Boris who?

It's the question Welsh Tories here are asking: who's that with Shazia Awan?

Shazia, from Cardiff, was a conference virgin before her arrival in Birmingham this week but has spent the past few days asking questions from the conference floor and rubbing shoulders with the stars of today's Conservative Party.

According to her blog on the official Tory website, she's yet to return to her hotel before 3am. (You know how it is. You fall into conversation about the Barnett formula, LCOs and such like

and, before you know it, it's almost dawn.....).

Shazia has passed her "parliamentary assessment" so can now apply for seats and is tipped for greater things.

She appears to be so on message she's even dressing in party colours: "Getting ready was bit of a mission this morning as I donned a yellow dress; promptly got told to change into blue... I did a rare moment of doing what I was told."

Hmm.....There is a new tradition of on-message bloggers at party conferences. Wales Office Minister Huw Irranca-Davies blogged from Labour's bash in Manchester.

Here's his take on Ruth Kelly's departure from Gordon Brown's Cabinet: "I do hope that the media handles this news responsibly, and refrains from spinning it into something it isn't."

Quite right, too. This was a routine resignation announced in a press briefing at 3am in a hotel lobby. It would be totally irresponsible to infer anything else from it.

Here in Birmingham, the conference has been overshadowed by the global economic crisis. David Cameron is making an unscheduled speech to the conference today amid talk of Parliament being recalled tomorrow.

The crisis has yet to hit some of the party faithful.

Unable to gain entry into the packed call here, one representative apparently headed for Harvey Nichols where she emerged with a Chloe handbag. I'm told they cost around £800 each.

Credit crunch: what credit crunch?

Dave reaches for the off switch

David Cameron was in cheerful mood as he mingled among the Welsh party faithful last night at a conference reception.

There was just the one Gavin and Stacey Joke and just the one teasing Assembly group leader Nick Bourne after his recent shower accident (he's still bearing the scars, prompting his leader to wonder whether he'd been fighting with shadow Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan again).

The overall message was one that's already become a familiar one: "no complacency".

He told representatives they must not give voters a chance to turn their back on the party again. So there's a clampdown on MEP expenses and MPs are told to publish full details of their own claims.

"Get rid of the John Lewis list, get rid of the plasma screen TVs," said Mr Cameron.

Will you tell the AM for Monmouth or shall I?

Chat Show Cheryl

If it's Sunday, it must be Birmingham. Manchester and Bournemouth are disappearing in the rear view mirror as the party conference circus arrives in England's second city.

The Tories are in town "preparing for government" without looking too triumphalist about recent opinion polls.

Conservative conferences are often a struggle for hacks in search of a Welsh policy but there was a hint of one in the conference session just ended.

Tory Assembly leader Nick Bourne told party activists that a Conservative government might lift the ban on candidates standing in both individual constituencies and on regional lists.

Labour introduced the ban "to stop losers becoming winners" after several AMs found themselves elected to Cardiff Bay despite polling poorly in individual seats.

Mr Bourne may have been lulled into letting slip the idea by the comfort of his IKEA-style tub chair, his stage home for a conference session on the nations and regions of the UK.

The idea of re-storing dual candidacy may have been in the Tory manifesto for the last Assembly elections, but there's a big difference between a request to a Labour Government at Westminster and introducing a policy as a UK Government.

It was chaired by Cheryl Gillan, who looked very much at home in the role, more Trisha than Jerry Springer.

"Chat Show Cheryl" clearly has other options should she not find herself around the cabinet table in a Conservative Government.

Life begins.....

What did you get for your birthday? I got a leather jacket for my 40th to help me cope with the inevitable mid-life crisis. (Still waiting for the little red sports car).

For others, turning 40 is a national event on a par with royal weddings and bank holidays. Working in Manchester during the last few days, this milestone in Welsh politics somehow passed me by.

(I am assured that Labour's scheduling of its conference during this week is a coincidence and not a deliberate attempt to overshadow the birthday celebrations).

Perhaps Plaid Cymru will issue Adam Price mugs and teatowels for his 50th. A belated penblwydd hapus, Adam.

A tale of two conferences

Gordon Brown has been touring the BBC studios here in Manchester this morning. (I say studios, I'm talking about a few partitions in a large exhibition hall that used to be a station).

He looks and sounds more relaxed than for some time. Perhaps it's the challenge of getting to grips with a global financial crisis or the fact that this conference has gone far better for the Prime Minister than he dared to hope.

Ruth Kelly's resignation as Transport Secretary ("to spend more time with her family" - copyright Norman Fowler) will mean a Cabinet reshuffle and one is expected at the end of next week.

One reshuffle decision he has to take is whether the time is right to merge the Wales Office with its Scottish and Northern Irish equivalents. Would Paul Murphy be a suitable "Secretary of State for the Union" or will his Cabinet comeback end after nine months?

If the latter happens, and Jim Murphy (no relation) gets the job, Gordon Brown would be left with a Cabinet without any Welsh MP, barring unexpected promotion for David Hanson or Kim Howells. Rising star Kevin Brennan remains a junior Education Minister.

One option might be to have a Welsh Minister of State allowed to attend Cabinet when required but is would be a brave decision for the party of Kinnock, Foot, Bevan and Callaghan to have no full-time Welsh voice around the Cabinet table.

Merger might appease English anger at "special treatment" for the Celts but would win few friends elsewhere. Devolution to Belfast is not yet complete, another factor that may yet further delay the long-trailed merger.

Mr Brown denied that there were any "political issues" behind Ruth Kelly's decision to leave the Government despite well-informed speculation that she was one of four Cabinet Ministers said to be considering resignation as part of their unhappiness with Mr Brown's leadership.

It has been a strange, some might say weird, conference. The conference has shrunk from the corporate jolly of years gone by, as the Tories in Birmingham prepare for an influx of lobbyists keen to grease up to a "government in waiting".

Here in Manchester, there are fewer stands than previous conferences and the average age of the average delegate appears to have risen substantially in a party that has lost half its members since winning power. That should worry Labour.

The journalistic cliche of the week is to say that there have been actually two conferences taking place in Manchester.

There's the loyalist rally in the hall, where Ministers deliver rather over-the-top endorsements of the Prime Minister and delegates give the PM and his wife the pop star treatment.

Then there's the conference taking place on the fringe, in the bars and hotels inside the secure zone, where Ministers convinced that Mr Brown will never turn Labour's fortunes around bare their souls to hacks.

Both conferences merge on the final day with the singing of The Red Flag, words helpfully provided in the conference newsletter.

Birimingham beckons for the travelling media circus but not before a brief visit home to spend some time with my family.

Public Service Blogging

Some public service blogging to guide you through tomorrow's newspapers. How many of Gordon Brown's eye-catching announcements apply outside England?

The answer is not many. Prescriptions are already free in Wales, so the free prescriptions for cancer patients will make no difference there.

The educational technology allowances will help children from poorer families in England access the internet. In Wales, the first "free laptops" trial doesn't begin until next year.

Free part-time nursery education for two-year-olds (I should declare a parental interest) will happen only in England, and then only very gradually.

On health, Mr Brown promised: "In April a Labour Britain will become the first country in the whole world to offer free universal check ups for everyone over 40."

(Again, I declare an interest) What he should have said (but couldn't) was "a Labour England". So will the Welsh Assembly Government introduce free universal check-ups for the over 40s?

"In Wales, GPs already monitor high-risk patients and provide lifestyle advice to manage that risk. We are currently looking at ways of strengthening that approach for cardiac disease, stroke and diabetes by introducing a more co-ordinated approach."

I'll take that as a "no", then.

All rise....

Political stunts can divide voters. One man's poignant moment will send another reaching for the sick bucket.

For what it's worth, I thought the idea of Sarah Brown introducing her husband's speech worked well, giving a human touch to a PM in need of one with many voters even if it does make her more of a public figure.

I'm not sure the PM's aides will be thrilled by the number of mid-speech standing ovations earned by their boss.

The last political leader to receive so many "spontaneous" tributes was Iain Duncan Smith at a Conservative Party conference.

He was gone as leader within weeks.

New Labour, New Rules?

Paul Flynn is enjoying the conference from a safe distance, eschewing the bright lights of Manchester for the comfort of his armchair.

