The Long Haul

Enjoyed an excellent evening at a supper organised by the Rhiw branch of Clwyd West Conservatives. Everyone was in high spirits, elated by the big lead in today’s Telegraph poll.

This has been an extraordinary, dramatic month, with the collapse in support for the Labour party, compounded in Wales by the evident incompetence of the Labour-nationalist coalition in the Welsh Assembly.

Everyone is determined to do whatever it takes to turf Labour out; at the same time we all recognise that it may be over two years before we have the chance to do so. Gordon won’t go to the country unless something truly catastrophic emerges during the inquiry into the Abrahams affair (which may yet happen) and the government collapses. So we’re preparing for the long haul, but in the most buoyant and confident mood I have known for many a year.

Still more

Developments coming thick and fast. The "clean breast" approach seems to be favoured by cabinet ministers.

Tonight, Peter Hain disclosed that he had failed to register a £5,000 donation from Jon Mendelsohn to his deputy leadership campaign.

Hain blamed an "administrative error" for the failure to inform the Electoral Commission about the donation.

Meltdown

The issue of the illegal donations has this evening been referred by the Electoral Commission to the Metropolitan police.

Tomorrow’s Daily Telegraph will show the Tories 11 points ahead.

It’s stating the obvious, but this is absolutely dreadful for Gordon Brown.

Virgin of the Rock

Stuck on a badly delayed Virgin Pendolino en route back to the constituency, I glumly read the Evening Standard, the excellent newspaper that is one of the principal pluses of London life.

The front page headline is depressing: "House Price Crash Fears". The Standard reports the biggest monthly fall in property prices for more than 12 years. There has also been a sharp drop in the number of mortgages granted and the governor of the Bank of England has described the economic outlook as "highly uncomfortable".

The news in the financial pages is just as bad. Lloyds TSB has apparently decided to pull out of the bidding for the Northern Rock, leaving Virgin Money with a virtually clear run.

The Virgin bid requires that the Treasury leave a loan of £11 billion of taxpayers' money outstanding with the company for the foreseeable future in order to keep it going. The collateral? Why, the Rock's mortgage portfolio, of course.

Alistair Darling must therefore hope that today's property and economic stats are only a blip.

He should also devoutly pray that Virgin prove to be better bankers than they are train operators.

At the time of writing these words, I am stationary somewhere near Flint.

Another Hammering

Another dreadful PMQs for Gordon Brown (who, for the information of fashionistas, had decided to revert to his nice lavender blue tie).

David Cameron tore into him ferociously; it was the bitterest attack I have witnessed since arriving in the House. The following gives a flavour of the onslaught:

Mr. Cameron: I have to say that the Prime Minister’s explanation beggars belief. It takes us to questions about the Prime Minister’s own integrity. Does he expect us to believe that someone whom even Labour Members believe to be a control freak was preparing for an election, sorting out the finances, sitting around the table with everyone who is caught up in the scandal, yet did not have the first idea about what was going on?

We have had 155 days of this Government: disaster after disaster, a run on a bank, half the country’s details lost in the post and now this. The Prime Minister’s excuses go from incompetence to complacency and there are questions about his integrity. Are not people rightly asking, “Is this man simply not cut out for the job?”

Brown looked punch-drunk, resorting to the straight-bat defence of saying that the matter was in the hands of the Electoral Commission and limply admitting that the treatment of the proxy donations by Labour had been unacceptable.

The noise in the House was deafening; it was frequently hard to hear the Speaker plead for order. A few Labour Members tried to take the heat out of the proceedings by bowling Gordon a few gentle deliveries, but time after time the Tories came back on the attack, including this question:

Mr. David Jones (Clwyd, West) (Con): It would appear that Baroness Jay was aware of the illegal nature of Mr. Abrahams’s donations to the Labour party long before the Prime Minister himself. Can the Prime Minister tell us which of his Cabinet colleagues shared her knowledge at the relevant time, or is it sub judice?

The Prime Minister: That is not, I believe, what Baroness Jay said, but the hon. Gentleman’s question will be a matter for the inquiry, which will examine all issues relating to this matter. Surely the right thing to do when a problem arises is to investigate it in detail, deal with it, change the procedures if necessary and, if necessary, reform political party funding—which we are prepared to do.

There’s Gordon again, resorting to the “long grass” gambit that he hopes will take the heat off for a bit.

