Yet his appeal and popularity is almost unprecedented for a British politician. There was a recent article in the Western Mail that outlined polls showing his wide appeal across parties and across the public and for all my searching I can't seem to find it again.  I've mentioned plenty of times that there is a clear distinction between Welsh Labour and New Labour and this is due in no small part to Rhodri's leadership.  

WalesOnline - News - Wales News - Morgan's successor at the helm has a hard act to follow

Tony Blair's lack of respect for Rhodri Morgan continued when he was insistent that the politician he saw as a maverick and loose cannon should on no account be allowed to lead the Welsh Assembly.

Rhodri is not 'New Labour' and his early speech setting out the 'clear red waters' between Wales and Westminster, to me, defines the path that followed.

WalesOnline - News - Wales News - Morgan's successor at the helm has a hard act to follow

At a time when Tony Blair and New Labour were tinkering with health and education in England, bringing in foundation hospitals and schools while allowing councils and the NHS to flirt with the private sector, Welsh Labour under Rhodri Morgan seemed to be sticking with an older formula, based on traditional social democratic values like universal benefits.

Additionally, Rhodri and the Welsh Assembly have always been much closer to the people than could ever be conceivable for Westminster.  To all of us, he is 'Rhodri'. If somebody referred to him as 'Morgan', as we do with Brown or Blair, it would take a few seconds to work out who they were referring to.

WalesOnline - News - Wales News - Tribute paid to `great leader' Rhodri Morgan

Riverside market founder Steve Garrett said Mr Morgan's man-of-the-people touch had been a symbol of power coming closer to the Welsh people.

"To me it's been one of the nicest things about living in Wales, to see the First Minister down there on a Sunday morning looking like everyone else doing his shopping.

"Hey, who gets dressed up on a Sunday morning? He didn't either and that's what was great.

"It's one of the real strengths of Rhodri as a politician. We wanted the Assembly to bring power closer to the people and he was a real symbol of that."

I think this aspect of our Government here in Wales is crucially important.  It does go a long way to giving the people of Wales a greater sense of ownership of the Welsh Assembly, it provides greater access to politics, politicians and transparency to the workings of the Government.  The inclusiveness of giving the public greater access to watch and participate in the proceedings of committees, brings real life and genuine insights into the policy development.  

Having a First Minister who is able to embody that approach has been vital in taking the Assembly from the mess of constitutional and procedural negotiations of its formative years, to a strong, forward thinking and stable Government.  Rhodri has provided the Welsh Assembly with a human face and connected Government to the people.  It is quite an achievement.

Yet there was quite a struggle to get to the top slot in the first place.

Rhodri Morgan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A committed supporter of Welsh devolution, Morgan contested the position of Labour's nominee for the (then titled) First Secretary of the Welsh Assembly. He lost to the then Secretary of State for Wales, Ron Davies. Davies was then forced to resign his position after an alleged sex scandal, whereupon Morgan again ran for the post. His opponent, Alun Michael, the new Secretary of State for Wales, was seen as a reluctant participant despite also having a long-standing commitment to Welsh devolution, and was widely regarded as being the choice of the UK leadership of the Labour Party.^[2]

Michael was duly elected to the leadership but resigned a little more than a year later, amid threats of an imminent no-confidence vote and widespread plotting against him by members of not only his own party, but also Assembly groups and Cabinet members. Rhodri Morgan became Labour's new nominee for First Secretary, and was elected in February 2000, later becoming First Minister on 16 October 2000 when the position was retitled.

Rhodri has led both a Labour majority Government and the current coalition Government we have with Plaid Cymru, following the 'One Wales' agreement outlining the policies of the coalition.  There is much that Rhodri has done for Wales that has probably been taken for granted by most of us, given the extremely difficult socio-economic background we are working with, and the unweildly constitutional settlement the Welsh Assembly has been provided with by Westminster.

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Rhodri's successes and failures as First Minister

His successes

Popular and likeable

Free bus passes for pensioners and the disabled

Free prescriptions for all

First Children's Commissioner in the world

Pioneering change to early years education

His failures

Wales still poorer than rest of UK

Botched health service re-organisation

Hospital waiting times still longer than England

Breaking promise of free home care for disabled people

Offended many by attending golf tournament instead of D-Day commemoration

The success list misses out the first ever Older People's Commissioner in the World, keeping privatisation largely out of Wales and a series of other much more progressive policies than we've seen from the Labour Government in Westminster.  There are calls for more powers for Wales to create primary legislation without having to go through on overly long and complicated process to obtain powers via secondary legislation to take forward policies in non-devolved areas.  Requests can be vetoed in the Commons.  But that is a diary for another day.

Rhodri has been a firm support of equality and both the structure of the National Assembly for Wales as an institution, the equality duty in the Government of Wales Act and the values of a genuinely left wing Welsh Labour leadership has done a great deal to advance equality of opportunity across Wales.

On the 1st of December, the winner of the Welsh Labour leadership contest will be announced, and whoever takes over will have huge shoes to fill.

WalesOnline - News - Wales News - Wit, wisdom and a talent for memorable phrases will all be missed after Morgan

The photographic memory which helped him flourish at Oxford and Harvard is matched by a vivid imagination.

His responses to questions - both in plenary and press conferences - regularly become lectures on sporting, musical and scientific trivia which can wrong foot an interlocutor. Then he will fire off an utterly unpredictable insight which lodges in the brain with the twang of an arrow.

For his leadership, humanity and wit he'll be missed when he steps down.  For me, both Rhodri and his wife (MP Julie Morgan) are inspirational politicians who have both consoled me (when I came second in a selection process) and motivated me with their genuinely socialist values.  These are the politicians that give me faith that good people can get through and that I too, can eventually carve my own niche in making a difference for people through the world of politics.