Pre-election tension and Gordon's guarantee

You may well have noticed that yesterday's historic vote in Cardiff Bay to allow the people to have a vote on the Welsh Assembly's powers failed to register during Question Time at Westminster today.

I was too busy to notice whether this oversight led to gasps in the public gallery, a gallery still recovering from Sir Paul McCartney's appearance to watch last night's debate on voting systems.

Sir Paul is himself now doubtless composing a ditty to mark the Alternative Vote Referendum - or maybe not.

Perhaps it was the imminence of the general election, but MPs confined themselves to issues such as the economy and jobs rather than constitutional affairs during the 30 minutes they get each month to question the Secretary of State for Wales.

Perhaps the MPs took the Plaid Cymru line (before yesterday's debate) that a referendum is a "tidying-up exercise" rather than today's Plaid line that the 53-0 vote was a major constitutional event.

Peter Hain did his best to distract attention from #triggertuesday by comparing Wales with Rwanda to make his point that Wales remains a relatively wealthy country.

The 30 minutes MPs get to question Gordon Brown were largely devoted to a very loud shouting match about how to care for elderly people in England.

The Prime Minister tried to attack the Conservatives for failing to match Labour "guarantees" on NHS treatment (again in England).

Mr Brown promised a modern health service with "personalised services available to people and tailored to their needs."

He then told David Cameron: "I cannot for the life of me understand why the Conservative party is rejecting the cancer guarantee that would allow people to see a specialist within two weeks. I believe that that challenges its very commitment to the health service."

Does Gordon Brown believe that any party that doesn't apply the cancer guarantee has a dubious commitment to the health service?

He may need to be cautious with his pre-election rhetoric lest others highlight a Labour-led administration in Cardiff that, as far as I know, won't operate the same enforceable guarantee.


But enough excitement for one week. MPs are off until February 22 - and so am I. Bye for now.

Return to sender?

David Cameron may be months away from Downing Street but he has already done his bit for the arts. The airbrushed Cameron posters have unleashed a wave of creativity ultimately paid for by Tory donors.

Some in the blogosphere would deny Welsh graffiti artists the chance to deface posters in devolved areas.

The first poster message may strictly be true as the Tories see it but the argument goes along the lines that health is devolved to the Welsh Assembly, so this poster should not be put up in Wales: an argument was put to Mr Cameron himself by "Grangetown Paul" during his recent online chat at the Media Wales multi-media nerve centre in Cardiff.

This was the would-be PM's response: "The posters we have put up are a strong and positive message which is a bit of a contrast with our opponents. The decisions about health spending at Westminster do have an important impact on Wales because of the operation of the Barnett Formula and so our decision to protect the NHS will have benefits in Wales."

The NHS may be devolved, although I would guess that it will still be an election issue for many voters in Wales when they choose a new UK Government this year.

Perhaps the real significance of the Cameron response is that Tories who hope or expect their leader to change the Barnett formula, which dictates slightly more than half of all public spending in Wales, may have a long wait. Worth remembering next time someone wearing a blue rosette tries to tell you that a Conservative government would divert spending from England to Wales.

Reasons to be (more or less) cheerful

Twenty Ten may be only four days old, but there are already so many reasons to be cheerful. The magic of the FA Cup endures, the DFS sale is still on and there are only 119 editions of The Joy Of Crochet before you can boast a complete collection.

There may be ice on the ground but there is optimism in the air. On Corrie, Gail Potter/Tilsley/Platt/Hillman is about to tie the knot for the fourth time, although perhaps her fiance is the optimistic one.

And there's an election campaign on. It's compulsory in political reporting circles to predict at a safe distance from the election that this will be the longest/dirtiest/closest* (*delete as appropriate) campaign in history.

The cliche might even be true this time, with David Cameron openly talking of campaign launches yesterday and unveiling the first chapter of the draft Tory manifesto today.

After months of talking of cuts and pay freezes, Mr Cameron is trying to convince voters there's more to the Tories than doom and gloom, by offering to protect the NHS budget.

