Traditionally, when Plaid Cymru's 3 MPs succeed in forcing a vote at Westminster, it is followed by a Plaid press release registering "shock" that Labour MPs refused to vote with Plaid even where they agree with them.

So when Plaid Cymru tabled an amendment to the Finance Bill to devolve air passenger duty to Wales, and Welsh Labour MPs didn't vote for it, Plaid duly condemned Labour, not that Labour votes would have changed the outcome of the vote.

But last night, something extraordinary happened (and I'm not just talking about more than 100 Tory MPs voting to criticise their own government's Queen's Speech). Plaid took advantage of a new approach by Speaker John Bercow to force a vote on an amendment regretting the absence from the Queen's Speech of a commitment to implement that (Silk) commission on devolution in Wales report with its recommendation that Wales acquires its own tax system.

For once, Labour MPs joined them in the division lobbies, even though Labour MPs have been cooler about the National Assembly for Wales acquiring income tax powers than their counterparts in the assembly have. Shadow Welsh Secretary Owen Smith, who has previously been cautious about Wales acquiring income tax powers, said Labour wanted a new law to implement the Silk commission to give the Welsh government "desperately needed" borrowing powers.

Mr Smith said: "A deal to give borrowing powers and devolve of a number of minor taxes was agreed by the UK and Welsh governments in October last year, and subsequently endorsed by Silk in November. We don't understand why Welsh Secretary David Jones isn't getting on with it.

"The Silk Commission Part One recommendations are a complex set of proposals, and some are contingent on others. For example, we agree with Silk that any future devolution of income tax powers is contingent on a period of assignment, reform of the Barnett formula and a referendum to test the will of the Welsh people. This remains our position and we have repeatedly called on the government to allow a debate on these issues on the floor of the House."

Two of the amendments voted on last night have something in common. Neither the EU nor constitutional reform is a top priority for most voters, but that may not be the point.

Plaid and Labour lost the vote by 316 votes to 237, a government majority of 79, but, again, that may not be the point.

Plaid Cymru's parliamentary leader Elfyn Llwyd said: "I do hope that this presages and era of co-operation across party lines in order that we can deliver for the people of Wales and assist them to improve the economy in these most pressing of times."

The Silk commission report has largely united all four parties in the Welsh assembly; such cross-party unity may not be reflected when the UK government delivers its response, with some Tories at Westminster sceptical about giving Wales more control over taxes.

David Jones told MPs yesterday: "We have always made it absolutely clear that we will announce our response to Silk this spring, so we will issue that response in the next few weeks. Summer solstice starts at 05.04am on June 21 if you have yet to enter in your diary the UK government's self-imposed deadline.

If you are have read the Silk report and are hungry for more, the London equivalent of Silk was published yesterday.

Among other things, the report notes that one third of all the stamp duty raised on UK homes is paid in London and calls for the city to be able to keep all property tax revenues. London Mayor Boris Johnson gives his take on the report here. It's reminder that the Welsh government isn't the only devolved administration looking for more say on taxation.

Mr Fabricant, who occasionally mentions his Welsh roots, wanted to know if the UK government would consider re-naming the National Assembly for Wales.

Welsh Secretary David Jones, the subject of recent press speculation about his cabinet future, declined the suggestion.

Mr Fabricant was not put off: "But in the light of the Silk review which is likely to give fund-raising powers to the National Assembly does he not agree with me, and perhaps more importantly, definitely more importantly, with the leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Andrew RT Davies that now is the time to start considering calling it the Welsh parliament?"

Mr Jones's predecessor, Cheryl Gillan, visibly winced at the title given to Mr Davies. Monmouth Tory David Davies shook his head to make clear his opposition to the re-branding idea.

David Jones began with a topical reference: "Well, have I got news for my honourable friend," before adding: "The silk commission has not yet completed its work. It will be reporting in the spring of this year but I would say that the title "National Assembly" is one that is used by the primary legislatures of countries such as France and South Africa but also by the regional legislature for Quebec.

"I think the issue is what the legislature does, not what it's called."

Plaid Cymru have made the lack of a UK government response to the first Silk report the focus of their opposition to the Queen's Speech and say they will push their amendment to a vote tonight in a device designed to highlight Labour divisions over the assembly's powers. The vote may get slightly less attention than the one on the Tory eurosceptic amendment but Plaid Cymru would argue that's not the point.