I'm not sure if his armchair has internet access but here in Manchester Newport West CLP are behind a move to reduce the number of MPs needed to launch a leadership bid where there is a vacancy for the top job.

Newport activists want to reduce the proportion of MPs nominating a candidate from 12.5 per cent of the parliamentary party - currently 70 MPs - to 7.5 per cent, which would mean a candidate could launch a campaign with 42 nominations.

You may not be surprised to learn that the party's national executive is resisting the proposed rule change.

Time to complete devolution?

A quick quiz for you: which senior UK politician delivered this fiercely pro-devolution speech?

"It's time to complete devolution......there is something more vital at stake for your entire society - that only the completion of devolution can deliver.

"How can you, as an Assembly, address common criminality, low-level crime and youth disorder when you are responsible for only some of the lever for change?

"When you have responsibility for education and health and social development but have to rely on Westminster for policing and justice?

"Full devolution is the way to deliver better services, tailored to the needs of all communities, regardless of the politics. Is is the best way for you to serve them. "

You can find the answer here. Somehow I don't think this is a speech the PM will deliver at any Welsh Labour conference sometime soon.

The People's Laptops

Gordon Brown will use his speech today to launch a new educational technology allowance that will pay for broadband connections, software and computers for poorer families who currently lack internet access at home.

Students of Welsh politics may remember the "free laptops" idea put forward in the Plaid Cymru manifesto for the last Assembly elections, a policy currently in development.

Gordon Brown's plans will apply to England alone and are funded from existing budgets, so there's no spin-off cash for Wales. As yet we don't know the timescale for their introduction so there's still time for the Welsh Assembly Government to steal a march on Mr Brown before being outflanked by the UK Government.

Mr Brown will also unveil details of (long-term) plans to expand nursery education in England. It may be telling that the two trailed ideas from the speech will be implemented through the department run by his former aide, the Schools Secretary Ed Balls.

One stylistic note: the Prime Minister will apparently be using a lectern rather than the fashionable Cameronesque "look at me, no hands" wander around the stage while talking from the heart (autocue).

Just as well, really. Some of us are still dizzy from Nick Clegg's tour of the Bournemouth stage last week.

Gordon has them rolling in the aisles

It was a plastic marquee in the centre of Manchester but for a few hours it became a corner of Wales.

"Croeso i Gymru" beamed Neil Kinnock as Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah arrived for Welsh Night at the Labour conference.

The PM gave a confident, relaxed, witty performance that delighted his audience. Yes, he really did. "Why can't he do that all the time?" asked a frustrated Minister afterwards.

You'll have to take my word for it, as we were ordered to turn off our cameras after filming his arrival. Perhaps he was more relaxed because he wasn't being filmed.

He told a couple of funny stories, including one about Amy Winehouse explaining how her husband had a lot in common with Nelson Mandela that will probably become part of his staple anecdote regime.

Party leaders attend dozens of these receptions during conference weeks so there is an element of repetition about the speeches.

That must be the explanation for his list of Labour stalwarts. "I thank all the MEPs and MPs, all the councillors....." He was so grateful he thanked the same list twice.

Those Welsh Assembly Members present were far too polite to point out the obvious omission.....

Floats like a butterfly......

Good news for Plaid Cymru: their leader is a new entry in a Telegraph list of the top 100 lefties in the UK.

Ieuan Wyn Jones comes in at number 83 - four ahead of Neil Kinnock in a list compiled by Iain Dale and the Labour historian Brian Brivati.

Admittedly, the Telegraph does spell Mr Jones's first name incorrectly but the citation says: "His attacks on Labour for having lost its way ring true in a Wales that has benefited from devolution and Labour governments but often not as much as the Scots seem to have done."

All this and a trip to the Ryder Cup as well, where the deputy First Minister was among those who gathered to meet Muhammad Ali.

"He's a global icon, someone who's always been a hero of mine......" said the former World Champion.

(the old ones are always the best.....)

Bore da possums!

Paul Murphy is one of the most self-effacing politicians you could hope to meet.

But there's a price to be paid for a low profile in modern politics.

You have to endure constant speculation that your job is about to be reshuffled out of existence.

And - possibly worse - you are mistaken for the creator of Dame Edna Everage.

The Sunday Telegraph has been asking the people of Manchester whether they can identify members of Gordon Brown's cabinet.

Mr Murphy was one of seven Cabinet Ministers recognised by none of the voters questioned.

According to the Telegraph: "The nearest anyone came to identifying Mr Murphy was when Charlie Colwell, 49, a bank worker, suggested: "He has something of the Barry Humphries about him."

Do as I say......

Gordon Brown will doubtless appreciate today's professions of loyalty from his Welsh flock.

Don Touhig and Chris Bryant are among twenty backbenchers who've signed a letter to their colleagues urging them to stand up and be counted as loyal supporters of the Prime Minister.

Letter-writing is something of a habit for Mr Bryant at this time of year. His last letter was accompanied by a number of resignations from junior members of the Government, among them Mark Tami and Ian Lucas.

Two years on from the coup against Tony Blair, Mr Tami is now one of those in charge of enforcing party discipline and loyalty and Mr Lucas offers his own advice to Government Whips:

"I would hope the individuals trying to create friction will be spoken to very firmly and that is certainly what I will be saying to colleagues."

Prezza the Taff

John Prescott's pride in his background appears to be a little ambivalent.

“I’m constantly going back to my Welsh roots," the Prestatyn-born former deputy PM told the Western Mail in June. "I came from mining stock and had family in the Wrexham and Ruabon areas. It’s always good to return to Wales – though I wasn’t too happy about getting an egg chucked at me during the 2001 election and I clipped the guy."

Sky News political editor Adam Boulton reveals a slightly different patriotism in his memoirs, recalling Prezza's reluctance to appear on Sky after the Rumble in Rhyl during the 2001 election campaign:

"I had got on well with both Prescott and his wife and missed his amusing contributions to our programme: Prescott swearing loudly and repeatedly during a taped interview because he was being put off by 'that f***ing Taff speaking f***taff'."

The "f***ing Taff" in question was Denzil Davies, a former Treasury Minister and MP for Llanelli.

Given the North Wales police investigation into Tony Blair's reported comments about the "f***ing Welsh", perhaps this is another one for Brunstrom's Bobbies?

Stop Lembit?

Lembit Opik could have been forgiven for falling off his Segway when he read The Times this morning.

The paper reports that leading Lib Dems are plotting to stop him becoming President Opik in the battle for the senior party post.

Mr Clegg is staying neutral - he knows that interfering in internal elections is counter-productive - but The Times says key figures around him (not to mention many Welsh party bigwigs) are likely to support the alternative candidate, Baroness (Ros) Scott.

The Scott campaign seems to have left her rival trailing. She's even got a Welsh version of her website and has been working overtime on the Lib Dem rubber chicken circuit, judging by this list of engagments.

30 Aug 08 Swansea supper with local members
30 Aug 08 Pembrokeshire BBQ
29 Aug 08 Rhondda Cynon Taf Meeting Local Members
28 Aug 08 Newport Garden Party
28 Aug 08 Brecon & Radnorshire Buffet Lunch
27 Aug 08 Bridgend Quiz night and social
27 Aug 08 Neath Port Talbot, tea with Activists
27 Aug 08 Neath Port Talbot Meeting Council Group
26 Jul 08 Wrexham Garden Party
10 Apr 08 Swansea Local Election Campaigning
9 Apr 08 Cardiff Local Election Campaigning
8 Apr 08 Cardiff Local Election Campaigning
24 Feb 08 Welsh Liberal Democrats Spring Conference in Llandudno

Her site includes this endorsement from Kirsty Williams, the only declared candidate (so far) in the race to lead the Welsh Liberal Democrats: "I'm for Ros because as a member from Wales sometimes London can seem an awfully long way away".

Nick Clegg may have problems with pensions arithmetic but you can't fault the Lib Dems on their geography.

Making it happen

Is anyone else wondering how the Liberal Democrats came up with their new "Make It Happen" slogan? No wonder Greg Dyke came out as a Lib Dem during the last general election.

Here in Bournemouth, I'm still trying to find out what "it" is and how we'll be able to tell when it's happened. I'll keep you posted.

