MPs cross where AMs fear to tread

"It is something ingrained in party thinking. We do not cross a picket line."

The words of Welsh Labour leader Carwyn Jones, quoted in today's Western Mail. They may create some difficulty for his Labour colleagues in Westminster, where pickets are out in force on Budget Day.

Chancellor Alistair Darling will have to cross a picket line to deliver his own Budget - and presumably run the risk of being called a scab by his party's leader in Wales.

In Cardiff Bay, Labour and Plaid Cymru AMs are staying away from the Welsh Assembly chamber.

Plaid Cymru say their AMs have supported the right of the PCS union to withdraw labour in this dispute.

Plaid's three MPs may also support union's right to withdraw labour during this dispute, but, according to a spokeswoman, they will be present in the Commons for the Budget statement.

No news yet on what Plaid AMs make of their colleagues' decision.

"I had to wait 10 years too"

Given the Prime Minister's current unpopularity, you might think Carwyn Jones is taking a risk by including the above photograph in a leaflet being sent to party members ahead of the Welsh Labour leadership election.

The photograph, snapped on Welsh night at Labour's conference in Brighton, was taken before Rhodri Morgan announced his retirement plans so any suggestion, counter-productive or not, that the PM was endorsing the Welsh Counsel General is wide of the mark.

Apparently, via what looks like an unusual handshake, Mr Brown was actually thanking Mr Jones for all the hard work he'd done in Wales. Alternatively, the Prime Minister may have been empathising on what it's like to wait in the wings for years before acquiring a top job at a politically inopportune moment.

Alternative caption suggestions welcome.

Labour: Owen refuses to hang Flynn out to dry

Some people mistakenly think MPs are too grand for the little things in life - such as holding an umbrella to save a colleague from a drenching.

Ynys Mon MP Albert Owen dispels the myth to allow Paul Flynn to hold forth for the cameras on the subject of Carwyn Jones's Welsh leadership bid.

I suspect the cameraman - from RhonddaTV? - may have filmed this as rather more of a close-up than I managed.

The occasion was a photocall opposite the Houses of Parliament to show support among MPs for the Carwyn Jones bid.

He's claiming the public support of 14 of the 29 Welsh Labour MPs, each of whom has a vote equivalent to around half a per cent of the electoral college.

Staying neutral

Wherever two or three Welsh Labour politicians are gathered in the hotel bars or on the conference fringe, the talk turns to.....LCOs and the Barnett Formula.

Well, possibly. At Welsh Night, two of the would-be candidates to succeed Rhodri Morgan pressed the flesh with fervour as their supporters span lines to passing hacks.

Carwyn Jones exchanged warm greetings with Gordon Brown (who hasn't a vote) while filmed by another AM from the Jones camp.

Others are trying to stay out of the fray. Peter Hain told me on The Politics Show Wales: "I'm not backing anybody. As secretary of state for Wales I am staying entirely neutral on this, as you'd expect."

Ditto, his deputy Wayne David. There's no law that says Ministers have to stay neutral - and indeed they didn't in the past, Mr Hain backing Ron Davies and Alun Michael against Rhodri Morgan. Perhaps it's the bruises of past battles that explain why studied neutrality is the stance of choice this time.

Mr Hain's neutrality didn't stop him questioning the sustainability of the Welsh Assembly Government's policy of free hospital parking.

Just as well, perhaps, that Health Minister and potential candidate Edwina Hart doesn't appear to have made it to the Sussex coast.

Not a fortunate traveller

One of the frustrations of elected politics must be the rapid discovery that political power is limited.

Fortunately, that doesn't stop politicians at various levels from having a go, from doing their bit to change the world.

Broadcasting issues are decided at Westminster, but the Welsh Assembly has a broadcasting committee - the chairman of which doesn't believe broadcasting should be devolved to it any time soon.

Foreign affairs is usually the preserve of diplomats and nation states, but the Assembly's impartial presiding officer has made waves with his own distinctive contribution to the Middle East peace process.

The Welsh Liberal Democrat leader, Mike German, let it be known "I don't believe in silly boycotts". (All ideas for "sensible boycotts" (Geoffrey Boycott?) gratefully received).

One advantage of devolution for politicians is that there is always someone else to blame. When Welsh Labour loses elections, Tony Blair/Gordon Brown's Labour Party can take the rap.

The Labour/Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly Government may have placed great store by tackling child poverty but when the number of poor children rises Plaid can blame the UK Government.

Benito Mussolini was credited (wrongly) with making the trains run on time. That's a harder task for today's politicians in the age of privatised trains.

If your train is late, you might contemplate approaching customer services. Unless you're an MP. Lembit Opik has tabled a couple of Commons motions highlighting delays on Virgin railways (at a cost to the public purse that could almost have paid for a day return to Bangor).

It must be something to do with Lib Dems and trains. My spies in Cardiff Bay alerted me to this exchange between Eleanor Burnham and Leader of the House Carwyn Jones.

Eleanor Burnham: "Considering that Network Rail, Arriva Trains Wales and the Deputy First Minister were parading around last week talking about improvements to the railway, I was very shocked to experience yet another disruption in Wrexham yesterday because of a points failure, or something similar, in this vulnerable infrastructure of ours on the train service between north and south.

"Those are two very important issues. Could we have a statement on them soon and certainly some improvements?"

Carwyn Jones: "You will forgive me, Eleanor, for saying that you are not a fortunate traveller. You have eloquently expressed your views on the railway service many times on the floor of the Assembly, we have heard about the tribulations that you have experienced when you have flown internally, and now we find that you are experiencing difficulties on the A55.

"I am sure that the Deputy First Minister will have heard what you have said and will be able to provide you with answers to your queries. Do remind me never to travel with you, if I can possibly avoid it." [Laughter.]