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Guto Bebb (Aberconwy) (Con): Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for calling me to make my maiden speech. After sitting in the House for seven hours yesterday, I can say that there is only one thing more nerve-wracking than being called upon to make one's maiden speech-sitting on the Bench for seven hours and not being called to make one's maiden speech.
Before I pay tribute to my constituency, Aberconwy, I must say that I am proud to stand here as the first elected Member for the constituency, which is a new construct for this Parliament. My right hon. Friend the Leader of the House came up to Aberconwy during the election campaign to offer me support. I am sure that hon. Members from both sides of the House have had the experience of a senior politician coming to support them. We were walking along the promenade in Llandudno, which is the most beautiful promenade in Wales, and probably in Britain, and my right hon. Friend asked me about the arithmetic in the constituency. When I informed him that Aberconwy had 44,000 electors, he immediately said, "Oh well, your seat will be abolished, won't it?" That was before I had won the election. If that is how prominent politicians are supposed to help candidates, then I am not sure that was the case in that instance. He left me dumbfounded and went off on the cable car that takes people up from the promenade to the Great Orme, a visit that I would recommend to anyone.
Aberconwy is built upon two constituencies-the Conwy constituency and the former Meirionnydd Nant Conwy constituency. I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to my two predecessors in those constituencies. Mrs Betty Williams was the Member for Conwy and she served the constituency with distinction for 13 years. Even though I stood against her in 2005 and disagreed with her time after time, on every doorstep in Conwy I was told that if I was as good a constituency MP as Mrs Williams, I would do well. I will aspire to ensure that I do serve the area as well as Mrs Betty Williams did.
More importantly, Mrs Betty Williams has recently published her memoirs in Welsh, and, being a first language Welsh speaker, I have had the pleasure of reading them. What shines through is the fact that she embarked upon a political career for the right reasons. She was a quarryman's daughter, and she served local communities on district and county councils and stood for Parliament on four occasions before she won. Throughout, her commitment was for the right reasons. She wanted to serve her people and she wanted to make sure that her Labour party views were expressed in the House. For that, I respect her very much indeed, and I hope that I will be able to do as good a job on behalf of my constituents as she did.
The Meirionnydd Nant Conwy part of the constituency was extremely well served by the now hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Mr Llwyd). Despite the fact that we have had our disagreements-viewers of Welsh language
8 Jun 2010 : Column 228
television can attest to that-I would also like to pay tribute to him. When I canvassed in the Conwy valley, people said that Elfyn Llwyd was always approachable and always served his people very well, and, again, I would hope to do the same. I follow in the footsteps of two hard-working Members and I am aware of the responsibility and privilege that I have in serving.
Aberconwy is a diverse constituency. It is dependent on tourism, with Llandudno, which I have mentioned, the queen of Welsh resorts, in the centre of the constituency, and locations such as Conwy with the castle of Edward I, Llanfairfechan and Betws-y-Coed in the Snowdonia national park. There is no doubt that tourism is an important industry within the constituency. Agriculture, on the other hand, has seen a decline during the past 10 years. The agriculture industry, which is centred on the market town of Llanrwst in my constituency, is in need of support. While I am in the House, I will try to support the tourism industry and ensure that it is not seen as a Cinderella industry. In our part of Wales it is crucial to creating employment and retaining young people in the area. In the same way, we need to develop the food sector and the food industries by working with farmers and the agriculture sector. I would like to see the development of real opportunities for businesses to be created in the food sector in my constituency.
The other thing that I need to say about Aberconwy is that it is an historic constituency. I have already mentioned the castle in Conwy that was built by Edward I, but in many ways the history of Wales is apparent in Aberconwy by the fact that we have Conwy castle on the coast, but we also have the castle in Dolwyddelan, which was built by the Welsh princes. Those two castles are a snapshot of the history of Wales. One thing that causes me immense regret is that the history of the building of Conwy castle is well known to most people in the House, but the history of the Welsh princes and the castle at Dolwyddelan is not as well known. Our education system should deal with that, because it is important to know our history-British history and Welsh history.
The Welsh language is a living, breathing language in Aberconwy. Around 40% of my constituents are first language Welsh speakers, and the Welsh language still survives basically because of the work of two people who are associated with my constituency. The first is Bishop William Morgan, who was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I to translate the Bible into Welsh in 1588. He created a work of literature, which is much better than the recent Welsh Bible translation. I suspect that the fact that I prefer the old version shows that I am a natural conservative in many ways.
The other individual associated with my constituency is Wyn Roberts, now Lord Roberts, who served the Conwy constituency for 27 years. In his time in this House he played a huge part in ensuring that the Welsh language had the opportunity to survive into the 21st century. Wyn Roberts was in many ways responsible for ensuring that we have the fourth television channel in Wales, S4C. He was responsible for the Education Act 1986, which ensured that the Welsh language had a proper place in our education system, and, just as crucially, he was responsible for the Welsh Language Act 1993. He is a hard act to follow.
Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker, for this opportunity to give my maiden speech.

