Terrorism

Desperately worrying news over the past 48 hours. Two car bombs were discovered in Haymarket, London and a burning Jeep has been driven into Glasgow Airport. Although it is too early to draw firm conclusions, it looks very much as if our country is under attack from Al-Qa’eda.

Each day, as I enter the House of Commons, I pass a television screen that displays the current threat level. For months now, that level has been “Severe”, meaning that an attack is highly likely and that there is a continuing high level of threat to the UK.

Despite the warnings, every day we all go about our business quite normally and without any apparent concern. On the face of it, this is extraordinary, but, on balance, I think it is just as well. Disrupting our way of life is precisely what the terrorists want. It is quite possible to remain vigilant without descending into paranoia.

Floreat Taedium

Gordon Brown’s reference in his first speech as Prime Minister to his old school’s motto has prompted a rash of radio and newspaper items on mottoes and their significance.

The trouble with mottoes, of course, is that they are unfailingly self-evident, tiresome and worthy. Moreover, they rarely make any concessions to human frailty. For instance, David Cornock today tells us that his own school motto was “Gorau Arf, Arf Dysg” – “Knowledge, the Best Weapon”. Quite so.

In the circumstances, I feel that I should, as a matter of record, share my own school’s motto. It was “Absque Labore Nihil”. This may be translated as “Nothing without Labour”, which is manifestly not true. I prefer “Nothing without Hard Work”, which unfortunately is.

Doing a Foreigner

Peter Hain must be enormously relieved at not having been sacked for all the lefty noises he made during the Labour deputy leadership campaign. The frissons he experienced when he learned that Paddy Ashdown had been offered Northern Ireland must have given way to a warm glow when he heard that he had been given a major cabinet job at Work and Pensions.

Northern Ireland has in fact gone to Tory defector Shaun Woodward, the only Labour MP with a butler. Shaun, it will be recalled, made fulsomely obsequious noises about Peter during his £89k campaign, so perhaps “Aga” has more influence with Gordon than I thought, and put in a good word for him. The downside for Shaun is that the Irish brief is the only unpaid cabinet position – not that he needs the money.

Some have expressed their surprise that Peter retains Wales as a sideline. I, for one, think that it is pretty insulting to Wales that Gordon thinks Peter can run it in his spare time. However, Peter is probably the only Labour front bencher who understands the Byzantine dynamics of the Government of Wales Act. This will become increasingly important in the wake of the Labour-Plaid pact, which seems to have gone down like a lead balloon with Labour backbenchers.

I was pleased to see that Huw Irranca-Davies has been given the junior ministerial position in the Wales Office; he is a nice man. On the other hand, I was sorry to see Nick Ainger go; he is a nice man, too.

All Change

Gordon Brown has certainly put his own stamp on government. Out go a host of Blair-era cabinet ministers, including Patricia Hewitt, Tessa Jowell and John Reid, and in come a new cadre of Brownites. David Miliband has been rewarded for his forbearance over the leadership issue and his brother, Ed, gets a cabinet place as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Indeed, there is very much a family feel to Brown’s administration. Ed Balls and his wife, Yvette Cooper, will both be sitting around the cabinet table, though only Ed will be a full member.

Only three members of this cabinet have served ten years – Gordon himself, Jack Straw and Alistair Darling. The rest are, to a greater or lesser extent, newbies.

Even more interesting, however, than the individuals appointed to government is the restructuring of the Departments. Brown has created Departments of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Children, Schools and Families and Innovation, Universities and Skills. All sound Conservative, more particularly Cameronian Conservative, and all spell c-h-a-n-g-e.

Change is the buzzword, and will continue to be so. But Gordon’s problem is that to talk about change is to talk about changing the style and thrust of a Government that he, as much as Tony Blair, has presided over for ten years. Gordon is recognising, in effect, that we need a change from him.

And that makes me very happy.

Silly Beggars

Readers may remember that on 13 June, I tabled the following question:

“To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, which of the 66 charities, other than the Smith Institute, which have organised events at No. 11 Downing Street since 1997 has used it most frequently.”

On 19 June, I received the following answer from John Healey, Financial Secretary to the Treasury:

“I shall let the hon Member have a reply as soon as possible."

I have now received the following from Mr Healey, which is presumably meant to be the substantive response:

“Many charities have used No. 11 on multiple occasions. Any charities who use or want to use 11 Downing Street can apply for more extended access if this is their wish and subject to availability.”