It's not that complicated

I've just completed my annual conference five minutes with the Liberal Democrat leader.

The best newsline was his emphatic support for Eleanor Burnham as the next leader of the party in Wales.

OK, I made that up in the absence of a world exclusive.

During the interview, he denied that his party's planned £20bn cuts in public spending would hit the Welsh Assembly Government's budget, although the £800m cut in the English road building programme would, I'd have thought, have some knock-on effect.

He also dismissed suggestions by one of his AMs, Peter Black, that the new economic policy is a little confusing - "it's not that complicated". (Peter's response to the question of what regional Assembly Members do is almost as long as Mike Ashley's diatribe on Newcastle United. Let's hope his inquisitor doesn't conclude that anyone who can spare that much time to respond in depth......)

Back to Nick Clegg. Disappointingly, both for me and those with ambitions in that direction, he refused to reveal his preferred choice as the next leader of the Welsh Lib Dems: "The worst thing the leader of a political party can do is start interfering with internal party elections. We are a very democratic party, a party owned, shaped, run by the members."

As is traditional at these times, I did ask the Lembit question. This is his response: "I think the public actually react very well to the fact that whatever you think of Lembit he's a human being he's a strong personality, he's not a colourless politician, he's got a varied life, he wears his heart on his sleeve and I actually think that people react very well to the fact that he stands out from the crowd."

All examples of Lembit standing out from the crowd gratefully received.

Lemsip Opik

This may have been the sponsorship deal waiting to happen. Lembit Opik croaked his way through a TV interview before fumbling in his pocket to produce a packet of Lemsip cold relief products.

The Montgomeryshire MP has lost his voice after only three fringe meetings and still has another 10 to go. A silent Opik may be a rare political event but it may not help his campaign to become president of the Liberal Democrats.

That said, I have spotted a few Lib Dem activists wandering around with stickers bearing his campaign slogan - Ipik Opik. (Get it?)

Hain "No" campaign

This will come as a blow to those conspiracy theorists in who always suspected that the summit of Peter Hain's political ambition was to end his career in the Welsh Assembly.

The former Welsh Secretary has ruled out what Glyn Davies describes as a "free transfer" to the Assembly. “It’s complete nonsense. It’s a silly season fabrication. I was on holiday and my office told me about this nonsense.”

It was always a ridiculous story on so many levels, as I may have pointd out once or twice. Mr Hain has previously ruled out a Labour/Plaid coalition only to see one happen but I think we can take today's statement as a pretty definitive "no".

The rest of us will just have to struggle on with the realisation that you can't believe everything you read in the newspapers - or indeed in the blogosphere.

The Place To Be

Exciting things happen during Liberal Democrat conferences. Admittedly, they often happen far away from the conference itself. Who can forget the Lib Dem conference of 1992, admittedly rather overshadowed by "Black Wednesday".

Then there was the Lib Dem gathering in Blackpool that coincided with the bombing of Afghanistan. I was back in London before Sunday night that year.

Gordon Brown's troubles have diverted attention away from Nick Clegg's first conference as Lib Dem leader but, for now, we're staying in Bournemouth.

For those pining for leadership battles, there is of course the future of the Welsh Lib Dems to be decided.

For the Politics Show We lined up the telly dream team of the only declared candidate - Kirsty Williams - and a past Welsh Lib Dem leader, Lembit Opik.

Both agreed, only for Kirsty to claim that she had a diary clash with a fringe event. A quick check discovered that the fringe event didn't start until an hour after the Politics Show.

Perhaps her withdrawal had something to do with this description of internal party tensions.

Luckily, the outgoing leader, Mike German, has agreed to step in - despite the fact he's appearing at the same fringe Kirsty cited as a diary clash.

Bad news: housing just got cheaper

For decades, Plaid Cymru have complained about the high cost of housing. Press releases would arrive almost daily bemoaning the fact that house prices were out of the reach of young people in many areas, with all that meant for the future of communities and the Welsh language.

Indeed, the party's leader has made increasing the supply of affordable housing a priority for Plaid in government. As Ieuan Wyn Jones put it last year: "It is as difficult for a first time buyer in Cardiff as it is in other parts of Wales."

Perhaps it's the experience of government but today, in what may be an historic U-turn, Plaid have issued a press release complaining that house prices are becoming more affordable.

Phil Edwards, who hopes to succeed Betty Williams as MP for Aberconwy [apologies for earlier bizarre error!], writes: "Because of Labour policies in London, people in Wales are suffering. Fuel costs have spiralled out of control, house prices are falling and everyone is feeling the pinch."

Perhaps Phil should have a word with the Welsh economic development Minister to sort out the party line.

Seconds out: Round 2

The English Health Minister who managed to wind up half the Welsh Assembly Government earlier this year has returned to his theme with comments that threaten to re-open a row between Cardiff Bay and Westminster.

Ben Bradshaw told a conference in London this morning that the NHS in England is delivering a better service despite spending less per patient than in Wales.

He said he was "fed up" being told that England suffered from health apartheid "because millionaires in Wales get their prescriptions free or Scotland plans to allow anyone who wants to park in busy hospital car parks for free.

"What about the fact that in England you can get your operation much more quickly, you don't have to wait for more than four hours in A and E any more and it is easy to see a GP when you want?

"These things matter more to the public. We are already delivering them in England and we have been doing so while spending less per head on health than in Scotland and Wales."

Mr Bradshaw's remarks - scripted, not off-the-cuff - were made during his keynote speech to a CBI conference on health.

Earlier this year, Mr Bradshaw sparked a row between the Assembly and UK Governments by saying the money spent on free parking would be better spent on improving patient care.

That prompted Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy to have a quiet word with Mr Bradshaw's boss, Alan Johnson - and was followed by a period of diplomacy on the Health Minister's part.

Welsh Assembly Government Ministers, who were re-assured Mr Bradshaw's views were not official UK Government policy, will doubtless be thrilled to learn of his latest outburst.

3PM update: WAG have released their statement"Devolved Government means that each administration is free to pursue its own priorities. Mr Bradshaw is entitled to his views. Free prescriptions and parking reforms have been widely welcomed by patients in Wales. We are putting the patient first and removing barriers to accessing healthcare. We see prescription and car parking charges as a tax on the sick. Investment in improving access to healthcare will improve the health and well-being of the people of Wales."

Bye Bye Betty

Betty Williams is standing down as MP for Aberconwy (currently Conwy) at the next election. An MP since 1997, she says that at the age of 64 she wants to re-balance her workload.

Lest anyone doubt her loyalty to Gordon Brown, Mrs Williams says in a statement: "There is no one I would trust more to lead us through difficult times. I have no respect for those, particularly former Ministers, who criticise without constructive proposals."

I presume that's a reference to Charles Clarke. Sadly, you won't be able to hear her expand on her reasons today as she is on "parliamentary business" in Paris.

Mrs Williams has been an assiduous constituency MP and in later years hasn't been afraid to vote against her Government on issues such as Iraq and nuclear weapons.

Despite her past role as a freelance media researcher, she was never one of those MPs banging on the studio door demanding airtime.

Indeed, I shall treasure some of the reasons she gave for her reluctance to go on air. "Mrs Williams doesn't do interviews before nine in the morning" was her office's response to one breakfast radio bid.

We didn't have much luck later in the day: "Mrs Williams is singing Elijah in the Abbey tonight".

Leadership and the art of the apostrophe

I spent yesterday at a leisure centre awaiting news of exciting political developments. Unfortuately, I made the mistake of diving into the pool at Putney when the action was elsewhere.

Fortunately, I've been kept up to date via an e-mailed statement from Kirsty Williams herself.

"The Liberal Democrat's [sic]," she wrote, "have had a great year of transformation with changes to key leadership posts across the Union."

It may not be entirely re-assuring that the leadership favourite is currently the Welsh Lib Dems' spokeswoman on education.

Lib Dem fails to get arrested

It's all go with the Lib Dems. I've just spent an hour with Lembit Opik as he tried, unsuccessfully, to get arrested for using a personal transporter on the streets of Westminster.

Lembit has become a big fan of the Segway, even using one in his less-than-flat constituency despite the fact they're currently not legal on public roads.

The Montgomeryshire MP had issued a "legalise Segways or send me to Strangeways" challenge to the Government - one it has chosen (so far) to ignore.