Vincent Cable, the acting Lib Dem leader, came up with the funniest – no, the only funny – line of the session, when he referred to “the Prime Minister’s remarkable transformation in the past few weeks from Stalin to Mr. Bean”.

But Gordon wasn’t laughing, nor were his back benches. This was the third successive week for him to take a pounding at Prime Minister’s Questions. I wonder how much more of it he can stand.

Shakespearean Tragedy

Well, we now know that at least one Labour bigwig knew that David Abrahams was using proxies to make donations to the party. Baroness Margaret Jay, daughter of the late Prime Minister, Jim Callaghan, warned Hilary Benn not to accept a donation from a third party because it was in fact from Mr Abrahams. Next question: how did Baroness Jay know and how many others knew?

Last night it emerged that the sums donated by Mr Abrahams are higher than previously stated and amount to at least £673,975.

Gordon Brown must be dreading PMQs today. Not only is he likely to be savaged over the donations affair, but he will still have to contend with the ongoing nightmares of the Northern Rock and HMRC.

Labour MPs are clearly in a state of shock at the moment. Last month they were gearing up for an election they expected to win; now they are mentally battening down the hatches and preparing for a two-year slog towards an election they expect to lose.

Some are reacting in an extraordinarily brittle way; last night, a North Wales member became remarkably tetchy with me when I mildly suggested to him that his party was in a bit of a stew.

Others are more resigned. Bob Marshall-Andrews, MP for Medway, is quoted in today's Telegraph as saying: "There is a growing sense that we are part of a Shakespearean tragedy here. Blow after blow is falling; they are not in themselves related but they have a cumulative effect. The net effect is an atmosphere of inevitable and impending doom."

In the Long Grass

Gordon Brown has responded in the traditional Labour manner to the undisclosed donations scandal (which is in danger of becoming an over-used expression if present trends continue). He has, of course, called an inquiry.

Gordon has appointed the retired judge, Lord McCluskey, and the former Bishop of Oxford, Lord Harries, to advise on what changes should be made in relation to party donations. This, he doubtless hopes, will kick the whole issue into the long grass and take the heat off him for a bit. I rather doubt, however, that it will have that effect.

In the meantime, we hear from the Electoral Commission that Mr Abrahams’s fronts, Mr Ruddick, Mr McCarthy and Ms Kidd, paid a total of £608,975 to the Labour Party between January 2003 and July 2007 in tranches as large as £80,000.

It is inconceivable that Peter Watt, the former general secretary, was the only party official who knew the true identity of the donor, so I repeat: who are the others, are they still in place, and what is Gordon going to do about them?

I think we should be told

The wheels are well and truly off the Labour trolley.

Just when Gordon thought it couldn't get any worse, Labour party general secretary, Peter Watt, has resigned, following revelations in yesterday's Mail on Sunday that a Tyneside property developer, David Abrahams, had donated more than £400,000 to the party incognito, using business associates as fronts. That is a practice prohibited by law.

Tendering his resignation, Mr Watt said he was aware that Mr Abrahams was the donor, but was unaware that there were “additional reporting requirements”.

If that is indeed the case, then Mr Watt, who was no doubt paid a very large salary indeed by the Labour party specifically to be aware of such matters, was quite right to resign, since he clearly wasn't up to the job.

However, Mr Watt can't have been the only Labour party official who was aware that Mr Abrahams was making the donations and that they had not been properly recorded. Those individuals must still be in place.

What, we must ask, is Gordon going to do about them?

Immovable Objects

Gradually, the full, horrifying, significance of the HMRC foul-up is becoming clearer.

The credit reference company, Experian, has warned that children whose personal data has gone missing could be at risk of identity fraud for many years to come. Fraudsters could wait until victims turn 18 before trying to apply for credit in their name.

Compliance director Helen Lord said this could have a "catastrophic effect" on their ability to buy or rent a home or obtain a loan or credit card.

Alistair Darling, meanwhile, continues to bleat that “so far there is no evidence that the missing data has fallen into criminal hands”. Well, actually, Alistair, given that there is no evidence that it hasn’t, you will have to excuse people if they assume the worst.

The Government’s incompetence has potentially ruined the lives of millions of people in this country. Readers, may, in the circumstances, wish to consider the following exchange at last Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions:

Mr. John Randall (Uxbridge) (Con): Has any member of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet offered to resign in the last two weeks?

The Prime Minister: No—and nor should they.

Wasn't Bourn Yesterday

The HMRC scandal is rapidly developing into a full-blown cover-up story.

