My father died on Christmas eve 1937, leaving my mother with three children under seven.

He had been a farmer and ‘a noted breeder and judge of Welsh stock’, according to theWestern Mailof the day. he had won some of Wales’s premier awards – no mean achievement for a small producer. He died having apparently been struck by a fatal germ when judging Highland and Welsh cattle at the Smithfield Fat Stock Show in London. Antibiotics were things of the future. He was forty-four. His death was to have a profound influence on the young lives of my brothers...

As Part of my political evolution, my interest in devolution was formed during my years at my university in Aberystwyth. I don’t think the word ‘devolution’ was then used. I had been brought up in an active Liberal household, but my political activities in the Liberal cause ceased between the elections of 1950 and 1951. I was nineteen years old and decided that I would join the Labour Party. I did not understand what the liberalism preached in Cardiganshire was about. Their politics were quite reactionary and had little relationship with the material in the NewsChroniclethat I was...

When i come home for Christmas in 1955, all hell had broken loose in the agricultural community. The National Farmers’ Union in Wales had split and a small but vociferous minority in Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire had broken away. I went with my stepfather to a meeting of farmers in the Lion Royal Hotel in Aberystwyth where the case for the breakaway was put. My YFC credentials and street credibility were still very strong.

The upshot was that after the meeting I was asked by one of the chief rebels, D. J. Davies, a substantial and innovative farmer, to come and...

Despite the heavy demand from my union workload, I had kept my eyes open for political opportunities. Together with Geraint Howells, I became a member of the general management committee of the Cardiganshire Labour Party. By-elections in Pontypool and Newport were well outside my reach. in the autumn of 1956 Britain invaded Suez and I was invited to speak at a Labour Party protest meeting in Carmarthenshire. The Labour theme, emphasising that all necessary steps should be taken by the UN and only through the UN, was ‘law not war’. I think the audience approved of me despite – or was...

My presecessor billy cove, generally referred to as Mr Cove, had held the Aberavon seat from 1929, but he was not sufficiently well to come to Aberavon in the two years or more that I was the prospective candidate. He clung on. There was no proper pension as of right in those days, only a means-tested allowance. This was a deplorable way of treating Members of Parliament, who had devoted themselves for such a long time, for not very generous remuneration, to serving their communities. (Like Mr Cove, I was usually addressed as Mr Morris and I valued the respect...

After the general election on 8 October 1959, Margaret and I returned to my parents-in-law for the night, the result having been declared around midday. Margaret was pregnant but had been at my side throughout the campaign. We decided that the new MP and his wife should have a couple of days off in Tintern. I regret to say the fact that, under hugh Gaitskill, we had lost the election badly did not sink in properly with me. More important I fear was that I had won my seat and increased the inherited majority from 16,297 to 17,638. Such is...

The welsh mps were a varied and interesting group, as a body both loyal and conscientious. Most were former manual workers with little higher education other than at the Central Labour College. They made up for this by their grasp of the essentials of political advocacy. I just missed Dai Grenfell (MP for Gower) and father of the House. It was said that he spoke five languages, I suspect all self-taught. To these MPs the 1930s were still a living experience which they were determined not to repeat. The advent of the National Coal Board and the National health Service...

Eight years after my first election campaign I had to prove that I had succeeded in my stated aim of learning about the steel industry. To jump ahead for a moment, as a junior minister at the Department of Power, I was charged with supervising our first white paper on the nationalisation of the steel industry.

Port Talbot Steelworks dominated the Aberavon constituency. Sixteen thousand steelworkers went through the gates during the week. There was hardly anyone in the area who did not work there, or had some close relative on its payroll. Workers came frommiles around. So strong was...

The long-awaited general election came in October 1964, Labour just scraping a majority. I had no expectation of office – I had only been in the house five years and I surmised that those with experience of the 1950– 1 Parliament would lead the procession to Number 10.

I intended to return to the Bar, which I had neglected for some months and rang up Stanley, my clerk. I had a warm welcome and prepared to go and see him in chambers. I knew from the level of work I had been doing before, that the briefs would quickly start to...

I had only fifteen months in the Ministry of Power when the call came to move on. There had been a ministerial hiccup at the Ministry of Transport involving Tom Fraser. Tom was a delightful man, whom I suspect would have made an ideal secretary of state for Scotland – the job he wanted. He had no interest in transport and after more than a year had failed to deliver a policy. It was not wholly his fault. he had, I believe, been put in the wrong job, and the department could have been more helpful. News of my move came...

In my view being the minister of state in charge of defence procurement – my official title was ‘Minister of Defence (Equipment)’ – was the best job in government. At my level, there was no day-to-day politicking. you talked to the military, to shipbuilders, to aircraft and tank builders and the like. You supervised defence sales. Cynics called you the ‘Merchant of Death’. You met soldiers, sailors and airmen every day of the week.

Selling arms overseas did not cause me too many problems in principle, provided you controlled both the type of armaments and the recipients tightly. The old argument ‘if...

A junior minister in a new and innovative government is incredibly busy. the danger is that the problems of the outside world and other government departments wash over your head, until you creep exhausted to bed each evening. I fear I fell into this trap. Nevertheless, although I did not spend much time on the interminable discussions round the Welsh table, I kept an ear open for any developments, although not all cabinet papers came my way. As defence minister, I had appointed Alec Jones MP (Rhondda) as my PPS and that was helpful.

In the 1964–70 government, I...

I spent time in opposition between 1970 and 1974 looking after my own constituency and working at the Bar. There was little point in taking part in Welsh politics whilst George Thomas was our shadow spokesman. The only important speech I made was the one I have just referred to at Skewen, and the welcome I had from my colleagues at Westminster was, to say the least, mixed.

