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Comprehensive Spending Review

I welcome the news that the Prince of Wales is soon to become a father-in-law and that the happy couple intend to live in north Wales, where I know they will receive a warm welcome, not least from their new MP, my hon. Friend the Member for Ynys Môn, who is chairing the Committee this afternoon. May I thank the Secretary of State for allowing a meeting of the Welsh Grand Committee? How wrong we all were to think she is frightened of Welsh Grand meetings—she clearly loves them. She will have noticed in her inbox the letter to the Prime Minister by three former Secretaries of State for Wales—my right hon. Friends the Members for Cardiff South and Penarth and for Torfaen, and myself. In it we argue that the current occupants of the Wales Office are presiding over a period when relations between our countries, and their now separate Administrations, are at rock-bottom. We express our concern to the Prime Minister that his Administration appear ignorant of, or indifferent to, the needs of Wales. The Secretary of State and the Economic Secretary today have shown a curious combination of Welsh wizardry, Irish folklore and Greek mythology on the economy. The Secretary of State has been telling tall stories about the British economy and Labour’s record in office—particularly in terms of the impact on Wales. The Government keep pointing their finger at Ireland and Greece and muttering, ““There but for the grace of God, and the genius of George Osborne, goes the United Kingdom””. The truth is that Britain’s position is as different from Ireland’s and Greece’s as chalk is from cheese. The much lower yields on UK Government bonds since the credit crunch bear eloquent testimony to that—a point that the Economic Secretary was clearly ignorant of. Right the way through this crisis, UK Government bonds have been much, much lower than those of other countries and have been on a downward trend.