Hotel Rhondda

The cause of the Secretary of State for Wales' perm-a-tan may have been found. Peter Hain seems to have a bit of a thing about Rwanda. In light of the tough economic circumstances in the valleys Shadow Minister for Wales David Jones quite reasonably asked "What did the Secretary of State have in mind when he boasted last week that “Wales is still a wealthy country”? Complacent or what?" Hain's reply was the stuff of political legend:

"Does the hon. Gentleman not agree that, compared with Rwanda and most countries in the rest of the world—this is the point that I was making, if he had not chosen to take that quotation out of context—Wales is indeed still a wealthy country?"

Umm ok. David Jones rightly got the last word:

"It says it all that after 13 years of economic mismanagement under Labour, all Peter Hain can crow about is the fact that Wales is more prosperous than one of the poorest countries of the third world. Mr Hain’s unguarded comment underlines the full extent of Labour’s lack of ambition for Wales.”

Who is talking down the country now Labour?