The Silk report isn't in the Queen's Speech because ministers have yet to agree a formal response, which, MPs were told today, would be published within the next few weeks.

Elsewhere, David Jones's Labour shadow, Owen Smith, tried - and failed - to discover whether the secretary of state wants Britain to stay in or leave the EU.

Labour's David Hanson tried to find out if Mr Jones's deputy, Stephen Crabb, agreed with comments about what Labour have branded the "bedroom tax" by Welfare Reform Minister Lord Freud "who suggested that those who are concerned about this should sleep on sofas".

Mr Crabb defended his ministerial colleague: "His comments about sleeping on sofabeds were made in the context of families where the parents split apart and whether there's a duty on the state to provide benefits sufficient for each separated parent to have family-sized accommodation for the children during the same week.

"Now if that's the position of the party opposite then they should say that clearly from the front bench but that's an enormous burden for the taxpayer to pick up, picking up all the costs of relationship breakdown in that way."

In other news, there may be a vote or two on Europe as MPs complete their debate on the Queen's Speech, a speech most Welsh Tory backbenchers found wanting due to its absence of a commitment to hold a referendum on EU membership.

Welsh MPs have made several contributions to the Queen's Speech debate. One of the more eye-catching came from David T.C. Davies, the Monmouth Tory MP who chairs the select committee on Welsh affairs.

His speech last night was notable for an outspoken attack on the environmental lobby and climate change - "a problem that quite possibly does not exist".

He said: "I hear the environmentalists saying to me, "The most important thing to do is reduce our CO2 emissions", but whenever anyone puts solutions in front of them that would reduce CO2 emissions and deliver the cheap electricity that we all need, they do not want to know. They are the same people who march against globalisation and capitalism, who totally opposed any form of nuclear deterrent in the 1980s and who a few hundred years ago would have been the Luddites smashing up the spinning wheels.

"These people live in a fantasy world, believing that if we could just get rid of technology, we could go back to living in wonderful grass huts and things in some Tolkienesque world, like the hobbits before the evil one started attacking them. They are totally opposed to the high standards of living that globalisation and capitalism have delivered in the west and are delivering across the whole world."

That contribution saw him branded a "fruitcake" by the Green MP Caroline Lucas, who said increasingly expensive gas imports rather than renewable energy were to blame for rising bills.

This was Mr Davies's response: "It was the fruitcakes who warned against the euro 10 years ago. We were accused of being fruitcakes then, but the fruitcakes were right. Fruitcake is a cheap and reliable source of energy. I am for the fruitcakes. I am proud to be a fruitcake. Long may fruitcakes continue."

Cardiff City played at the House of Lords tonight, in a reception to mark the club's promotion to the Premier League.

Bluebirds fan Lord Kinnock hosted the party, which was attended by owner Vincent Tan, manager Malky Mackay and captain Mark Hudson. "Joy is unconfined" announced the former Labour leader as he looked forward to next season's top-flight meeting of Cardiff and Swansea City - "a bit like El Clasico but with more rain and lots more passion".

Apologising for the smallness of the Home Room in the Lords, he explained the reception was organised at short notice. When Cardiff win the Champions League, he promised, he'd book Buckingham Palace.

Malky Mackay appeared genuinely touched to have been invited to the Lords, despite public challenges to stay in his role as long as Sir Alex Ferguson - 26 years. "And 38 trophies," added Lord Kinnock. No pressure, then, but few present thought Mackay would be tempted away from Cardiff by the Everton vacancy.

Vincent Tan explained his strategy of trying to widen the club's fan base in Asia - "where the money is". He said he'd already put more than £70m into Cardiff City although the only dividend he had received was emotional rather than financial.

He defended his controversial decision to change the club's strip from blue to red but said he hoped the bluebird and the red dragon would fly high together. Cardiff City Supporters' Trust chair Tim Hartley made sure Tan was aware of the fans' views on the change.

It was a time for looking forward, but also for nostalgia for lifelong Bluebirds. Dannie Abse, now 89, was there to hear Cardiff West MP Kevin Brennan read from his poem The Game.