The draft manifesto may apply only in England but the financial consequences of today's pledge will be felt UK-wide. Mr Cameron is effectively offering to protect around one third of the Welsh Assembly Government's budget (unless he suddenly decides to tear up the Barnett formula).

But protecting some budgets mean cuts elsewhere, and less to spend on other services such as local government, transport and housing.

Welsh Secretary Peter Hain has picked up on the theme after Kenneth Clarke's chat about VAT with the Sunday Telegraph.

Mr Hain said: "Where will the cuts fall? They cannot deliver what they are promising without putting up VAT or slashing investment in Wales' schools and hospitals, in Sure Start, in large projects like Defence Training at St Athan or launch aid for new Airbus planes at Deeside."
If this is your first day back at work after Christmas, as it is mine, you probably feel as if you haven't been away. Never mind, there's only four more months of this to come. Happy New Year.

For Wales, see Scotland?

Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan once spoke of the pre-devolution perception that there was a "willingness to blame others" in Wales, a perception that may now be less common.

But so long as the Welsh Assembly Government's purse strings are pulled elsewhere, there is always a pantomime villain (Westminster/London) to blame for any cuts a devolved government introduces.

The Scots in the UK Government seem to have cottoned on to this, probably due to the experience of having a nationalist government in Edinburgh.

So today, the Scottish Secretary in Gordon Brown's Government unveiled plans to make the Scottish Parliament responsible for raising more of the taxpayers' money it spends.

The idea is to introduce greater accountability. The Conservatives support the idea, although they say they will unveil their own plans after the General Election (if they win it).

For Scotland, see Wales? There is support in some unexpected quarters for the Assembly to acquire tax-raising powers.

If the Tories in power at UK level, and the Labour/Plaid Assembly Government chooses to blame David Cameron's government for future cuts, expect to see that support for financial powers grow further.

Mind you, there would have to be a(nother?) referendum first before Wales acquired financial powers (Scotland got them in the 1997 vote) And you can't have a referendum without setting up a committee first. I wonder what Sir Emyr Jones Parry is doing with himself these days.

Remembering

Gordon Brown and David Cameron were not the only politicians to get themselves photographed in the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey, although other politicians managed to get snapped without so much fuss.

Conwy Labour MP Betty Williams was photographed as she planted a cross in memory of the citizens of Conwy who lost their lives in conflicts.

She told her own website: "It was a privilege once more, and for my final time as MP for Conwy, to be able to plant a cross in the Field of Remembrance in the grounds of Westminster Abbey today as an act of remembrance for citizens of Conwy constituency who gave their lives to secure our freedom."

An Abbey spokesman told me: "We don't have a problem with that but if high-profile politicians come we would like a bit of notice".

Letting the people decide

Bit of a headache for Welsh political hacks this one. We're now going to have to think of another question to ask David Cameron's people in Wales now he is confirming that a Conservative government would not block a request from the Welsh Assembly to hold a referendum on its powers.*

When Cheryl Gillan told us at the Tory conference in Manchester "we will let the people decide" she really did mean what we thought she said. As Secretary of State for Wales, she would avoid the trap of rejecting a request for a vote - the trap of an unpopular Conservative government fuelling demands for more freedom from Westminster.

There are still questions for Ms Gillan to answer. We still don't know which way she would vote in any referendum but that in one sense is academic as she wouldn't have a vote - unless Lord Garel-Jones's idea of enfranchising the expats takes off. (Perhaps my own ballot paper is in the post)

So insoluble are Tory divisions on the subject that the party's MPs would be given a free vote on the issue, a licence to campaign on either side of the argument. It could be the sort of campaign that pitches the party's MPs against the party's AMs, undermining Cheryl Gillan's plans to create harmony between Cardiff Bay and Westminster.

So now everyone is committed to letting the people decide, why wait for a change of government? Sir Emyr Jones Parry's report later this month is expected to fuel enthusiasm for a referendum among those keen for the Assembly to acquire full law-making powers and consign LCOs to the Welsh political archive.