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I was shocked to hear of the suicide of Mark Linkous yesterday.  He apparently killed himself on the 6th of March.

Leader of the band Sparklehorse he was a creative and innovative songwriter who dealt with the other side of the American dream.  I liked his music a lot and have listened to my vinyl versions of 'Good Morning Spider' and 'It's a Wonderful Life' with an added urgency last night and this evening.  His fragility is obvious in all his work.

The following is a great duet that he did with PJ Harvey.  A taster of what he had to offer.

Sparklehorse and PJ Harvey

Guto

Our less than balanced local newspaper, the North Wales Weekly News, today contacted me about the Guto Bebb poster which appeared in an empty shop window in Colwyn Bay.  Why, I hear you wonder?

I have no idea.  St. David's Commercial kindly offered to display some of my posters in their properties and I am grateful for this support.  Unfortunately there was an unexpected lack of clarity about the constituency boundaries which had not been anticipated.

The issue was brought to our attention and the offer was made by St. David's Commercial to replace the wrong signs with posters for David Jones MP.  Due to a delay in the arrival of the Clwyd West posters mine were only taken down at the end of last week.  David and I had a laugh about the issue on Thursday when we discussed various issues relating to the Welsh Conservative Conference at Llandudno. 

End of story.

So why oh why was I contacted by the Weekly News today?  Three or four weeks after the poster first appeared The Weekly News now appear to feel that they have a story and are attempting to make a fuss about the issue.  Is a poster in the wrong location a news story?  Will any votes in Clwyd West or Aberconwy be decided on the basis of a poster located in the wrong place?

When these type of stories are carried in the Weekly News it's difficult not to conclude that their declining circulation* is no surprise.

Guto

* Latest figures for the first six months of 2009 saw the Weekly News lose another 8.4% of sales with circulation falling to 15,124 per week on average

Criw da allan heddiw er gwaethaf yr eira.

Fe lwyddwyd i ganfasio'r cyfan o'r dref sy'n gorwedd rhwng yr A55 newydd a'r hen ffordd fawr oedd yn rhedeg trwy'r pentref. Ymateb da iawn (er fod yna ambell i Lafurwr pybyr, dau Ryddfrydwr a aelod digon blin o Blaid Cymru!). Yr hyn oedd yn galonogol iawn serch hynny oedd y ffaith ein bod mewn un bore wedi darganfod chwe pleidlais oedd yn troi yn syth o Lafur i'r Ceidwadwyr. Pe byddai hynny yn digwydd ym mhob ardal o faint cyfatebol fe fyddai'r canlyniad pan ddaw etholiad yn weddol amlwg. Sesiwn dda.

A good team ventured to Llanfairfechan to join our local members in a detailed canvass of the area between the A55 and the old coast road that ran through the town. We had a good response despite finding die hard Labour voters, a couple of Liberals and an irate Plaid member!). What was massively encouraging was the fact that we found in one morning six straight switchers from Labour to Conservative. Now if that sort of switch happens in every area of comparable size then the result of the next election in Aberconwy will not be in doubt. A good session.

Great session in Gogarth today. A good team again and a response which was very pleasing.

The most important meeting however was with a resident who works in a senior position within education in the Constituency. Financial pressure from the poor WAG settlement means that we face real pressures to the budgets of local schools in the 2010/11 financial year. Due to accumulated reserves and careful management of resources within individual schools it is anticipated by the resident in question that front line services might be protected this year but it should be remembered that the WAG budget has not been reduced for this financial year. The real cuts will hit in 2011/12.

What came across clearly was the huge frustration felt by the resident in question about the disparity between WAG spending on education and what is spent in England. I have previously mentioned this disparity as being in the region of £500 per year per pupil but my respondent (who was clearly on top of his brief) stated that the difference is closer to £600 in relation to special needs schools and as much as £800 for secondary education. Consider those figures. If WAG spending on education was at the English level a primary school with 200 pupils would be £100,000 better off. A secondary school with 1,000 pupils would be £800,000 better off.

Why have Labour and Plaid in their role at WAG allowed such a situation to arise? What will my Labour and Plaid opponents do about this situation? Plaid Cymru this morning distributed another leaflet via the Post Office which claimed that there were 33million reasons to vote for Phil Edwards. I honestly fail to see that such a claim will do him much good but in view of the fact that his close friend and mentor, Gareth Jones AM, is considered to be the Plaid AM with responsibility for education why will Mr Edwards not challenge him on the way in which WAG fritter money away on pet projects but continue to underfund the education of our children?

WAG is seen by Plaid Cymru as being beyond criticism but in truth it is an institution where the priorities of governments, both Labour and Labour / Plaid, has led to the future of our children being shortchanged for a decade and more. When Mr Edwards calls upon you ask him why the proper funding of education is not one of the 33 million reasons to give him your support.

