What is most interesting though is his judgement on Carwyn Jones’ tenure as First Minister. He very much hits the nail on the head:

Mr Price said that although he liked Carwyn Jones personally, he was not impressed by his performance as First Minister so far.

“For me, I would only want to do the job if I knew where I wanted Wales to go and how to get there.”

Is that a universal view within Plaid Cymru?

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1. Adam and the antis
2. Adam responds
3. Breaking news – Adam Price off to Harvard

Ah sod it, that’ll do.

Has Adam Price MP gone to America already? His blog has been unusually silent recently… In fact silence is a Plaid theme this week. Normally Plaid bloggers love to talk about how their esteemed leader is ‘single handedly saving the world economy’, ’beating the recession in Wales’ and ’12% more amazing than steak’. But this week, the Welsh Assembly’s Finance Committee pointed out that, basically, these claims are complete bollocks. A summary of why they are bollocks is given by Dylan Jones-Evans.

It had to be fairly galling for Plaid. How many times have they had to suck up to Labour Ministers and vote the right way to ensure the collective Government took credit and everyone looks good, particularly the Minister. But this time Plaid tried too hard, the amendments Plaid attempted to submit to the report were a bit too sycophantic and baseless. So Labour turned around and basically said ‘bugger that’, and instead voted through the report despite it being critical of the government. So Plaid have spent the last 18 months supporting Labour, and when they look for support of their own, they end up with the amazing sight of Chris Franks AM sat on his own in committee voting in support of his own leader, while everyone else smirks slightly and votes against him. Well done Plaid, you got such a good deal there.

As recently resurrected Labour bile machine Aneurin Glyndwr points out, much of the committees intolerance came from the fact that these amendments were from Plaid’s spin doctors, rather than their members on the committee. While this kind of activity tends to be common place in the rest of Assembly affairs, committees have retained some form of independence, and this is of course welcome. But obviously as with many things, Plaid don’t think that they deserve the same scrutiny as other parties. Well tough, you’re in government, expect to get it.

And on the subject of Aneurin Glyndwr, it needs pointing out that the site closing down was reported by me on Sunday. A full two days before Betsan Powys of the BBC, followed by Guerrilla Welsh-Fare and Welsh Ramblings. I think Vaughan Roderick blogged on it too but err…..I can’t read Welsh. Sorry.

But yes, I am leading the way in Welsh political journalism right now. I’m going to follow it up with the scoop on how Irene James is in fact a Kangaroo sent by a covert Kangaroo black-ops unit to bring down western civilisation. Snark, the Kangaroo over-lord is slightly disappointed with her performance though and her funding may not be renewed in the next budget round.

This week will finally see the publication of Sir Emyr Jones Parry and the All Wales Convention’s recommendation of whether the government should go for a referendum or not. As Lee Walters of the Bevan Foundation points out, it’s a pretty open secret that he is going to say ‘yes’, in some form or another. Guerrilla Welsh-Fare thinks that “there may be a lot of pressure on the One Wales Government to get the process underway”, an assertion that is probably correct. The question is who will end up unhappier by the government response, Labour MPs or Plaid AMs?

The Institute of Welsh Affairs has published a summary of some of the challenges facing the next First Minister. None are particularly surprising, as these are things that the Welsh Liberal Democrats have been pointing out for months. What we need is some clarity from the Labour leadership candidates on how they will address these issues, and if you saw Dragons Eye on Thursday, you’ll know not to expect that. Politics Cymru has a review of the debate, as well as pointing out that you are sad if you watched it. Which I agree with, and am aware that makes me sad.

But thanks to Simon Dyda we do know that Neil Kinnock will be backing Huw Lewis. Although Welsh Ramblings thinks that this might be ‘a kiss of death’. Apparently, Aneurin Bevan will also be backing Huw, despite being dead 49 years. Meanwhile Carwyn Jones has received backing from several senior trade unionists according to Wales Home. I would take a guess that they are all still alive.

Next week, I will not be reading any blogs. So I won’t be writing an article. If I can find a volunteer/bribe another author/deceive someone else into writing it, expect it to be probably a bit better.

But if you point out how much better it is, I will seek vengeance.

