Division

Welsh Lib Dems have come under fire for their No vote on an amendment to the Queen’s Speech proposed last night by the nationalist parties and the Green Party asking for Trident to be included in its Strategic Defence and Security Review.

The amendment was voted down 27-330. Ayes included all three Plaid’s MPs, Caroline Lucas the Green MP and Welsh Labour MPs Paul Flynn, Nia Griffydd, Dai Havard and Siân James.

Welsh Lib Dems Mark Williams and Roger Williams voted against the amendment.

This morning Elfyn Llwyd said: “I am quite frankly aghast that two of the three Welsh Liberal Democrats have gone against their convictions, and their previous commitments that Trident should be included in the strategic defence review - if not scrapped altogether.

“At a time when they are part of a government telling us that we must leave no stone unturned in finding cuts to make, they are happy to splurge £100billion of money that we apparently don’t have, on an immoral weapon that we will never use.”

He goes on to bitterly attack both Williams’.

Trident was specifically named by Mark Williams in a statement during the campaign as an area the Lib Dems would look to cut so that it would have no knock on effect to Welsh funding.

It’s worth pointing out Plaid Cymru have been accused of similar hypocrisy over their coalition at the Assembly...well, they are politicians after all...

Dewi Tri

And the nominees are..

Choosing Select Committee Chairs is a long and drawn out process - and I'm not an expert in the ins-and-outs of it!

I do know however that the Welsh Affairs Select Committee will be chaired by a Conservative and as the nomination process draws to a close the only Conservative (or indeed Member) to be nominated for the Chair of Politics Cymru's favourite committee at Westminster is Mr David Davies of Monmouth.

Guto Bebb and Alun Cairns are among his backers.

The elections are being held tomorrow so there's still time for any other keen Conservatives to put their names forward - but I wonder if they will? Given Mr Davies' backing for the True Wales campaign, I can't imagine he's going to be many devolutionists' favourite choice...

The House of Commons has a full list of all Select Committee Nominations (up to the end of yesterday) together with their list of nominators. Nominations close tonight.

Dewi Tri

Podcast #25: 3 Dewis, 2 cameras, 1 vodcast!

After months of thinking about it we've finally got around to doing a Politics Cymru video podcast (or vodcast?) and for those of you who didn't see us coming out of the closet on S4C during the Eisteddfod week, at long last you can now put a face to a Dewi!

Plenty to talk about as usual this week including the European elections and Gordon Brown's troubles.

All this as well as the usual fun and games in this PC VP!

And what do you think of Dewi Tri's hair-related concerns before the cameras started rolling?!



So what do you think?
Send us your suggestions for venues we could visit in the capital to record future video podcasts!

Y Tri Dewi

Motion for Dissolution of Parliament

“That this House requests the Prime Minister to seek a dissolution of the present Parliament”

That's the motion Plaid and the SNP have put before Westminster today. It's due to be debated in Parliament shortly.

Here's what Plaid's leader in Westminster, Elfyn Llwyd has been saying:

"Plaid Cymru and the SNP are giving Parliament the chance to give the people back their say – and this can only be the beginning of a shake-up in the political system. We need reform of MPs' expenses, the first-past-the-post system, a fully elected House of Lords, a fixed term Parliament, and in Wales, a referendum on full law-making powers."

But will the big man be there? Mr Llwyd's not too sure:

"With such an important debate, I would presume that the Prime Minister would be in attendance, especially given the current amount of interest in Parliament and from the media.

"However, unfortunately the Prime Minister has a record of not being around when the going gets tough - and tomorrow may be no different."

Plaid promise us, "this debate will be a reflection of the extent of concern currently surrounding the state of Parliament as expressed by the public. " Not sure we should be expecting egg-throwing but it should be quite exciting!

We'll keep you up to date here on Politics Cymru and on Twitter.

*Update :15:25

In response to Gordon Brown's statement this morning, Mr Llwyd said:

"The proposed reforms are overdue but at least this is a start and I’m pleased that the impetus is now there to get things moving. We will repeat calls this afternoon for the dissolution of Parliament and a General Election. Reforms need to be implemented but through an inclusive and wider discussion process. "

The Prime Minister announced this morning that a referendum to change the voting system could take place - but only after the next General Election. He also told MPs a debate on legislation regarding MPs' code of conduct in light of recent revelations would also happen.

"Plaid have emphasised the need for a referendum to give the public a say on important democratic issues including: the present voting system, the power of the Whips, the Royal prerogative and calling for a fixed term parliament," said Mr Llwyd.

"Real electoral and expenses reform at Westminster is long overdue, but by addressing these measures we can begin to rebuild the public’s trust," he added.

Predictably the Plaid MP for Dwyfor and Meirionydd has also pre-empted a defeat in the Commons tonight when the Plaid/SNP motion is due to be voted upon:

"Even if we lose the vote tonight, we will have sparked a debate about the wider constitutional issues as Mr Brown has already demonstrated," said Mr Llwyd.

Dewi Dau