Forgive me if I seem picky, but he doesn’t seem to be answering the question I asked. I have therefore tabled the following further question today:

“Pursuant to the Answer of 25 June, 2007, Official Report, column 361W, on 11 Downing Street: Charities, if he will state, in respect of each of the charities which have used 11 Downing Street on multiple occasions, on how many occasions such charity has used it.”

Needless to say, I shall keep readers fully informed of developments.

The Greatest Living Welshman

Tony Blair’s was not the only political departure today. Lord Roberts of Conwy, Conservative Welsh front bench spokesman in the Lords for the last ten years, announced that he is to retire. My picture shows Wyn with Cheryl Gillan and me at a small reception held in his honour today.

I have known Wyn for over twenty years, well for more than twelve. I succeeded him as parliamentary candidate for Conwy, the seat he held for 27 years. He is a good friend and a wise counsel, and I shall miss him greatly.

Wyn was Minister of State at the Welsh Office throughout the Thatcher and Major years. His achievements in his long and distinguished career were many, but the greatest was the passage of the Welsh Language Act.

If anyone can lay claim to the title of Greatest Living Welshman, it must surely be Wyn Roberts.

Endgame

Nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it – the House, I mean.

Today’s PMQs were extraordinary by any measure. The House was, of course, full to bursting. Northern Ireland Questions, answered for the last time by Peter Hain, were noisy with an anticipatory hubbub. Several times, the Speaker had to call the House to order to let the questions be heard. Peter looked inconsolably glum, despite a generous tribute paid to him by his shadow, David Lidington.

Quentin Davies then entered the chamber, and was greeted by a rather muted cheer from the Labour benches and stony silence from us. He was escorted by two Labour members and put to sit three rows back, next to Kali Mountford, to whom he chatted with forced insouciance for the rest of the session. It was, I reflected, appropriate that he sat next to a Member who shares her name with the Hindu goddess of death; Quentin has consigned himself to political oblivion.

Then Blair entered. The Speaker called the House to order again and the final PMQs began, prefaced, as is sadly usually the case these days, with a list of brave servicemen killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The session was curiously flat and anticlimactic. Nobody, it seemed, wanted to go for the jugular today. There was some sycophancy from the Labour side, not least from the Father of the House, Alan Williams, who rather misjudged the occasion and was too partisan. David Cameron asked a couple of questions about the floods and was answered in a matter-of-fact way. He didn’t take his full quota of six. He concluded by thanking the Prime Minister for his personal courtesy toward him throughout their dealings. The Prime Minister responded in kind, as he did to Ming Campbell, whose first question was, I felt, a touch on the antagonistic side.

The most impressive tribute was paid by Ian Paisley. He went on far too long, of course; questions are expected to be brief and succinct. But the Speaker didn’t stop him; he didn’t dare. Again, Blair returned the courtesy.

And then the finale. Questions over, Blair, with a catch in his voice which seemed, possibly for the first time ever, genuine, said adieu to the House. The Labour benches rose and applauded – a rare display in the chamber, and one that is rather frowned upon. Then, in a kind of Mexican wave, the Opposition benches rose, Lib Dems first, and then down the Conservative ranks until the wave reached me. I felt I had to stand, too, but I couldn’t clap.

And when I looked across the floor of the House again, he was gone. It was as if he had never been there at all.

Joining the Sinking Ship

Sitting in my office at 10.35 pm, waiting for another vote, in the knowledge that I will probably still be here at midnight. Such is parliamentary life.

The day has produced the unsurprising news that Quentin Davies, the Member for Grantham and Stamford, has decided to defect to Labour. He has been semi-detached for some time. I spotted him in the Members’ dining room this evening in the company of Dawn Primarolo, who, as Paymaster General, is responsible for the tax credits fiasco. Both appeared to be enjoying themselves immensely.

If Quentin had decided to resign and offer himself for re-election to the people of his constituency, I might have respected his position. As it is, it appears that he will continue to occupy his seat until the next General Election, notwithstanding that his constituents voted for a Tory, not a socialist. I can’t respect that.

Welcome Back

Good news: David Cornock has started blogging again. Even better news: he has his own Blogger blog and is not constrained by the corporate dead hand of the Beeb, which is turning out such dire, anodyne blogs that nobody wants to read them (yours truly included).

Given that David is presumably blogging in his own spare time, I hope that he will be as indiscreet, forthright and hard-hitting as he possibly can be. He should also spread his wings and comment on the political scene generally. As an independent blogger, he ought not to feel confined to Wales.