The worrying thing for enthusiasts is that the strongest shout for a referendum (I paraphrase but "bring it on now" was the tone) I've heard this week came from the Conservative MP for Monmouth, David Davies. He may be a former Assembly Member, but there's no mystery about which way he would vote - or his motive for calling an early poll.

*If there are any other Welsh questions you'd like Team Cameron to be asked, do let us know. Would the Tories go ahead with the defence training college at St Athan springs to mind. Would a Cameron government committed to making devolution work really have a Secretary of State based in Buckinghamshire?

I'd hate to have to fall back on whether Prime Minister Cameron would implement Tory AMs' demands for St David's Day to be made a public holiday.

She's not John Redwood

Among all the embarrassing things that could happen to you at a party conference, it probably ranks alongside turning up in the same outfit as a Lib Dem activist.

The Tories are playing my record collection (as I still call it) to party members here. The Style Council, Snow Patrol......I'm a bit worried they'll start playing The Smiths next. Either I've got older or the Conservative taste in music has got younger; probably a bit of both.

I've spent the last 24 hours trying to discover the political views of the woman likely to become Secretary of State for Wales if David Cameron wins the general election.

The Tory leader admits his party is still divided over devolution. We know its leader in Cardiff Bay, Nick Bourne, thinks the Welsh Assembly should have full law-making powers. After almost five years in the job, no-one knows Cheryl Gillan's views on the subject.

The Tories have promised to reveal their party policy before the general election but are waiting for the All-Wales Convention to report on the prospects for a referendum. (Most activists here are keener on a referendum on Europe but that's another story).

If a Conservative Government did agree to a referendum on Assembly powers, a risky strategy in itself, then Tory MPs would be given a free vote which could see senior politicians from the governing party campaigning against each other.

Cheryl Gillan's views on this remain a mystery, although she did let slip a secret or two during a visit to a stall promoting Welsh produce in the conference: "My husband's a faggots and peas man".

Ms Gillan would be the first woman Secretary of State Wales has seen. She'd be the sixth from an English constituency, an experience that has previously ended in tears for the Tories.

The Gillan response? "I'm not John Redwood".

Cameron: Let's not have an argument

The Welsh Conservatives' "reception" (nothing so common as "Welsh Night") is a curious fixture on the conference fringe.

Guests could be forgiven they are arriving at a rather posh wedding, such is the line-up of hosts that needs to be negotiated before the room can be entered.

Tonight's reception committee included Cheryl Gillan, Nick Bourne, Catrin Edwards and Lyndon Jones, all working to make David Cameron feel truly welcome.

The Tory leader was unusually open about his party's policy differences in a speech delivered only after the room had been swept for TV cameras and a Radio Wales presenter had been ejected.

"Let's have a frank point here," he said. "We don't all agree about the future of devolution but let's not have an argument about it. - we want devolution to work, we will be practical about it."

So a pretty frank admission that the Tories are split on the question of whether the Welsh Assembly should acquire more powers. And an implicit admission that the differences are unlikely to be resolved soon - not that anyone here was holding their breath for a definitive policy statement this week.

Careless talk costs votes?

It wouldn't be a party conference without questions being asked about the defence training academy proposed for St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Around 5,000 jobs are due to be created by the project to centralise training at one base in the largest private finance initative seen.

Unless of course an incoming Conservative Government pulls the plug on it. So, David Cameron, you're the PM. What would you do?

"Everyone wants to see it happen, wants it to go ahead. Clearly we need to have a strategic defence review. Everything has to be looked at in a strategic defence review. We are going to hold one."
So no commitment then? "Everyone is committed to this, wants it to go ahead but we have a strategic defence review as well."
 
So we asked the Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox. He told Good Evening Wales: "We are in favour of it in principle. We will look how quickly a project like that could happen when we undertake our strategic defence review."
The consortium behind the project, Metrix, is sponsoring the Welsh reception on the conference fringe tonight.