Newport West MP Paul Flynn looked back to the days of Trevor Ford; the youthful Stephen Doughty, of Cardiff South and Penarth, confessed to bedroom posters of Scott Young and Phil Stant.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore welcomed City to the top table and said that despite the money in football, the game was still about sporting success. He paid tribute to the efforts of Neil Kinnock and season ticket holder (and Tory MP) Jonathan Evans in helping promote the Premier League during its early years.

Guests queued to have their picture taken with the championship trophy on a night when their MPs and peers appeared, as Mackay's players might put it, over the moon.

The answer is that almost all the new laws proposed in the Queen's Speech affect Wales in some way. Even among those bills that are England-only, such as the Care bill, which introduces a lifetime cap on care costs of £75,000, the Welsh government will be looking closely at their possible impact on Wales.

When it comes to Wales-only laws, the Queen announced: "Draft legislation will be published concerning the electoral arrangements for the National Assembly for Wales."

Political anoraks will need no reminder what this is about - but here's one anyway.

It means confirmation that the National Assembly for Wales will move from four to five-year fixed terms, to reduce the chance of assembly elections coinciding with parliamentary elections.

The ban on dual candidacy - which stops would-be AMs standing in both constituencies and on regional lists - will be lifted. It means candidates will be able to risk defeat in a constituency in the hope that the top-up list will ensure they get elected despite the thumbs-down from voters.

Ministers also plan to abolish the dual mandate that allows AMs to sit as MPs.

The legislation will be published in draft form, which allows pre-legislative scrutiny. The timetable will also allow ministers to include any changes to the assembly's powers that emerge from the UK government's response to the Silk commission report that suggested the Welsh government should acquire some responsibility for raising the money it spends.

Feel free to add your views on the speech in the usual way.

The state opening of parliament is one of the major events in the Westminster calendar. The Queen will arrive later this morning to perform a role she has performed so many times before.

This year, she'll be accompanied by the Duchess of Cornwall for her Queen's Speech debut. A few MPs ostentatiously boycott the event but there are few spare seats in the Commons chamber as Black Rod arrives to summon MPs.

Among those attending will be the deputy speaker, Nigel Evans, days after his arrest on suspicion of raping one man and sexually assaulting another - allegations he says are completely false.

Mr Evans says he will be present today, although he won't be chairing any of the debates on the contents of the Queen's Speech while police investigate the allegations against him.

Now it's just possible you may have noticed that Mr Evans is Welsh - a newsagent's son from Swansea. I've known him since he was an ambitious (and optimistic) Conservative candidate in the 1989 by-election when he came within 15,000 votes of turning Pontypridd blue (I told you he was optimistic).

He was eventually elected for Ribble Valley in 1992, served briefly as the Tories' main spokesman on Wales (in the absence of any Welsh Tory MPs). He became deputy speaker three years ago - you can see a profile of him from 2010 here.

Many MPs have been publicly supportive since his arrest. My report for last night's BBC Wales Today is at the top of the page.

Next week, the Queen will open the new session of Parliament with a speech setting out the UK government's programme of new laws for the coming parliamentary year.

Labour leader Ed Miliband unveiled his alternative Queen's Speech earlier this week. Today, Plaid Cymru have unveiled their version, with Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP Jonathan Edwards going beyond the party's traditional focus on constitutional change.

Mr Edwards proposes an "economic fairness bill" that would "rebalance the economy away from a concentration of wealth in London and the South East" . As he puts it, it would "make the British state work in Welsh interests". The inspiration comes from Germany's experience after re-unification in 1990.

The new law would, he says, "introduce a legal duty on the government that macro-economic policy be geared towards a levelling up of wealth per head - which would make for a much fairer economy in terms of prosperity and opportunity. Under both Conservative and Labour UK governments, wealth has polarised incredibly both at an individual level and a regional level.

"Inner London is the richest part of the European Union whilst Welsh communities have been overtaken by former communist countries. Other parts of the state such as northern England also find themselves in a similar predicament to Wales.

"This is what happens when another country has control over your major economic policy levers."

He added: "Whilst Wales remains within the UK, the state must be made to work for our benefit, and help ensure that we are a modern and prosperous nation. The question to our opponents in the London parties is why do they all support a core economic policy which looks after a privileged few in a concentrated area surrounding the banks of the Thames?"

It's an interesting idea, but even within "the richest part of the European Union" there are great inequalities. According to the End Child Poverty campaign, six of the 20 local authority areas with the highest proportions of poor families are in, you've guessed it, London.

