So, we will have a new regional Assembly Member. Step forward Veronica German, who will take over in South Wales East once Mike German’s move to the House of Lords, announced in today’s Dissolution Honours, is completed. After 11 years in the Assembly and 12 years on Cardiff Council, Mike takes up a new challenge as a working peer. As he puts it;
“I was thrilled when, many months back, Nick Clegg asked me to join his team in the House of Lords as a working peer. Now at this very exciting period in British politics, it will be a great privilege to be helping put Liberal Democrat policies into action.”
“There is a real sense of excitement at the challenges and opportunities for my party, and I am grateful to be given this chance to be at the heart of the action in parliament.”
Mike joins Don Touhig in the new Welsh contingent in the upper house, while neither the Tories (who had no Welsh MPs standing down) nor Plaid (for whom Dafydd Wigley could have been appointed as an ex-parliamentarian or a working peer) have any Welsh representatives on the list.
The news is less good for the person who was actively expecting to be joining the Assembly, however, after the Welsh Conservative Board of Management decided that it would rather keep Alun Cairns as a regional member for South Wales West (despite his election as MP for the Vale of Glamorgan) than allow his successor, Porthcawl Town Councillor, Chris Smart, to take up the seat instead. Although their reasons for doing so are well-known, you suspect this may not be the last word on the matter…
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Now that Alex Salmond has given up his Westminster seat, is there any other MP in Britain in the “two jobs” category? (Northern Ireland is a special case.)