Hannan's Call to Order

As England limbers up for their first World Cup clash, BBC political commentator Patrick Hannan sets out where exactly loyalties lie among Welsh politicians.

Fresh from his triumph in sorting out the future of Welsh rugby First Minister Rhodri Morgan has announced that he will be backing England in the football World Cup.

Whether the England team will consider this support to be an unmixed blessing depends on how much they know about Welsh politics, but Mr Morgan's decision is certainly a rational one.

He has made it on the grounds that the England striker Michael Owen was not only born in Wales but also lives here in some style.

Indeed, given the level of footballers' wages, he probably counts as one of Wales's biggest industries and if his team win the competition the consequent rewards are bound to make a significant contribution to the growth of the Welsh economy.

Morgan backing England in World Cup

But this is not the view taken by Rhodri Glyn Thomas of Plaid Cymru who is the chair of the National Assembly for Wales's culture committee and therefore an authority on these matters.

The proper thing to do, he says, is to support any team playing against England. To be Welsh, he implies, is to be anti-English.

So between the two Rhodris you have pretty well the full range of Welsh national attitudes towards England, on the football pitch and elsewhere.

Rhodri M recognises the close physical, economic, historic, cultural and linguistic links between England and Wales.

Rhodri T recognises them too, which is what makes him so cross.

At the moment, though, there are signs that anti-English feeling is creeping out of the political company it has traditionally kept in Wales.

So it was that last week the English got it in the neck from practically everyone down at Crickhowell House.

Welsh pride: England's Michael Owen

On Thursday there was general agreement on a plan for free personal care for the elderly.

All four parties supported the idea and the only obstacle was that the trivial consideration that the assembly didn't actually have the power to implement it.

But the solution was simple. Get the UK Government to sort the whole thing out, pass the necessary legislation and hand over the £67 million involved.

As it turned out the response was rather less co-operative than members had hoped.

There was a dusty answer from London in which it was made clear that the assembly could go and whistle for its scheme and in which, for good measure, it was described as "pathetic" and "irresponsible".

This might not have been the most tactful way of putting it, but I am nevertheless baffled at the furious response in Cardiff Bay.

What the assembly's action implied was that people all around the United Kingdom should be obliged to fork out for a measure because that's what the national assembly wants.

Thomas supporting anyone but England

Not only would it suddenly turn out to have tax-raising powers, but it would have tax-raising powers over the entire British population.

But the extraordinary thing is that this is what all parties in Wales, including the Conservatives who are totally opposed to the idea, seem to be supporting.

So what we end up with is something now presented as a very worthy idea, endorsed by every shade of political opinion in Wales, blocked by the hard-hearted skinflints of Westminster and Whitehall.

And who will be identified as those skinflints? Not the Scots, who are having difficulties with a similar scheme of their own, nor the Northern Irish.

The conclusion that will be drawn is that it's the English (plus a couple of Wales Office ministers) who are getting in the way of implementing an excellent and popular scheme.

So it will be that many more Welsh politicians will be looking for teams other than England to support over the next few weeks.

I wonder how many of them will suddenly turn out to be, like Conservative Leader Iain Duncan Smith part Japanese?

Patrick Hannan's weekly political programme, Called to Order, is live on Radio Wales, 93-104FM, 882 and 657AM, and DSat channel 867.

You can also listen to BBC Radio Wales live online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/live/rwv5.ram.

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