A peer at the opera

I've wasted hours of my life standing in an oak-panelled committee corridor trying to find out what Welsh Labour MPs get up to behind closed doors.

Now Paul Flynn has succeeded where I failed and lifted the lid on the "acrid with bitterness and ginger resentment" atmosphere at this week's meeting of the Welsh PLP.

http://paulflynnmp.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/07/acrid-with-bitt.html

The Newport West MP accuses Lord Kinnock of "an operatic rant" against the coalition deal with Plaid Cymru and suggests peers such as the former Labour leader may not even be eligible to speak at the group's meetings.

Whatever the result of today's special conference in Cardiff, the divisions in Welsh Labour opened up by the deal with Plaid are unlikely to heal overnight.