He says the immediate reaction of voters who see him riding a Segway is to smile at him, probably not a unique experience. Let's hope for his sake they're laughing with him, not at him.

I had a go on the Segway, touted as the carbon-free future of urban transport, myself. It was fun but I felt more vulnerable than I do on my folding bike. You can see my report here.

The Department for Transport says it doesn't meet basic safety standards - and it will need some tough convincing before it allows them legally on the roads.

Back among the Welsh Lib Dems, once Opik-led, the rank and file are getting very excited about the battle to succeed Mike German.

Kirsty Williams is due to declare tomorrow, so that's one fewer story for us from next week's party conference.

Another would-be leader is apparently steering clear of Bournemouth, although her fans have been swift to work on campaign material.

All that's missing is a snappy slogan......

Great Britain?

Here's the map of this year's Tour of Britain, currently underway. Or should that be the Tour of England and Scotland? Perhaps Wales, with nationalists in government, has declared UDI from Britain - you sort of feel that in their opposition days Plaid would have hit the F6 key on their keyboard, the one that produces press releases declaring "Slap in the Face to Wales".

You do wonder what Nicole Cooke makes of this year's route.

Manufacturing spin

Gordon Brown has taken his Cabinet to Birmingham today. It's the first time the British Cabinet has met outside Downing Street or Chequers since David Lloyd George took his top team to Inverness.

So is it a political stunt or a genuine attempt to show that the Government understands the problems faced by people in the real world?

By coincidence, the Government is launching a revised manufacturing strategy today.

Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy, on his way to Birmingham today, said: “Wales has a long history when it comes to manufacturing industries and in recent years we’ve seen a significant transformation."

This "transformation" hasn't always been good news for Ministers. In 1997, around 215,000 people in Wales worked in manufacturing. The latest figures show that number is down to 154,000.

Since the Welsh Assembly came into being, in 1999, around a quarter of manufacturing jobs have disappeared.

Curiously, these figures don't appear in Paul Murphy's press release, which although highlighting manufacturing prefers to focus on the increase in the number of overall jobs.

The Wales Office even forgot to highlight the positive side - the growth in manufacturing output in Wales comfortably outperformed the UK in the first quarter of 2008.

Hen-pecked Tories

The annual eruption of the political volcano that is Charles Clarke will occupy most bloggers today - and I'm doing a couple of radio turns on it - so let's talk chickens.

Yes, here's the hot news from David Cameron's shadow cabinet, brought to you by Cheryl Gillan:

"We now have six chickens in their own luxury chicken hut, with ramp for access into the meadow. They are Buff Orpington and Black Rock hybrid hens (grey, white and black), which are traditional, rare breeds.

"Our chickens have been protected from the possible wrath of those who might seek to turn them into a stew by giving them names. As Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, TV cook and food guru said, “You cannot eat anything you have given a name”."

Sadly, Cheryl doesn't reveal the names in her Bucks Advertiser and Examiner article so we'll just have to speculate wildly that they're called David, Stephen, Wyn, Nick, Brynle and Alun.

Funny names for hens, I grant you, but if it keeps them out of the oven......

I'd like to thank......

I've just had a pleasant surprise. A colleague contacted me to let me know that I've won "Best Media Blog" in the Welsh Blog Index awards. I suspect there's no prize but as an unofficial blogger without the platforms enjoyed by others I'm going to allow myself to feel smug for 90 seconds before treating myself to a caramel slice and a nice cup of tea.

United Nations? (2)

The "significant" event came and went, without offering immediate knock-on effects for Wales.

Gordon Brown says he will press ahead to complete devolution to Northern Ireland during the next few days - removing a possible barrier to the merger of the territorial Cabinet roles. The PM said today's report into the IRA could lead to the devolution of policing and justice to Belfast.

The non-devolution of policing and justice has been widely seen as an obstacle to the merger of the territorial jobs in Mr Brown's Government.

Gordon Brown said: "In the next few days, I will use all my efforts, working with the parties in
Northern Ireland, to make sure that the devolution of policing and justice can go ahead and the final stages of the peace process will now be completed, to the better government of Northern Ireland and to the peace and prosperity of the people there."

First Minister Peter Robinson is rather more cautious about today's report - and his approach may yet influence the timing of what is possibly the longest-trailed reshuffle saga in history.

Auf Wiedersehen?

Tonight's bedside reading has arrived, in the form of the agenda for the Lib Dem conference.

There's a special slot for the new leader of the Scottish party, Tavish Scott, but no place on the platform for his Welsh equivalent, Mike German.

This will be Mr German's first and last UK autumn conference as leader of the Welsh Lib Dems but he's been squeezed off the agenda for his farewell tour.

Last year, his conference presence was confined to a fridge magnet (5op from the Lib Dem shop). This year, he is expected in Bournemouth to say more personal farewells during the first couple of days before departing for Welsh Assembly business in Africa.

Conference organisers deny any snub to Wales in excluding Mr German from the platform. They tend to rotate slots among their devolved leaders.

Expect his successor to be given a starring role (well, 20 minutes on a Sunday morning) at next year's conference. Eleanor Burnham has probably pencilled it in her diary already.

United Nations?

Those bloggers who tend to believe everything in the newspapers - and there are many - have been curiously slow to react to this column by the usually well-informed Rachel Sylvester in The Times yesterday.

She wrote: "A limited reshuffle - focused on merging the Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland jobs into a single constitutional secretary role - had been pencilled into the No 10 diary for this week."

A "significant" announcement is expected in Northern Ireland this afternoon. Some think this will go beyond the transformation of the IRA to the devolution of justice and policing to Belfast and involve the merging of the Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland offices.

If it's happening this week, the Wales Office remains in the dark - admittedly not in itself evidence that it isn't happening.

The Lib Dems and frivolity

The Liberal Democrats have had a go at the BBC for spending millions of pounds on travel during the last year. It's the lead story in London's free morning newspaper.

The BBC makes the point that broadcasting from major news events across the world does involve the occasional need for travel outside the studio.

I'm off this morning (on foot) to attend a Lib Dem briefing on the party's conference, which takes place later this month. Perhaps we could pacify the Lib Dems by not bothering to cover their conference, saving the licence-payer the cost of our (standard class) rail fares to Bournemouth.

As the Lib Dem transport spokesman Norman Baker says: "Licence fee-payers have a right to assume their money is not being splashed around frivolously."

The price of democracy

September is here, the silly season is over and most politicians - and political journalists - are back at work.

Well, something like that. The end of August shouldn't deter journalists from leadership speculation, with major contests brewing in Washington, Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

The leader of the latter, Mike German, will stand down on October 11 when the campaign to succeed him will officially get under way. (October 11 is also the day one of Wales's star hacks gets married - the lengths some people go to to avoid a Lib Dem conference!).

The Lib Dems still have to decide some of the rules for the leadership contest and it's likely Mr German will stay in post until the new leader takes over in late November or early December.

One of the rules concerns how much candidates can spend on their campaign. The current limit is a modest £250. Don't spend it all at once, guys......

Seeing the light

I have tended to be a little sceptical about lists of popular blogs, although I now realise, in the light of Iain Dale's list of the top 30 media blogs, what a brilliant and accurate barometer of quality writing they are.

As an independent blog without an official BBC platform, I was rather surprised to find myself in the top 10 alongside Nick Robinson and that bloke who analyses Westminster from Derbyshire.

Many thanks to those of you who voted (unsolicited) for me. It's good to know there's someone out there.

UPDATE: Iain Dales has also released a similar survey of the top 40 blogs in the crowded Welsh blogosphere. Congratulations to Peter Black, who won gold, with Glyn Davies silver and Ordovicius bronze.

Miss Wagstaff presents came fourth, ahead of me. It's interesting how "amateur" blogs seem to make more of an impact than those written by professional hacks. Iain Dale says 18 of the top 40 are nationalist blogs - I'm not sure if he includes mine in that total.....

Westminster is still deserted and my regular desk has been turned into a temporary TV studio but I'd better start blogging again soon if I'm to retain my top five position next year.

Back of the net!

It's the traditional curtain-raiser to the football season. Yes, the mini-tournament featuring politicians from the UK's Parliaments and Assemblies has just taken place.