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However, it is to Wales’ highest circulation daily newspaper that we turn for the most damning verdict on this policy. The South Wales Evening Post is not impressed at all:

We all want a way to reduce the awful inequality that exist between the bonus-creaming bankers who caused the recession and the rest of us who suffer its consequences, but this is not it. Plaid is already making exceptions for creative artists and probably football clubs.

But this policy tells the world Plaid’s Wales would be a high-taxing country of no ambition, except to create more public non-jobs and worship Welsh-born pop and sports stars.

Harsh, but fair.

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And So, With Tears In Either Eye

In fairness to him, Rhodri Morgan pretty much kept to his end of the bargain in announcing that he would stand down as First Minister after the Assembly budget was agreed on December 8th (but since the promise was that he’d announce his intentions on or around September 29th, his end of the bargain wasn’t that hard to keep up). The inevitable political and journalistic encomium followed and you can’t begrudge it him; whatever his political failings, his personal popularity is unmatched in recent memory.

With the flag dropped, Larry, Moe and Curly were soon off and running to succeed him (not that they hadn’t been before, unofficially).
First to show was Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney AM Huw Lewis, of whom it’s difficult to report much new as he’s basically been running for the leadership since July 2007, when he was moved aside (read: sacked) to make way for a Plaid minister as part of the coalition agreement (read: because he opposed it).

The campaign launch reflected the manifesto he’s been hawking around the country ever since, namely that Llafur should break with history and have their traditional post-defeat lurch into communism before they’ve actually lost. It’s a bold strategy, and he certainly found the right face to help him launch it; Jessica Morden, the virtually anonymous MP for Newport East whose upcoming electoral arse-kicking at the hands of our very own Ed Townsend looks likely to mirror Huw’s own over the next eight weeks.

The trouble with Huw from a blogger’s standpoint is that, despite being the outsider, as the candidate who’s been out there the longest he’s the easiest one to write about. On the funny side, there’s his insistence on implicit comparisons to that heroic liberal American President, Josiah Bartlet, as his campaign slogan, “Let Labour Be Labour”, demonstrates. Less humorously, there’s the question of whether in his courting of the Jon Cruddases of this world he doth protest too much.

The key exhibit for the champagne socialist prosecution, particularly in this time of expenses scandals, is the question of where exactly he lives. The Mythbusters section of his website claims that he lives in Merthyr and that his house in Cardiff Bay is not for profit, but that’s not the point; Huw’s wife is the AM for Torfaen, so which residence is most likely to be his main one for them and their children? One of their respective constituency homes in the Valleys, or the second home they share in middle-class Penarth? On that issue, comment comes there none.

Next up was in many ways the wild card, Edwina Hart, the AM for Gower. Long considered a contender, the Health Minister had generally stayed out of the preliminaries only to leap straight into the race and establish an early lead, at least among her Assembly colleagues.

Nevertheless, that lack of preliminary business makes Edwina’s campaign the most intriguing, not least because of the fundamental dichotomy she represents. Her appeal is clearly based on her record as a decisive and/or divisive Health Minister, but while it’s easy to imagine her being an excellent leader of the Welsh Labour Party, you get the feeling she’d be an absolutely dreadful First Minister (not that that logic stopped Gordon Brown, of course).

Last in, however, was the theoretical heir apparent, Carwyn Jones, the AM for Bridgend. A cabinet veteran, Carwyn has spent the last two years in the highly important role of Minister For Not Doing Anything Anyone Might Notice And Thus Be Annoyed By. His campaign launch also captured the fundamental essence of his offer, namely that while he’s meant to be the next Rhodri Morgan, he looks and sounds rather like the next Tony Blair (or in the dullness stakes, the next Iain Gray). Nevertheless, as the only fluent Welsh speaker of the contenders, Carwyn embodies the issue likely to be at the heart of the campaign, namely how a party that after the next General Election will have been wiped out west of the Loughor and the Clwyd can speak for all of Wales. If any of them realise that the first step in that would be to speak for any of Wales, things might get interesting …

Charles The Verb

For a moment, however, it looked as if Rhodri’s departure, pre-announced as it was, might be overshadowed by a somewhat more surprising leap from the ship of state.