David has a shrewd political brain and a ready wit. I am delighted to restore him to his deserved place of honour in the right hand column. He lists Cinema Paradiso as one of his favourite films, so he can't be all bad!

Ms Harperson

I was right about Alan Johnson (blog, 12 June), but only just. I was also right that the Labour party would choose a woman as deputy leader (17 May), but again only just, and I was totally wrong about Hazel Blears.

Harriet Harman may prove to be a bit of embarrassment to Gordon Brown, given the left wing credentials she flashed at every opportunity during the deputy leadership campaign. She publicly and stridently advocated stronger links with the trade unions (she has pretty strong links herself; her husband is Jack Dromey, formerly of the TGWU, now the super-union, Unite) and bemoaned the widening gap between rich and poor after a decade of Gordon’s stewardship of the economy.

Today she denied saying that the Government should apologise for the Iraq war, despite agreeing with John Cruddas during a hustings event when he said that the Labour Party should “say sorry”.

Gordon has made it fairly clear that Harriet should not expect to become Deputy Prime Minister; instead she will also hold the office of party chairman. Jack Straw is tipped for the role one heartbeat away from the premiership – if, indeed, Gordon decides that it should continue.

He must be worried, however, that the lefty feminist, known jokingly around Parliament as “Harriet Harperson”, has acquired such a dangerous power base.

Local Loot

It is a curious phenomenon (experienced, I am sure, by most of us) that, whenever we start to take an interest in any particular subject, news stories about it begin to appear, right, left and centre, out of the woodwork, as if by magic.

The Welsh Affairs Select Committee is currently conducting what promises to be a highly significant inquiry into globalisation and its impact on Wales. As a consequence, over the last few months I have become increasingly conscious of an ocean of newspaper and magazine articles and TV and radio programmes about globalisation, its waves washing over me almost on a daily basis.

Today was no exception. The Times carried an interesting piece about a fiscal experiment in the town of Great Barrington, in the Berkshire hills of Massachusetts. There, the citizens have issued their own currency, called “Berkshares”. The intention is to stimulate the local economy, by encouraging people to use a currency that can be used only in the immediate area, so that the financial benefit goes to local workers and suppliers.

Lewis Solomon, a law professor at George Washington University who wrote Rethinking Our Centralised Monetary System: the Case for a System of Local Currencies, argues that such currencies are one of the few options that localities have to combat the negative effects of globalisation. “There is now so much globalisation that this is a way that enables you to build a local economy,” he says.

According to the Times, the experiment is only partially successful. The Berkshare is pegged with parity to the dollar, but is sold in banks for 90 cents. That gives locals an incentive to spend, but suppliers take a financial hit when redeeming the local currency, because the banks buy them back at the same rate.

The consequence is that there are not enough suppliers willing to accept Berkshares, and 750,000 of the 900,000 issued have been redeemed for dollars. The Times quotes a local businessman as saying, “To be an effective programme, this really needs to be a completed circle. There are not enough vendors that use it.”

The story reminds me of the famous experiment conducted in the late 1960s by Richard Williams, of Llandudno, who issued “payment orders” under the imprimatur of “Prif Trysorfa Cymru Limited”, or “Chief Treasury of Wales”. The affair attracted considerable public attention, and no less public amusement, in the early summer of 1969, as the Board of Trade scratched its head over what to do about the Welsh banker, who seemed set on creating a separate currency for Wales.

Finally, the Board wrote to Richard Williams and told him that the name of his company was misleading and that he would have to change it. The resourceful Williams complied, and re-registered it as “Cwmni y Ddafad Ddu Gymreig Limited”, or “Welsh Black Sheep Company” – an obvious nod to the 19th century Aberystwyth and Tregaron Bank, which issued notes bearing the design of a black sheep and was commonly known as the "Black Sheep Bank". Williams issued notes of various denominations in 1969, and again in 1971, at the time of decimalisation.

Williams was probably less interested in creating a true Welsh currency than in having enormous fun at the expense of the bemused officials of the Board of Trade. The notes themselves have become collectors’ items (I have one myself somewhere) and the affair was entertainingly written up by the well-known Llandudno journalist, Ivor Wynne Jones (who died earlier this year), in his book Money for All: the Story of the Welsh Pound.