Wrexham MP Ian Lucas may be as sick as a parrot after registering two own goals while turning out for a Welsh Assembly XI.

Full details are here although my man with the lip microphone and sheepskin coat tells me the second own goal was against Scotland.

The transfer window doesn't close until August 31 - there's still time for Fergie, Big Phil and the others to launch a bid for the Wrexham dynamo.

Surround sound AMs

Six days away from the office. What did I miss? A total of 457 e-mails (it would be more but the BBC has a great spam filter). Gordon Brown is still on holiday - and still Prime Minister, despite the threat posed by various Davids.

Politicians' expenses are still in the news, although this time it's Welsh Assembly Members who are making the news through a freedom of information request from the BBC.

Eight AMs claimed the maximum possible amount of £12,500 for second home expenses in the last financial year.

One of the highest claimants, Lib Dem Leader Mike German has his main home just seventeen miles from Cardiff Bay. We all know how tricky the M4 can be of a morning.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then you're probably an AM. Besides rent and mortgage interest payments, the claims include a £2,000 sofa for Labour's Lesley Griffiths and £1,000 for a TV surround sound system for Tory Nick Ramsey. He also spent £2,000 on two beds.

No news yet on why an AM needs more than one taxpayer-funded bed, but Nick's sounds like the place to be next time there's a big match on.

Crisis? What crisis?

Leadership crisis or not, I'm off to the seaside. I hope to be back on August 11. Hi di Hi!

Lib Dems counting the pennies

You wouldn't think the Welsh Liberal Democrats were so awash with cash that filing their accounts would be a difficult task.

You'd be wrong - the party is in trouble with the electoral commission for failing to meet its deadline.

The Welsh Lib Dems are now facing a possible fine from the commission, the size of which could depend on how late the accounts are when finally submitted. They were due in May.

The commission said: "Final statements of accounts have yet to be received from the Welsh Liberal Democrats accounting unit. The penalty it faces will depend on how late they are".

Its head in Wales, Kay Jenkins, said: "The regulatory framework put in place by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act is designed to ensure the integrity of our democratic system and is quite clear on the time-frame that must be adhered to. That is why we are fining parties who did not meet the deadline for submitting their accounts."

Commission chief executive Peter Wardle agreed verbatim: "The regulatory framework put in place by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act is designed to ensure the integrity of our democratic system and is quite clear on the time-frame that must be adhered to. That is why we are fining parties who did not meet the deadline for submitting their accounts."

Perhaps when the Welsh Lib Dems have filed their audited accounts they can ask the commission why it needs two people to deliver identical statements.

The Lib Dems say: "We acknowledge that when the accounts were submitted they had not been audited and certified. This process is now taking place. We do not take this fine lightly and are undertaking a thorough review of our present procedures to ensure audited accounts will always be submitted on time in the future"

Trying to be helpful

Justice Minister David Hanson may be a Blairite but as far as I know he's still loyal to Tony Blair's successor in Downing Street.

So I guess his reaction to last week's by-election disaster - "It's very disappointing but Gordon Brown has got to stay" - shouldn't be taken out of context by mischievous hacks.

Harriet Harman, holding the fort while the PM's away, offered her support with a positive: "I can recognise that I don't think the British people have seen the best of him yet as prime minister."

Perhaps Labour's slogan for their autumn conference in Manchester should be "the best is yet to come"?

Zombies, Margaret Beckett and open doors

It's a story that arrives regularly with the onset of summer: the proposed merger of Whitehall's territorial departments. It fills newspapers and blogs as the silly season approaches and journalists run out of plots or other reshuffle rumours to report.

I first wrote about this at least seven years ago and one day, perhaps soon, it may well come true. The Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland offices may be combined under a "Secretary of State for the Nations".

A red-top Sunday newspaper reported a fortnight ago that Paul Murphy and the Wales Office were not long for this world. The Times wrote about it last Thursday - and predicted a Margaret Beckett comeback here. Wales on Sunday followed up the story on Sunday.

It set the scene for a slightly surreal debate on the Richard Evans show yesterday. A Labour MP argued passionately for the Welsh job to be scrapped; Plaid Cymru's parliamentary leader argued equally vehemently for the job to survive.

Paul Flynn says Paul Murphy has nothing to do in a "zombie ministry".

"It’s a mass delusion. The Wales Office and Scotland Office have virtually died. There is an occasional flicker of life but there is no hope that they will ever recover from their deep comas.
Yet politicians happily play the game of the living dead and cling on to the offices of Secretaries of State for Wales and for Scotland.

"There is a danger that these posts of Secretaries of State will become as meaningless as the Warden of the Cinque Ports. Grand titles, nice uniform but everyone will have forgotten what job they are supposed to be doing."

Elfyn Llwyd argued that scrapping the post now would "slow down the democratic process" - not a view shared by his colleague Adam Price.

Mr Llwyd praised Paul Murphy's work in the job - "his door is always open". Cue this response from Paul Flynn: "Understandable. The poor chap hopes someone will drop in for a chat because he has nothing to do."

Perhaps someone should design a uniform for Mr Murphy before it's too late. As a papal knight, he could always save the taxpayer some cash by borrowing his uniform from that role while carrying out his Welsh duties.

A corner of a "foreign" field......

It must be the only place on earth where Charles and Diana's wedding anniversary is still celebrated.

On the last Friday of July, on every year since 1981, Bushy Park in south-west London fills up with more than 500 runners taking part in what is known as the Wedding Day 7k.

The event is presided over by the sort of priest you won't find in Crockford's Clerical Directory.

He runs by the name of "Father Onn" (there's a clue in there somewhere) and mixes a dog collar with running shorts, a panama hat, striped socks and sandals.

Father Onn (left) would be played in a film by Simon Callow although further investigation reveals that he is in fact Mark Thomas, who hails from Bridgend but is now a leading light in one of London's biggest running clubs.

The Wedding Day 7k may also be the only race outside Wales where a Welsh lovespoon is offered as a prize - to the first couple across the line.

Sadly, there's no prize for weariest middle-aged, sleep-deprived hack recovering from by-election the night before but apparently it's the taking part that counts.

Changing Times

When I was a lad, the Conservatives were in favour of smaller government, lower taxes and reduced public spending.

Things have changed, although earlier this month, the former Welsh Office Minister Lord Roberts suggested to BBC Wales that a future Conservative government should cut spending, although his comments may have been lost during my futile journey to discover Tory policy on devolution.

Today, Welsh Tory leader Nick Bourne has suggested the formula which effectively decides the level of much public spending in Wales should be replaced with "some updated needs-based top up grant". That would presumably increase public spending in Wales, although he doesn't say whether that would be financed by a cut in spending in Scotland or England.

For all the fuss about the formula in Wales, the strongest pressure for a review comes from England, which perhaps should worry politicians west of Offa's Dyke. Check out how the Northern Echo reported an inquiry into the issue for one English perspective. The debate's still raging on the (London) Evening Standard website.

Lord Roberts will have been chuffed to learn that David Cameron has promised to publish his review of devolution policy when he receives the final report (the interim version was submitted recently).

It's slightly confusing to simple hacks like me why the Tories are reviewing their policy on devolution when their MPs have been promised a free vote on the conclusion.

Never mind, let's just hope Mr Cameron didn't leave his copy of the Roberts review on the back of his bike.

The morning after the night before

Another crushing by-election defeat, another government response that includes warm phrases such as "listening and learning" and re-assurances about feeling your pain.

Governments often lose by-elections but last night was a surprise to many of the many Labour MPs - and the media - who had spent time in Glasgow recently.

Gordon Brown tells us he is "getting on with the job" - it's become a familiar refrain after by-election disasters. The post-poll routine has almost become part of the British constitution. There's inevitable speculation about the Prime Minister's future, although so far the rolling news channels have failed to persuade critics other than usual suspects Lord Desai and Graham Stringer to take to the airwaves.

Bob Marshall-Andrews dismissed "listening and learning" as "platitudinous nonsense" but warned that many of the events worrying voters are only under the marginal control of government.

Mr Stringer suggested (as he usually does after by-election defeats) that Cabinet Ministers should visit Mr Brown and tell him the time's up, a Labour equivalent of the Tories' men in grey suits.