Adam Price’s speech to Plaid conference was widely seen as his coming out party, the moment his accomplishments caught up with his ego in which he has always been The Next Leader Of Plaid Cymru™. Admittedly it wasn’t clear whether that was because it was so good or because, by comparison, Ieuan Wyn Jones’s speech was so utterly atrocious (and if you haven’t time for Freedom Central’s excellent coverage of that, let me suggest that the level of IWJ’s speech may be described as follows; low, lower than low, hades low, spinning iron core of the planet low, low …).

It turned out, however, that he’d passed up the chance to make his performance even bigger, as the draft speech included the announcement he made a week later, namely that he was stepping down as MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr. That much was unsurprising, since to be leader of Plaid he needs to be in the Assembly and even if Rhodri Glyn Thomas had been willing to step aside, he wouldn’t have been able to sustain the dual mandate for three to four years.

The surprise was that he’d found a better excuse than “I want to be leader of Plaid” which, while true, might not have endeared him to wherever he ends up parachuting himself. Instead, he announced that he would spend a year studying in America on a Fulbright scholarship, thus inventing the political verb, “to do a Kennedy” (as any fule kno, Charles was a Fulbright scholar at Indiana in 1983 when he came back to stand for Parliament).

Whether the excuse helps at all remains unclear; Plaid’s top targets seem fairly settled for candidates, including the pundits’ favourite to receive him, Neath. He could be hoping that there’ll be a wave of unexpected Plaid wins that clears the way for him in a raft of seats, but you’d have to be pretty delusional to expect that … Ah …

* Gareth Aubrey is a councillor in Cardiff and blogs at Long Despairing Young Something. Barcud Oren appears (theoretically) regularly at Liberal Democrat Voice and is cross-posted at Freedom Central.

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Oh, and advance warning that there probably won’t be an update next week because it is our conference and I will be too tired/hungover to do this next Sunday. I can tell you’re gutted. If anyone wants to volunteer to take my place for a week, feel free to volunteer!

As pointed out by Glyn Davies, tomorrow is likely to see Mps expenses return to the headlines. The fact that they have pretty much already announced that Gordon Brown will be asked to repay some cash will guarantee it becomes a high profile story even if no new information is revealed. Inside Out suggests that a new batch of MPs could be dragged into the media storm. I wonder who will be looking nervous tomorrow morning?

The soon to be ex MP Adam Price has posted an essay he wrote for the Western Mail, explaining why he thinks that Labour’s best chance is to stick with Plaid and not to ’hook up with some yellow tinged party of the centre’. Should Labour decide to ditch the ‘green stained party of daffodils’ then any yellow tinged party would surely be foolish to consider getting involved with Labour. Such an action would be akin to rats swimming towards a sinking ship, a ship that everyone would be best place in staying well away from. If Plaid want to remain onboard, then please feel free to, but prepare to get very wet.

I think Lee Waters of the Bevan Foundation’s blog ‘This is my Truth’ is getting a little carried away with his assertion that having a week where the Labour leader and First Minister is ‘hardly a recipe for stability’. If it was a long term arrangement, then it wouldn’t work, but for a week? I’m sure people will cope. It will be clear what Rhodri is there for, and clear that his successor will be in charge a week later. What will potentially be more controversial is the make-up of the cabinet. Presumably whoever takes charge will want to shape their team as they see fit, and with the likelihood being that there will be at least one vacancy in the cabinet at the time they won’t have much choice. During that week will Minister’s have to take decisions knowing that the new Labour leader wants to move them?

Cambria Politico are looking for films that can be compared to Plaid Cymru. I have a suggestion: Twilight. Like Twilight, Plaid lack any coherent narrative, point, value and seem to have a number of followers still complete convinced of the positives and showing a blind, unshaking faith in everything about them. Both also fill me with anger based on one point each that I feel needs to be put in capitals IEAUN WYN JONES HAS NOT SAVED THE WELSH ECONOMY and REAL VAMPIRES DO NOT SPARKLE. Ahem.

