News

The main preoccupation for MPs on the first day back in Parliament was different to that of the Media. For many of us the big issue was how to protect our children from being lured into smoking – and as the Health Bill came back before the House of Commons for its Report Stage, we had the chance to act. By the end of the night we had voted to ban cigarettes from being displayed in shops and to ban the use of vending machines for selling cigarettes.

It came as no surprise - everybody knew that the big decision in Welsh politics was imminent - but Rhodri Morgan’s decision to stand down as First Minister still commanded all the Welsh headlines last week. I was pleased to pay a personal tribute to Rhodri during Welsh Night at the Labour Party Conference because we have been friends for many years.

I'm not sure whether the Party conference season Is the most interesting part of the political year, but it is certainly the most tiring. This is an experience like no other, with thousands and thousands of people crammed into a small space talking non-stop about politics for days on end. I know for some people that would be considered a 'cruel and unusual punishment', but I love every minute of it. It's not really about the set-piece speeches but about hundreds of discussions and fringe meetings in which ordinary members talk about the big issues and chew away at future policies.

The Philip Lawrence Awards celebrate the memory of the murdered head teacher, Philip Lawrence by rewarding the community work of young people. It’s an incredibly powerful statement by his family that even his death could not extinguish his lifelong belief in the talent and goodness of the majority of young people.

Several people in Cardiff South and Penarth have recently told me that they are worried about their online security. As more and more of our daily lives move on to the internet people are worried about their personal information falling into the hands of criminals.

I have said it before and I will say it again, good ideas often have a starting point in Wales. It seems now that we are even exporting people to other parts of the world to have good ideas.

In a controversial comment which made the front pages, our Chief Constable Barbara Wilding raises a very serious issue. The headline was: Assisted suicide law ‘will threaten elderly’.

Two old men in British prisons have been in the news this month - provoking big questions about justice. Ronnie Biggs and Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, both terminally ill, have been allowed home to die with their own families – but only after massive controversy.

You don't get organisations that are much more respectable than the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the Magistrates Association. Yet this week, they got involved in an unseemly brawl - and as a member of the Justice Select Committee, I found myself calling on both of them to calm down.

A constituent - a pensioner - asked me to lift the restrictions on concessionary bus passes. “When my English friends come to visit me, I travel free on the bus but they can’t. And when I visit them, they travel free and I can’t”. I was pleased to tell him that - as a member of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee – I had made exactly that argument, and it is a clear recommendation in our recent report on cross-border transport issues.