Today’s Telegraph reports that HMRC director, Neil Jordan, was copied in on e-mails revealing the decision not to remove crucial personal details from the records sent to the National Audit Office – which tends to cast doubt on the impression given by Alistair Darling to the Commons that the whole cock-up arose as a result of an unauthorised frolic on the part of a “junior HMRC official”.

The Telegraph also contends that the sensitive information could have been removed from the records at a cost of only £5,000.

There will undoubtedly be hard questions lobbed across the chamber when the House meets again on Monday.

All this is bad for the Government, of course, but what will really unnerve No. 10 is the fact that the NAO is refusing to substantiate the line that has been put out by the Treasury hitherto. Sir John Bourn, the head of the NAO, apparently authorised the latest revelations - showing that he has no intention of letting his department play the patsy.

Scotland Expects

As if things weren’t already bad enough for Gordon, now the Navy has turned its guns on him.

Speaking in a Lords debate today, Admiral Lord Boyce, former chief of the defence staff, said that the PM had treated the armed services with "contempt" and "disinterest". He was particularly critical of the decision to appoint Des Browne to the dual role of Defence and Scottish Secretary.

Lord Boyce said:

“It is seen as an insult by our sailors, our soldiers and our airmen on the front line.

"And I know because I have reason to speak to them a lot. And it is certainly a demonstration of the disinterest and some might say contempt that the Prime Minister and his government have for our armed forces.

"And it shows an appalling lack of judgment at a time when our people are being killed and they are being maimed."

He might also have added for good measure that it is a bit of an insult to the people of Scotland that their representation at Westminster is seen as something that Des Browne can take care of in a spare half hour after lunch. So much for Gordon’s much-vaunted championship of the Union.

Sacrificial Lamb

The HMRC affair looks extraordinarily nasty from the Government’s perspective.

On Tuesday, Alistair Darling told the House that the missing CD-ROMs had been sent from HMRC to the National Audit Office by a “junior official”.

Today, Theresa May told the House that, in fact, senior HMRC officials had approved the transfer. She also challenged Darling’s claim that the banks had asked for more time before making the cock-up public. Crucially, she demanded that the Government “tell the truth” over the affair, which is a heavy thing to do in the House of Commons, given the implication of mendacity.

In the meantime, we hear that the hapless “junior official” is facing the sack. He apparently earns only £12,500 a year. If his pay grade is that low, surely the person facing the chop should be whoever should have been supervising him, and so on up the line.

To expect acknowledgement of ministerial responsibility by any member of this Government would, of course, be out of the question.

Fashion Notes

Another mauling for Gordon at PMQs.

I see that he has abandoned his “lucky” lavender blue tie, probably on the basis that he found it wasn’t lucky at all, and has reverted to a traditional, old Labour, bright red number.

That’s not lucky, either.

Bang to rights

I have blogged previously about the unpleasantness of negotiating Victoria Street every morning, owing to the thousands of globs of discarded chewing gum that pepper the pavement.

Since the smoking ban, this unpleasant state of affairs has been worsened considerably by discarded cigarette butts.

This morning, I noticed that by far the greatest concentration of this new urban filth was outside No. 39, a large office block. There was no sign over the door to indicate which organisation occupied it.

Arriving at my office, I Googled “39 Victoria Street” in an attempt to discover who the culprits might be.

And guess what I found?

Groundhog Day

Ever see Groundhog Day? That's the movie in which Bill Murray keeps waking up and finding it's the same day as yesterday. It's a comedy.

That's the way Alistair Darling must feel. Only, in his case, it's not a comedy.

Yesterday, Alistair came to the Commons and fessed up to the Northern Rock disaster. He got a good kicking. Today, he came to the Commons and fessed up to the HMRC disaster. He explained that the personal details – NI numbers, addresses, dates of birth – of virtually every family in the country had got lost in the post. He got a good kicking again.

I almost felt sorry for Alistair. But not quite. He deserved the kicking, but Gordon deserved it even more. He was, after all, in charge of the Treasury for more than ten years.

In Portcullis House, I bumped into a lobby journalist, a man who's seen it all, twice over.

“Imploding,” he said. “The government's imploding. It's just like Major. They won't see this Parliament through.”

I nodded in agreement, but uncertainly. I do think they are imploding. But I remember that the Major government lasted a full five years.

Boulevardiers

The government’s ambition to establish a “continental-style café culture” in Britain appears, at least in one respect, to have been realised - if not to the extent of making the streets of our towns and cities pleasanter places to be after dark.

