Ron Davies, Mr Michael's predecessor as secretary of state for Wales, had been openly campaigning to become first secretary of a devolved Wales in the hope that Mr Michael would fail to win a seat in the Assembly.
According to longstanding principles of international law, when one country has a bilateral treaty with another and is then "succeeded" by a different state (as Russia has succeeded to the rights and duties of the Soviet Union under a number of treaties), the bilateral treaty remains in effect only if both states so affirm--the new state and its predecessor's treaty partner.