No Welsh local authority appears in that top 20 league table. Even in the borough of Westminster, on the banks of the Thames, 30 per cent of children are growing up in poverty.

Take an Underground train a few stops from the borough of Westminster, and life expectancy drops by 12 years. For all the oligarchs and bankers making their home in London, not all the streets are paved with gold: there are areas of the city where life expectancy is below the Welsh average.

Mr Edwards acknowledges that both individual and "regional inequalities" need to be tackled. It's a growing challenge for politicians everywhere.

Cheryl Gillan banned first class travel for staff in the department which represents Welsh interests in the UK government.

Even ministers were seen travelling standard class with the rest of us - although they occasionally found themselves upgraded courtesy of First Great Western between Wales and London.

Wales Office rules on long-distance air travel are not quite so strict. So the recent trade mission to Asia by Cheryl Gillan's successor, David Jones, involved several business class flights.

Figures released just before Parliament prorogued put the cost of ministerial travel overseas at £15,701.29.

According to another parliamentary answer released at the same time, five officials shared £27,948.48 worth of international flights (business and economy), almost £27,000 more than the total international flight bill for the previous four years combined. Three of the flights cost more than £5,000 each. The official team accompanying Mr Jones included a special adviser and a press officer.

Mr Jones's trade mission was notable for its interruption to allow the secretary of state to take part in a key parliamentary vote; a vote that didn't take place.

The Wales Office insists that flying Mr Jones back to London - and then back out to the Far East - didn't cost the taxpayer a penny.

A spokesperson said: "The flights package for the Asia mission were simply re-arranged within the original budget and no additional costs were incurred for the return flight.

"Paragraph 10.8 of the ministerial code states that "If a minister is abroad with permission and is called home for ministerial or parliamentary reasons - including to vote - the cost of the extra journey back and forth may be met by public funds".

"Business class travel is permitted in certain circumstances. For example, the Wales Office's travel and subsistence policy on air travel is governed by the airline's fare structure and the duration of the flight."

Mr Jones believes his mission helped boost business interests in an increasingly important part of the world. As Prime Minister David Cameron put it: "Promoting trade and encouraging investment into Wales will provide a vital boost to the economy and help us compete in the global race."

Indeed, last year it didn't happen at all. So little wonder that Welsh Conservatives were pleased to spend Saturday at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea for a one-day conference.

For Mr Jones, it was his first chance to speak to the Welsh conference since his promotion to secretary of state last September.

"Our Welsh Conference is always very special," he said. "It is the occasion when the Welsh Conservatives family comes together to celebrate our achievements and to look forward to the future."

You can read a report of his speech here.

Swansea also offered another debut - last year's cancellation meant this was the first full Welsh conference Andrew RT Davies had spoken to since assuming leadership of the Tory group in the National Assembly for Wales. (He did speak to a rally in St Asaph that filled the gap before last year's local elections).

You can check out his speech here. Mr Davies announced his party had arrived at a "clause four moment" (echoing Tony Blair's modernisation of Labour), warning that some were still fighting the devolution battles of the 1990s.

He didn't name names and given that it is eight years since the Tories went into an election offering the option of scrapping the assembly he may have been almost the last Conservative to declare the war against devolution is over.

Mr Davies did offer an insight into his leadership style, via an interview with PA News. "When people look at me," he said, "they would say I'm not a typical Conservative. And when you talk about the working man, I think people can relate to yours truly as a guy who could easily prop up the bar in the local pub or rub shoulders with statesmen around the world."

Few mainstream political leaders would describe themselves in a way that makes them sound like Nigel Farage in wellies but in an age when voters complain all politicians are the same Mr Davies is trying hard to offer something different.

There weren't too many statesmen to rub shoulders with in Swansea, apparently (I was working in Cardiff), but the prime minister did drop in.

As you might expect, David Cameron used his conference speech to criticise Labour's record running the Welsh government.

Besides the usual rhetoric on health and education, he said Welsh ministers "pulled Wales' premier soap opera - Pobol Y Cwm - from the airwaves, because one of the characters on it criticised their policies."

That may be a slight exaggeration of what happened, but you don't go to party conferences expecting 100 per cent accuracy.

Mr Cameron added: "It's like Wilson used to say in Dad's Army: "they don't like it up 'em"."