Perhaps the odd glass of sherry will loosen tongues.

Harvey Nicks, the Professor, and Incapacity Benefit

The Harvey Nicks cocktail bar in the conference centre is doing a roaring trade. Perhaps the warnings about complacency have yet to filter through to the massed Tories here. Alan Duncan has apparently been spotted drinking something fizzy.

But enough frivolity. Just occasionally we cover stories that actually affect the lives of our audience. David Cameron's plan to make everyone on Incapacity Benefit take medical tests to prove they really are too sick to work could have a big impact in former industrial areas of south Wales.

No fewer than one in ten of the Welsh workforce - 188,000 people - claim IB and its ESA successor.

In Merthyr, one in six people of working age are on the benefit. The Tories say many of them (400,000 out of the UK's 2.6m) could be in work.

If David Cameron wins power next year, those who are judged fit to work will be expected to look for a job, or have their benefit cut from the £89 a week on IB to the £64 a week job seeker's allowance.

Mr Cameron argues that many on the benefit want to work - although the success of his idea may depend on there being jobs to do in deprived areas.

Nick Bourne, the Tories' leader in the Welsh Assembly, went on Radio Wales to defend the policy. He told Good Evening Wales the numbers claiming the benefit had "swollen" each year under Labour - words such as "remorselessly" appeared  alongside "year on year" during the interview.

He may be right. He is a professor, after all. But the official figures here and contempotary ones confirmed by the DWP today suggest numbers have gone down, albeit slightly, under Labour.

Not at this stage, no

 it's Sunday, it must be Manchester. Greetings from what is now known as Manchester Central, the exhibition centre formerly known as G-Mex, home to the Conservatives for a week.

This lot could be in power in a few months, but don't hold your breath waiting for Welsh policy announcements. "Not at this stage, no" was Cheryl Gillan's response to a suggestion that the Tories might choose the conference to unveil Welsh manifesto ideas. She would, understandably, prefer to announce policies in Wales.

As she spoke to the Welsh media (well, three of us), David Cameron was giving an interview to BBC Scotland in which he promised to set up "a council of the nations" to improve relations between Westminster and devolved governments.

The idea appeared to catch the Welsh leadership on the hop, although its theme - better co-operation - is one we'll be hearing a lot about, in the absence of policies, at a Welsh fringe meeting tomorrow.

So lots more meetings between politicians, a veritable mall of talking shops. If your pulse is racing at the prospect, do let me know.

Planted questions

Another 41 Conservative MPs have signed cheques to repay expenses in David Cameron's latest exercise in transparency - or self-flagellation as some of the MPs might call it.

Among those to have reached for their chequebook, the Tory MP for Monmouth, David Davies, who can fairly claim to be a consistent questioner of the way our taxes are used.

He had the novel idea of setting up his own independent panel to vet his expenses. That panel queried two items - a council tax rebate and a claim for mortgage interest. The Tories' own independent scrutiny committee questioned a £12 invoice for a plant pot.

"I fully accept that these claims should not have been made and repaid them immiediately. To those who will inevitably suggest that I might have tried to do this to gain a financial benefit I think it only fair to point out that both the fees office and the independent panel have seen that I underclaimed on a number of items."

So David Davies will find himself £2,033.87 poorer and could be forgiven if he has second thoughts about setting up his own independent panel.

To add to his woes, he can't recall or trace the plant pot.

Question Time

A silver lining amid the gathering storm clouds? Prime Minister's Question Time was not as bad as some Labour MPs feared and no Minister has resigned for, ooh, several hours now.

Gordon Brown was calm throughout his half-hour in the Commons, offering magnanimous words for his departing Ministers despite provocation from the opposition parties.

Hazel Blears' resignation offered David Cameron an open goal. He said what you'd expect him to say. It felt as if Mr Cameron was pulling the odd punch.

Perhaps the most worrying thing for Labour would be for the Tories to go soft on the PM in their desire to keep him in Downing Street rather than a more voter-friendly alternative such as Alan Johnson?

