Campaigns call out for charisma

When Ron Davies described devolution as a process rather than an event, he imagined he would play a bigger part in it.

Six years after the Welsh decided by a tiny margin to vote "yes", that process has seen a growing public acceptance of the Assembly but frustration at its limited powers and the departure of many of the big beasts from the political scene.

With Mr Davies joining Plaid Cymru's Dafydd Wigley and the flamboyant former Tory leader Rod Richards on the sidelines, the Assembly has been left short of charismatic leaders. In 2003, Labour campaigners have run a campaign based around Rhodri Morgan, the Labour leader, to capitalise on his reputation as one of the few remaining big hitters.

One third of the Welsh population receive their television signals from England. Also, ambivalence from some newspapers has affected the coverage of Welsh political issues. A poll in the South Wales Echo yesterday indicated that one third of voters did not even know of the elections.

Yet opinion polls had suggested support for devolution had grown and was now above 60 per cent, said Barry Jones, director of the Welsh Governance Centre at Cardiff University. "The feeling is devolution isn't perfect, it might be a son of a bitch, but it's our son of a bitch. It hasn't really been a success yet but on the other hand there's been no build-up of opinion to get rid of it."

Even the Conservatives, who initially campaigned for a "no" vote in the 1997 referendum, have said they will work within the new system. "We have invested so much time, money and energy we have got to," said Nick Bourne, the leader of the Welsh Tories.

Critics and supporters say the end-of-term report is mixed but this year's campaign has moved on from being a second referendum about devolution. Mr Jones said: "If I was marking the paper it would say 'could do better and might do better next time'. It's only been there four years and Westminster has had 700."

The turn-out for the Assembly elections in 1999 was only 46 per cent but the latest NOP poll for HTV suggested a rise to more than 50 per cent.