Assembly 'to be 50% coalitions '

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Wales will have coalition governments "50% of the time," First Minister Rhodri Morgan has predicted.

In a keynote speech to mark 10 years of devolution, Mr Morgan said Welsh Labour should not expect other parties to see working with Labour as a "privilege".

He said Labour-only administrations were more likely to be achieved with a Tory government at Westminster.

Mr Morgan also warned against "slash and burn" cuts to public spending in the coming years.

In his speech to the Senedd on Monday evening, Mr Morgan mounted a comprehensive justification for flagship policies such as free prescriptions and free school breakfasts as having an important social and economic purpose.

Mr Morgan argued that the "depth of linking intent" behind all the individual initiatives together amounted to a "coherent programme for government".

There are people who feel that perhaps politicians are concentrating on getting themselves elected rather than listening to what all the population is saying, especially minority groups Presiding Officer Lord Dafydd Elis Thomas

He warned against "slash and burn" cuts to public spending in the coming years, saying they could lead to calamity for people already under pressure from unemployment or ill-health.

Looking back over the last ten years, Mr Morgan examined the difficult early years of the Welsh He recalled warning, in his first speech as First Minister, that for opponents of devolution, the Assembly's first year was being portrayed as the beginning of its end.

But he pointed to what he called "a succession of plagues on an almost Biblical scale" during the winter and spring of 2000 and 2001, including job losses at Corus, the fuel blockades, and the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

The response to these, he said, led to the Welsh assembly being seen as the focal point for solving Welsh concerns.

It was here, he said, that marked the beginning of the "slow sustained rise in the assembly government's reputation for competence".

'Difference'

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Lord Elis Thomas told BBC Wales there was a danger AM concentrated on the "process" rather than ensuring "democratic communication is happening all the time".

He said: "There are people who feel that perhaps politicians are concentrating on getting themselves elected rather than listening to what all the population is saying, especially minority groups.

"And therefore we have a need to engage and approach that issue so that people do really feel that they are being represented and that a difference is being made.

"Obviously that includes young people, it includes people of different sexual orientation, it includes disabled people, it includes especially people from black and minority ethnic communities."