Guerilla Welsh-Fare seems to think it’s bizarre that Labour aren’t allowing proper scrutiny of their leadership candidates. While I agree with his reasoning as to why they should allow it, it isn’t exactly surprising they aren‘t. We’re talking about a party that puts so much faith in their members that their votes will only count for 1/3 of the final outcome. They do not believe in internal party democracy, which is fine, it’s their party and their choice how they run it. But if I was a Labour member, I would have to question why the hierarchy puts so little faith in my opinion? Maybe being in the Lib Dems has just distorted my view to the extent that I believe democracy should always be the default outcome. And there is a second question, if they are worried about awkward questions from their own members, are they not worried about awkward questions from the media and the other parties?

In the web side of the battle for Labour leadsership, my favourite site has to be Huw Lewis’s. Not only is he showing a sense of humour with bloopers and myths (which I very much approve of, humour has an important part in making politics bearable), he now has five pledges. The one that interests me is his pledge to build ‘more and better affordable housing’. What makes this interesting, is that it’s currently in the control of a Plaid Deputy Minister. Is he suggesting Jocelyn Davies isn’t doing a good enough job? Will he be trying to get her to change her approach to the issue? How exactly does he plan to deliver this promise? Don’t get me wrong, I agree with him, more needs to be done and if he can give credible suggestions on how he will achieve this goal then fair play to him. I hope that we will see exactly what he plans to do in this regard during the contest.

As much as I despise racism, along with everyone who reads this I hope, I don’t think Leanne Wood is right to press the police to ban the protest by the right wing Welsh Defence League. Politicians have to resist the calls to censor viewpoints that are unpopular. Just because you don’t like another organisations view, doesn’t give you any right to call for it not to be aired. What is however concerning is the risk of violence at this protest, a risk which will unfortunately be increased if another protest takes place at the same time and police resources are stretched. Wales Home carries an article this week suggesting similar views about the continued existence of no platform policies.

Right, that’s it for this week.

Actually no. No it isn’t. I need to say it again. Fuck you Stephanie Meyer. I want two hours of my life back and a refund for the cost of my cinema ticket. And an apology. I mean seriously, sparkling vampires? What the hell? How did you think that would work? You just ruined the whole genre of vampire films. Every time I even hear the word vampire I’m going to think of that film and I’m going to be angry. I won’t forgive you for that.

I carry grudges for too long.

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Well, wasn’t summer shite? The weather was crap and little of interest happened within the world. Guess what? Autumn won’t be much better, and winter is very much the same, except with Christmas, which will be over-rated, Dad will burn dinner and the TV will be disappointing. But at least we are guaranteed one interesting thing happening, the Welsh Labour Leadership Donkey Race.  As Betsan Powys notes, we don’t actually know when, where how or any other details, just that it will happen.

Oddest post of the week is going to Glyn Davies, who has managed to locate the whereabouts of a tumour he had removed a few years ago. Eww. Please bear in mind I have awarded him weird post of the week before reading any other blogs. I am confident that he will not be beaten. Although he does make a good point about the relationship between the Welsh NHS and the private sector.

One thing that did happen during the summer was the shock resignation of Adam Price MP, who after a brief stint in America (which I am certain Obama won’t even notice Miss Jenkins) will be attempting to head to the Bay.  In this post he declares that neither him nor constituency colleague Rhodri Glyn Thomas will be backing any particular successor. In the post Mr Price also attacks the Liberal Democrats for being honest about their tuition fees stance, while ignoring the fact that his party just outright lied about them.

Cambria Politico believes that the most likely successor is Adam Price’s former advisor, Jonathan Edwards, described as a ‘staunch nationalist’ with a ‘broad knowledge of economics and considerable experience in public affairs’. I’m sure that is just what he people of Camarthen East are looking for….

Bethan Jenkins AM thinks we should close tax loopholes for the rich in order to help poorer, younger people, particularly with tuition fees. Given that Plaid no longer support the scrapping of tuition fees, and we aim to (even if we recognise that it is difficult), maybe she should reconsider her political priorities herself?

Why on earth am I a) watching and b) getting angry about the bloody X-Factor? Christ I need a life!

The Cynical Dragon believes that the Welsh Liberal Democrats need more hugs. Maybe if more people hugged me I wouldn’t be so bitter. That’s a lie, I probably would be. His review of a Tory leaflet may be short, but is well worth reading.

