PETER Hain may have been a fool: He may even been incompetent, to use the words of his boss Gordon Brown, but we do not think he has been dishonest.

We stand by what we have already said on the subject and that is that Peter Hain has been a good servant for Wales.

Clearly, Mr Hain had absolutely no alternative but to resign once the police were called in to investigate the issues of the undeclared payments.

That he did so immediately and with the minimum of fuss is testament to his good sense.

But essentially Wales is losing a minister whose achievements, in our view, outweigh his failure of not keeping the closest eye on his campaign's books.

It must be emphasised that Peter Hain did not keep the money himself, this was money which was donated or loaned to fund a political campaign.

Further he has been open and honest in declaring the problem publicly and to the electoral commission.

And we are sad to see him go.

On the other hand we do welcome the re-appointment of Torfaen MP Paul Murphy to the post of Welsh secretary, the only person to have held the position twice.

He is a safe pair of hands, a distinguished parliamentarian in his own right whose achievements in Northern Ireland will be his real legacy.

Steering the ship for Wales over the next few years will undoubtedly be a challenge.

Of course there are those who fear Mr Murphy will not be as supportive of the Assembly's ambitions as his predecessor, but we believe he will work closely with the Labour-Plaid coalition.

Although the Welsh secretary has a veto, he is more of a conduit, a bridge between Westminster and Cardiff Bay. He could act like a governor general but we very much doubt it.

It is true to say Mr Murphy was no great supporter of devolution but he is enough of a pragmatist to realise that the Assembly is here and here to stay and that the Welsh secretary has to work with and not against it. He is also an excellent diplomat.

We expect Mr Murphy to provide strong representation for Wales at the cabinet table.

What is interesting is that the post was not scrapped, as some were suggesting yesterday in the belief that it is now an anachronistic level of bureaucracy.

In our view the Assembly in Wales does not have sufficient powers to warrant the scrapping of the cabinet post.

We believe Wales benefits from having a representative at cabinet level.

Clearly the Prime Minister Gordon Brown still sees its worth.