Wales Office celebrates past with future in doubt

Nine of the 16 men and one woman who have been Secretary of State for Wales gathered last night to mark fifty years since the post was created in 1964. Harold Wilson's decision to appoint a Welsh Secretary was one of the early landmarks on the road to devolution, a process that has not yet made the job redundant.

Last night's gathering in Gwydyr House, the Whitehall building where the Secretary of State is based, was an event even rarer than simultaneous appearances by different incarnations of Doctor Who. The last time successive Welsh Secretaries posed for the cameras was on the tenth anniversary in 1974.

Only John Morris, who was in office in 1974, was also there last night. None of his predecessors is still alive. He held the job for five years, gaining substantial new economic powers but expecting to hand over most of his responsibilities to a Welsh Assembly until the proposal was heavily defeated in the 1979 referendum.

The only Welsh Secretary to serve longer was Nicholas Edwards who held the post for eight years under Margaret Thatcher. He was followed by Peter Walker, who has since died. The three surviving Secretaries of State who weren't there last night are an interesting trio, John Redwood, Ron Davies and Alun Michael.

John Redwood tried to make greater use of his department's right to adopt its own policies but this allowed Ron Davies to argue that the Conservatives had no mandate from the people of Wales. Ron Davies became the "architect of devolution" before he resigned and left Alun Michael to oversee the transfer of responsibilities from Gwydyr House to Cardiff Bay.

Whether there is still a Secretary of State for Wales to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary remains to be seen. Devolution has not yet killed off the post and paradoxically the prospect of further constitutional upheaval is giving the present Welsh Secretary plenty to do.