Tools for the Job

Remarkable pictures on BBC TV News of British troops carrying out night operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. The bravery displayed by our soldiers is deeply impressive, and is matched by the courage of the BBC correspondent, Alastair Leithead, and his crew, who are with them in the thick of the fighting.

Afghanistan is a dreadful and particularly hostile theatre of conflict and there can be little doubt that we are in it for the long haul. Earlier this week, the new British ambassador to Kabul, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, gave an interview to the Today programme in which he warned that British involvement there is likely to last decades.

The British diplomatic presence in the country, too, is being stepped up and the embassy staff will soon exceed the complement based in Washington.

The Taliban is a vicious and ruthless fighting force and there have been many British casualties, including a number of Royal Welsh, who were wounded in an ambush some weeks ago. However, the majority of Afghans remember the appalling period when the Taliban ran the country and, according to the ambassador, want us to stay there.

If we are to stay, then we must make sure that we have enough troops on the ground to do the job properly. They must also be properly equipped. The Telegraph reported last week that our forces are operating in the country with shockingly inadequate resources, to the extent that one British garrison was down to its last 200 mortar rounds, because there were no helicopters available to resupply it, and vehicle shortages were such that we had to borrow a Unimog truck from the tiny Estonian contingent.

Last October, Tony Blair promised: “If commanders on the ground want more equipment - armoured vehicles, for example, more helicopters - that will be provided. Whatever package they want, we will do."

Tony Blair very obviously didn’t deliver on his promise. If Gordon Brown wants to show the country that he is going to be a different type of Prime Minister from Blair (which would seem to be the case, if last night’s BBC interview is anything to go by), then one of the first things he should do is make sure that our troops get the kit they need to do the dangerous but important task that is being asked of them.

A Day Off

This is a funny life. I realised yesterday that I hadn’t had a day to myself since Easter, including weekends. I decided that today I would look in briefly at the constituency office and then take the rest of the day off until 5.00 pm, when I had a meeting scheduled.

Looked in as planned, and was promptly telephoned by a constituent who had had a dreadful experience with the police and was now being asked to talk to the Sun. The day turned into a round of media briefings until 5.00 pm, when I had my meeting.

I got home at 7.30 pm. The “day off” had turned into one of my busiest constituency days ever. I’m not complaining, because I love the work; it’s just that when I read journos like Ian Parri suggesting that MPs have a cushy number I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Hack he may be, but I doubt he could hack it.

Fly Away, Peter

The news that Gordon Brown offered Paddy Ashdown a seat in his cabinet as Northern Ireland Secretary will have done nothing to settle the frayed nerves of the incumbent of that office, Peter Hain.

Peter, whose prospects of securing the deputy leadership look hopelessly remote (odds of 66/1 on politicalbetting.com), must surely be wondering what, if anything, Gordon has in store for him when he assumes the premiership in a week’s time. It is now abundantly clear that he won’t be roasting his Christmas chestnuts on the log fire at Hillsborough Castle, but what of Wales?

My guess is that Peter will be removed from the Principality as well as from the Province. If there is indeed to be a role for him in Brown’s cabinet, then International Development would appear to suit his talents, background and interests. Of course, if Gordon really wants to punish him, he may appoint him to that graveyard of political ambition, the Home Office.

And as for Wales, who other than Gordon’s old chum and former PPS, Don Touhig, who I glimpsed taking the evening air on the Commons terrace yesterday with a preoccupied-looking Rhodri Morgan?

Cool Cymraeg

Interesting story in today’s Western Mail. According to the celebrated Professor of Linguistics at Bangor University, David Crystal, the future of the Welsh language is likely to be secured by its increasing use on the internet.

Professor Crystal says that, in common with such minority languages as Breton, Navajo and Maori, Welsh is increasingly used by young people as a “cool” medium on websites and in internet chat rooms.

I am sure the professor is absolutely right. The internet means that people are more communicative than ever, and even Welsh speakers living thousands of miles away from Wales can correspond or converse in their preferred language whenever then want, day or night.

There is another advantage to using a minority language over the internet; it makes it impossible for non-speakers to eavesdrop. There is nothing new about this, of course. At the siege of Monte Cassino in 1944, all radio communications by the Welsh Guards were conducted in the Welsh language, much to the confusion of the German defenders.

JP RIP

Today was John Prescott’s last Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions. Standing four-square at the despatch box after his recent brush with pneumonia, he looked to be in what William Hague called “rude good health”.

