Welsh Tory MP: "I am proud to be a fruitcake"

It's shaping up to be another exciting day at Westminster. Yes, Welsh Secretary David Jones and his deputy Stephen Crabb will be answering questions from MPs in the first Welsh Question Time here since February.

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."