I (unsurprisingly) won’t agree with David Jones MP that Nick Clegg’s speech was a blown chance. I do agree that it’s obvious he wants to be Prime Minister and that it isn’t as shocking as everyone makes out that he actually said it, but aside from that, I guess Mr Jones wasn’t really listening. It isn’t easy for members, who like me, joined the party on promises to raise taxes and spend on the public, to suddenly hear that we want to cut taxes and look at tough spending choices. But what does make it easier is to have a leader who can inspire confidence that these are the right policies for the circumstances our country finds itself in. No-one I have spoken to came out of the hall lacking any confidence that our party is heading in the right direction and that we are the only party being honest with the public about what we would do in government.

But aside from that, Nick Clegg is the only leader talking about the situation young people find themselves in, and the future that awaits them. Labour gave us a minimum wage, great, but if you are young you get less. Labour gave us tuition fees. Labour gave us ASBOs. Labour put our young people on the DNA database. Labour screwed young people over again and again. After paying my tuition fees I got to work scrubbing McDonalds toilets for £4 an hour, and am now trapped in debt and can’t get a loan on a lower APR than my credit cards because Labour fucked the economy up. But the good news is, I can spend a lifetime not just paying back my own student loan, but the billions given to the banks to not lend me the money I need.

Sorry, that turned into a rant. But no Mr Jones, Clegg’s speech hit the right notes. Lets see if Gordon and Dave can manage the same.

Hopefully within the next week we will know a little more about the Donkey Race and exactly who the runners and riders are. We all know who we are expecting, but it will be interesting to see this confirmed. Given that it’s his birthday this Tuesday, it may be then we get our answer.

The latest updates on the odds from Ladbrokes are:

Carwyn Jones: Evens
Huw Lewis: 11/4
Edwina Hart: 4/1
Jane Hutt: 14/1

Which disagrees slightly from the odds given by Betsan Powys’ expert.

I’ve already said where my money is, and still think that even at these odds Edwina represents the best value, especially given the verdict of Betsans’ expert!

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Update: Beeb story now online, he’s off to be a Fullbright scholar following in the footsteps of Rhodri Morgan, Charles Kennedy and a whole load of others.

What will this mean for Plaid?

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And it’s Freedom Central’s own Jeremy that I will start by writing about. In case you missed it, and given that it is now the second most read post on this blog, you probably didn’t, Jeremy wrote an extensive post on how to protect, and indeed improve, the Welsh arts sector. He argued that politicians should attempt to stay out of the arguments surrounding the arts, as they “know little about the situation.”

Obviously, this meant a politician had to pile into the argument. Adam Price MP stated that the arms length model outlined in Jeremy’s piece would be “unaccountable and so prone to elitism” before continuing his arguments a few days later arguing that as a party we have now “possibly overtaken the Welsh Conservatives as the most anglicised  party in Wales”.

While Jeremy and Adam Price did manage to keep the argument at a reasonably intellectual level (meaning most of it went over my head) Guerrilla Welsh-Fare decided to ignore the point all together and have a nice little rant based upon very little actual substance. He also found a way to attack Peter Black while he was at it. Obviously I wouldn’t expect much else.

Angry Oli Townsend of Cardiff Student Lib Dems also weighed into the argument, sticking up for his big brother (awww), arguing that the term ‘anglo-centric’ distracts from the real political arguments underway.

The other big story of the week, which may be in part due to the summer recess, is those comments by Daniel Hannan MEP. What irks me about this story, is that every party, including our own, has those who are not on message or make stupid comments. Every party is a broad church with members on the left and the right. The Tories are not exempt from this. Yes, Daniel Hannan’s comments were stupid and he should be ashamed. But for people to attempt to represent them as the real view of the Conservative’s (such as Labour site Aneurin Glyndwr) is nothing more than just attempting to mis-represent another party’s position. Many have done it to our party. I remember a Plaid freshers fair leaflet that quoted one backbench MSP on local income tax, and claimed that this meant our entire party didn’t agree with it, which was obviously bollocks. Such claims just dilute real political debate and piss-off the public. We know that a Tory victory would be bad for the NHS, but we don’t need to use Hannan’s comments to make these claims. He will damage the Tories enough, other parties don’t need to then spin that past the truth.