Walking this morning down a perishingly cold Victoria Street, I noticed that the open-air tables on the pavement outside a coffee shop were packed. With smokers.

Rock Bottom

Congratulations to BBC business editor Robert Peston, who this morning broke the story that has dominated today's news agenda, namely that the government has made a deferred "secret" loan to the Northern Rock that may never be repaid.

The loans paid by the Bank of England to the Rock currently amount to £24 billion. This is repayable at the rate of 5.75 per cent. However, Peston has revealed that there is a further “premium” loan at a rate of 1.25 per cent payable by the Rock to the Treasury, and not to the Bank. This loan has a minimum term to maturity of five years. Peston calculates that interest on the premium loan could amount to £500 million over two years.

Today, in the House, George Osborne accused Alistair Darling of “misleading the public” by failing to disclose the deal. Darling, however, defended his decision not to provide a “running commentary” on the loans to the Rock and said that the sums due to the Treasury were “nothing like” Peston's estimate.

The fact remains that the Rock affair is causing considerable damage to the government, with Darling, previously regarded as a relatively safe pair of hands, looking vulnerable. Crucially, he did not deny that taxpayers may not get all their money back.

Gordon Brown has spent the last ten years trumpeting that the finances of the nation are safe in Labour's hands – a claim no previous Labour chancellor was able to make. The Rock fiasco looks set to put paid to that boast, and maybe also to the career of Alistair Darling.

Jonah

The accolade for quote of the day must go to the Prime Minister's spokesman, explaining why Gordon will not be attending England's crucial qualifier against Croatia at Wembley on Wednesday:

"Some people have argued he's not necessarily been the best of omens."

And extra chips, please

It has long been a standing joke that the English national dish is chicken tikka masala. However, yesterday I obtained what appears to be proof positive that there is no such thing as English cuisine.

Over the weekend, the latest edition of the doorstep-sized Thomson Local Directory for central London had been delivered. Flicking through it, I noticed that the first three entries under “Restaurants – English” were:

Aberdeen Steak House

American Café Bar Restaurant
Angus Steak House.

I didn't read on.

Obstacle course

Long, slow journey this evening to Euston, where I found, to my less than total delight, that the Victoria line wasn't working. Lengthy detour via the Northern and Circle lines. Why is weekend travel so miserable in this country?

Read the Sunday Times cover to cover during the journey and was impressed by this article by Simon Jenkins, which I commend for its excellent analysis of the corporate governmental paranoia that is destroying civil liberties in the UK.

Saw a bit of David Aaronovitch's programme on Blair, but found it contained nothing new, so turned in (relatively) early.

Sea change

Wall-to-wall bad news for Gordon Brown and Labour in the Sundays.

The Observer tells of David Miliband’s unhappiness over Gordon’s rewriting of chunks of Miliband’s pro-European speech last week (which, in my view, was still far too integrationist even after Gordon’s tweaks).

The Mail reports politically embarrassing links between Gordon’s interesting Foreign Office appointment, Lord Malloch-Brown, and a left-wing anti-Bush charity.

The Telegraph tells us that “A rising note of panic surrounds Number 10”.

And, most devastatingly, a YouGov poll for the Times reports that Gordon’s poll ratings have plunged to an all-time low. His personal approval figures have slumped in a month from +30 to -10.

It all looks pretty bloody for the PM. The weakness he showed over the pulled general election has caused him deep damage. His government looks directionless and unmotivated and there are clearly big internal divisions (I would be surprised if David Miliband was not the direct or indirect source of the Observer story).

At the same time, David Cameron is displaying enormous confidence, with policy announcement after policy announcement. He has found his line at PMQs and makes Gordon look a ninny at almost every outing.

Put simply, and as dispassionately as I can, I believe that we are witnessing a sea change in British politics last seen in the couple of years prior to the 1997 election. Gordon must expect months of similarly bad headlines. It’s not going to get better for him.

Easy Mistake

Today I visited Ysgol Llandrillo yn Rhos, which recently won the platinum award as an eco-school.

I was shown round by head teacher, Liam Maloney, who made sure that I called in on every class in the school.

Entering one classroom, Liam announced: “We have a very special guest here today. Does anyone recognise this gentleman?”

An eager boy shot up his hand.

“Is he the man who has come to level the sports field?”

Close, but not quite.

