Zombie Ministries

Ministry of apologies

It’s a mass delusion. The Wales Office and Scotland Office have virtually died. There is an occasional flicker of life but there is no hope that they will ever recover from their deep comas.

Yet politicians happily play the game of the living dead and cling on to the offices of Secretaries of State for Wales and for Scotland. At lunchtime today on BBC Wales Richard Evans show I battled with Elfyn Llwyd. He is outraged by the entirely sensible suggestion that one supreme Secretary of State for the nations should be created with a seat in the cabinet. One strong single dedicated voice for the nations rather than three part-time ones who are burdened with other duties.

Peter Hain moonlighted at Welsh Secretary with 50 civil servants in the odd minutes when he was not grappling with his day job at Works and Pensions with 109,000 civil servants. Des Browne is in charge of two wars and 50,000 civil servants, so he has little time to bother about Scotland where he has 40 civil servants.

There was one telling hesitation in today’s discussion. Richard Evans asked Elfyn what the Wales Office does now. After spluttering a little he came up with a burble about liaising with other Government departments. A listener rang in with a more plausible reply. She said that every time she contacted the Wales Office they passed her on to the Assembly. So that what they do, tell callers they have no job and pass queries on the Welsh Assembly (6,000 civil servants).

Elfyn praised Paul Murphy the present one and a half job Welsh Secretary. ‘His door is always open’ said Elfyn. Understandable. The poor chap hopes someone will drop in for a chat because he has nothing to do.

There is a danger that these posts of Secretaries of State will become as meaningless as the Warden of the Cinque Ports. Grand titles, nice uniform but everyone will have forgotten what job they are supposed to be doing.

Come on Elfyn. You know that power has shifted down the M4 from Westminster to Cardiff. Stop pretending otherwise.

Double view

Went for a glorious walk today on the Ridgeway at All-yr-yn with one of my grandchildren.

 

To my children a generation ago, this was Pogle’s Wood where we re-enacted the antics of the Pogle Family. To my Grandson, it is Narnia, where he is Prince Caspian and he expels goblins and seeks the faraway tree.

The Ridgeway marks the Northern high point of Newport. There are glorious views across the city and the channel to Somerset in the south. To the north is the Ynys-y-fro lake and the Twm Barlwm carn on the top of the Gwent tundra.

All this within a few minutes of the heart of the city of Newport.

Ahhhh!