I could write a lot more about the NHS stuff as there is a lot on the blogs this week. But all seem to agree that the NHS is good and FOX News and/or Daniel Hannan are crazy. I’d rather spend more time talking about Wales specific stuff than what is happening in America.

Away from politics, Glyn Davies gives us his thoughts on the upcoming football season. My own predictions are Man United to take the crown, with Burnley, Portsmouth and Wolves relegated. Wolves will be bottom. Promoted will be Newcastle followed by West Brom, although as an Albion fan I hope to be wrong.

I don’t think it is a shock to anyone that Plaid and the Lib Dem’s don’t always see eye to eye, at least according to Daran Hill of Wales Home. Nor is it a shock that the two parties actually have much in common, on a range of policies which you would think would make us natural allies. Personally, I do not see Plaid as the enemy, or at least on nothing more than a ‘can we take votes in this ward’ level. My personal preference would be for a Plaid-led government over a Labour or Tory led one. If it was possible to have a Plaid/Lib Dem coalition in 2007, I firmly believe it could have been a fantastic and progressive government for Wales (second only to a majority Lib Dem one), however this was not a possibility, nor is it likely to be one in the immediate future.

From what I have seen of the way that decisions are taken on what our Assembly Members will be doing in plenary each week, or how press releases will be spun, there is no stated tactic of attacking Plaid. It just so happens that many of the areas where the government is failing the most, like the economy and housing, are the areas where the Plaid Ministers are in charge. Until their departments improve, expect the attacks to continue. But if they do, then do not be surprised when the Welsh Lib Dems move on to other topics and attacking other parties.

I don’t know how Plaid view us, although according to Simon Dyda, it is with a mixture of ‘pity and amusement’. Feel free to underestimate us if you want. It’ll make taking votes from you easier.

Linking to Adam Price MP for the third time in one article, he gives ten effects of a Tory Westminster Government on Wales. While I would agree with the majority of his points, number three amuses me. Apparently a Tory win would mean a delay or possible rejection of a demand for a referendum on further powers, on the grounds of not wanting to split the Conservative Party. This is of course completely different to the Labour party, who are categorically not delaying a referendum to stop a split between the Assembly group and the Westminster group.

Not many subjects covered this week, but tough. There was also a post by the BMA which mentions alcohol pricing, but I’d rather talk about that in an individual post, if I get a chance tomorrow.

Enjoy your week. Or don’t. Up to you really.

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Alan Ap Huw is one of few blogs that looks at the effects of the sacking of Sian Caiach as Plaid PPC for Ogmore. While he maybe getting a little too over excited about the prospect of this being the start of a break-up of Plaid in the South West, I do find myself agreeing that there is a strange silence from many in the Welsh blogosphere on the issue (aside from on here of course!). It seems there are many bloggers who will take any slight difference of opinion on a matter as meaning an entire party is split (such as Guerrilla Welsh-Fare’s Che Grav-ara), but when there is a genuine, sizeable and increasing split in Plaid it barely warrants a mention.

Maybe it’s because I struggle to see how Plaid can defend their actions that I find it strange that there is a silence. I am proud to belong to a party where if you disagree with the leader you’re more likely to get put on stage and given a chance to talk to members, who will then probably clap you regardless for at least having the balls to say it, than to get kicked out. So to see another party that the Lib Dems are sometimes compared to, and with whom we do share a sizeable amount of agreement on policy, act in this way just confuses me. If anyone in Plaid agrees with this and thinks that a party should be able to actually debate issues and that their leaders should listen to their members, I suggest they click here.

S4C2 will no longer be showing the Assembly proceedings live. According to the Bevan Foundation this may not be mourned in the pubs in Wales, but is ‘a retrograde step’. With ITV cutting back on their news coverage of Wales, and the promised welsh language newspaper apparently dead in the water, you have to wonder how anyone is going to hear about what is happening in the Senedd?

This is also the first blog summary since “that” report. So I should probably look at some of the blog responses to it. The Cynical Dragon lists the main recommendations. Tom Bodden points out that the report will actually save very little money, although this was never really its aim. It would be interesting to compare how much the report cost compared to expected savings though, and will this really restore confidence in Assembly Members? Will AMs continue to get the same level of public distain thanks to their Westminster colleagues? Could as much have been achieved by just allowing the public stoning of an AM found to have abused the system by more than £9.70? “Nick Ramsey’s bought another bed, I’m gonna need some granite for this.” I’m sure S4C2 would at least cover that.

