Rampant red dragons

Wales's ex-Labour leader and former first minister Rhodri Morgan was one of those who dismissed his party's landslide local election victory on May 3 as "par for the course," the result of mid-term blues - wrong!

Labour's victory looks stark in print. Of 21 councils up for grabs (Angelsey was not polled) it now controls 10 - up from two - and is the largest party in four more.

It gained Cardiff, Newport and Swansea. Its gain of 231 seats to 650 - half of the country's total - is in dramatic contrast to everyone else's performance. Plaid Cymru lost 41 seats, leaving them with 172 (14 per cent). The Lib Dems lost 51 seats and the Tories 54, leaving them with 6.5 and 9 per cent respectively. The number of seats held by independents dropped by 73.

This was a strong condemnation of the Tory-led coalition in Westminster. It is more significant than a rearranging of the deckchairs on a Britain which - as the abysmal turnout showed - is sinking fast. Indeed, it showed that Labour in Wales is no longer its own worst enemy.

If reports are right, Labour put street campaigning back at the heart of its strategy and the Welsh were voting politically. Though of course most of them weren't voting at all.

Labour was run for decades by men in suits, taking the party off the streets of Wales where it was at its best and giving power to leaders who used it simply to stay in power.

But this brand of politician was rejected. The Labour leader in Rhondda Cynon Taff Russell Roberts, who held five public-sector appointments with a combined income of over £100,000, lost his seat - not so much the final straw as the final straw man.

Devolution was never a quick fix in Wales. It started badly in 1999 as Tony Blair sought to hang on to power by imposing his own leader, Alun Michael, on the country, keeping Morgan out - though not for long.

London intervened to impose a parliamentary candidate on Blaenau Gwent. Labour lost that seat, the Welsh Assembly seat and control of the council into the bargain. Blaenau was just one example of the infighting that infested the party.

It is significant then that this election gave Blaenau Gwent a Labour council. It now has a Labour MP and AM too, signalling the end of a 10-year struggle.

Labour emphasised that its victories owe a lot to the supporters who turned out in large numbers to secure the vote - though where I live they were notable by their absence. And a 38 per cent turnout, while nothing to boast about, was higher than in England.

The left parties - the Communist Party of Britain, the Socialist Labour Party and the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition - all polled low, but were a valuable part of the mix, injecting a more political note into the debates and ensuring that the arguments for a socialist future got an airing.

The deep wounds suffered by Wales opposition parties will need radical treatment. In the case of the Lib Dems poor Kirsty Williams needs Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander to emigrate before her vote picks up. A more significant dilemma faces Plaid Cymru, where Leanne Wood needs to work out how much emphasis to place on nationalism and independence.

Labour has done better than "par for the course." It has regained ground that can be kept and the left now has a stronger platform for progressive policies.

Windy debate

The Energy Department gave the go-ahead last week for the biggest onshore wind farm in England and Wales - 75 wind turbines three times as high as Nelson's column - on the hills around Neath and Aberdare in south Wales.

Aberdare MP David Rees and its AM Hywell Francis released a joint statement saying: "We believe it remains a travesty that decisions on such important issues are not taken here in Wales.

"While we fully support renewable energy, this is a landscape that has already been ravaged by coal-mining.

"Local communities have worked hard to regenerate the region into what should now be considered an area of natural beauty."

This decision is taken by Westminster under a law which gives it the right to rule on sites which will produce more than 50 megawatts of energy. In other words, the more destruction there is to your environment, the less say you have about it.