The period since the Welsh people voted for devolution in 1997 has seen the spectacular downfall of three of Wales's leading political figures.

In the space of less than a year and a half, Ron Davies, Rod Richards and Alun Michael have all lost the top spots within their parties.

First there was Mr Davies, the Welsh Secretary and so-called "architect of devolution", who had successfully fought the 1997 referendum campaign which produced the slender but sufficient Yes vote.

He had steered the devolution legislation through parliament, and it seemed he was on course to become Wales's first secretary and to lead the nation into a new political era.

But that all changed in October 1998, when after his unexplained "moment of madness" on Clapham Common in 1998 he immediately resigned his Cabinet position and left a political vacuum to be filled.

His position as Welsh Secretary was filled by the junior Home Office minister Alun Michael, MP for Cardiff South. His was to be a separate and troubled story.

As for Ron Davies, the months following his resignation were painful ones. Quickly rehabilitated by the party in Wales, he successfully stood as an Assembly Member for Caerphilly.

His appointment to the chairmanship of the important Assembly economic committee under Alun Michael was a further sign that he was establishing his influence within the institution he had worked so hard to bring into being.

However, he suffered a second comedown when fresh revelations about his private life, and his admission that he was having psychiatric treatment, forced his resignation from the committee chairmanship.

Rod Richards

Labour's troubles should have provided good campaigning weather for the Tories, who had managed to have nine members elected to the Assembly.

But their leader in the Assembly, Rod Richards, was soon involved in difficulties of his own.

The Assembly had provided the combative Welsh-speaking former army officer with the stage for his own political comeback.

While MP for Clwyd West during the last Tory government, he had resigned his post as a junior Welsh Office minister due to a personal scandal.

He then lost his seat at the 1997 general election.

But with the creation of the Assembly, he fought his way back to prominence, defeating his more conciliatory and mild-mannered rival Nick Bourne for leadership of the Tories in Wales.

Subsequently elected as regional list AM for the North Wales seat, he quickly brought his provocative and sometimes inflammatory style to his leadership of the nine Tories in the Cardiff Bay chamber.

Alleged assault

But then, after he was arrested for the alleged assault of a young woman in Cardiff, he resigned as Tory Assembly leader.

He tried to install Monmouth AM David Davies - his closest Assembly ally - as his successor, but this did not prove acceptable to the other seven Tory As, who chose Nick Bourne instead.

Mr Richards's career took a further dive in February 2000 when the Tory group withdrew the whip from him when he abstained on a vote.

In an impromptu one-man press conference, Mr Richards, looking an isolated figure, called the other Tory AMs "the malevolent seven", described Mr Bourne as "a prat" and said there was a conspiracy against him.

His future within the party remains uncertain.

Alun Michael

It was political rather than personal matters that led to the ultimate resignation of Alun Michael, who had become the Assembly first secretary.

He had suffered a rocky ride ever since Prime Minister Tony Blair appointed him as his "safe pair of hands" to run Wales.

Supporters of Rhodri Morgan, his rival for the Welsh Labour leadership, said Mr Michael had been "parachuted" in to stop Mr Morgan from becoming the Assembly leader.

Plaid Cymru dubbed him "Blair's poodle".

The seeds of Mr Michael's subsequent downfall were sown in the way his election as prospective Assembly first secretary was ensured through Labour's specially-created electoral college in February 1999.

Rhodri Morgan was far more popular with Labour's grassroots supporters, and it was only the use of trade union block votes that ensured Mr Michael's final, narrow, victory.



The National Assembly elections three months later showed noticeable disquiet among the Labour electorate in Wales. The party failed to gain a simple majority in the 60-seat chamber and lost strongholds to Plaid Cymru.

Despite not having a majority in the Assembly, Mr Michael avoided a coalition and pressed on with a minority administration.

'Summer of discontent'

A summer of discontent followed, as his vegetarian agriculture secretary Christine Gwyther came under fire from Welsh farmers over her handling of meat and livestock issues.

Then came the first warnings that Labour's strategy to maximise the use of £1.2bn of European Objective One regeneration funds was not on target.

Plaid Cymru had pressed Labour to produce a promise that the European cash would get the necessary match-funding from the UK Treasury.

They secured the backing of the Tories and Liberal Democrats for a vote of no confidence in Mr Michael.

On the same day as Rod Richards was denouncing the Tory AMs he used to lead, Mr Michael's own destiny was unfolding.

As he responded to Plaid, Tory and Liberal Democrat speeches in the no-confidence debate, he unexpectedly forced the issue by handing in his resignation to the Presiding Officer.

The Labour group quickly appointed Rhodri Morgan as acting first secretary, and the party's entire Welsh executive made him leader of the party in Wales two days later.

Mr Michael was left as a plain Assembly member, a far cry from his dominant position just a year previously.

It was the third time in just over a year that the leader of a Welsh political party had found himself out in the cold.