Rude he certainly was, and his reading skills hadn’t improved very much during his hospitalisation, either. That is a pity, because, pedestrian thinker that he is, he has no option but to read his ministerial brief when answering questions. And boy, does he read slowly, finger moving laboriously across the page and words spilling like lemmings from his lips, sometimes with unintentionally hilarious consequences.

Today, he tried to make witty reference to David Cameron’s suggestion that the paucity of talent on display in the Labour deputy leadership made Prezza look like “a cross between Ernie Bevin and Demosthenes”. At least, that is what his speech writer intended him to say. What he actually said was “Dame Osthenes”, which caused uproarious laughter on the Opposition benches and some sniggering even in the Labour ranks.

“There’s nothing like a Dame,” yelled Mid Norfolk’s Keith Simpson. The Conservative benches roared.

Prescott ploughed on, smiling benignly, clearly thinking that his devastating delivery of his scribe’s wit was hitting the mark. He was apparently in classical mood, because his reference to the mystery diva was swiftly followed by a mention of the little-known Greek god and formal garden designer, “Her Maze”.

William Hague paid as generous a tribute to Prescott as he could, wishing him “a thumping good retirement”. Prescott beamed.

The end of an era? Yes, certainly, and not a happy one, all things considered. Many tend to think of Prescott as a harmless buffoon, but he was more than that. He was pivotal to the last ten years of this Government. He kept Blair and Brown talking to each other when their relationship was at its lowest, and to that extent also kept the Government going. However, he was manifestly not equal to the job he attempted to discharge for so many years. The Tracy Temple affair did no credit either to him or to his office.

I’ll miss the laughter, but I’m not sorry to see him go.

Bated Breath

On 13 June, I tabled the following written question:

“To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, which of the 66 charities, other than the Smith Institute, which have organised events at No. 11 Downing Street since 1997 has used it most frequently.”

This evening, I received the following answer from John Healey, Financial Secretary to the Treasury:

“I shall let the hon Member have a reply as soon as possible."

I can hardly wait.

Tea with the Speaker

Visited Mr Speaker with other Conservative Members from the 2005 intake and enjoyed tea, biscuits and the view of the Thames from his sumptuous apartments.

Speaker Martin was anxious to know how we were settling in, and whether there was anything he could do to make our lives easier. We spent an hour in his company.

He is a wise and kindly man and doesn’t deserve the rough ride he sometimes gets from the press. He has the loneliest and most important job in Parliament and takes it very seriously indeed. I like and respect him a lot.

A Hanson Speech

Attended the Commons chamber, where David Hanson, Minister of State at the newly-minted (some might say half-baked) Ministry of Justice made a statement on the crisis in Her Majesty’s prisons.

We were first treated to a load of NewLab flannel about how crime is falling and the Government has “made public protection from the most dangerous criminals a priority”. Then, almost as a by-the-way, the hapless Hanson was forced to admit that the prison estate is full to bursting and that prisoners are being housed in police stations and court cells.

The Government is now commencing a belated and panicky round of building new accommodation for prisoners, but the first of these additional places will not, Hanson told us, be available until January.

So what is being done to address what some might consider a rather worrying state of affairs? No problem. Hanson is going to order prison governors to release prisoners on licence, up to 18 days before the release date under their sentences.

But don’t worry. This is not, Hanson sternly advised us, the same thing by any means as executive release. Oh, goodness me, no.

“Releasing people on licence means their sentence continues,” he declared. So that’s all right then.

Well, I may be barking up the wrong tree, but the consequences look pretty similar to me. Criminals are going to be released onto our streets before they have finished the term of imprisonment to which they were sentenced. It strikes me that few would consider this a good idea, apart, possibly, from the lags themselves.

The Government has been appallingly – one might almost say criminally - negligent in its stewardship of the prison estate and the result is that the system is in total chaos. Last January, Judge John Rogers released a convicted sex offender because he didn’t have anywhere to house him and was, he said, observing Home Office sentencing guidelines. Now hundreds of these people are to be released early. What is more, it is hard to see things improving for many months, if not years.

Speaking of the Home Office, its recent split in two meant there was at least one winner on the Government side today. John Reid, who has spent most of the last year apologising repeatedly and grovellingly for cock-up after cock-up, was able to enjoy a leisurely lunch, leaving poor Hanson to take the opposition flak, which he did by the bucketload.

