Is Welsh Labour Leadership Contender A "Red Cairns"? And The Surrender Of The Welsh Green Party

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

If the predictions are correct Mark Drakeford will eventually emerge as the new Labour leader and consequently First Minister in the autumn. I've been avoiding chatting about the various leadership competitions (other than Plaid Cymru's) which will be held in Wales in the next few months. But Mr Drakeford's election Twitter account made me sit up and take notice.

Against a smiling picture of him and Jeremy Corbyn casually dressed as if off to the pub the account makes clear that the leadership favourite has always been a Corbynite and then says.

"Mark sees the role of leader of Welsh Labour as a "bridge" between the party across the UK"

Now when I saw this tweet my first reaction was to say that taken by itself it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. And that is still my view. But some Twitter reaction was completely different. What they saw was that essentially what he was saying was that he was London's man. Red London's man. In the case of Mr Corbyn let's be specific. Red North London's Man.

He has already made it clear that he will battle to keep the United Kingdom as it is today. It does have to be asked whether he will show "clear red water" between Wales and a Corbyn government or whether he will threaten Welsh devolution simply by making the National Assembly become a shell whilst he does Westminster's bidding. Remember when we chatted about the issue of water Corbyn and his allies are not beyond being colonial when it comes to Wales.

Is he in other words a Red Alun Cairns? A Pro Consul for Westminster? If he becomes First Minister then his actions will need to be monitored to make sure he isn't. Not since Alun Michael has the Welsh Labour Party's independence in the Assembly been questioned.

And speaking of political independence let's chat about the Welsh Green party. Actually they're not the Welsh Green party, they're the Green Party of England and Wales. And it's Welsh members have voted to remain so.

What does this mean ? Well if it wasn't for the fact that a large proportion of their members are probably vegetarians I'd have said that it was a case of Turkeys voting for Christmas. What it does mean though is that where there is an issue where Wales and England clash then the Green position is not clear. It's not impossible that they might side with England. What then for it's Welsh Green Party supporters.

What's clear is that the Greens have absolved all responsibility of being a party for Wales. That, as it always seems to do really, leaves Plaid Cymru as the only party speaking for Wales and the people living here.

And the sooner their leadership contest is resolved the better.

Until the next time.