A SUBSTANTIAL and hearty figure, Peter Law is no man of straw, but it was he who broke the camel's back in the former Labour stronghold of Blaenau Gwent.

The first parliamentary candidate to have their result announced was Margaret Jones, the imposed Labour candidate who, in the race for a seat which is crucial to Labour morale, if not to their actual electoral fortunes, rode a beast that few thought had much of a chance of winning.

There were cheers when the deputy returning officer read out the name of the Labour candidate (who likes to be known as Maggie) followed by the number of votes cast in her favour, 11,384.

But these shouts of encouragement were drowned with a noise like a howling desert storm as Peter Law's total was announced ... or almost announced. The official got no further than 'Twenty th....' before Ebbw Vale's leisure centre was in uproar.

Maggie, who had been chosen from an imposed all-woman Labour slate, had been sent back to the tent of Messrs Blair and Hain with a stinging message pinned to her saddle. Blaenau Gwent was quite capable of choosing its own candidates thank you, it read.

Carrying it back to her masters, Maggie Jones definitely looked as if she had the hump. She said something about the things Labour had done for Blaenau Gwent (a few groans, laughs and coughs at this point) before touching upon the subject that had poured away a huge Labour majority like a drop of water in the desert sands.

'This has been a roller-coaster of a campaign. Nobody could have predicted this,' she said which, when she reads her own words this morning, she might reflect is a trifle naive.

For Peter Law the issues had been about the right of Labour supporters in Blaenau Gwent to choose their own candidates and he lost no opportunity to drive home the point.

'This is a very good morning for Blaenau Gwent. This is what happens when you don't listen to the people,' Mr Law pronounced, referring of course to the Labour party.

Earlier, as the stacks of 'Law' votes began to overtake, and eventually dwarf those with 'Jones' labels in front of them, Peter Law gave me his personal thoughts.

'That message has come home to Labour loud and clear. The irony of it is that if there had been an open list Labour would probably have ended up with a woman candidate anyway.'

Unkind observers might have compared Blaenau Gwent's spirited rejection of New Labour social engineering with the situation in Newport East where the constituency party had a woman, Jessica Elizabeth Morden, imposed upon them with barely a whisper of dissent.

'I think we still have fire in our bellies,' Mr Law observed, politely refusing to be drawn on the suggestion that Newport East in 1997 had accepted the Tory turncoat Alan Howarth and therefore could be relied upon to make up their own minds and do exactly as they are told by party bosses.

Labour's Gwent misery did not of course, end there. In Monmouth the personable Tory, David Davies, stole back the seat from his Labour rival Huw Edwards, a reconquest that had been widely forecast.

David Davies, since becoming Monmouth's AM has worked his 'patch' with vigour.

David Davies and Peter Law are very different beasts but they have one thing in common. They were first over the finishing line against an opponent which like all camels, was a bit grey and very flat-footed.