Speaking of Tories, I've (finally) been reading Gyles Brandreth's Breaking the Code, an entertaining inside account of the dying days of an accident-prone government led by an unpopular Prime Minister.

We all know how that one finished but if it's any consolation John Major's Conservatives suffered by-election swings of more than 30 per cent.

You could be forgiven for thinking politicians had shelved their holiday plans. Parliament's Welsh affairs committee, as I reported on Wednesday, have been keeping me and the rest of the Welsh media busy during the recess. (For which, many thanks.).

Some members of the committee, which often gives the impression that publicity is an unwanted occupational hazard, appear surprised by the fuss their comments have caused.

The Welsh media are often accused of an obsession with constitutional change. I dare say the minutiae of the legislative process will shift few votes during the next general election, but if it keeps a few political anoraks off the streets I will not have toiled in vain.

Peter Black's comments about the committee's "world tour" may not go down well with its Liberal Democrat member although not all MPs on the Welsh affairs committee think their inquiry into globalisation has been a terribly productive use of their time.

MPs swamped

As a parliamentary correspondent, I'm often asked: "David, what do Welsh MPs do now devolution has reduced their role?"

The answer involves legislation - and a committee of Welsh backbenchers is rather worried there's too much of it.

A memo from the Welsh affairs select committee complains about the political system in both Wales and Westminster being "swamped" with legislative requests from the National Assembly for Wales.

It effectively suggests the Assembly should concentrate on quality rather than quantity when it comes to legislation.

The MPs say: "We urge the Assembly and the Wales Office to find ways of giving a proper focus to legislative work, aiming at producing a reasonable number of high-quality Orders {Legislative Orders in Council or LCOs} each year rather than allowing volume to swamp the system here and in the Assembly as seems to be happening at the moment.

"We are convinced that a concentration on quality will enhance the credibility and standing of the LCO process."

MPs on the committee (modestly) say their "constructive contribution" has "helped to significantly improve the quality of those LCOs that have come forward for formal approval to date."

"If the level of LCOs coming forward from the Assembly settles down at something
of the order of the four or five per year originally envisaged, this will enhance scrutiny,
facilitate better planning and avoid the danger that issues over capacity could become
an obstacle to effective working."

Some legislation takes longer to scrutinise than others. Gordon Brown has, it has been widely reported, created 2,823 new laws during his first year in office (the sort of total that will impress those who see law-making as a political virility symbol).

The MPs say there were problems of misunderstandings about scope and intention with some LCOs but these have been overcome with goodwill on both sides.

They raise questions about clarity and say a clause should be added to each LCO making it legally clear "that the power is intended to provide the power that has been
requested and outlined by the Assembly".

An idea unlikely to find favour with their colleagues in Cardiff Bay.

Perhaps the pressure of work explains why the committee has yet to publish the results of its inquiry into globalisation 18 months after it began.

Gardening leave

Gordon Brown managed to un-glue himself from an anti-aviation protester to host a reception for Lobby journalists in Downing Street last night.

The Prime Minister let us have the run of the No 10 garden, which seemed in good shape despite having hosted Labour backbenchers 24 hours earlier.

Mr Brown didn't circulate much among his guests but he seemed more relaxed than most politicians would be after the sort of year he's had.

He gave a short, well-judged speech to mark the departure of Lobby veteran Colin Brown (no relation) of The Independent. Perhaps he can "do human" after all.

Most Labour MPs I've spoken to are rather pleased that the summer recess has arrived. They argue that governments often do better when Parliament's not sitting.

But there's still a resigned despair among many backbenchers, who lack confidence in the PM to turn the polls around.

Mr Brown is fortunate that there is no consensus on any successor. Some backbenchers want David Miliband, others Alan Johnson, some Jack Straw as a caretaker.

One Minister told me that those who wanted Mr Brown out were the same who agitated for Tony Blair's removal. (Not strictly accurate, perhaps, as many of those involved in the September 2006 "coup" were later rewarded with jobs in the Brown Government).

Most Labour MPs and journalists who've spent time in Glasgow think Labour will hold its seat in tomorrow's by-election there. [they were wrong]

Even if they lose, the consensus seems to be that Mr Brown is safe for the summer but MPs could get jittery if the polls don't improve for Labour by September and the conference season.

Snub to England?

Is it 'cos we is Welsh? British embassies abroad are more than twice as likely to celebrate St David's Day as they are to mark England's national day.

The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, says 13 British embassies held events to mark the Welsh patron saint this year.

Only five embassies held events to mark St George's Day, seven marked St Andrew's Day, and four celebrated St Patrick's Day.

Mr Miliband released the figures in written parliamentary answers to the Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price. They were possibly not what Mr Price was expecting.

A snub to England or a slap in the face?

Land of Hope and Murphy

Paul Murphy is this week's cover boy in The House Magazine, the under the headline "Murphy's Law - Welsh Secretary on comebacks, religion and peace talks.

As you'd expect from the headline, it's what's known as a wide-ranging interview. He talks of "the challenge" of being a practising Catholic in government.

"People know my views: it is not my business to impose my religious views on other people, but it is important that people understand that my views are coloured by my religious background - after all, it is one of the reasons I jointed the Labour Party.

"I am not saying for one minute that you can't be a Christian if you are a Conservative, a Liberal or anything else. But for me it was the social justice element of Christianity that filled in the Labour Party."

Mr Murphy says the Welsh Secretary's jobs has changed a lot from when he first held the post between 1999 and 2002 - "there is an awful lot more work to do for me".

The Torfaen MP says his most rewarding time in politics was as political development Minister in Northern Ireland from 1997-1999, taking in the Good Friday Agreement.

He finds some warm words for his successor in both Northern Ireland and Wales: "I was very sorry that Peter Hain had to leave the job: he was very good in both the Wales and Northern Ireland jobs, where he brought the culmination of the peace process into being, and that was too quickly forgotten by some people."

Some people? Not apparently a reference to the Prime Minister who judged Mr Hain guilty of "an incompetence" and dispensable but to the media who allegedly forgot his successes in Northern Ireland when reporting his downfall.

Mr Murphy also reveals his passion for classical music. "Elgar is my favourite, perhaps strange for a Welshman, but he helped me switch politics off in breaks from some interminable wrangling in Belfast."

An open goal?

Last week a senior Labour MP claimed Plaid Cymru are running rings around his own party in the Welsh Assembly Government coalition.

Don Touhig's name was even mentioned (approvingly) several times at Plaid Cymru's dinner in Cardiff to celebrate the anniversary of their arrival in power.

Plenty of ammunition then, you might think, for Plaid Cymru's parliamentary leader to fire at the Prime Minister at Question Time today.

We raised our pens for the inevitable: "Does the Prime Minister agree with his former parliamentary private secretary that Plaid Cymru run rings around Labour in the Welsh Assembly Government?"

Instead we got this exchange, as recorded by Hansard: Mr. Elfyn Llwyd (Meirionnydd Nant Conwy) (PC): Does the Prime Minister believe that his party’s wilting membership in Wales and my party’s increasing membership in Wales are due to the coalition between Plaid Cymru and Labour in the National Assembly, or to his leadership here in Westminster?

The Prime Minister: The fact that there are 100,000 more jobs in Wales is due to a Labour Government and Labour Members of the Welsh Assembly; the fact that more children have been taken out of poverty in Wales is due to a Labour Government and Labour Members of the Welsh Assembly; and the fact that there are more public services in Wales is due to the funds provided by a Labour Government from here.

Perhaps that feel-good coalition factor combined with an end-of-term feeling to produce a cooling of the Elfynometer?

Practice makes perfect

I've spent far more time than is good for me trying to work out how laws are made these days.

Fortunately, help is at hand from the Ministry of Justice, with this helpful flowchart as part of its devolution guidance notes. If it's a little unclear, you can find an online version here.

The new rules for civil servants state that the devolution settlement is being deepened rather than broadened. A cynic might think that the purpose of this new complicated structure is to make the case for a simplified system - full law-making powers - more powerful.

The guide for officials includes advice on "good practice" and "bad practice". Among the top tips, "face-to-face meetings are often useful" and "ask the experts - your colleagues in devolved adminstrations want to work with you".

What's Occurin'

I won't lie to you. This is a shameless plug for BBC Radio Wales.

