Another historic first

I can feel the hand of history on my keyboard. Having tweeted the Welsh Grand Committee to the satisfaction of almost a handful of readers, I'm now ready to have a go at Parliament's Select Committee on Welsh Affairs.

The committee is taking evidence from Secretary of State Peter Hain from 11am this morning and you can follow my tweets here.

The Ayes Have It

Well, that's it then. The Ayes have it. MPs on the Welsh Grand Committee (those who turned up) agreed unanimously that their committee had considered the report of another committee.

You can read my running commentary on Twitter. Thanks to those of you who stayed with me during four hours of debate.

I'm now going back to the day job - which today included Afghanistan, MPs' expenses, and Prime Minister's Question Time.

Oh, and if you're still waiting to find out whether the Plaid MPs will respond to the challenge set down by their SNP parliamentary partners - and publish their Legg letters - then you are not alone. Lucky I'm not one of those conspiracy theorist hacks who assumes silence means something to hide!

Grand Tweeting

The atmosphere is tense. The sense of anticipation is palpable throughout Westminster. Forget MPs' expenses, history will be made today when the Welsh Grand Committee devotes its attentions to an LCO for the first time.

More specifically, the 40 MPs from Wales and the co-opted shadow Welsh Secretary will be debating the "9th Report from the Welsh Affairs Committee, Proposed National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Welsh Language) Order 2009, HC 348, and its implications for Wales."

The Welsh Grand is the Marmite of parliamentary committees. One Plaid Cymru AM has described today's session as "pointless" and called for it to be scrapped, although I would be surprised if her party's MPs stayed away from the debate.

To reflect this historic development, I shall be tweeting throughout the committee meeting - another historic first. Apologies to Facebook friends and fellow Twitter users who may not share my fascination with Legislative Competence Orders but as the Welsh Grand has never been tweeted before I thought it worth experimenting with this new-fangled technology.

The meeting is due to start at 9.25am and you can follow it here.