Freedom - from Tooting

This lunchtime, David Cameron made what was probably his most important speech since becoming party leader. Speaking at Tooting (a venue not without significance, since, if we take Tooting, we win the general election), he set out in clear and simple terms the essential differences between the next Conservative government and what I hope and expect will be the relatively short Brown interregnum that is due to commence next week.

I later went on Good Evening Wales to comment on David’s speech. The interviewer was impatient: why, she asked, did he not unveil detailed policy at Tooting? She knew, of course what the answer was. David Cameron, sensibly, has recognised that policy cannot be made on the hoof. It is a more subtle, complex, labour-intensive process than that.

First, he had the task of repositioning the Conservative Party in the centre ground of politics. This he has done with remarkable success, much to the concern of both Labour and the Lib Dems. Cameron recognises that no party can win power unless it occupies a politically central position.

Next, he had to set out the intellectual and philosophical approach that will underpin our policy. David Cameron calls this “social responsibility”, but essentially it is a restatement of the fundamental Conservative principle that the state should be big and powerful only where it needs to be – primarily in the areas of defence and personal and national security. Otherwise, the state should get off people’s backs; professionals should be able to exercise their professions without being forced to comply with centrally-imposed targets and top-down diktats. People should have choice over how they live their lives and bring up their families. In business-speak, people should be “empowered”, or, to use plain English, set free.

Policy frameworks will start to be set out when the policy groups report in the late summer, autumn and winter. However, David Cameron has made it clear that that will not be the end of the story; the party will launch “Stand Up, Speak, Up”, an initiative aimed at giving everyone in the country the opportunity to have his or her say in the development of the next Conservative manifesto.

This is radical stuff. Cameron has recognised that politics in the 21st century are different. They are less polarised, more issue-driven. Furthermore, people have different values and different imperatives; financial concerns are still important, certainly, but quality of life is more important than ever before and people will increasingly make their political choices on quality of life considerations.

Gordon Brown doesn’t understand this shift in political priorities. He is, at heart, very much an old-fashioned, top-down, command and control socialist. David Cameron, by contrast, has shown in today's speech that he is very much a Conservative, albeit one prepared to reassess and recast Conservatism in a 21st century context.

Brown, crucially, is also instinctively less willing than Cameron to trust people. That is why the political struggle that begins next week will be fascinating; and that is why, also, I believe that David Cameron will prevail.

Watch List

Wish I hadn’t blogged on the affair of Bush’s disappearing watch. Will never see the end of it.

Had a phone call yesterday from a Western Mail journo, who said that he was doing a piece about “prominent” Welsh people and their watches. Apparently, David Rosser and I both wear Rolex Oysters. He seemed to regard Rolex wearing as a suspect activity.

I look forward to the article’s publication, but my guess is that it will read something like this:

Shirley Bassey: Cartier Tank
Rhodri Morgan: Casio he bought at Cardiff Gate M4 service area
Ryan Giggs: Franck Muller Casablanca

Bryn Terfel: Breitling Chronomat
Prince Charles: George V’s half-hunter
Prince William: Rolex Submariner
Charlotte Church: pink Chopard Happy Dolphins
Rhys Ifans: doesn’t wear a watch
Peter Hain: not sure, but definitely not battery-powered.

Guido, Ergo Sum

Recognition at last! My earlier post on the Smith Institute has been mentioned in Guido’s blog.

In blogging terms, it doesn’t get better than this!

Pocket Watch

Read in the Times on the train home that the loss of the Bush watch was in fact a false alarm. Apparently, the President had removed it for safety’s sake during his gladhanding session and placed it in his pocket. This has not impressed the Albanians, who are affronted by the implicit suggestion that the streets of Fushe Kruje are full of thieves.

The President, however, asserts that he routinely removes his watch from time to time. I wish I had adopted the same practice in Naples, irrespective of any slight I might thereby have caused to that city's natives, if only to spare me from criticism from the likes of the magisterial Peter Black.

Charity Begins at Home

Today was Gordon Brown’s last Treasury Questions. I was fortunate enough to be drawn No. 5 and took the opportunity to ask a question about the Smith Institute, the registered charity that appears to have virtually set up headquarters in 11 Downing Street.

If you haven’t kept up with the Smith issue, you may want to read Guido on the subject. – he has taken an interest in it for months. Suffice it to say that the Charity Commission is investigating whether the Institute’s activities are wholly charitable and is interested in its use of No. 11.