Ruth Jones, 'Nessa from Gavin and Stacey (one of those rare shows that makes me feel homesick - it's Barry Island in HD that does it), is starting her own Sunday show on the station from October 5. She'll be on between 10 and midday.

Ruth says: "It'll be like having friends over the house for brunch. We'll go through the papers, have a coffee, maybe a bacon bap or two and a nice chat, y'know, just relaxed and easy, easy like Sunday morning."

Tidy.

Hi-de-hi

Gordon Brown's summer holiday last year lasted, we are led to believe, approximately four hours before being interrupted by an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

This year, the Browns are heading for Southwold, a charming seaside down in north Suffolk. (With Mr Brown's luck, let's hope other holidaymakers there have packed their brollies).

It's about this time of the year - with the silly season on the horizon - that journalists with papers and airtime to fill risk the wrath of politicians by asking about their holiday plans (they should be grateful we're not asking them about Mr Brown's survival prospects).

I wasn't important enough to be among those BBC staff questioned by the deputy Minister for Social Justice and Public Service Delivery year but I'm happy to reveal all in the interests of transparency.

This year, I'll be spending a week en famille among the redcoats of Bognor Regis.

Hi-de-hi campers!

Impressionable politicians

"Politicians want more power" must be up there with "Tour cyclist fails drugs test" as among the more predictable headlines of the summer.

Perhaps it's testimony to the accuracy of the Ipsos MORI survey that the results were as expected - 80 per cent of Welsh Assembly Members want Scottish Parliament-style powers.

The results of the "most impressive AM" were less predictable, perhaps because most of the 36 AMs interviewed refused to give a preference. The "don't knows" totalled 58 per cent - only 15 named AMs.

Of those who did, 17 per cent opted for Health Minister Edwina Hart, 13 per cent for Plaid Housing Minister Jocelyn Davies and 12 per cent for Tory Jonathan Morgan.

Before Mrs Hart starts ordering telephone lines for her leadership campaign, she might care to glance at the raw figures (the percentages are weighted to make the sample more representative).

She was the choice of 6 AMs; 5 AMs mentioned Jocelyn Davies, 4 Jonathan Morgan, and 2 Ieuan Wyn Jones, Nick Bourne and David Melding.

Among UK politicians, Alex Salmond and Adam Price fared well, helped by a disproportionately high number of "don't knows" among Labour AMs curiously reluctant to endorse Gordon Brown.

The representative sample of 36 AMs were interviewed face-to-face last September and October although the results have only just been published.

By-election fever

My BBC colleague Michael Crick has unearthed something of a scoop. The name of one of the 26 candidates in last week's Haltemprice and Howden by-election was misspelt on the ballot paper.

Walter Sweeney, who may be remembered by voters in the Vale of Glamorgan as their Tory MP between 1992 and 1997, lost an "e" from his surname during the electoral process.

Walter appears to have disappeared on holiday and may not be aware of the howler. As a solicitor himself he won't have far to go for legal advice on his return.

Anyone fancy a repeat by-election in August?

Holiday reading

It's that time of the year when the Sunday papers highlight the books we should all be reading on holiday.

You know the sort of thing - "This year I'll be re-reading War and Peace. In the original Russian."

As a humble hack, I don't aspire to such lofty, intellectual heights. Indeed, this year I shall be mostly re-reading Everyone Hide From Wibbly Pig or catching up on Igglepiggle's latest adventures.

I occasionally get the chance to catch up on books written for the over-5s. Judith O'Reilly's Wife In The North is a witty and moving collection of her blog posts documenting her family's move from London to Northumberland.

Judith and I used to share bylines, bosses and grievances working for Thomson Regional Newspapers (then publishers of The Journal and the Western Mail) at Westminster. She is now living among her former readers and has made a deserved and enormous success of her blog

The actress reading extracts on Radio 4's Book of the Week sounds nothing like Judith but you do get the feel of the blog brought to life. (you may not be surprised to learn that I'm still waiting for a publisher with a fat cheque to snap up my ramblings on politics).

Judith's Husband In The South would enjoy Guardian sportswriter Daniel Taylor's story of two contrasting seasons in the company of Sir Alex Ferguson. I've read several books on Fergie over the years and this is the one that leaves you with the feeling that you know the man - contradictions and all - as far as anyone can say they know him.

Taylor is frank about the compromises sports reporters make, the trade-offs for access to their subject and the press conference questions that are toned down or bottled for fear of annoying the man facing the questions.

It could never happen in political journalism.......

The bardic steamroller's horns

If the opinion polls are right, within two years David Cameron will enter Downing Street as Prime Minister.

So, I can hear you all asking, what does this mean for constitutional reform in Wales?

No? Well, I thought I'd ask anyway for a report for tonight's Dragon's Eye.

One of the first decisions a Tory Secretary of State for Wales might have to take is whether to agree to an Assembly request for a referendum to give the Welsh Assembly full law-making powers.

I asked Cheryl Gillan what she'd do if faced with that decision as Secretary of State, (if David Cameron gives her the job):

"I'm not going to speculate. We have got 2 years to run of a Labour government least. We have a general election that I've said that I hope we would win but I don't know we're going to win. At this stage it would be quite wrong of me to speculate on future policy in two or three or four years time.

"It's a free vote and as shadow Secretary of State for Wales at this stage I think it would be quite wrong of me to prejudge that situation. I'm not sitting on the fence, I'm waiting to see when a referendum is called."

So why the need for a free vote? "There is a difference of opinion amongst Assembly Members, there is a difference of opinion amongst party members, in the Labour Party, even in Plaid I think to a certain extend and the Liberal Democrats.

"I am being very honest and open about it and saying in my party we will allow people to have a free vote if there is a referendum."

A free vote opens the possibility of Ministers campaigning on both sides of the argument, as Labour Ministers did in the 1975 European referendum. If there is a free vote, what is the point of the review of devolution policy David Cameron has commissioned from Lord Roberts of Conwy?

Lord (Wyn) Roberts (78 today - penblwydd hapus) has recently completed his interim report, which goes into some detail on the background to devolution in Wales.

He won't tell me what's in it - the full report should be submitted this summer - but he thinks the future lies in a "more co-operative spirit" between Wales and Westminster.

How, I asked, does he get that co-operative spirit within a party where, to generalise, AMs want full law-making parties and MPs would prefer the Assembly didn't exist?

"It is something of a dilemma and I'm on the horns of it just at the moment" said the man known during his ministerial days as the Bardic Steamroller.

* You may wonder - you may not - why none of the Welsh Conservative MPs features in my report. All were unavailable - one's just had a baby, another's in Brussels and the other believes his constituents are more vexed about rising living costs than the Roberts review. He may be right.

Hold the front page

As headlines go, it's probably not going to make it onto anyone's front page.

"WELSH-ENGLISH BORDER MUST NOT HINDER ACCESS TO HIGH QUALITY HEALTH SERVICES, SAY MPS" is today's offering from Parliament's Welsh affairs select committee.

Does anyone know any politician in any party who thinks the border should hinder access to high quality health services?

The bland, some might say bleedin' obvious, headline from the committee's press release relates to an interim report on services across the Wales/England border.

The committee heard evidence that Welsh patients wait longer than English patients for identical treatment in the same hospitals. The Welsh Health Minister has so far declined an invitation to give evidence.

The report was agreed unanimously by MPs from all parties, although they are drawing very different conclusions from its conclusions.

The Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives both believe it exposes the folly of the "Wales-only" approach of the Labour/Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly Government - not an analysis shared by the Labour and Plaid members of the committee.

The MPs expect to file a fuller report later this year.

Murphy ready for his close-up

I'm not the only person to have noticed how the taxpayer-funded Wales Office annual report features photographs only of Labour politicians from both Westminster and Cardiff Bay during a chapter labelled Promoting Wales.

Tory MP David Jones raised the issue with Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy today: "I can't help noticing that each and every one of those politicians happens to be a Labour politician.

"I was just wondering maybe next time when the report is produced possibly I and some of my colleagues on this side of the committee room and our colleagues could possibly feature in some of these photographs as well in the interests of equity."

Mr Murphy: "Not a problem - and I'd be more than happy to have a photograph taken with any Welsh member of parliament - the only trouble is of course there happen to be more of ours....