Guto

I spotted a couple of really well aimed comments on the web this morning.

Firstly, from Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a past master of the well turned phrase - commenting about the Libya/Megrahi affair - "Was it a cock-up or a conspiracy? The
unfortunate truth is that it has been a cocked-up conspiracy." Spot on, and thanks to Conservative Home .

Also, seen in the Times Online, who have an article about the unravelling of Gordon Brown's $1trillion fiscal stimulus and global rescue package. Apparently those dreadful Germans are worried about the effect on long term debt of all this stimulus [join the club, mein brudern]. For those of us unable to comprehend the real difference between millions, billions and trillions - this does it nicely:

"And just in case anyone was in doubt as to how much a trillion is..

a million seconds is just less than 12 days

Which is about how long this government will take to get us out of the mess they got us into!"

Well done Steve Mitchell! Nice, simple explanation.

Yr wyf yn adloygu'r papurau ar raglen Dewi Llwyd rhwng 8yb a 10yb Dydd Sul, sef 'fory!  Cyfle arall i wrando ar fy mherlau o ddoethineb ar Radio Cymru (tynnu coes)!

I'm on the Dewi Llwyd programme on Radio Cymru tomorrow morning (Sunday, 30th) reviewing the papers between 8am and 10am. 

GUTO

On top of my warm welcome from a vandal my return from holiday resulted in me being directed to this less than kind posting by my 'sometime' friend (but not very often!) Oscar of the infamous local blog.

I feel that I should respond but I'm simply not sure where to start.  First a few factual points;

1. To my knowledge no contributor has been moderated for more than around a couple of hours and every comment received has been posted (well we do not get many!)

2. He claims that this site is not my blog.  Well it was never claimed as such.  It is the blog of the Aberconwy Conservative Campaign but all my postings are clearly signed and they form the majority of postings to date.

3. I'm told by Oscar that I discuss the Assembly too often.  Interesting view this.  I understand that if any constituent contacts the current Labour MP about the health service then they are simply told that it is an Assembly issue.  Whilst strictly true is such a response acceptable?  Should David Jones MP have refrained from his excellent and much needed campaign to attack the Assembly for their proposals to stop us North Wales residents from using medical services in Liverpool or Manchester since the issue was an Assembly issue?  Of course not.  I have discussed the Assembly in terms of future powers (none of my opponents seem keen to discuss this subject) and the troubling report published in relation to the 'training needs' of AM's.  I am no friend of the Assembly in terms of the way it operates (with the possible exception of the way they deal with farmers which is, in many ways, more effective than the situation in England) but to state that a candidate should not discuss an organisation which deals with issues such as Education, Transport, Health, Local Government Funding, Agriculture and Housing to name a few of the responsibilities of the Assembly is simply wrong.  All politicians should hold the Assembly government to account for their failures and I will continue to do so.

4. I am further told off for complaining about the decision of the Plaid MP for the next door constituency to claim £10k and more of 'petty cash' directly into his bank account with no proof or invoices provided.  Apparently this is not relevant.  Well I beg to differ.  Elfyn Llwyd MP, currently the MP for the majority of the Valley, stated on radio and TV that Plaid were 'spotless' in relation to their expenses.  I feel that showing the false nature of this absurd claim was relevant to a large number of the electors of the Conwy Valley who currently have Mr Llwyd as their MP.

I could go on but I think that you get my point.  I accept criticism and understand that there is always much more that I could be doing as a candidate.  All I can do is try my best. 

However, I would ask Oscar to consider one fact.  Of all the declared candidates for Aberconwy I am the only one who is not costing him a penny whilst I campaign.  Both Mike and Ronnie are in the Cabinet and thus earn between £25k and £30k from their positions as politicians.  Phil Edwards also enjoys around £13k of support as a councillor in addition to a taxpayer funded pension as an ex-police officer.  All three can be full-time ppoliticians thanks to the generosity of the taxpayer.  Every day I lose from my business costs me money and I give at least one working day a week and have done so on a regular basis since first being selected to fight the General Election of 2004.  I do not begrudge the loss - I chose this path and  was honoured to be selected to fight the new seat of Aberconwy. 

I will continue to do all that I can to ensure that we win when an election is called - at no cost to you, the taxpayer or to my friend Oscar!

Guto Bebb

An opinion poll of the 30 top target seats for the Conservative Party (Aberconwy No.5) showed the Conservative lead to be a very healthy 24%.  As with all politicians I have a simple rule when it comes to opinion polls.  I believe those which show my party well ahead and dismiss those that show the opposite as 'rogues'  In my view this poll is clearly correct!!

There is a good discussion of the findings on the Anthony Wells site which is probably the most balanced discussion site in relation to opinion polls and the trends that they highlight.  Have a read. 

GUTO BEBB