Monday 12 November 2007

Not very grand

Devastating news for political anoraks: this week's meeting of the Welsh Grand Committee, that megastore of talking shops, has been cancelled.

Slightly better news for political anoraks: there's a bit of a row about who is to blame.

[Welsh Secretary] Peter Hain's Wales Office told me [Shadow Welsh Secretary] Cheryl Gillan asked for it to be cancelled.

The Conservatives say the Government called it off after discovering Mr Hain, who is also Work and Pensions Secretary, was double-booked. Ms Gillan is furious at the suggestion she was behind the cancellation.

Mr Hain's office insist that they were told by the Tories that they would vote against the decision to meet to discuss both the Queen's Speech and the Pre-Budget report. They had demanded two separate meetings to discuss both events.

The Wales Office is now looking to schedule a Welsh Grand in December, long enough after both events for no-one to care.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who cared to begin with??

Miss Wagstaff said...

"double-booked"

We're going to have calls of two-jobs Hain, again. He has more staff than Moses - surely someone should've picked up on it at an early stage.

Anonymous said...

The last time there was a meeting of the Scottish Grand Committee was 13 November 2003 - four years ago to the day. It is unclear whether or not anyone has noticed the almighty vacuum left by its absence.