Why Tony Blair Objected to Rhodri Morgan

At last the mystery is solved. Why, we all wondered, was the prime minister so determined that - after the sad fall of Ron Davies - Alun Michael, rather than the obviously more able Rhodri Morgan, should become the leader of the Labour party in Wales and first minister in the Welsh assembly? One rumour suggested that when Tony Blair visited chez Morgan during the 1997 election campaign, he felt uncomfortable among the untidy piles of books and papers that littered every carpet. Another was that Morgan, who undoubtedly possesses a bizarre sense of humour, pretended not to recognise Blair, a notoriously bad attender at late-night debates, when the then leader of the opposition appeared in the Commons during an all-night session.

Now we know the truth. The prime minister objected to Morgan because he is a socialist. Worse still, he is a socialist of the cerebral variety. A couple of weeks ago - speaking with the authority of the belated status of Wales's first minister - he addressed the University of Wales National Centre for Public Policy in a way that would have been beyond the intellectual capacity of most cabinet ministers. Perhaps half-a-dozen of them could have assembled his arguments about the relationship between economies and social policy. Only Robin Cook, Peter Hain and Gordon Brown would have thought the exercise worthwhile.

John Reid asserts that the new middle classes must be offered a choice in social services, without bothering to explain why. Alan Milburn announces - as a matter of unsubstantiated fact - that unless the health service reintroduces a market in medical care, the Tories will win the next election and implement the policy in a more extreme form. Morgan actually explained why he is opposed to "basing our services on a model of the user of public services as some sort of serial shopper": "The theory of marketisation, when applied to social welfare, turns out to be badly flawed. My objection to the idea of foundation hospitals within the NHS is not simply that they will be accessed by those public service consumers who are already the most articulate and advantaged and can specify where they want to be treated, but that the experiment will end not with patients choosing hospitals but with hospitals choosing patients."

Morgan then committed several acts of brazen effrontery. The rejection of the idea on which foundation hospitals is built was, by implication, a refusal to implement one of Blair's most cherished ideas. When Morgan turned from health to education, the repudiation of the New Labour project was explicit. Blair's words were thrown back at him: "The comprehensive school era is not coming to an end in Wales." Not only did Morgan admit his belief in "equality of outcome", he offended against everything for which Blairism stands by stating that there is an "ideological underpinning" to his policies.

Morgan's speech was confirmation that the writ of "the project" runs only in England. In Wales, as well as Scotland, democratic socialism survives and, thanks to devolution, there is nothing that the thought police in 10 Downing Street can do about it. Once upon a time, Blairites used to argue that Labour policy had not been devolved and that the principles of New Labour had to be applied in Edinburgh and Cardiff as well as Whitehall. The need to govern by coalition in both Scotland and Wales put an end to all that nonsense. The Welsh assembly's only duty is to do what is best for Wales.

Morgan judges that the needs of Wales can best be met by the creation of a society "held together by a powerful glue of social solidarity" - not a bad working definition of the socialist aspiration. But, the New Labour enthusiast will ask, will that noble sentiment win elections? Of course it will in Wales. Fortunately, Morgan believes in the policies he espouses. If he hopes to win a second term as first minister, he has no choice but to argue for them. The Welsh reject Blairism. What a delight it will be next year to watch the prime minister campaigning for the Cardiff socialists.

In the meantime, we can at least be sure that the Morgan policy of "innovative actions rather than ones which simply imitate" has done wonders for the idea of devolution. Opposition to direct rule from London and support for increased powers for the Welsh assembly has more or less doubled. Socialism is popular within the principality. All we need in England is somebody to speak up for it.