‘Apathetic’ Welsh Labour MPs blasted for lack of interest in scrutiny role

I looked in vain for this story on BBC Wales and of course it's not there. BBC Wales have just got a fawning piece on Tony Blair and a crappy little stiry about councillors attending meetings by Skype. BBC Wales aren't actually a new service and someone should ask questions about how exactly they reflect 'Welsh' news.

You only need to look at some of those so-called Welsh Labour M.P's to recognise a motley crew of careerist chancers. Flynn is "old school" but at 81 still willing to do this type of work for his patch and the country, while Davies' past track record has been patchy ( e.g expenses ) but seems willing get stuck in. But where are all the other mouthy poseurs ? Too busy jostling for some other more high profile career enhancing opportunities, no doubt. Will anybody hammer home this point to the Welsh electorate, even the other parties seem a bit lame when confrontation is needed.

A continual dominance of the Left in Wales has bred apathy. Especially, in this case, as it is the unionist Left. Plaid Cymru at least have a driving passion reinforcing them in wishing to see the liberation of their country. Labour is the Welsh establishment; they could not care less about promoting true positive results in our country. Because that would mean change.

It would be really interesting to get under the bonnet of some of the Westminster Politicians in Wales and get a better understanding of what makes them tick, why they are doing it, how they got where they are, their affiliations and allegances - what sort of person they are etc. etc. They never seem to be accountable for the ways in which they vote - very few actually get to know about the things that they vote on and they hardly ever have to explain themselves publicly. We only ever see a small number of Welsh politicians - some are very quiet and almost hidden away and seem to like it that way. I looked through the list of Welsh MPs and there are quite a few of them I have never heard of - David Hanson from Delyn? Gerald Jones - Merthyr and Rumney?, Chris Ruane - Vale of Clwyd; Nick Thomas Symonds - Torfaen. I have no opinion on any of these and a few more, because I know absolutely nothing about them - never seen them on TV, radio or anywhere in the media. Another group are on TV and in the media all the time - the Ann Clwyds, Chris Bryants and Paul Flynns of this world etc and apart from Simon Hart, I'm pretty familiar with all the Tory ones - generally outspoken and controversial. If Owen Smith hadn't raised his profile over the leadership contest, then he might have been another who could have easily been remarkably silent. Before thinking about holding people accountable - we have to know who they are and we don't have a media that has much interest in doing that as we know.

Sut mae Bawb! Well, you'd expect nothing else from a load of Marxist Leninists would you: they're in power, and save that someone can come up with a way of shaking 'em out, they'll stay in power. The comments posted do show a weakness in the media to report our politics. Until we get a welsh media that reports our politics, we'll be left out (felly, da chi Nation.Cymru). The converse of that is: are we in general really interested in welsh news? Scotland has national papers: we don't. There was a campaign for a welsh daily paper about 7 (?) years ago, and i lost money on a subscription that came to nothing. However, there is room to campaign: the budget for welsh language news reporting was affected by the cuts to S4C, for the BBC is the provider of welsh language news content. If i remember correctly, Radio Cymru now runs a reduced news service owing to those cuts. However much an english language newsservice for Cymuru costs, it can be argued that a welsh language service would cost much the same; that is, a service in one language should be neither more nor less expensive - we are talking about the cost of provision. S4C's budget was cut to reflect the number of Welsh language speakers (But as the number of active welsh speakers declines, the cost of the service per HEAD increases). The instigator of the S4C cuts was a certain Nick Hunt (and we all know how flexible the english language is in pronunciation) a tory fascist discriminator against minority rights. So, Nation.Cymru now is your chance - best of luck.

I doesn't matter how diabolically Labour run Wales, they're now ahead by a large margin. Even the tories are comfortably ahead of Plaid. Plaid needs a new leader, and a relaunch, and whole new set of priorities, otherwise it's dead. No Plaid leader has been so good at getting UK-wide recognition as Leanne Wood, and yet the party is going backwards. Its message is not getting through, and its message is indistinguishable from what labour offer. If there's an election now, Plaid are down to two seats. That should set minds thinking in Ty Gwynfor. Some serious re-thinking needed, and change at the top.

Let us hope that the old adage that the effectiveness of any committee is inversely proportional to the number of its members applies (at time of writing there will be 6 of a possible 11 members the Commons Select Committee on Welsh affairs). Is the committee just a talking shop? The terms of reference of the Commons Select Committee on Welsh affairs are to examine matters within the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Wales, but since devolution that role and the role of the Wales Office have diminished and some have suggested that UK government departments responsible for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland merged or are wound up completely. Is not Wales’ inevitable underrepresentation in Commons and Lords committees scrutinising those departments of government where powers are still reserved to Westminster e.g. the various EU and Brexit Committees the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, the real issue for Wales? Wouldn't Wales be better off with full self government?

If Labour thought the Welsh vote was not automatically theirs they'd act differently.

2 out of 28 Welsh Labour MP's standing up for the interest of Wales indicates a work overload for 26 MP's or their attendance & interest in the delights of Soho or Clapham Common or maybe Keep Fit classes ! Or possibly being entertained at the Israeli Embassy to become members of the Friends of Israel ?