"It's not a trouble really, is it though? Not everybody wants a picture of me, of course...."

Animo et fide, as we say in Sully

The Welsh Assembly's new coat of arms makes its debut today, 17 months after I reported on the search for one. Here it is.

The coat of arms was unveiled as the first piece of Welsh legislation for more than a thousand years is signed off by the Queen - the NHS Redress Measure. Garter King of Arms himself has been involved in its design.

I can't claim such a pedigree for my own coat of arms, although at £6.70 online for the colour version it probably cost slightly less than the Assembly version.

Stability is sexy

Tony Blair's spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, once spun a line that "stability is sexy" and then laughed at all the newspapers who fell for it and dutifully ran the line the next day.

He was talking about the economy but a Welsh Alastair Campbell (Ali Ap Spin?) would probably be spinning the same line today in the political sense.

Even critics of the Labour/Plaid Cymru coalition government in Cardiff acknowledge that it has brought stability. At times it seems rather more stable than a Gordon Brown administration with an overall majority of 65.

But for one of the arch critics of the deal, stability isn't the point. Don Touhig, MP for Islwyn and former UK Government Minister, told me:

"I haven't been invited to the party, you might be surprised.....there's no doubt the coalition has brought a degree of stability in terms of the administration but so far as the Labour Party is concerned I warned a year ago that if we went into coalition with the nationalists they'd have their greatest advance in 50 years. That is what they have had.

"They've practically run rings around us politically. They've been very skilled, much more skilled at it than we have. They've exploited their position in the Assembly very well to make sure that the people believe that advances and changes and benefits to Wales are coming from them and not from the Labour Party. We're too dull, we haven't done that."

First Minister Rhodri Morgan says that's a million miles from reality. Mr Touhig says Plaid have been given jobs where they can spend cash and open railway lines funded by Labour (I paraphrase slightly), while Labour Ministers have the "bed of nails" portfolios of health and education.

This was a familiar complaint during the first coalition government in Cardiff, between Labour and the Lib Dems - that the junior partner took the credit for things that went right and blamed the bigger partner for things that went wrong.

Those nostalgic for the days when Lib Dems were in government (hello, Mike) can remind themselves of a previous first anniversary here.

I'm off to the Cabinet War Rooms to try to evoke even older memories of coalitions from days gone by. I'll try to keep the wartime metaphors to a minimum.

Flying the flag

Plaid Cymru have launched an online party political broadcast to highlight their year in power.

Their ppb announces that in 2007 Plaid "formed the government of Wales" for the first time (they're in coalition with Labour in the Welsh Assembly Government).

Apparently, I'm not the only one trying to work out why they used such a tatty flag in their own otherwise fairly slick broadcast.......

Small world

Members of the committee set up to gauge opinion on whether the Welsh Assembly should gain full law-making powers have been unveiled.

First Minister Rhodri Morgan said: “We have been seeking a cross section of Welsh life and Welsh opinion who can tap into the views of ordinary Welsh people. I believe we have achieved that balance."

Those chosen from open competition include Joan Asby, chief officer of the Pembrokeshire Local Action Network for Enterprise and Development (PLANED).

She has 30 years experience of supporting community engagement in local regeneration. The Welsh Assembly Government says she has served on its rural partnership for Wales, social enterprise joint working group and 2020 stakeholder group.

If Joan has any queries about the operation of the Government of Wales Act that paves the way for more powers she could always consult the civil servant who managed the team of officials on the Bill as it went through Parliament.

His name is Rhodri - and they share a surname. He knows her better as "Mum".

LCO and out

Labour have picked up the suggestion by a Tory frontbencher, highlighted here 48 hours ago, that debating the transfer of powers to the Welsh Assembly isn't as exciting as you might think.

Gwenda Thomas, the Assembly Government's deputy social services Minister, said:

"I’m deeply concerned that a Conservative front bench spokesperson on Welsh Affairs is saying that the parliamentary scrutiny process of a vitally important piece of legislation is ‘tedious’.

"The aim of this LCO is to devolve the relevant powers to the National Assembly for Wales, which will allow the Labour-led Welsh Assembly Government to legislate to achieve a fairer and more consistent approach to charging for all adult recipients of non-residential social services across Wales."

David Jones will doubtless reconsider his views and agree that the whole process is absolutely fascinating.

Spinning and blogging

Not only does Elfyn Llwyd now have his own blog, his spin doctor has also started sharing her thoughts with the world.

It's largely on-message stuff but with an edge. Lembit Opik won't thank Heledd for drawing her readers' attention to his latest on camera capers.

If you can't stand the heat

The Conservative commitment to making devolution work doesn't extend to making it interesting for some of their leading MPs.

David Jones, the party's Welsh affairs spokesman, was less than enthralled to spend a sunny evening discussing powers to give the Welsh Assembly the power to legislate on domicillary care.

It was, reports the Clwyd West MP, "particularly tedious". This may surprise you but he said he'd rather be outside in the park enjoying the sun than debating a draft legislative competence order.

The Clwyd West MP wrote on his blog: "Gloriously warm day in London, the sort that makes you wish you were outside enjoying the sun in St James's Park, rather than indoors debating a particularly tedious draft Order in Council."

Mr Jones must hope this doesn't harm his promotion prospects for the next Tory frontbench reshuffle.

A high boredom threshold, an inexhaustible love of constitutional reform jargon ("Barnett consequentials" to choose one phrase offered in reaction to today's Tory plans) and an ability to contemplate one's own navel at length are as essential for any ambitious Welsh politician as a heat-resistant anorak.

It has been a long, intense day. What a treat it is when the only "third reading" around involves another instalment of Igglepiggle, Upsy Daisy and Makka Pakka. As Sir Derek Jacobi would doubtless put it, isn't that a pip?

Bringing Order to Chaos Stateside

The Western Mail brings news of "public relations guru" Steve Morgan, who famously helped "bring order to chaos" during Peter Hain's deputy leadership campaign.

Mr Morgan is heading to the States to work for Barack Obama. Besides Mr Hain's campaign, he previously worked for Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Al Gore.

The Western Mail reports that he hopes the Obama campaign will be a case of third time lucky.

Confused of Westminster

I woke up this morning clear in my mind about Conservative plans to increase the role of English MPs in passing new laws that affect England alone.

Then I made the mistake of going to a Tory press conference on the subject.

The report of a taskforce led by the former Chancellor Kenneth Clarke is clear. Bills that are certified as "English" would be voted on by all MPs at their second reading, when the principles of the new law are discussed.

Line-by-line-scrutiny at committee stage "would be undertaken by English MPs only" and report stage - when committee amendments are considered would be "voted on by English Members only".

Except......

Mr Clarke was charming, engaging - and confused. He told the news conference the new rules excluding Welsh MPs would apply only in the (limited but growing) areas where the Welsh Assembly had already acquired full law-making powers.

So Welsh MPs would be able to vote on an England only Health Bill unless it concerned the areas of health where the Assembly could make its own laws?

Er, possibly. Mr Clarke himself had to ask the shadow Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan (more of her later) whether the Assembly had any primary law-making powers. Welsh devolution, he said, was "a moving feast" and Mr Clarke gives the impression of being someone who wouldn't say no to a feast.

After the news conference, the Tories "clarified" things. It's as you were. Any English-only law in a devolved area (legislative or administrative) would see the role of non-English MPs limited during its parliamentary passage.

Mr Clarke said his report had been finished some time ago. Some reporters were convinced that the man who famously didn't read the Maastricht Treaty had not read the document since then.

Conservative governments have previously used the votes of English Tory MPs to drive through Wales-only legislation. So would a future Conservative Government exclude English backbenchers from key stages of Welsh legislation? An academic question, but I thought it was worth asking.

The Tories are laying great stress on the accountability of politicians to their constituents on issues that affect them.

I did ask how voters in Wales could hold the shadow Welsh Secretary to account when she answered to constituents in Chesham and Amersham.

Mr Clarke insists his rules will strengthen the Union and not inhibit the right of any MP to fill any Cabinet job.

He did point out that there is a history of non-Welsh MPs representing Wales in the UK Cabinet.

Perhaps the question brought back memories of his brief double act with John Redwood during ons of several Tory leadership elections of the past decade.