I had been very disappointed when we lost the 1970 election. Most elections have some elements of a gamble. There are not many certainties. However, I was inclined to believe that we...

Once the excitement of appointment to office, was over, and I had recovered from flu, I had to work out as fast as I could in my own mind what my priorities would be. If Jim Griffiths’s advice was correct I had no time to waste. After the Queen’s Speech was settled I was able to tell the press that one priority would be, with colleagues, to work on a bill which would bring devolution to Wales.

As with many governments, the tough economic situation, particularly inflation, was the main priority. I was given, as is the custom, a huge...

The prime minister, harcld wilson had ennobled the eminent constitutional historian, Lord Crowther-Hunt, so that he could be a minister. He was one of the signatories of the minority report of Kilbrandon and I understood his role to be the eyes and ears of the Prime Minister as a constitutional adviser. He was expected to give a sort of ‘good housekeeping’ approval to any government proposal.

As a politician, conscious of both the lack of interest in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) and the divergent views within the Welsh Labour Group, I had reached an early conclusion that an executive...

I have been convinced since my earliest political activity of the immense value of statutory bodies, authorised by Parliament to tackle particular problems and to report to it on its spending of a specified budget. I had learnt from my experience in mid Wales that, despite valiant efforts by a variety of organisations there, they did not have appropriate powers to bring about real change. I set myself a challenge: I would try to get a slot in the legislative programme each year to create the necessary authorities. It was a formidable test.

When we were elected in 1974 I...

I was still very conscious of the Welsh Office’s limited powers and I was determined to win more. I had some powers over industry, but I was determined to have greater responsibility in this field, but the attitude of ministers was common. They had no wish to be ministers for industry for England alone. This included Tony (Wedgie) Benn.

It was a period of considerable government action to provide incentives to industry. There was a whole system of encouragement that could be brought into play in such an interventionist era and attractive packages were available for both the creation and...

Contrary to appearances, devolution was not the issue that took most of my time at this point. An equal, if not a greater demand for my attention was the bread-and-butter issue of intervention in the industrial areas of Wales, hence my other legislative programme just described.

My daily concern, as part of an interventionist government, was, through the Welsh Office industry department, to encourage firms to invest and provide new job opportunities or help to preserve existing jobs. I had many meetings with liquidators of firms. Every effort was made to provide financial packages which would help both the lame...

One shadow dominated our lives as a family in 1976. On the then current state of medical knowledge, doctors had been unable to diagnose a serious medical problem from which Margaret was suffering. At a small dinner to celebrate the knighthood of my old pupil master, Alun Talfan-Davies, Lady Emund-Davies suggested she try Garfield davies at the Middlesex Hospital, a renowned ENT specialist. After a blip when the NHS mislaid her X-rays, she was eventually operated on for an acoustic neuroma. The particularly long operation, as it was in those days, was immensely successful; the loss of her hearing in...

There was no doubt in my mind that when I took office as secretary of state I had a clear duty to do what I could to take part in efforts to try to preserve and regenerate Welsh as a living language.

It was my first language, the language of the hearth, the language in which my wife and I spoke to each other. It was an accident of geography that we conversed in this way. We were both born in the same county, where the majority of citizens still spoke and understood Welsh. The majority of industrial South Wales...

The role attorney general is unique in government and has been written about extensively, though not always understood. The Attorney General is at the same time a government minister and collectively responsible for government policies, its chief legal adviser and yet independent as a prosecutor, either directly or by supervising prosecuting authorities. The office holder is the guardian of the public interest to Parliament.

Contrary to the statement by Gordon Brown when he was Prime Minister, the Attorney General does not actually take a decision to prosecute unless bound by statute to do so, where there is a duty to...

When my wife and I came back to London the day after the election in 1997, Tony Blair was summoned to the Palace, invited by the Queen to form a government and kissed hands as her Prime Minister. What a relief! It felt like the end of the long march in China, after all we had been in the wilderness for eighteen years.

I was full of expectations, but nothing happened. No call from Number 10. How different from 1964, when Elwyn Jones was one of the first called, to be appointed Attorney General. It may be because Harold Wilson...

The ten-week war in kosovo dominated that period of my time as Attorney. It is important to spell out what my role was. It was not unlike that of my predecessors who had had to make similar assessments regarding our earliest involvement in iraq and I followed their decisions, as to what actions we could take in the absence of Security Council resolutions, closely. It is important to spell out the decisions that were taken and the limitations imposed on the government’s activities. I would be loath to do so ordinarily, but so much has been said and written, that...

Since i did not know when my term of office would come to an end I had made no preparations for life after ministerial office. I assumed I would go back to the Bar. in any event I needed a good rest and I could concentrate on my constituency’s problems, which was so necessary after my years in government as Attorney General. One such issue was a desperately needed new hospital in Port Talbot. Previously I had called on three or four Tory secretaries of state and even promised William Hague, who was very cordial and understanding, that he could...

Following the 2001 election I became a life peer and sat on the Labour bench in the House of Lords graced by privy counsellors. I had a little trouble in agreeing my title. Geoffrey Howe had written to me many years before to say that although he had as a local boy taken the title of Lord Howe of Aberavon, (we were both freemen of Port Talbot) there would be no difficulty in my being Lord Morris of Aberavon, if I so wished. He had kindly checked the position. The story is told of a Swansea jury being brought to...

Looking back over more than fifty years in Parliament and the law, the inevitable question I ask myself is – ‘What have done to make things better than they were?’ and ‘Could I have done more?’

My legal career can be disposed of quickly. Every man is as good as his last case and I was fortunate to practise in a branch of the law that gave manifest opportunities – criminal practice: regrettably a growth industry. I would, of course, have wished to have spent more time on my profession and thereby improve my skills. However, since I was riding two horses,...