Rhyl played host to the first official Welsh Labour hustings last night and I have to say that I enjoyed it immensely. It was a great turn out on a wet night and there were some searching questions, ranging from the health service in North Wales to the X Factor! With Lloyd being a constituent of mine, there really wasn’t much thinking required for that one.
It was interesting to hear the other candidates speak, what I think is really exciting about this contest is that party members have a real choice. Obviously there’s lots of common ground – you would expect that in any internal contest, but lots of good comradely disagreement as well. The notion for example of a Minister for North Wales was mooted last night. On the surface of it a simple response to the feeling of dislocation felt by party members and communities across the north. But in reality, it is a hollow offer. Every Minister needs to be a Minister for North Wales. Government doesn’t work by region, it works by department. The dislocation felt in North – and for that matter in West Wales and the Valleys, and even as close by as Swansea, needs to be addressed by a much more meaningful direct engagement with those towns and villages by the whole of Government. The next First Minister must lead that charge, and that’s why I’ve said – if successful I’ll be making repeated trips to the north until they are sick of the sight of me!
The feedback I’ve had from the event last night has been really good – and what’s really heartening is that members are clearly taking the time to read and engage with the manifesto. There are, I know, some questions I could have answered better than others and I’m sure we’ll all be learning the lessons from last night as we look forward to the next events.
It was quickly on the road this morning, and from Rhyl to rugby. It wasn’t easy to get down to the Vale of Glamorgan in time, but I was really keen to get to the official opening today of the WRU’s new training centre. It really is a fantastic facility and it was great to have a quick chat with a few of the players, including Stephen Jones and James Hook. I was tempted to tap them up for tickets, but just about held my cool.
I’ve set out today some of my pledges around sport; you can read the relevant section of the manifesto here.
Wales’s sporting endeavours do as much to define us as a nation – and promote us on the international stage – in the 21st century as at any time in our history.
Our sporting culture is the jewel in the Welsh crown and we must act as the careful guardians of it – ensuring all communities have equal access to this treasure trove. We must use our sporting heritage, and our sporting future, as a tool of community regeneration and economic development in addition to promoting good health and civic pride.
Finally, just a quick word about the YouGov poll. It is difficult to extrapolate usable figures for our internal election, where it is party members and affiliates who vote, not the general public. Looking at the best measure, Labour party voters, the figures are really encouraging, showing my campaign firmly in second place amongst Labour voters, with everything still to play for. However, the overall figures for Welsh Labour make difficult reading. It shows again just what a challenge the next party leader will face in turning our fortunes around.
Results, amongst Labour voters for Westminster elections are as follows:
Carwyn Jones +33, Huw Lewis +27, Edwina Hart +16.
Results, amongst Labour voters for Assembly (constituency) elections are as follows:
Carwyn Jones +33, Huw Lewis +26, Edwina Hart +12.
Another weekend that involved North, West and South Wales – including an enjoyable look round The Racecourse, in Wrexham on Saturday. We were there to make a point about trade union votes in the upcoming ballot. Whilst us few party members took up a few places, the hundreds of empty seats represented the “missing” electorate from recent Labour Party contests – just 10% of eligible union members took part in the 2007 Deputy Leadership contest for example. The 
It’s been a very interesting few days on the campaign trail and, as the dust settles on the obligatory beauty pageant surrounding the ins and outs of which “Labour big gun” is backing who, we finally seem to be moving towards a focus on the two things that I’ve put front and centre of my campaign from day one – Labour Party members and policies.
I have just sent the following message via the 
Another tremendous day on the campaign trail today as I launched my manifesto at the Celtic Manor in Newport. The spectacular setting of the upcoming 2010 Ryder Cup was, I think, a fitting place to discuss a different way of working to shape Wales’s future and to establish some ideas – notably on sport & culture – that perhaps move Welsh Labour away from its traditional “comfort zone” issues. ”Brimming with ideas” is how ITV Wales described the document, I hope others agree.
In Swansea on Saturday to demonstrate against the apparently non-ironically entitled Welsh Defence League. I urge you to take a look for yourself at some of the material they are putting out – there’s plenty of it, even on facebook. Its disgraceful stuff, the product of a poisonous concoction of ignorance and bigotry. I was glad to see a number of political colleagues on the demo – Sian James MP (pictured) and Plaid AMs Bethan Jenkins and Leanne Wood. As I said on the day, whenever fascism rears its ugly head, behind whatever banner, it requires politicians of all parties to stand together and speak out.
Blogging has slipped in the last day or so, and I fear I might have to re-write the environmental section of my manifesto and pledge to offset the carbon footprint I’m building up during the campaign…
