THE latest revelations about Welsh secretary Peter Hain show clearly that he has been a fool.

By not declaring more than £100,000 in donations to his campaign for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party he has put a black mark on to his record.

Whatever his protestations about his aides being responsible for the administration of his campaign the buck clearly stops with him.

We would expect the public administration select committee to investigate the matter and admonish Mr Hain.

But we hope the matter ends there. We do not think Mr Hain should resign over this because we think he would be a sad loss as a minister.

Had he stood to make personal gain out of not declaring the donations we would have said the opposite.

But we cannot see any gain to him, especially as he came fifth in the deputy leadership contest.

On the plus side Mr Hain has some real achievements to his name.

He gained more for the miners in speeding up compensation than any other trade minister. He helped achieve real progress in Northern Ireland.

He has gained more powers for the devolved Assembly in Wales (whether you think that is a good thing or not it is still true) and as work and pensions minister he has helped Welsh steelworkers achieve justice regarding their pension funds.

These are real accomplishments compared to some waste-of-space ministers and when lined up against his sin of omission regarding donations we believe he has earned enough credit to be given another chance.