That figures

Adam Applegarth, Chief Executive of the Northern Rock, has resigned.

He will, however, stay on until the end of January as an adviser, while the bank negotiates a takeover process.

Am I missing something?

Small Change

Ian Parri – a writer with whom I usually have little sympathy – makes a very fair point in today’s Daily Post. Writing about the Welsh Assembly Government's £13.5 million bail-out of Cardiff’s Millennium Centre, he comments:

“Any other business that failed to pay its way on such a scale would be told to shut up shop and sell its assets to somebody better qualified to make a go of it.”

I have to say that I share Parri’s bafflement as to why so much public money (indeed, any public money at all) should be employed in propping up such a disastrously loss-making white elephant. On the other hand, it’s buttons when compared with the £40 billion of our money that Labour have pledged to shore up the Northern Rock, so perhaps we should feel grateful.

South Wales Blunderers

Jill Evans, who is a Plaid Cymru MEP, says that the party should not support the proposed tri-service defence academy at St Athan and that the development would be “inconsistent with the spirit of its defence policy and pacifist vision for Wales.”

An independent Wales, she says, should “slash” spending on defence and pull out of NATO.

It’s news to me that Plaid has any sort of defence policy at all, but I’m sure Ms Evans’s interesting views will delight the people of the Vale of Glamorgan, for whom the academy will be a major economic boost.

Ahead at Half Time

I am pleased to see that Denbighshire planning committee has rejected an application for permission to construct a 13 turbine wind farm on Mwdwl Eithin, near Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr. I personally lodged an objection to the proposal, which, among other things, would have destroyed a fine prospect on the road between Ruthin and Cerrigydrudion.

The battle is not over, however, and no doubt a planning appeal will be lodged. That is when the real problems will arise, because of the Welsh Assembly’s notorious Technical Advice Note 8, the application of which has already resulted in other inappropriate wind farm developments going forward against the wishes of local communities.

TAN 8 is a vile document that should be scrapped. I hope that Labour and their Plaid Cymru helpers will have the bottle to do so.

Right flank exposed

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, has spoken out on the issue of prison overcrowding. Addressing the Howard League for Penal Reform, the Chief said:

"Unless Parliament is prepared to provide whatever resources are necessary to give effect to the sentences that judges choose, in their discretion, to impose, Parliament must re-examine the legislative framework for sentencing.

"I do not believe that these simple propositions have been fully appreciated by those responsible for formulating criminal policy."

Justice Secretary Jack Straw said that he welcomed this “important contribution”.

Much in the same way, no doubt, that Napoleon welcomed the important contribution of Blücher to the battle of Waterloo.

Grumpy Gordon

Gordon Brown’s performances at PMQs get no better. He comes across as bad-tempered and petulant.

Today, he was asked repeatedly by David Cameron to say when he was told by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith that thousands of illegal immigrants had been found to have been employed in various sensitive security positions, including guarding the Prime Ministerial car.

Of course, David’s purpose in asking the question was to unearth whether Jacqui had kept the difficulties to herself – showing her to have been unforthcoming toward her own Prime Minister – or whether Gordon had been complicit in her attempt to keep the problems out of the press.

Gordon refused repeatedly to answer the question, despite Tory cries of “when?”, preferring instead to say that Jacqui had been “focused on getting on with the job”.

One can’t blame Gordon for not wanting to answer the question (although his refusal did make him look shifty), but one can fault him for his grumpy, humourless demeanour. He really has to learn to live with his new role and try to adopt some of Tony Blair’s better attributes, most notably his coolness under fire. At this rate, he won’t last the course.

Muzzled (2)

Since penning my last post, I have noticed this entry in David Cornock's blog.

As one who was involved in the events reported, I can confirm that the Wales Office's account is utter baloney.

Muzzled

The Welsh Grand Committee is a rather esoteric body. It consists of all the Welsh MPs, with a few additional members, my colleague Cheryl Gillan being one. It meets irregularly and infrequently – usually no more than a couple of times a year – to debate national affairs from a Welsh perspective. It consequently fulfils an important function.

The last item of business on last Wednesday’s order paper was a motion to convene the Grand Committee on 14 November, for the purpose of discussing the Comprehensive Spending Review and the Welsh elements (of which there are many) of the Queen’s Speech. At the last moment, the motion was pulled by the government. The Grand Committee will consequently not be meeting tomorrow.

