Twitter ye not

Is this the week we should feel sorry for MPs? Er, possibly not, although lots of them are feeling very sorry for themselves. You can see their point, even if you don't share it.

Sir Thomas Legg's retrospective rules on what was reasonable for MPs to claim for gardening and cleaning have understandably annoyed those who thought they led squeaky clean lives and had all their expenses agreed by the Commons authorities.

Even Gordon Brown's greatest enemies would struggle to argue that he went into politics for financial or even horticultural reasons but the Prime Minister now faces a bill of £12,415.10 for over-claiming on cleaning and gardening.

As you might expect, we started ringing round Welsh MPs yesterday to see if they had received their Legg letters - and what they said. Even hard-bitten hacks felt a bit sheepish ringing some of the more notable "saints" on the backbenches to ask whether they'd been accused of fiddling their expenses.

With all this focus on MPs' allowances, other stories may not have received the coverage they otherwise would have. But you can read here about David Blunkett's plan to donate his brain to dementia research (after he dies) and Chris Bryant's Twitter reshuffle.

Just as many politicians donate their papers to the Welsh Political Archive at the National Library, so I trust that the new Europe Minister's tweets will find a permanent if virtual home for future historians.

Cock of the south

Gordon Brown's government reshuffle continues. You didn't expect the PM to take Sunday off, did you?

Welsh angles so far: Wayne David replaces Huw Irranca-Davies at the Wales Office. Huw's reward for his on-message blogging is promotion to DEFRA, where his views on hunting might please the odd farmer.

Wayne is replaced as Welsh Whip by Mark Tami from Alyn and Deeside. His job as unpaid assistant whip goes to Ian Lucas of Wrexham. Both took part in the coup against Tony Blair in September 2006 so will need supreme political skills to play the loyalty card with sceptical backbenchers.

Kevin Brennan is promoted to the Cabinet Office and Chris Bryant gets his first ministerial job as deputy leader of the House of Commons.

The Mail on Sunday has lifted the lid on the names of Cheryl Gillan's Buff Orpington chickens.

"I called the two hens Marilyn Monroe and Diana Dors because of their blonde feathers and the cock is Boris because one of his tail feathers sticks out like Boris Johnson's hair." Well, that's her explanation.

The Mail also suggests Gordon Brown is considering an unlikely comeback for yet another Minister who have previously fallen from grace - David Blunkett. At this rate, it won't be long before Ron Davies is standing by his phone.....*

*Apologies to Peter Black who thought of that joke 24 hours before I blogged it. I really must spend more of my weekends reading Peter's blog.