No ducking those expenses claims

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By Adrian Browne BBC Wales political reporter Retiring Conservative MP Sir Peter Viggers claimed for a duck island

There is a harder edge to politics now than there was 12 months ago.

Two themes have dominated throughout the UK - the longest recession since records began and politicians' expenses.

There has been no getting away from duck islands, moat clearing and various other claims - real or apparent - serialised day-after-day and highly offensive to most observers, particularly in tough economic times.

The stories have demonstrated to many people, who might otherwise have hesitated before uttering the immortal words "politicians are only in it for themselves", that the political class are indeed a breed apart, and a pretty reprehensible breed at that.

The implementation of much tougher claims rules for MPs, as recommended by Sir Christopher Kelly, may well not happen before the general election.

Campaigning politicians are bracing themselves for more heartfelt abuse on the doorstep than in the past.

In November the Welsh assembly, by contrast, introduced comprehensive controls on AMs' expenses, after embarrassments over amongst other things iPods and flat screen televisions, hoping decisive action and more transparency would shield Cardiff Bay from the derision heaped on honourable members at Westminster.

Vampire

Earlier in the year, as the expenses furore gathered pace, Welsh Labour launched a new weapon to reach young people in the European election campaign.

A video on a new Labour supporting website, Aneurin Glyndwr, depicted the Welsh Conservative leader Nick Bourne as a vampire and the Plaid Cymru leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones, as a clown, with an adapted version of the Tom Jones sing-along song Delilah added for good measure.

"Why, why, why vote Tory", and so on.

Critics of the production were accused of having no sense of humour, but the video was soon removed from the site.

One of those promoting it was Peter Hain who, despite many talents, is not known for comedy.

But the incident didn't prevent his return as Welsh secretary a couple of months later.

He'd left the cabinet in January 2008 after failing to register donations for his doomed deputy Labour leadership campaign.

Found guilty of "serious and substantial" failures by the Commons watchdog, he had apologised for what he'd said were honest mistakes.

Welsh Labour cast Welsh Conservative leader Nick Bourne as a vampire

Two threads running through Welsh politics over the last 12 months have been the handover from the First Minister Rhodri Morgan to his successor, the Bridgend AM and former Counsel General Carwyn Jones, and the All Wales Convention on further powers for the Welsh assembly.

We'd been told Mr Morgan would go around about the time of his 70th birthday, at the end of September, but sceptics wondered if excuses might be found to hang on to him for a bit longer.

He stood down in early December, after Mr Jones's sweeping Labour leadership victory over the Health Minister Edwina Hart and back-bencher Huw Lewis.

Mr Morgan left the top job with surveys testifying to his popularity, shrugging off his approval ratings saying they were because people knew he was going.

His party remains much less popular.

Whilst it would be odd to lay the blame for all Labour's troubles in Wales on him, it says much about his dominance that few in his party seemed to think of blaming its Welsh skipper when their ship sank in choppy European waters in June.

It allowed David Cameron to appear on the Senedd steps announcing there were no longer any safe Labour seats in Wales, after Conservatives topped the European poll and pushed Labour into second place.

UKIP also got its first Welsh MEP elected.

Foot dragging

Later in the year, Mr Cameron declared he would not block a request from AMs for a referendum on giving the assembly further powers.

The statement came as the All Wales Convention, established by the Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition in Cardiff Bay to consider the powers issue, prepared to report.

Under former diplomat Sir Emyr Jones Parry, the convention took evidence and held public meetings throughout the year.

Curries were even offered to tempt people to venture out on a cold winter's night to engage in constitutional discussions.

The report said a "yes" vote in a powers referendum was "obtainable", and there were good reasons for transferring powers to Cardiff in one fell swoop rather than piecemeal, as under the current system.

Carwyn Jones and his new cabinet

Welsh ministers are committed to holding a poll, if it is winnable, by May 2011.

The Plaid Cymru side of the coalition administration waited for Labour to elect its new Welsh leader before discussions on the timing of a referendum could begin.

When a Welsh Labour statement seemed to rule out such talks before the general election, Plaid Cymru accused Labour of bad faith and Plaid sources warned the coalition could collapse.

A hastily written second statement by the Labour and Plaid leadership kept "all options" on the timing of a referendum open.

Carwyn Jones, the new first minister and Welsh Labour leader, has reassured his coalition partners there won't be any foot dragging on his part on the referendum issue.

Yet there remain plenty of people in Labour, including Mr Hain, with deep misgivings about holding such a poll in the near future, and who believe nothing should distract the party from fighting the Conservatives between now and general election day.

A little hope

Mr Jones has a tough election to face by June, an assembly powers referendum possibly as early as the autumn and an assembly election the following spring.

If a Conservative UK government is elected it might just offer a little hope to Labour assembly members in the 2011 poll.

Some old Labour hands think it could boost their the party's assembly candidates, in much the same way Labour councillors gained support during the Thatcher and Major years, and during previous Tory reigns.

But let's get 2010 out of the way before we think too deeply about such matters.