Hmmm. Wilson? The prime minister appears to have confused Sergeant Wilson, the calmly well-spoken deputy to Captain Mainwaring with Corporal Jones, the excitable butcher and World War One veteran.

As Sergeant Wilson might say: "Are you sure that's wise, prime minister?" Mainwaring might have come up with a variation of the phrase he usually reserved for Private Pike.

David Cameron's default response to criticism of the NHS in England is to criticise Labour's record on health in Wales. The issue dominated prime minister's questions today after Ed Miliband chose to highlight problems in English accident and emergency services.

David Cameron told MPs: "There is one part of the country where Labour have been in charge of the NHS for the last three years that is Wales where they haven't hit an A and E target since 2009 - perhaps he'd [Miliband] apologise for that.

"Labour's official policy is to cut spending on the NHS just like they're cutting spending on the NHS in Wales, where waiting times are up, , waiting lists are up and quality is down too. That is what is happening in the NHS under Labour."

He added: "Let us examine the NHS in Labour's hands in Wales. Here are the figures. The NHS budget: is it being increased? No, it's being cut. By 8 per cent by Labour.

"Last time the urgent cancer care treatment was met in Wales, anyone? 2008. Last time A and E targets were met? 2009. The Welsh ambulance service has missed its call-out target for the last 10 months and of course there is no cancer drugs fund.

"That is what you get under Labour. Cuts to our NHS, longer waiting lists and all the problems we saw at the Stafford Hospital would be repeated all over again."

Shadow Welsh Secretary Owen Smith gave Labour's response in a Westminster TV studio (as seen in a Cardiff department store). He said the prime minister was wrong. "The Welsh government deploys the money that it is given by the parliament here in Westminster.

"The prime minister has cut the budget of the Welsh National Assembly by £2bn over the spending period. So if there have been tough decisions made within Wales it is because the overall envelope has been cut

"Within Wales, the gove

rnment took a decision to, within their spending envelope, to increase spending on education and cut by one per cent spending on health because we felt in Wales that having tripled spending on health over the period of the Labour government our priority ought to be on education where we need to make significant improvements in the schools in Wales."

Mr Smith said that on other measures such as infection rates Welsh hospitals were doing extremely well. But sitting alongside the Pontypridd MP was Mark Harper, the immigration minister whose Forest of Dean constituency neighbours Wales.

Mr Harper said he had a number of constituents registered with GPs in Wales who were told they had to use the Welsh NHS. "Almost universally they don't particularly want to because they think the service is worse, they have to wait for longer, their experience has been worse."

Devolved or not, there's a taste of some of the arguments we're likely to hear at the Welsh Conservative conference in Swansea this weekend.

It was there, at the Liberal assembly (as they were known) in 1981, that David Steel told his party members: "Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government."

And they did, even if government in the sense he meant it was almost 30 years away.

The role played by this north Wales seaside town in Margaret Thatcher's political development has been noticed before, in the Grantham Journal and her own memoirs, but today's publication of Margaret Thatcher's authorized biography (Volume One: Not For Turning) by Charles Moore gives new insight into events there in 1948.

It may not have been the conference rhetoric that inspired Margaret Roberts, as she then was. Indeed, she wrote to her sister Muriel: "The level of speaking was very low."

But Miss Roberts did find time for plenty of networking, dining out twice with a mentor of hers from student days, John Grant. He happened to sit next to the chairman of a constituency association looking for a candidate and suggested the future Lady Thatcher might be suitable.

The constituency chairman, John Miller, didn't think "a woman would do at all" for Dartford, a Labour seat on the borders of London and Kent. According to Moore, Mr Miller and his wife Phee (and their association's women's chairman) agreed to have lunch with John Grant and Margaret Roberts.

Moore reports: "The lunch took place and Margaret made a very favourable impression. Nothing definite seems to have emerged from it at the time. Indeed, in her full description of the conference in her letter to Muriel, Margaret makes no mention of the meeting with the Dartford dignitaries. But before the end of the year it had borne fruit."

She was duly selected for the seat - "an even greater moment than her entry into Oxford" - according to Moore. She didn't win in either 1950 or 1951 but Moore says "it revealed to her the extent of her political talents, threw here into the combat she always enjoyed and set her on the course of her life".

