Brussels spouts

You might miss the column in WoS this week - it's been subsumed into an all-new spanking comment & analysis section near the back of the paper (start at sport and work your way forward). Alongside it this week is a fierce attack on the smoking ban by our our own rolly-toting bon viveur Bram Humphries, and a look at the independents and minor parties running in the Assembly election - worth reading for Trish Law floundering once again when asked why Blaenau Gwent People's Voice isn't a political party. It's all in your super soaraway 85p Wales on Sunday!

Anyway, if you did miss it, here it is. It's a Brussels special this week, as that's where I was for much of it on a "fact-finding trip".

• JILL Evans, Plaid Cymru MEP, found time from her hectic schedule to tell visitors of the joys of working at the European Parliament and the valuable service she provides for the people of Wales.
This included her list of the best things about being an MEP. And what topped this list? Dealing with her constituents’ concerns at a continent-wide level? Being a voice for Wales in Europe? Er...not quite.
“I suppose the best thing about my job,” she said, “is I get to have people in on work experience. Some people come for a week, some for longer. From all over.” What?

• MS Evans’ fellow MEP and pal, Labour’s Eluned Morgan, also gave a talk, voicing her fears on climate change.
It turns out that, only recently, Ms Morgan and her family took a trip to an unspecified location in North Wales because “if we didn’t visit it now, it won’t be there in a few years’ time because of climate change”.
Alas, she disappeared before anybody could ask where this mystery location was. Has anybody told the residents?

• THIS columnist couldn’t resist, upon discovering the area were all the MEPs have their personal lockers, having a quick look at that of Robert-Kilroy Silk, the perma-tanned former TV presenter turned MEP for the East Midlands with lively views on race relations.
Happily, it was unlocked. But, noted for an attendance record at the Parliament that could best be described as “erratic” and worst as “non-existent”, Kilroy’s locker turned out to be completely empty.

• A QUICK plea: if somebody at the Welsh Local Government Association would care to get in touch and explain precisely why they require an office in Brussels, we’d be more than happy to print their explanation as it’s frankly baffling us.

• MORE understandably, the Welsh Assembly Government also keeps an office in the Belgian capital, where they can lobby foreign governments and let the rest of Europe know about what policies they are implementing back home - like, say, the smoking ban.
Presumably this particular policy has gone down a storm with the good folk the WAG shares an office building with - the European HQ of tobacco giant Philip Morris.

• ATTENDING a press conference of the European Commission is fascinating, if only for evidence of how EC types get away with what they do: their investigative hacks are more Clueso than Poirot.
On Wednesday another corruption scandal emerged in Brussels. 30 police raids took place, including at the EC’s premises and the European Parliament, investigators seized numerous documents and three people were arrested. At the heart of the swoops were alleged Mafia involvement in the awarding of security contracts.
So what was the first question posed by a French journalist at the following day’s conference?
“Is the commissioner able to say how many people in Europe dye their hair?”. Brilliant.

• FINALLY, not Euro-related, but we implore you to check out the website of Rachel Maycock, the Labour candidate for Montgomeryshire in the Assembly Election, at rachelmaycock.co.uk.
Click on the ‘photos’ section and ask yourself: is she running to become an AM or star on Britain’s Next Top Model?