Question: With the three opposition parties in the assembly raising the possibility of a vote of no confidence in the Labour government a 'rainbow coalition' looks possible - is that something you ever envisaged as the first first minister of Wales?

Alun Michael: It is very difficult to see it making sense in any sort of way.

You have the Conservatives who opposed the establishment of the assembly and never really reconciled themselves to it as a party through to the nationalists who didn't want devolution - they wanted to separate Wales off from the United Kingdom.

Such a marriage of inconvenience seems very unlikely indeed to deliver leadership on points of principle or a good service to the people of Wales.

It is difficult to know what the Liberal Democrats, like Labour a party of devolution, is doing in that sort of combination.

Previously those three have acted as a consortium for opposition but of course that is easy.

I am surprised that there has not been a  willingness on the part of the parties to get stable government.

Question: Having been accepted as the ruling party is it legitimate for the opposition to oust Labour as soon as an opportunity presents itself?

Alun Michael: These are the dangers of the unstable structure that was put into place by Ron Davies because if you are going to have new politics, the politics of consensus that everybody signed up to before the first assembly elections, you need two things: Opposition parties that are willing to be constructive whilst holding the government of the day to account but not to be purely destructive and you also need new journalism that does not only reward people who are knocking six bells out of each other but journalism that tries to make politics of consensus interesting to the public.

I'm afraid we have had neither of those things as regards the assembly.

Question: Doesn't the fact that the Liberal Democrats, the smallest party by far, are so pivotal demonstrate the problems with PR?

Alun Michael: It does and it particularly demonstrates the problems with this type of PR.

I tried to persuade Ron Davies to go along with a different approach - that is two member constituencies which largely would have meant that each constituency was represented by people from two different parties.

It would have provided a degree of stability and also would have meant that every member of the assembly would be going back to a constituency and the difference between constituency AMs and regional AMs would not exist and it is a problem.

Question: Were the recent reforms a missed opportunity?

Alun Michael: It is very difficult because if you are going to make that sort of reform you need a consensus around what you are going to do.

In the run up to the first elections there was a consensus that having competed for places the parties would work together. But if you have the opposition parties combining with one intention only and that is to pull down the party with the most seats.

That is very questionable in principle and it has led to a situation where people no longer know what they are voting for - they can vote for one thing and get something entirely different.

Question: If a coalition does take over do you think Rhodri Morgan would survive as Labour leader? Would he even want to?

Alun Michael: Rhodri has had a very successful period as the Labour leader and I did all I could when I stood down to make it impossible for the opposition to do this kind of three party ganging up that I had to face but they seem to be reverting to that now.

In order for them to take over they will challenge Rhodri and I don't think that even with the bare faced cheek that leads to this sort of combination that they will do that straight away, they will look for something where they have some kind of pretext to call a vote of no confidence.

It may well be that some members of the other parties that actually want to see responsible government and positive engagement to do the best for the people will just say "no this is a game we're not going to play" so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

There are people within Plaid who are deeply concerned about getting into bed with the Conservatives and in many parts of Wales there will be a lot of people who will be unforgiving about that sort of combination and I think a lot of Conservatives will also very unhappy with that particular marriage.

It is not based on any sort of principle it is just opportunism.

Question: In the long run might that actually favour Labour as people find they did not get what they voted for when they put their cross next to Plaid or Conservative?

Alun Michael: It is a danger that we pointed out to people in the recent election campaign and the way the opposition is behaving now certainly gives credibility to that.

We were accused of crying wolf but everyone can now see it is a very real danger.

It is very difficult that individual elections, whether they are assembly elections or council elections, are only partly decided by people voting on the responsibilities of the that particular body.

More weight is given to the national mood and the oppositionalism to whatever party is in power, that occurs mid-term and irrespective of what is going on in the institution you are actually electing representatives to.

I hope that over time we can move away from that and we can have a more mature form of election where you actually call people to account for what their body - the local authority, the assembly, the Scottish Parliament, the UK Parliament - is actually responsible for rather than a popularity contest on the national level.

Question: Would a rainbow coalition be bad for Wales?

Alun Michael: It certainly does not show Wales in a good light and instability is very worrying.

If investors have the choice between going somewhere unstable or going somewhere where they think things are very dependable and straightforward then it's a no brainer as to which one they are going to choose.

The regions of England are operating in a very competitive way now with the regional development agencies becoming increasingly effective and that is a real challenge to Wales.

It is a period during which the assembly needs to be pulling together rather than becoming very introverted and only looking into its own affairs.

We have had a very successful period with Objective One EU funding, we've recently got the convergence fund for a very large proportion of Wales which is a real opportunity that has already made strides in building economic success and we really need to concentrate on it in the way a Labour administration would do and not the pettiness of inter-party squabbles.

Question: So it would damage Wales?

Alun Michael: I hope it won't but I fear that it might.