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All the talents

Betsan Powys | 10:29 UK time, Monday, 14 December 2009

carwyncabinet_wag_466x282.JPGTonight Carwyn Jones will be rubbing shoulders with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Copenhagen, at an evening reception in honour of the California Governor. Who knows, there may even be a chance, after mentioning how Wales is "doing its part to tackle climate change with its target of 3% a year emissions cuts", to discuss leadership styles.

Maybe not.

So what does the decision to bring in both his defeated rivals in the leadership race say about Carwyn Jones's leadership style? It's widely seen as a magnanimous gesture, neatly bringing together the different factions of Welsh Labour.

It's fair to say that in the official WAG Cabinet portrait his closest challenger, Edwina Hart doesn't look ecstatic to be there. That's putting it mildly. As the new ministers and deputies pose on the steps of Cathays Park, there's a good foot by my reckoning between her and a beaming Jane Hutt to her left. Semi detached doesn't really do it justice. Perhaps both women are thinking "I'm still here!" Only one can't believe her luck.

As the ministers mingled among the cameras after the official line up, Mrs Hart was seen stomping straight back into the WAG building, not to be seen again.

But let's be fair here: the Health Minister isn't known for her love of the cameras at the best of times, so perhaps we shouldn't read too much into it.

The other leadership contender did stick around for interviews. Huw Lewis landed a new creation - Deputy Minister for Children. Eradication of child poverty was front and centre of his leadership campaign, so it would seem a natural fit and in many ways, an offer he couldn't refuse. "Do you think Huw Lewis might be disappointed he didn't get a bigger job" I was asked by a Cardiff School of Journalism student. If he is, he doesn't really have the right to be. He fought the good fight. He changed, in a fundamental way, many people's perception of him. All to the good but in the end, he only won 19% of the vote.

Had he turned the deputy minister job down, the accusation would be, of course, you had the chance to get into government and make a difference but you turned your back on it.

According to WAG he'll be a deputy minister in the Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills, under Leighton Andrews - Carwyn Jones' campaign manager of course. But here's what the the WAG press release announcing the new cabinet says: "Huw Lewis will lead a newly created portfolio as Deputy Minister for Children. In this role Mr Lewis will have particular responsibility for co-ordination of Government matters relating to child poverty".

In a little reported interview by Huw Lewis during the leadership campaign for the Radio Wales phone in, he expressed in fairly blunt terms just what he thinks of the One Wales government's record on tackling child poverty. His turn to be grilled by Jason Mohammed came, entirely coincidentally, on the day the Assembly Government published its milestones on child poverty document which showed little change in many key indicators. As chair of the child poverty expert group, which had produced a blueprint for tackling child poverty, this was his response:

"This is a source of deep, deep disappointment to me. One of the reasons I'm running for First Minister is because of that deep frustration about that third of Wales' children that are left behind. One of the reasons is that the eradication plan that I produced back then, well, it's not been fully implemented across Government, and across indeed the whole Welsh public sector, as was the intention.

"The second reason is that we now have an even greater challenge in that the global recession has meant that all efforts to push down those child poverty figures are much more difficult which means again, we have to try much, much harder. We have to move faster and be absolutely relentless in our policy implementation to bring those figures down.

"It's not a question of more money, it's a question of bringing the weight of the entire Welsh public sector to bear on the issue."

Although his brief runs wider than DCELLS, there isn't a particular pot of funding aimed at child poverty. Just as well it's not a question of "more money" then. The rhetoric is of maximising the impact of spending across Government. But if there's one thing ministers don't like, it's being told how to spend their money. So what would be the reaction to Huw Lewis, even with his cross governmental role, asking - for example - the housing and regeneration minister who intends to spend £50m on project A, to spend half if not all of the £50m instead on project B because it would have, in his opinion, a better chance of combating child poverty. The words short and shrift come to mind.

As Carwyn Jones toured the radio studios on Friday he was asked whether Huw Lewis' initial opposition to the coalition with Plaid Cymru would be a barrier to effective co-operation in government. His reply was - I'm very confident it won't be. But then he went a whole lot further.

"Huw is someone who brings talents into Government, and this is a chance for him to build, to look at, a place in the Cabinet after 2011 if we win that election. So no, I'm very confident that Huw can do the job, and of course it's a job that's of major interest to him."

It's certainly of major interest to him. But based on his comments during the leadership campaign, there could be some frustrating times ahead. Men (and women come to that) of principle are the lifeblood of politics. They tend to resign if those principles are compromised. One of those with form on this, remember, is Huw Lewis himself.

We'll watch with major interest.

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