The suffragettes and the Welsh Grand Committee
Date with destiny: The Welsh Parliamentary Party gets down to business
Sadly, the London Underground dispute kept me away from the first historic meeting of the WPP this century.
Fortunately, colleagues were there to keep me in the loop about a meeting held due to frustration that plans to cut the numbers of Welsh MPs from 40 to 30 have not had a greater airing.
Specifically, the Secretary of State for Wales, Cheryl Gillan, has rejected requests to hold a meeting of the Welsh Grand Committee to discuss the issue. So one committee - the WPP - met to demand a meeting of another - the WPP.
Few things annoy MPs more than a threat to their own job - or a perceived attempt to silence them.
Aberavon Labour MP Hywel Francis said that today's meeting was part of the same democratic process as the Chartists and Suffragettes: "Today we are standing of the shoulders of these people."
No-one, to my knowledge, has ever thrown themselves in front of a horse to secure a meeting of the Welsh Grand Committee but you can see why opposition MPs are angry.
Cardiff North MP Jonathan Evans was the only one of eight Welsh Tory MPs to turn up. Cheryl Gillan, as MP for Chesham and Amersham, is not a member, although her ears were probably burning throughout.
Former Wales Office Minister Wayne David said that since Cheryl Gillan became the Secretary of State for Wales "the voice of the Wales Office has not been strong enough, and that is very worrying indeed.....it is no longer regarded as a serious player in London."
The former Secretary of State, Peter Hain, said: "The Wales Office is the political voice for Wales in Westminster, and it saddens me that this is not happening."
Plaid Cymru's parliamentary leader, Elfyn Llwyd said: "the last time so little regard was given to the voice of Welsh Parliamentarians was before the drowning of the village of Capel Celyn."
The meeting agreed to write a letter to Cheryl Gillan asking her to work with them "to improve the scrutiny of issues of imporance for Wales......through established bodies such as the Welsh Grand Committee".
There was a similar tone to exchanges during Questions to the Secretary of State for Wales.
Peter Hain told his successor: "You failed to stand up for S4C, you failed to stand up for the defence training college, you failed to stand up for the Anglesey energy island, you
failed to stand up for the Severn barrage, you got a terrible deal for Wales out
of the comprehensive spending review.
"I'm sorry to say you are failing Wales abysmally. If you are not going to fight for Welsh jobs, you shouldn't be in your job."
The planned reduction in the number of Welsh MPs did crop up during Prime Minister's Question Time, when Chris Ruane, from the Vale of Clwyd, complained that any savings would be lost by the cost of creating more peers.
David Cameron pointed out that his constituency contains rather fewer voters than it will in future: "I'm just going to have to ask you to work a little harder."
Hello. I'm David Cornock and I'm parliamentary correspondent for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Wales. This is the blog for the latest news and gossip from the Westminster village - with a Welsh accent.
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