Time's Up

I could feel the wings of history on my tweets. The last Welsh Question Time at Westminster before the general election featured farewell appearances from MPs on both sides of the chamber.

If it was to be Peter Hain's last Question Time appearance as Secretary of State then he could not have wished for some softer questions to smooth him on his way.

Tom Watson kicked off with a penetrating "Can my right honourable friend assure me that he has no plans to axe or cut tax credits?" which prompted Peter Hain to claim there is a Tory "sword of Damocles" hanging over tax credits.

Sian James put him on the spot with her follow-up: "Can the Minister tell me how many families in total have benefited through the policies of this Government on this important issue?"

Mr Hain looked pleased although hardly surprised to be asked a question that allowed him to claim that the Conservatives would axe free school breakfasts.

Betty Williams wanted to know whether he agreed with her constituents that "the tax credit system is certainly not a gimmick?" Tough one, that.

Tory Peter Bone, late of Islwyn but now of Wellingborough, wanted to know how many constituents Mr Hain had had in tears in his office because of the tax credit system.

Mr Hain told him there were people in his constituency office in tears about the threat to their tax credits, although the sight of people in Neath weeping over an opposition party's manifesto is as yet uncorroborated.

There was barely a dry eye in the House as Ministers paid tribute to three Labour MPs taking part in their last Question Time - Betty Williams, Martyn Jones and Don Touhig.

Plaid Cymru's Adam Price bowed out with: "Why is it right for an ENGLISH Minister to sit as judge and jury on the question of bilingual juries?"

The shadow Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan accused Peter Hain of delaying preparations for a referendum on Welsh Assembly powers until it could be taken by an in-coming Conservative government?

It may be a rare example of an in-coming Minister hoping that Labour will take a decision before it arrives in office, allowing Cheryl Gillan to remain on the fence ("neutral") on an issue that divides her party more than most.

Peter Hain told MPs: "This is a matter for consideration after the general election. All the parties agree with that."

And that was more or less that. Historic or otherwise, it was probably an accurate rehearsal of the campaign to come.

Headlines you'll never read: Don Touhig AM

Sometimes the least surprising answers are the most fun.

My colleague Bethan James asked the retiring Don Touhig, not someone known for his enthusiasm for the Welsh Assembly, whether his departure from the Commons was linked to ambitions elsewhere - in Cardiff Bay?

There follows an audible intake of breath from said MP and an answer that is followed by a chuckle: "I don't think so, I mean it is a, er, no I have enjoyed being here, it has been a great privilege to serve but I have no plans or ambitions to go to the Welsh Assembly."

Touhig rules out Assembly role - hold the front page on that one.

Could his political ambitions lie closer to home, perhaps in the House of Lords where many former Labour Ministers and prime ministerial friends end up? Lord Touhig of Islwyn, perhaps?
"I don't think so" says a laughing MP. So if you're offered a peerage would you accept it?

Don Touhig: "I wouldn't be offered a peerage I shouldn't think.".

Is it just me, or was he ever so slightly blushing slightly during that final answer?

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."

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?

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.

Hain fights on

Some good news for the beleaguered/embattled/under-pressure (delete as applicable) Peter Hain: his arch critic has decided not to sit in judgement if and when the case against him is heard by parliament's standards committee.

Elfyn Llwyd, who now calls for Hain to resign with a regularity previously matched only by Unionist politicians in Northern Ireland, says he'll stand down from the committee while it considers Hain. (The first case of a juror nobbling himself?)

Llwyd says he offered to resign from the committee after he was criticised for misusing the communications allowance given to MPs - an offer that was rejected.

Plaid's Westminster leader appeared on The Politics Show in a four-party debate that became something of a partisan Plaid Cymru versus the rest battle.

Lib Dem Lembit Opik and Labour's Don Touhig both supported Hain, pending the inquiries that loom.

The Welsh Secretary, should he have been watching from behind the sofa chez Hain, will have been relieved to see the debate focus almost as much on a recent dismeanour by Plaid Cymru MPs as on the current Hain woes.

Referendum fever, anyone?

Have you recovered from election fever yet? I'm getting there.

Gordon Brown's decision not to hold an election, having spent £1m of Labour Party money preparing for one, brought his honeymoon with voters to a swift end.

But for those of us suffering from withdrawal symptoms, help is at hand. Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan (with his Plaid deputy Ieuan Wyn Jones) has announced the name of the chair of a convention to plot the path towards a full law-making parliament for Wales.

The convention will be chaired by the diplomat Sir Emyr Jones Parry. Its make-up will be considered by a group of MPs and AMs.

The path to a parliament is subject to a referendum - and to agreement from Westminster. The convention will consider the date of any referendum.

Rhodri Morgan said: "It will be on or before the next election (2011). We can see no reason to depart from that commitment."

Not every Labour MP or indeed Cabinet Minister (I'm thinking Peter Hain here) shares his conviction that a referendum will be held before then.

Mr Hain welcomed the appointment but said: "the MP and AM group have yet to convene to decide the composition of the convention". That MP and AM group is likely to include such enthusiasts for devolution as the former Wales Office Minister Don Touhig.

But it would after all be totally unprecedented for a Labour administration to whip up excitement for a public vote only to decide not to hold one at the last moment. Wouldn't it?

Thought provoking

Some provocative thoughts on what Welsh MPs do these days from a refugee from Peter Hain's Wales Office.

http://thebrazencars.blogspot.com/2007/07/strange-bedfellows-v-with-friends-like.html

The former Wales Office Minister, Don Touhig, for whom Andrew Neilson once acted as spokesman, gives his views on the potential coalition here - www.epolitx.com/mp3

I'm not giving too much away when I reveal that the words"suicide" and "trap" feature in the interview.

A leaked memo (are there any other sort?) suggests Conwy MP Betty Williams has also suggested she's less than keen on a deal with Plaid.

We had hoped to interview her on Good Evening Wales but her office said she was unable to travel to our studio opposite Parliament because it looks as if it's going to rain. (Her office did offer a telephone interview but most radio stations prefer broadcast quality).

The next 72 hours will be billed as momentous ones in the history of 21st century Wales.

I'll be taking a few days off to catch up with the Tour de France and run the Regents Park 10k but you can satisfy your appetite for coalition shenanigans at www.bbc.co.uk/walesnews.