Royal tributes, drone strikes and rail delays

On track? Nick Smith raised questions about the rail electrification timetable

Today should have been the day MPs got to question - for the first time since June - Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb and his deputy Alun Cairns.

Instead, MPs devoted the slot to tributes to the Queen becoming Britain's longest-reigning monarch. Messrs Crabb and Cairns will return next week when they will be faced by a revitalised/demoralised (delete as appropriate) Labour team.

Prime minister's questions followed, dominated by a debate between the departing Harriet Harman and David Cameron on how to tackle the refugee crisis.

SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson raised the use of a drone aircraft to kill Reyaad Khan in Syria: "We learnt this week of a new UK policy of drone strikes against terrorist suspects in regions where there is not parliamentary approval for general military action. Will the prime minister provide all relevant information to the intelligence and security committee, so that it can conduct a review?

David Cameron replied: "I am happy to do that, with the only proviso that the intelligence and security committee cannot be responsible for overseeing current operations. The responsibility for current operations must lie with the Government, who have to come to the House of Commons to explain that. I am not going to contract out our counter-terrorism policy to someone else: I take responsibility for it. But it is important that after these events have taken place, the ISC is able to make investigations.

Closer to home, the prime minister sidestepped a question from Blaenau Gwent Labour MP Nick Smith about possible delays to the electrification of the railway between London and Swansea.

Mr Smith asked: "Experts say that delivery of the electrification of the main line between Paddington and Swansea is slipping. How will the prime minister get this project back on track and budget by the delivery date of 2018?

David Cameron told him: "We are committed to this electrification all the way to Swansea, and we are making record investments in our railway line. Many of us, including opposition members, were privileged to be at Newton Aycliffe for the opening of the Hitachi factory that will be providing the state-of-the-art trains—trains built not in Japan, but here in Britain, bringing 700 new jobs to the north-east of England."

That may be good news, but it doesn't necessarily answer the question of whether or not the line will be electrified by 2018.