Agree with this. 260,000 or so ballot papers issued – how many will have come back in? Suspect this will be one of the stories of the night.

Thanks for your interesting comments throughout this campaign, Jeff, and for your kind words on the way WalesHome.org has covered it. We’ve tried our best.

On the contest itself . It certainly hasn’t harmed the Labout Party. It was conducted in a fairly civilised manner with the only personal attacks being made on Edwina. All the candidates performed well over the 8 weeks and enhanced their reputations. Carwyn was solid as usual and showed all the skills needed to succeed in modern politics. Edwina Hart’s real personality came across. For many her ability to handle the media was a revelation. She will have benefited immensely from the last 8 weeks and has emerged as a far more rounded politician than many believed. She really silenced some of the harsh criticisms that were made of her personality at the beginning of the campaign. Of the three Huw Lewis is the one who has really used the contest to make his mark for the future. At the start of the contest a fairly senior Labour councillor asked me ‘Who was Huw Lewis?’ No one in the Labour Party is now posing that question. Huw from the word go has shown that the Labour Party like all democratic socialist parties should not be afraid of debate and discussion. Too often in the past 15 years it has felt that the party has developed the unity of the graveyard. Huw should definitely be included in any future cabinet possibly in a beefed up Social Justice and Public Service Delivery role.

On the ideas front as I’ve said above it was interesting to see ideas for the first time in years. But unlike Daran I will wait until I see the delivery before getting too excited. It is easy to promise things in the heat of battle. Much harder to deliver in the cold light of day when promises have to be costed. If it was hard to get Welsh education up to the level of England in the days of plenty then how much harder will it be in the Age of Austerity which is just about to dawn on the public sector?

The Leadership election should also tell us something about the state of the Labour Party in Wales. The interesting sections of the Electoral college will be the TU and membership sections. Not just in who they voted for but how many actually took part in the ballot at all. In too many parts of Wales as all three candidates recognise the party is a shell with an aging membership. It has often ceased to exist as a campaigning organisation and even finds difficulty in getting candidates to stand in local elections. The snap shot the election figures will tell us about the Labour Party should be interesting.

No one should envy the task in front of any new Leader. Rhodri had it easy. The new Leader will have to operate in a very different environment. The first problem will obviously be the timing of the referendum and what side of the argument the new Leader comes down on. I use the word ‘argument ‘ because the Labour Party members haven’t elected a Leader for the Labour Party in Wales. We have elected a Leader for the Assembly group. There is no such animal as a Welsh Labour Party and the Welsh press in particular often forgets this. The views of the winner in this contest will be important but they will not be decisive. He or she will also have to also move very quickly if they are to comply with the Plaid timetable of a referendum in the autumn of 2010. The first weeks of the new Year could be very interesting. The new Leader will have to also formulate the Assembly’s policy in the new political and financial environment after next year’s UK election. Whoever wins in June next year will introduce major cuts in public expenditure to appease the money markets. Ironically Labour hanging on could make political life even harder for the new Labour First Minister as he or she has to mute any criticism of the reduction in the Assembly budget. Politically a Tory win makes it easier to blame Westminster but it still leaves the headache of producing the first real cuts budget in the history of the Assembly for 2011/12. Not the ideal world to take your Party into an Assembly election in 2011. Interesting times for all of us!