Has enough pressure come off Nick Bourne that he can actually start to lead his party again? Apparently so. He has proposed that the top position on regional lists should be reserved for female or ethnic minority candidates. It is something that the Welsh Lib Democrats have debated for years, but always resisted. In the Assembly at least we have no problem with balance. With a female leader, a female Chief Exec and a female president, maybe we should consider other options! Will these proposals lead to more female Tory AMs, without a doubt. But in a truly modern and representative party these steps are not needed, and as such are an admission of defeat in themselves.

After writing that sentence, I read Glyn Davies comments on it. He agrees with me.

It was certainly interesting to read Carwyn Jones’ views on assisted suicide. The post had clearly been carefully constructed to not be seen to be making the case for the whole scale legalisation of euthanasia. He poses difficult questions about where the line should be drawn, citing the case of the couple who recently took their own lives in Switzerland, where one of the two was not terminally ill or in considerable pain. I find myself agreeing with much of what he says, although maybe he stops short of my own opinion. Remember though, we are talking about someone who is one of the favourites to be the next First Minister of Wales. Will this be an issue that he will actively take up with his Westminster colleagues if he were to be successful?

Both Adam Price and Peter Black seem to think tomorrow will be an interesting occasion, when News International go in front of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee in Westminister. Among them will be Tory Spin Chief Andy Coulson. I suspect that when I come to writing this article next week we’ll know a bit more about what happened, and of course the big question – will Mr Coulson be able to flatly deny in front of the committee that he had nothing to do with it?

An amusing piece of gossip on Valleys Mam is that apparently Jonathan Morgan left plenary early to go watch the new Harry Potter film. In his defense, I would have done the same.

There are two issues I’m not gonna talk about. I’m not gonna mention the IBW expenses, because enough has already been said on Freedom Central about it.

I’m not gonna mention the National Transport Plan either, because I think the issue is so dull it may cause mild cases of swine flu. (Now might be a good time to mention that this piece is my personal opinion, and not the opinion of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Freedom Central or pretty much anyone else with an IQ over 17.)

I hope this has helped inform you of what is going on in Wales at the moment. It probably didn’t though. Go read some posts by real bloggers instead.

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Details of the redacted expenses published by the House of Commons reveal that a company called Corwynt was paid a total of £10,129.51 to supervise work on a new computer system in the Ammanford office of Mr. Price, who is the MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr. Corwynt is an IT consultancy registered at the home of Mr. Dixon in Llanpumsaint and both he and his wife are listed as directors of it at companies house.

Mr. Dixon explains that Adam Price and Rhodri Glyn Thomas, who represents the same constituency in the Welsh Assembly, had decided to create a unified team of caseworkers and as such they needed a new IT system to accomodate this. He was asked to oversee the work.

This sounds all very plausible and there is no evidence to contradict it but the explanation does raise a number of questions and in particular what it was that Adam Price got for his £10,000?

It is the case of course that AMs have computer equipment provided to them for their work and that they are part of a networked system which can not be tied up to any other system because of a firewall. MPs are in a similar position. So whatever work Mr. Dixon was contracted to carry out could not have involved linking up those two systems.

It is perfectly legitimate for AMs and MPs to use their allowances to buy other IT equipment to carry out tasks that their Parliamentary systems cannot deal with. This might involve the maintenance of websites, uploading videos and the design of surgery and other information leaflets as well as software to deal with casework. It would be a simple task to network a couple of PCs and a few printers to enable staff to work together as a team on these tasks. The cost of doing so would come to a few thousand pounds including the cost of hardware and software.

The questions that need to be answered therefore are:

1. Did the £10,000 include the cost of hardware and software?
2. What was the exact nature of the work carried out by Mr. Dixon?
3. If hardware and software were not included in the cost then why did a simple networking task cost so much and what was the additional cost of the equipment?
4. Was a competitive tender sought for the work so as to ensure the taxpayer got value for money?

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