In this morning’s Western Mail their Chief Reporter, Martin Shipton provides his less than glowing assessment of Carwyn Jones’ first 100 days as First Minister:
His first significant achievement is in getting the referendum “trigger” vote through the Assembly.
There had been concerns it would be sabotaged by Peter Hain, other Labour MPs, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats. If it had been, Plaid would have pulled the plug on the coalition. In the event, thanks to adroit negotiating and no desire to end up in opposition either now or after next year’s Assembly election, the requisite two-thirds majority was achieved with more than a dozen votes to spare.
Other achievements are less tangible, but suggest the right direction is being travelled.
Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams is blunter. She said: “Carwyn Jones’s 100 days in office haven’t been impressive. It seems like he spent so long lusting about being the First Minister he didn’t have a lot of time to think about what he’d do when he became the First Minister.”
“We still have the same old tired Labour Party propped up by their Plaid Cymru partners and we still have the same serious issues facing Wales today – high unemployment levels, long hospital waiting times and underfunding of the education system.”
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