There are those who say that the establishment of the Welsh Assembly has rendered the Grand Committee otiose. I am not one of that number. The Welsh Assembly currently has secondary powers only. It will not acquire significant primary powers for some time yet; it may never do so. Even if and when it does, those powers will be highly circumscribed.

Wales has its own distinctive interests in those parts of our national life that are, and always will be, determined at Westminster. It is therefore essential that the Grand Committee should continue to meet. By cancelling this week’s meeting, the government appears to be signalling that it takes the view that Wales should be deprived of its own critical voice at Westminster.

That's better

Nice to see that Gordon has decided to abandon his former sartorial stubbornness and wear a white tie and tails at the Lord Mayor's banquet tonight.

He looks a proper British gentleman.

Georgia on my mind

One of the most disturbing moments of Kubrick's 1971 movie A Clockwork Orange occurs when the psychotic anti-hero, Alex, accompanied by his “droogs”, bursts into the house tellingly named “Home” and savagely assaults its elderly owners. The sequence is rendered all the more chilling by the fact that, throughout the attack, Alex is nonchalantly humming Singin' in the Rain and wearing an incongruously comic mask.

I was reminded of Clockwork Orange by the above photograph of a Georgian riot policeman, sent onto the streets of Tbilisi last week by President Mikhail Saakashvili to put down anti-government demonstrators.

The body and weaponry are those of a Star Wars storm trooper.

The face, horrifyingly, is that of Mickey Mouse.

Wot, no motto?

According to today's Times, Gordon's latest wheeze is to introduce a national motto that defines Britishness. Daniel Finkelstein tells us that the motto will be chosen by a “citizens' summit” of 1,000 ordinary people, rather than highly-paid consultants. Members of the public will be invited to supply a five- or six-word slogan, perhaps based on the idea of fair play or national pride.

Everything Gordon does in relation to his “British” agenda simply underlines his own clunky lack of self-confidence. Three months ago it was Union Jacks on every flagpole, now it's mottoes.

Fact is, we don't need a motto. Ancient, established nations don't. New countries need them to project a halting sense of identity. Thus, the newly-minted United States came up with In God We Trust, while revolutionary France produced Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.

The only reason Gordon now wants us to have a motto is that he and Tony have done such constitutional damage to our country that he thinks its identity needs to be redefined.

But we Brits don't do mottoes. We're a unique nation, four in one, not a burger bar. There again, I'm Lovin' It has a certain ring to it.

Essential Difference

Yesterday, the Welsh Affairs Select Committee announced that it is to undertake an inquiry into “cross-border” public services. The inquiry will investigate such matters as health provision, broadcasting, higher education and civil service salaries. Some of these issues are devolved, others not.

One of the catalysts of the inquiry is the recent controversy over neurosurgery in North Wales (see this blog passim).

This morning, I went on Good Morning Wales to explain the background to the inquiry. I was joined by Nerys Evans, a Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly member. Asked by the interviewer, Rhun ap Iorwerth, if she recognised concerns over the Assembly's proposals to provide neurosurgery services in Swansea, rather than at Walton, Miss Evans avoided answering directly, by saying that Wales, as a nation, should be self-sufficient in medical services.

Her answer ignored the hard fact, put to her by Rhun, that it would be financially impossible to provide fully-functioning neurosurgery services in North Wales, given the relatively small population of the region. It also illustrated the essential difference between Welsh Conservatism, which is localist and Unionist, and Welsh nationalism, which is driven above all by dogma.

There is no border between Wales and England, nor should there ever be. We in North Wales have for many years been well served by Walton, Broad Green, Alder Hey and the many other world class centres of medical excellence in north-west England. If devolution means anything, in the sense of bringing services closer to the people, it should ensure that North Wales patients continue to enjoy those services; anything else would not in truth be devolution, but merely narrow nationalism.

Battle Joined

Today's State Opening of Parliament was as magnificent as ever. We assembled in the splendour of the Lords' chamber, rendered all the more dazzling by the TV lights, to hear Her Majesty read the Gracious Speech from the throne. There were no surprises, however, because the contents of the speech had been flagged up by Gordon in July, when he was clearing the way for the election that never was.

The coming session is likely to be dominated by the EU Reform Treaty Bill, which will be fought tooth and nail by the Conservatives and is likely to be the subject of substantial Labour rebellion. There will be much debate and many late sittings. It will be exhausting, but it could prove Gordon's undoing.

I can hardly wait.

Rocked

Alistair Darling was on the Today programme this morning, getting a savaging from John Humphrys over the N