writes Clive Betts from the Assembly press gallery.

Far better than we expected, he said in his short departure from tight restriction to purely  Assembly business which is the general rule in the official government weekly briefing..

“Better than the European elections,” he told the press gallery, an excellent starting point to win back ground lost. “We need to build for the future.

“It provides us with a good spring-board for the next election.”

Mr Jones didn’t use those precise words. But what he must have been thinking was pretty clear – the swings and roundabouts of British politics are still applying in Wales.

Some of us had been thinking that the decades-long decline of the Welsh working class was already well into hurling the Welsh Labour party into the dustbin of history.

Perhaps Mr Jones had his worries, too.

In the event that didn’t happen. Labour lost a few seats, the Tories gained a couple, and nothing much else happened.

Wales didn’t wander outside the basic electoral perameters which have governed Welsh politics for most of the time since the Second World War – the main difference being that a Nationalist party has arisen to take over part of the area vacated by the Liberals.

In other words, Labour expects to be able to win back the Westminster ground – and every seat that it lost – next time.

Because the second important happening which lights the future was the performance of the Tories. “The Conservatives did a lot worse than they were claiming before the election,” said the First Minister. “At one stage they were talking of a net gain of 10.”

Then, there is the second side of the picture. The Tories have failed to create any basic change in the scenery. What’s won in one election can easily be lost in the next

.

On Assembly government policies in the wake of the election, Mr Jones didn’t have much to say. Because, of course, we lack a government in London – he was speaking of course in advance of the Con-Lib Dem coalition deal.

What about that autumn referendum on those so-crucial extra powers for Cardiff, which so many are hoping for ?

That would mean Parliament would have to vote before the summer recess. The timetable would be “tight”, said the First Minister.

Particularly because there is no Secretary of State to get the process under way in Westminster.

Well, we’ve now got Cheryl Gillan.

The biggest issue on the agenda is, in any case, the question to be asked,  and that has to be cleared with the Electoral Commission.

Expect a Tory-led government to possibly have rather different views from those of a Labour-led administration.

But what about the present coalition ?

As Cameron seems willing to let Wales get on with running itself, and with the Lib Dems presumably following a pro-Wales devolution line, perhaps we can now put out the order with the printers for ballot papers, as well as campaigning literature ?