There are reports of MPs being canvassed about a "Gordon Must Go" letter that could be presented to Downing Street as early as tonight.

You'd think Labour MPs would be doing a different sort of canvassing today and I've failed to find a backbencher who's been asked to sign a letter.

That said, there are plenty of Labour MPs who are unhappy with Mr Brown's leadership. Expect more to say so publicly when the polls close tomorrow night,

When you're in a hole....

One surreal week. Having managed to lose a vote on an opposition day debate (the first time a Government has managed that in 30 years) it was perhaps no surprise that Ministers ducked a confrontation on the issue of MPs' second homes.

It was a week, more than any other, when Gordon Brown was compared to John Major, with memories of Norman Lamont's "in office, but not in power" jibe stirred up by the self-inflicted wounds suffered by the current Prime Minister.

It would not be a total shock to discover Gordon Brown tucks his shirt into his underpants. The moment when the Speaker called the PM to make a statement, only for Mr Brown to try to leave the chamber, will be replayed as often on YouTube as last week's statement on expenses delivered to camera with occasional smiles.

The PM may hail the biggest changes to parliamentary expenses in 25 years, but that will count for nothing if some of the receipts to be issued in July are as incriminating as some MPs fear. The most controversial issue - the way MPs are compensated for having to live and work in two places - has not gone away.

Out in the real world, where voters are worried about swine flu and making ends meet, this week's economic news was not universally bleak, with mixed news about house prices and jobs.

It was pretty bleak if you're one of those being made redundant by JCB in Wrexham. Today's FT points out that the company's boss had called for wage subsidies but rejected direct help from the Welsh Assembly Government.

JCB say it couldn't make the WAG scheme work for them. No news yet on whether the company's latest cuts will make it unable to continue to provide helicopter and private plane travel for David Cameron.

One JCB employee appears to have survived the cull. Shadow Foreign Secretary (and former Secretary of State for Wales) William Hague is paid between £45,000-£50,000 as its parliamentary adviser, according to the Commons Register of Members' Interests.

Thanks to last night's Commons votes, we'll soon know precisely how much Mr Hague earns from JCB and what he does for it.

But when it comes to parliamentary advice you don't need a JCB driving licence to know that when you're in a hole, stop digging.

Today's newspapers report yet more disquiet among past and present Ministers about Gordon Brown's leadership.

But on current form, were Mr Brown to be handed the traditional whisky and pearl-handled revolver the only certain outcome would be a bullet in the metatarsal.

Honestly.....

I returned to the news treadmill after two days filming out of the office to discover my inbox bursting with Welsh Conservative indignation over the consequences of Alistair Darling's Budget.

"MINISTERS MUST BE HONEST ABOUT ASSEMBLY BUDGET CUTS" screamed one press release.

Another from the same source quotes the Tories' leader in the Welsh Assembly warning of "cuts which will have damaging consequences for jobs and services across Wales".

The "cuts" in question start to bite next year, by which time David Cameron may be Prime Minister.

The Welsh Tories appear so entrenched in an opposition mentality they find it difficult to adjust to the prospect of government - or Mr Cameron's "government of thrift" message has yet to filter down the M4.

At Westminster, the only Tory spending commitments are to protect the NHS budget and maintain international development spending. Everything else is up for grabs.

It's only honest to point out that, in the current economic climate, whoever wins the election next year the chances are public spending will be squeezed even more in the years to come.

As Andrew Rawnsley writes (from a Westminster perspective): "The politics of the post-New Labour era will be about how to ration a shrinking cake."

And if Nick Bourne rings up George Osborne, he may discover that the next Conservative Government is likely to favour smaller slices all round.

Vote Blue, Fly Green?

Anyone remember the Conservatives' re-branding as an eco-friendly party?

It's funny how the memory plays tricks. The green focus seems to have been sidelined since the credit crunch arrived.