Surprisingly – or not, whichever way you care to look at it - Gordon didn’t answer himself. He left it to his deputy, Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the Treasury. I suggested that it was odd that No. 11’s householder was apparently unwilling to answer to the House over his domestic arrangements. Timms is a nice, straightforward man and seemed uncomfortable to be asked the question, so he simply didn’t answer it.

And so we say farewell to Chancellor Brown. Next time he is at the despatch box he will be Prime Minister. But I doubt that he has heard the last of the Smith affair.

Added Value

I feel for George Bush. On a visit to Fushe Kruje, Albania, on Sunday, he apparently had his watch stolen. The Telegraph carries interesting pictures apparently showing the very moment when the President and his timepiece parted company.

Last September, on holiday in Italy, I was robbed of my 35-year-old Rolex whilst walking to the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. Happening, as it did, in the middle of the silly season, the story was fairly widely covered. It was a nice old watch, but most certainly not the collector’s piece the newspapers made it out to be. I was sorry to see it go, but grateful that neither Sara nor I was badly hurt.

Mr Bush’s watch was apparently a £25 Timex. That must be considered a nominal value, however. Its case is inscribed "George W Bush, President, January 20, 2001", which must make it worth several thousand dollars.

Keep an eye on ebay.

Grim Realisation

Talking of the deputy leadership, I have twice encountered Alan Johnson in Westminster churchyard on my way to the House in recent days.

He looks downcast, tired and glum - quite different from his normal chirpy self.

I think he realises that he has probably lost it.

Hostage to Fortune

The news that Rhodri Morgan is backing Harriet Harman in the Labour deputy leadership contest will come as no surprise to readers of this blog. I reported some time ago that Mr Morgan’s wife, Julie, who is MP for Cardiff North, is a committed Harman supporter and, in fact, signed her nomination papers.

Mr Morgan’s support for Miss Harman may well be the cause of additional tension in his relationship with Peter Hain, who is, of course, still in the running for the deputy leadership - although his prospects do not look promising at present. This may prove difficult for Mr Morgan when he bids to Parliament for the Legislative Competence Orders (LCOs) which are required if primary powers are to be devolved to the Welsh Assembly.

Under the 2006 Government of Wales Act, the Secretary of State for Wales is the gatekeeper to further devolution and has the power of life or death over LCOs. If he doesn’t want them, they won’t happen.

A reasonably cordial relationship between the S of S and the First Minister is therefore crucial. Mr Morgan’s decision to back Miss Harman will, in the circumstances, be regarded by some as courageous.

Taking the Michael

Today’s ePolitix carries a very interesting, and surprisingly candid, interview with Alun Michael, MP for Cardiff South and Penarth and former First Secretary of the Welsh Assembly. Questioned on the current state of the parties in the Assembly, Mr Michael berates Ron Davies for putting in place an “unstable” structure when designing the devolution settlement. He confides that he tried to persuade Mr Davies to set up two-member constituencies, which, he suggests, would have provided a degree of stability that is lacking in the present system.

Mr Michael is, to a certain extent, right. The d’Hondt electoral arrangements, which Ron Davies plumped for, have the arcane complexity of the Schleswig-Holstein question, which, according to Palmerston, was understood by only three men in Europe: Prince Albert, who was dead, a German professor, who had gone mad, and Palmerston himself, who had forgotten what the question was.

The d’Hondt process means that there will, almost inevitably, never be a party with an overall majority in the Assembly, unless it happens to be a stunningly good year for Labour – which 1999, the year of the first Assembly election, was. Minority government will therefore nearly always be the order of the day in Cardiff. The structures put in place by the Government of Wales Act mean that parties will have to work together. Alliances will be forged and will fall apart. That is the way it will work. And, much as he may dislike it, Alun Michael will have to live with the settlement that his party created. He may blame Ron Davies, but he was part of the same team. He shares responsibility, corporately, with Ron.

The fact is that Labour is presently going through a kind of nervous breakdown in Wales in the wake of the Assembly election. The party can’t come to terms with the hard fact that it doesn’t call the shots any more, may shortly be defeated on a confidence vote, and probably will. Alun Michael's snipes at Ron are a symptom of that breakdown. Expect more in-fighting to come.

The other three parties, meanwhile, have a duty to respond with maturity to the new political landscape. They must come to terms with the “unstable” political structure created by Ron Davies and try to make it work for the benefit of the long-suffering people of Wales, who deserve better than the second-rate public services that they presently endure.

