The Welsh Assembly and Maastricht were key issues at this year's Welsh Labour Party conference, the most animated for many years.

Tony Blair's speech to conference struck a strange note, given Labour's recent emphasis on a Welsh Assembly: 'You still believe in British values, in decency, hard work and fairness ... You are proud to be British but too much of that pride depends on history and nostalgia and not on what Britain is today.' Little wonder that many delegates complained that the speech was 'too British' and of little relevance to Wales.

Conference voted against the executive, affirming its opposition to any kind of selection in education and its commitment to a comprehensive system. A vote on renationalising the public utilities was lost 2:1 on a show of hands. Strikers from Cardiff County Unison who were opposing the Labour council's cuts in housing staff picketed the conference and moved an emergency resolution.

Welsh Labour Action (WLA), which is campaigning to strengthen Labour's Assembly policy, was extremely active and effective, with a successful fringe meeting and a good intervention into the assembly debate, despite attempts by the conference platform to demonise and marginalise the campaign. Evidently deep divisions exist on the Assembly within the Welsh Executive. On one wing Anita Gale, Ken Hopkins and Terry Thomas represent the worst kind of arrogant, complacent and bureaucratic labourism. The other wing consists of Ron Davies and his supporters, including a large number of Welsh MPs who favour change but shy away from an open fight. Differences over Proportional Representation reflect these divisions. Ron Davies spoke at the IPPR meeting of the need for an 'inclusive assembly' and for a 'consensus amongst pro-devolution parties to make it a truly Welsh Assembly and not simply a Labour Assembly'. He also expressed his support for PR and his view that the policy might change between the general election and the elections for an Assembly.

While Socialist Outlook disagrees with Ron's approach - we believe that more would be gained by staging an open fight within the party - it is clear that he was giving the green light for others to campaign around the issue. Of course, our vision of the Assembly must also go much further. Cardiff councillor Sue Essex said in the fringe meeting: 'the Assembly that we offer must be something genuinely new, which wakens and enlivens Welsh politics.'

The issue of Maastricht arose at another fringe meeting, organised by Llew Smith MP to oppose the Single European Currency. Its economic consequences will spell disaster for peripheral regions like Wales, which rely so heavily on social spending and public sector employment. The Socialist Outlook view is that the Welsh Assembly should decide whether Wales joins up or not - and that it should decide to reject Maastricht. The Assembly should be able to choose what powers to retain in Wales and what to pass on to a British or European level.