Rhodri's kitchen cabinet

Have been away for the week and seemed to have missed all the excitement over Rhodri's cabinet appointment.

There have been some great comments on the Welsh blogosphere, but the surprise isn't that he has circled his wagons from any potential assault from the rainbow warriors, but that he still feels unable to break out of the kitchen cabinet mentality that has cursed Welsh politics since his appointment as First Minister.

The 'Glamorgan cabinet' or 'M4 crew', as described by opposition leaders and AMs, has certainly reinforced the impression that Wales is dominated from a small part of the world (although I do disagree with Blamerbell that any rainbow cabinet would be excluding representation from the South Wales and the capital city - I am assuming that both Jonathan Morgan and Jenny Randerson would be strong candidates for cabinet posts).

A couple of new faces round the kitchen table would at least have given the idea that Rhodri had listened to the electorate who had given his party the lowest poll ratings since 1918. Whilst I have had run-ins with him in the past, I think that a man with Leighton Andrews' experience would have added a new impetus to a cabinet that is bereft of ideas and direction.

However, this 'no change' choice has merely reinforced the impression that Rhodri simply isn't listening by keeping the team that put together the policies largely rejected by the electorate in May.

On economic development , I have spoken to various businesspeople over the last day or so and the appointment of Brian Gibbons has been met with incredulity to say the least. However, on the positive side, Mr Gibbons may actually allow the economic development department to get on with their job, rather than allowing so called special advisers to interfere in the work of the civil servants as clearly has happened over the last few years with the economy portfolio.

Bringing in regeneration into economic development may also be a good idea, especially as I have been harping on for the last four years that economic inactivity remains the biggest deadweight around the Welsh economy.

The new minister also needs to get management development off Carwyn, as the man from PenyBont has enough on his plate already with his portfolio of education and culture. If that happens, maybe something can be done for the prosperity of Wales.

Perhaps it all won't matter at all if the opposition parties get their act together before the end of the summer, as this could be the shortest lived cabinet in political history.

We'll see.

p.s. interesting post from new blogger Amanwy on Brian Gibbons' predecessor and his leadership ambitions