Labour peer Lord Berkeley quoted from a column in the Financial Times last December. "There are two varieties of Severn bore," wrote the FT's Jonathan Guthrie. "The first is a regular surge of water up-river due to the funnelling effect that the English and Welsh coastlines have on the tide.

"The second is a regular surge of enthusiasm for slinging a barrage between said coastlines to generate tidal electricity."

The Lords spent one hour 22 minutes discussing the possible effects of building a barrage. The debate was led by the Conservative former minister Lord Cope of Berkeley, an opponent of the scheme.

He told peers: "Evidence given to the Commons select committee on energy and climate change has made it clear that it is a naive proposal, absurdly short on detail, and I am sure that it will not happen."

His certainty that the barrage is doomed didn't prevent him devoting some time to the "several and distinct" reasons he believes the current Hafren Power proposals won't be put into practice - "silt", "habitats", "economics" and "ports".

Liberal Democrat Lord German said the UK government should give "some sense of direction and promotion" to submissions for a barrage to enable a scaled-up demonstration project.

A Conservative former cabinet minister, Lord Jenkin, wanted to know where the money was coming from. "Hafren Power has been extraordinarily economical with its business plan. It has published documents, but not given any real indication of what the whole business case is."

Labour's Lady Jones of Whitchurch supported the project and warned there was "increasing urgency" about the need to meet green energy targets. "There may be other options, but to me it seems that this is the only game in town at the moment."

Lord Howarth of Newport, once a Labour MP in the city, claimed: "It would be a crime against humanity if the government passed up the opportunity to identify and drive forward an ecologically acceptable and financially robust Severn barrage scheme."

Energy Minister Lady Verma spoke for the UK government. "We have received an outline proposal from Hafren Power and have had some discussions with the company.

"However, the information provided so far does not allow us to assess whether the proposal is credible. Nor does it demonstrate if the project can achieve the benefits that Hafren Power claims.

"There are a number of issues that Hafren Power will need to explore in much greater detail before we could take a view as to whether its proposal warrants further interest from the government."

She highlighted the need for "credible, clear evidence" of the impact of the scheme on the environment, of its affordability, effect on local ports and job creation claims.

"The Hafren Power proposal has not gone far enough in providing the evidence required at this stage for the government to justify endorsement of the project."

So the project does not appear to be any nearer getting the go-ahead than when peers last discussed the idea three months ago. Since then, BBC Wales has raised questions about the past business background of two of the founders of Hafren Power, including its largest shareholder.

Last December, Jonathan Guthrie concluded his column: "Barrage enthusiasts should not despair, though. Even if this scheme fails, another will be close behind to reignite their pipe dream."

We should find out within weeks - when the energy and climate change committee reports - whether Hafren Power's proposal will survive the MPs' scrutiny.

You can read the Hansard report of last night's debate here.

I spoke to two of them - Welsh Secretary David Jones and Plaid Cymru parliamentary leader Elfyn Llwyd - about the ceremony and the impact of the former prime minister's policies on Wales.

Cardiff City have won promotion to the top flight of English football for the first time in more than 50 years.

Politicians at Westminster may have had other things on their mind today but the Bluebirds' triumph has not gone unnoticed here.

Stephen Doughty may be Wales's newest MP but he is learning the ropes fast. No sooner had parliament resumed this afternoon than Mr Doughty was on his feet to put a point of order to the Speaker of the Commons, John Bercow.

"Mr Speaker, the honourable member for Cardiff West (Kevin Brennan) and I would be very interested to know if you've had notice of a statement from the Minister for Sport on the remarkable news last night that it was confirmed that as of next season 10 per cent of the clubs in the English premier league will in fact be Welsh as a result of Cardiff City's promotion to the premier league last night."

Mr Bercow doesn't normally appreciate diversions off the parliamentary agenda, but responded generously: "I have received no notification of any such ministerial statement but the statement, albeit not of an official character and not by a minister has just been delivered by the honourable gentleman."

And so City's promotion will make it into tomorrow's Hansard. It may be true that most politicians can jump aboard a passing bandwagon quicker than Usain Bolt can run 100 metres, but Mr Doughty points out that he's been a fan since the age of seven.

In the circumstances, the Speaker must be relieved Mr Doughty didn't ask him to "do the Ayatollah".

Welsh Secretary David Jones has recalled meeting the former prime minister shortly after the 2005 general election.