One or more of them may decide to go into coalition with Labour. If they go into coalition together, however, good luck to them, but let that coalition be founded upon nothing less than a genuine desire to make Wales a better place for all its people.

Gordon Brown - an Apology

Regular readers (if such there be) will recall that, a few days ago, I posted a piece praising Gordon Brown for saying that he was considering allowing the use of intercept evidence in terrorist trials. The piece was headlined Well done, Gordon.

Now we hear in today’s Telegraph that the idea was in fact put forward to Tony Blair by David Cameron in a meeting held on Privy Council terms of strict confidentiality. Gordon’s announcement was made after the meeting took place.

Tony Blair has now been forced to apologise to David Cameron, who, quite reasonably, is not best pleased. Allegations have been made that Gordon “is wrecking plans for a cross-party consensus on tackling terrorism”.

In all the circumstances, I feel bound to apologise to my readers for my misguided and unwarranted approbation of Gordon Brown. It’s the first time it’s happened and I’ll try to make sure it isn’t repeated.

Becoming Bob

When I was a young lad (shades of the Hovis advert), people fell into two categories – Beatles fans and Rolling Stones fans. I was always a Stones man – they were raw, wicked and dangerous; the Beatles, for all their brilliance, never were. They looked too scrubbed and packaged.

Some time around the mid-1970s, I began to worry about what would happen after the Stones: who would take over? It was a silly worry, because, thirty years on, the Stones are still there; looking a bit embalmed, certainly, but nevertheless able to pull in a million punters in Rio.

Of course, I wasn’t to know that in 1977. Mick Jagger already appeared terrifically old. The most promising potential successor was Bob Geldof, who fronted up the Boomtown Rats. Rat Trap, I Don’t Like Mondays, Like Clockwork and Modern Girl were pretty good; not in the same league, of course, as Satisfaction or Jumpin’ Jack Flash, but still pretty good. Geldof had a hint of Jagger’s energy in his performances and even looked a bit like him in those early days.

Jagger and Geldof both went on, interestingly, to receive knighthoods – Geldof’s an honorary one only, since he is not a British national – but that is about the extent of what they have in common these days. Mick is still an out-and-out rocker, while Bob has, since the Live Aid concert of 1985, become the de facto conscience of the world.

Bob is, indeed, amazingly powerful; his intervention two years ago at the G8 Gleneagles summit helped wring a commitment out of the planet’s richest nations to do more to help the poorest. This week, he was at it again. The G8 leaders have been meeting at Heiligendamm, in Germany, and it took Bob to point out to the world that the Gleneagles promises had been far from fulfilled and that new pledges, announced with much fanfare at the Baltic resort, were considerably less generous than they appeared.

And it wasn’t just what he said; it was the way he said it.

“What happened over the last two days was bollocks," he fumed.

"The richest countries in the world, trillions of dollars swirling around that table, smiling in that stupid tent chair with the candy stripes. Do me a favour: get serious, guys. This wasn't serious; this was a farce, a total farce."

Nobody swears with such energy or to creative effect as Bob Geldof. The world leaders WILL listen to him, because he’ll embarrass the hell out of them if they don’t.

On reflection, I’m pleased that Bob didn’t become the new Mick. I’m pleased he became the new Bob. And I’m pleased, too, that Mick is still Mick.

Homeward Bound

Spoke at Oxford University Conservative Association on the way home yesterday evening, arriving at base camp just before midnight.

Listened during the journey back to my friend Patrick Mercer, who was standing in for George Galloway on talkSPORT radio. He was a complete pro - only to be expected, given his BBC background - and the show was tremendously entertaining.

Hitting the hay now; Ruthin surgery in the morning.

Thankless Task

Challenged Wales Office Minister, Nick Ainger, on Wednesday on the issue of hospital waiting times for Welsh patients. The combined target waiting time for elective orthopaedic surgery at Gobowen (i.e. for outpatient and inpatient appointments) is 16 months. For patients from England it is 31 weeks.

I asked Nick why Welsh patients, who pay their taxes at precisely the same rates as their English counterparts, should be expected to wait in pain for an extra 37 weeks. Was it a policy decision on the part of the Welsh Assembly Government, or just incompetence?

Didn’t get much of a response from Nick, but I rather felt he wanted to agree that it WAS just incompetence. I feel very sorry for him. It must be a dreadful task to stand at the despatch box, month after month, and try to come up with excuses for the dog’s breakfast that Rhodri Morgan and Co have made of health care in Wales.