Scotland 8, Wales 1

There's a piece on Golwg360 today that I thought I'd highlight for those who rely on English-language media:

In essence Cheryl Gillan has been appointed to only one cabinet committee, the Home Affairs Committee, but her Scottish counterpart Danny Alexander has been appointed to a total of eight committees.

Peter Hain said that this means Wales has no voice on the committees that matter most to Wales, particularly the Legislation Committee and Business Committee, which deal with Assembly requests for transfer of powers to Cardiff.

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Details of the membership of the ten cabinet committees are in this document issued by the Cabinet Office.

As we can see, Scottish Secretary Danny Alexander attends most of these committees "in his role providing Ministerial support to the Deputy Prime Minister in the Cabinet Office" but nonetheless he is there ... not just as a voice, but as a pair of ears and eyes to make sure that Scotland's interests (or at least his perception of Scotland's interests) are not ignored. This might be one explanation for why Scotland has continued to receive favourable financial treatment (for example the release of the fossil fuel levy, worth £185m to Scotland) that will go some way to offset the cuts announced this week; while at the same time the ConDem coalition has announced it intends to do absolutely nothing to redress the £300m shortfall in Wales' funding identified by the Holtham Commission.

This complete lack of knowledge about Wales' position was highlighted again yesterday when Paymaster General Francis Maude confused the Holtham Commission with the All Wales Convention, as reported here.

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Such ignorance is perhaps understandable. To most politicians in Westminster Wales is a small, far away part of the UK which they can't really be expected to have much knowledge about. But that is why Tory and LibDem MPs from Wales need to be up on their feet, kicking up a fuss that their own leaders will not be able to ignore. What else are they there for, if not to represent Wales' interests?

But not one of them is doing that. They all seem to be much too busy passing down the message about how "caring" their leaders are being as they impose the cuts.