Cuts: Labour MPs forced to share vocabularies

The Conservatives aren't the only ones singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to their Budget message.

Labour MPs have had another case of great minds thinking rather alike.

Here is Aberavon MP Hywel Francis's take on what Alistair Darling had to say yesterday: "I welcome this Budget as it secures the recovery – rather than putting it at risk. It builds a future based on growth and jobs – rather than leaving people to a decade of austerity."

Martyn Jones from Clwyd South had this to say: "This Budget secures the recovery rather than putting it at risk.

"It builds a future based on growth and jobs rather than leaving people to a decade of austerity."

Perhaps the Chancellor's new-found efficiency savings have already been implemented, forcing Labour backbenchers to share vocabularies.

Some present and correct

Readers of the Western Mail will have digested something of a spat in its letters column over the role of the main Welsh committee at Westminster.

The select committee on Welsh affairs chairman, Hywel Francis, has been defending his crew from criticism over its role in the devolved world.

The MPs say their committee has just completed "the busiest year in its history". Dr Francis has certainly been busy, attending 43 out of 44 meetings during the year.

The former Welsh Secretary, Alun Michael, managed 40 of the 44 meetings. Tory frontbencher David Jones made it to three quarters of committee gatherings.

Tory backbenchers were less regular attenders at the main Welsh forum for holding the Government to account. Monmouth MP David Davies made it to just five of the 44, an attendance record explained by diary clashes with his membership of the more prestigious Home Affairs Committee.

Mark Pritchard made it to 12 meetings. Labour MP Martyn Jones was present at nine gatherings.

The overall attendance record was 54.1 per cent, although it drops to below half if you take out Dr Francis and Mr Michael.

You can check out the scores for yourself here.

Grand plan

Bad news for those of you who had already made travel and accommodation plans, but the Welsh Grand Committee meeting for July 8 has been cancelled.

Welsh Secretary Peter Hain announced yesterday that the committee, made up of the 40 MPs from Wales and Cheryl Gillan, would meet to discuss plans to give the National Assembly the power to make laws on the Welsh language.

It would have been the first time that the committee had discussed a Legislative Competence Order (LCO).

The meeting was cancelled on the intervention of the chair of another Welsh committee - the Select Committee on Welsh Affairs - Hywel Francis.

He complained to Mr Hain that the (grand) committee would not have had time to consider his (select) committee's report on the Welsh Language LCO.

That report is said to be "imminent" and should be finalised next week, but will take seven days to print. So the Welsh Grand is postponed for another day.

Dr Francis says: "I have informed him (Peter Hain) that he will need to consult with me and the opposition parties before a Welsh Grand Committee can meet to discuss my Committee's Report."

That's the Secretary of State told, then. Dr Francis says: "Peter accepts it was a mistake for him to choose the date without consulting me."

The Wales Office says it did try to consult Dr Francis but struggled to contact him after he lost his mobile phone.

Very select?

If you or I only turned up for work six days out of 10, questions would be asked by our employers.

But for MPs on select committees an absence rate of around 40 per cent is par for the course.

The eleven members of the select committee on Welsh affairs managed an overall attendance rate of 60.4 per cent last year, only slightly below the average for Commons committees.

The average disguises variations between MPs. One - the chair, Hywel Francis - went to all 42 meetings. He believes his committee is a hard-working one.

Three members attended fewer than half. David Davies, the Tory MP for Monmouth, went to just eight, largely due to his membership of the slightly more prestigious home affairs committee.

Other members and the number of meetings attended: Nia Griffith 18 out of 42, Sian James 23/42, David Jones 35/42, Martyn Jones 16/42, Alun Michael 31/40, Albert Owen 25/42, Mark Pritchard 19/34, Hywel Williams 28/42 and Mark Williams 30/42.

All MPs have other duties, of course, and the introduction of more "family-friendly" hours at Westminster has made it harder for backbenchers to pack everything into a contracted working week.

The committee plays a growing role scrutinising requests from the Welsh Assembly for more law-making powers, a role that has won it critics as well as friends.

Pedalling a line

Top marks to the British Lung Foundation. They've succeeded where others have failed and managed to get MPs from different parties singing from the same hymn sheet.

Take this quote from the Tory MP John Baron, dated May 9: "I’m......delighted to support the British Lung Foundation’s campaign to encourage us to look after our lungs. We don’t realise how fragile our lungs are and what an important job they do in keeping us mobile and active."

The Tory MP Andrew Selous had a similar view on May 8: “I’m delighted to support the British Lung Foundation’s campaign to encourage us to look after our lungs. We don’t realise how fragile our lungs are and what an important job they do in keeping us mobile and active."

Labour's Andy Love said on May 13: "I was delighted to support the British Lung Foundation’s campaign to encourage us to look after our lungs. We don’t realise how fragile our lungs are and what an important job they do in keeping us mobile and active."

Labour's Hywel Francis (pictured) couldn't agree more in a press release issued a week after the event: "I am delighted to support the British Lung Foundation’s campaign to encourage us to look after our lungs. We do not realise how fragile our lungs are and what an important job they do in keeping us mobile and active."

It is a rare cause that unites politicians across parties verbatim - perhaps the BLF should have brought in a couple of tandems. You can find out more here or call the BLF Helpline on 08458 50 50 20.

Better late than never?

You and I may live in a 21st century electronic 24:7 media culture where news breaks around the clock.

Others pursue the news agenda at a more sedate pace. A mere two weeks after they returned to this country from a top-secret trip to China, MPs on the Welsh affairs committee have, wait for it, put out a press release.

Here's the top line: "The Welsh Affairs Committee has visited China as part of its inquiry into globalisation and its impact on Wales. Members visited Shanghai and the Special Economic Zone of Xiamen in the southern province of Fujian."

Well, hold the front page. What the press release doesn't say is that the MPs were rather restricted in what they could see by the Chinese Government.

Chairman of the Committee Dr Hywel Francis MP said: “The most striking part of our visit to China was becoming aware of the current scale and pace of change. We also saw many examples of a workforce that is increasingly skilled, flexible, adaptable and hard-working.

"The importance attached to universities and skills was impressive. We witnessed a great respect for learning and saw how ‘Confucius Institutes’ are now being established worldwide in favoured overseas universities, including Cardiff. Consolidating existing links and establishing new ones between Welsh and Chinese universities is vital to ensure that education remains the key to harnessing globalisation.”

I know of no Welsh media outlet that works on fortnightly deadlines, but I guess the committee will be chuffed that at least this is one outlet that used the press release.

I'm looking forward to receiving a Christmas card from the committee - probably around the middle of January.