"She asked me which constituency I represented, and I told her and she said: "who were your predecessors?" I mentioned Sir Anthony Meyer, who was of course the Member of Parliament who stood against her as a stalking horse and I told her that Sir Anthony was one of my predecessors.

"She looked at me and said, "Can't say I remember the name"."

Sir Anthony was deselected by local Tories after his "stalking horse" challenge. He died in 2004. A few years later, his son, Ashley, recalled his bid for the Tory crown in an article that explains how his father's pro-European views were influenced by his experience of war.

This sounded rather odd as the figures were said to include visits to his own office in Cardiff Bay. My scepticism at the time appears to have been well-founded. Today, the Wales Office Minister Stephen Crabb has apologised to parliament and published corrected figures.

Mr Crabb explained: "It has become apparent that not all of the visits made by the Wales Office ministerial team were correctly attributed. I would like to apologise to the House and submit the following revised information."

In the revised information, the number of visits made to the Cardiff Central constituency drops from 46 to 15.

The original error was down to confusion at the Wales Office over the location of its Cardiff office, a stone's throw from the National Assembly for Wales. Someone had assumed that Caspian Point is in Cardiff Central and not Cardiff South and Penarth.

The revised figures also contain an important footnote: "This now excludes departmental meetings in Cardiff".

UPDATE: Labour MP Wayne David has been studying the figures. "Jenny Randerson," he notes, "has made a total of 18 official visits as minister, half of these to her old constituency of Cardiff Central." That may just be a remarkable coincidence but Mr David clearly has his suspicions.

Welsh Secretary David Jones told The Sunday Telegraph: "Margaret Thatcher was Britain's greatest post-war leader. I can think of no better tribute to her than the establishment of the Margaret Thatcher Library."

The idea is based on similar institutions in the name of former US presidents. It sounds novel for the UK, although the Gladstone Library in north Wales has been in touch to point out that the Thatcher library won't be the first prime ministerial library in the UK.

The Gladstone Library at Hawarden was created as a national memorial to the former Liberal prime minister after his death in 1898. Its warden, Peter Francis, said: "Public mourning for Gladstone was of epic proportions and non-divisive. Ten years after his death, Gladstone's statue in The Strand was covered with a carpet of flowers."

Unlike Margaret Thatcher, Gladstone did have a state funeral before being buried in Westminster Abbey. Mr Francis said the library houses many of his personal papers and his personal collection of 32,000 books

"In his later years, Gladstone began to think about making his personal library accessible to others. "Often pondering," wrote his daughter, Mary Drew, "how to bring together readers who had no books and books who had no readers, gradually the thought evolved itself in his mind into a plan for the permanent disposal of his library. A country home for the purposes of study and research, for the pursuit of divine learning, a centre of religious life."

A public appeal for funds was launched after Gladstone's death in 1898 to provide a permanent building to house the collection. Designed by John Douglas, it was officially opened by Earl Spencer in 1902 as the National Memorial to W. E. Gladstone. The Gladstone family funded the residential wing.

Mr Francis added: "The library has continued to acquire books specialising in those subjects that were of most interest to Gladstone. There are now over 200,000 volumes of theology and history as well as excellent material on philosophy, classics, art and literature.

"Today, Gladstone's library offers its guests the possibility of individual reflection, as well as social interaction. With an evolving programme of courses and events, the priority is to build and nurture a wide network of writers and thinkers in order to maintain Gladstone's legacy of engagement with social, moral and spiritual questions, helping people reflect more deeply on issues and ideas that concern them."

Margaret Thatcher took power weeks after the Welsh people had voted overwhelmingly against a proposed assembly in Cardiff. For the Thatcher years, devolution was not on many people's agenda, and certainly not hers.

She had other UK-wide priorities, such as expanding home ownership - and she allowed her "ingenious" Secretary of State for Wales (1987-1990) Peter Walker to pursue his own policy in Wales. Walker's interventionist approach to the job showed how (administrative) devolution existed before 1999.

You won't find S4C in the index either - Thatcher's broadcasting priorities were focused more on allowing companies to make the most of new technology to expand the range of channels through satellite.

I interviewed her once. For an hour. She was as formidable as you might expect. Often, UK ministers of all parties when interviewed by Welsh media, are not across the detail of events in Wales but she had clearly done her homework.