Anyone who can recall those heady "Vote Blue, Go Green" days may be surprised to see Tory MPs claiming for internal flights in the latest list of parliamentary allowances.

David Jones, a frontbench spokesman on Welsh affairs, claimed almost £1,300 in the last financial year for flights between his constituency (Clwyd West) and Westminster.

He argues that he let the plane take the strain because engineering works on the West coast main line made travelling by train on Sundays impossible for much of the time. He also points out that the air fare is sometimes less than the cost of a return on Virgin.

No news yet on the cost to the planet or whether David Cameron plans to plant a forest or two to offset all the carbon generated.

UPDATE: A reader (they do exist) alerts me to Mr Jones's own views on the eco-benefits of Welsh food: "They also know that it has been produced reasonably locally and is not contributing to excessive carbon emissions by being flown half way across the world."

Doctor Devolution

Here's a quiz question for you: what has Dr Who got to do with Conservative policy on devolution?

The answer is to your left. No, David Tennant did not, as far as I'm aware, have a say in a report on the subject commissioned by David Cameron.

But the man next to him did. Michael McManus co-wrote the report with Lord Roberts of Conwy (who apparently insisted on recognising the contribution of his 'ghost writer' with a credit.

The report, commissioned in March, is now known semi-officially as "the long-awaited Roberts Review". The Tories have risked increasing expectations by formalising the policy review and talking about settling the issue within a party where conflicting views run deep.

The more time that goes by without publication, the more opponents will question the lack of a coherent party policiy on the subject - especially when MPs have already been offered a free vote in any referendum on greater powers.

We may not know for sure what's in the bumper report, which the Tory leader has promised to publish "soon", but we can assume it's been well-written.

Michael's other published works include Sir Edward Heath's autobiography The Course of My Life, a critically-acclaimed biography of Jo Grimond and the life story of Nicholas Courtney, Still Getting Away With It.

Nick Courtney is best known as Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in Dr Who.
which sort of explains the photo above and various others here.

A passion for Dr Who may not in itself be a great help in writing a tome on Welsh devolution, so I presume Michael is relying on the expertise he gained as a special adviser to David Hunt during his time at the Welsh Office in the early 1990s.

His report is likely to disappoint those Tories who want to "exterminate" the Welsh Assembly.
You may be surprised that it (an interim report) apparently runs to 20,000 words.

Don't be: the Heath autobiography ran to 360,000 words. David Cameron got off lightly.

Dave on tinkering

A few snippets from my brief conference interview with David Cameron:

With a global economic crisis, a political crisis in Congress and the stock market plummeting, I thought I'd ask him about the details of his devolution policy.

The Roberts review designed to settle Tory policy on the issue will be published "soon". The Tory mantra is to "make devolution work" although Mr Cameron added: "I don't think a lot of institutional tinkering is going to help".

I asked how he would react, as Prime Minister, if the Welsh Assembly Government approaches him in late 2010 or early 2011 about holding a referendum on giving the Assembly more powers. He told me I'd have to wait for the Roberts review for an answer to that question.

Will there still be a full-time shadow Welsh Secretary in his top team, even if Gordon Brown decides to merge the Wales Office with its Scottish and Northern Irish counterparts?

"That is certainly my intention....I don't have plans to change that" - although he did frame his comments in the context of the shadow cabinet. There are clearly no guarantees about what would happen in a Conservative government. (Will Gordon Brown really reshuffle his Cabinet this week in the midst of economic turmoil?)

Iain Dale tips Sir Malcolm Rifkind to make a shadow cabinet comeback in a combined role.

There was better news for Alun Cairns, more than three months after his suspension as Tory candidate in the target seat of the Vale of Glamorgan after his "greasy wops" moment.

"He works extremely hard. He cares passionately about the Vale of Glamorgan. He said something he shouldn't have. He made a mistake, he is very apologetic about that. I hope we can settle this soon."

It sounds like the suspension will be lifted shortly. I'd suggest Alun could go out for a pizza to celebrate but that might be misinterpreted.

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?

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.