At various times in the fraught two months following the May 2007 election each of the four parties in the National Assembly faced the prospect of participating in Government, and each also stared into the abyss of Opposition. There were two critical moments. In the first the Welsh Liberal Democrat Executive Committee, in a tied vote, rejected the opportunity to participate in the so-called Rainbow coalition government with Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives. In the second, the Plaid Cymru Group was faced with an extraordinary, unforeseen and historic choice: whether to be the junior partner in a coalition with Labour, or engineer a no confidence vote that would result in it leading a Rainbow coalition with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
Click here to download Crossing the Rubicon: Coalition Politics Welsh Style