Wales@Westminster weblog

It's Wales@Westminster weblog, BBC Wales' Parliamentary correspondent David Cornock's diary on political life. It's a two-way process though, so add your comments too.

Wednesday 5 November

Reshuffled pack
posted by David | 1432 GMT |

Nothing gets people inside a political village more excited than a reshuffle. Who's up, who's down - political anoraks get carried away by the soap opera of party politics.

We sometimes forget that reshuffles usually involve someone few people have heard of leaving a job even fewer people knew they did to take on a role fewer still knew existed.

The smaller an institution, the bigger the excitement. Plaid Cymru's assembly leader Ieuan Wyn Jones reshuffled his "shadow cabinet" today.

I'll spare you the details of the changes but the shadow cabinet contains 11 of the party's 12 AMs.

Alun Ffred Jones - the only Plaid Cymru AM not in the shadow cabinet - gets the consolation of leading the party's local government election campaign.

Welsh politics is so inclusive these days that all must have prizes.

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Howard's Welshness
posted by David | 1020 GMT |

Is Michael Howard Welsh? He may have been born in Gorseinon, but as the Duke of Wellington said, being born in a stable doesn't make you a horse. (Dafydd Wigley was born in Derby but he's always seemed Welsh to me).

Michael Howard grew up in Llanelli, where his father settled after leaving Romania, but he hasn't lived there for 44 years and his political base is in Kent.

He's a Liverpool FC fan, although he has been known to admit to a slight affection for Swansea City - as if growing up a Tory in Llanelli wasn't challenging enough.

Mr Howard's campaign launch mentioned his roots, but avoided the words "Wales", "Welsh" or "Llanelli". He is unlikely to emphasise his Welshness in a contest where the entire electorate is based in England.

He's promised to run a party for "all of Britain" but has yet to give an interview to any Welsh media. Should we still refer to him as Welsh? What do you think? Let me know.

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