She was sufficiently media-savvy to wave her arms around animatedly whenever our photographer raised his camera - and to target her message at the readers of the three newspapers I was working for.

She didn't like my questions and gave me something of a "handbagging" over the course of an hour. As the interview ended, she put a consoling arm on my elbow, almost by way of an apology although Margaret Thatcher was not a politician who said sorry much.

The interview has made it into the Margaret Thatcher Foundation archive., although you may be disappointed to learn it is only available on CD-Rom.

The "Importance: Major" ranking has been added by officials. The best line from the interview was that she did not plan an early election (1991) but was thinking beyond that.

She was, of course, out of a job within five months of our interview, although that is probably a coincidence.

As today's tributes have confirmed she was certainly a divisive prime minister, both revered and despised, but as Martin Johnes has written she was not universally loathed across Wales.

Under her leadership, the Conservatives regularly polled almost one third of the votes in Wales. At one stage, they had 14 MPs - in 2010 they celebrated winning eight seats.

A committee of MPs has recommended the setting up of a UK-wide constitutional convention to try to answer the question: "What do we want the UK to look like in 10 or 20 years time?"

The convention, an idea previously suggested by the Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones, would involve all the nations of the UK. MPs on the political and constitutional reform select committee say it should not be seen merely as a reaction to the Scottish referendum next year.

Their report says: "Regardless of the results of the 2014 referendum on Scotland's independence, there is in our view, a need to consider both how the increasingly devolved parts of the Union interact with each other, and what we, as residents of the UK, want the union to look like going forward.

"This would create a national conversation about what we want a settled 21st-century United Kingdom democracy to look like. Such a conversation is sorely needed. It should begin immediately."

The MPs say the priority should be to answer what they call "the English Question", a task they would assign to a "preconvention". Their report defines it as "the fact that England, unlike the other parts of the Union, is still governed centrally, and, outside London, does not have its own devolved settlement".

It warns: "The failure to answer the English question, and the reality that the largest nation in the Union is still micromanaged from Whitehall, has and will continue to cause tension with the rest of the union. The devolution of power from Westminster to other parts of the Union is a principle, and not simply a political expedient.

"Some have argued that if devolved powers were extended to England, this would, in part, address the asymmetry of the current devolution settlement, and allow UK to move forward and embrace the future as a quasi-federal union."

The report looks at some of the phraseology involved in constitutional debate. "Asymmetric devolution" is redefined as "bespoke devolution" (suits you, sir?). The MPs also try to explain the difference between a commission and a convention, which is handy for those of us who sometimes confuse the two.

A previous report by the committee suggested that local government in England could become the vehicle for devolution. Today's report says: "Of all the tectonic plates within the union, it is England which most needs to be lubricated and adjusted to the new reality of an effective union, within a key framework of national competences.

"The government should now with all urgency, create a forum, for the people of England to discuss if, and how, they wish to follow in the footsteps of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and access substantial devolved powers, clearly defined in statute, for their local communities".

Tony Blair's Labour government did, of course, consider English devolution beyond London, but the idea did not survive an overwhelmingly hostile vote in the north east.

But committee chair Graham Allen said: "A little well intention tinkering with Westminster Parliamentary procedure [McKay] is not enough. England needs to come to the devolution party too and as we approach the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta in 2015 there couldn't be a better time to generate public interest throughout the Union not just in our constitutional heritage but in settling the democratic future of the United Kingdom."

Plenty there for MPs - and hacks - to think about as we disappear for the parliamentary recess.

I'll be back after the break. Happy Easter.

Official figures released in a parliamentary written answer say more than half the official visits made by David Jones, Stephen Crabb and Baroness Randerson have been to this key marginal constituency.

Have I just answered my own question there? Apparently, it's more complicated than that.

A government source suggests the figures are skewed by the location of the Wales Office's Cardiff base in Caspian Point, and the statistics include ministerial visits there.

Except, Caspian Point isn't in Cardiff Central; it's in Cardiff South and Penarth.

Stephen Crabb has now given a fuller breakdown of the figures. If they do include visits to Caspian Point, then it appears the secretary of state for Wales has yet to visit on official business either his own office or the National Assembly for Wales.

Alternatively, it's just possible the Wales Office doesn't realise which constituency its own office is in. A spokesperson tells me: "We are reviewing the figures."