This week's WoS column

• LABOUR believes that children are the future. Which is why 17 young people from Pembrokeshire were recently invited over to Westminster to chat about climate change and environmental issues with Energy Minister Lord Truscott.
After researching the subject and making a nine-hour trip to London, however, it appears the teens were a little, well, underwhelmed by the minister.
“He didn’t really answer our questions, he seemed to have a prepared speech,” said Gwyn Thomas, 18, from Fishguard. “He used lots of persuasion techniques like repeating himself and lists and talking very fast,” complained 16-year-old Jessy Ferguson.
“He was really quite rude,” added Josh Riley, 17, “and answered different questions, not those we asked.”
And Rosie Seymour, 16, concluded: “I could tell he wanted to leave. He wasn’t even listening to the questions at the end.”
So young and yet already so cynical!

• TWO Jobs Peter Hain’s bid to become One Job Peter Hain and be elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party continues apace - now being told he cannot appoint the man he wanted to his campaign team.
Two Jobs was keen to have Alyn & Deeside MP Mark Tami on board for his tactical nouse.
Alas! Mr Tami was one of those Labour MPs instrumental in organising an abortive coup against Mr Tony last year. Labour’s Chief Whip Jacqui Smith has declared all those involved may not return to frontline duty in the party until the PM has departed.
Having had his knuckles rapped by the fearsome Ms Smith, Two Jobs is now looking for a replacement field marshall.

• STILL, Two Jobs does have some ‘friends’, both on his MySpace site and his page on trendy social networking website Facebook.
Two weeks ago we reported he had only amassed a meagre eight online pals. Happily, we can now reveal his MySpace mates have skyrocketed to 15.
But on Facebook he has accumulated an impressive 246 friends, including not only this very columnist, but John McDonnell, the Labour left-winger standing for the leadership. Do we detect a dream ticket in the offing?
Another friend, we’re pleased to say, is Education Secretary Alan Johnson, the man who is going to finish above Mr Hain in the deputy leadership race. Mr Hain is clearly keeping his enemies even closer.

• LAST week’s look at the independents running in May’s election managed to overlook one excellent candidate standing in Ceredigion.
Dafydd Morgan single-handedly fights white-collar crime and, as a quick look at his website standyourground.co.uk will confirm, everyone is in on the conspiracy.
His aim is to “rid the country of ‘white collar skullduggery’ coming from a ‘Taffia’ of certain local Masonic inclined administrators, solicitors, officers, elected representatives, bank officials and business people,” he explains.
Usefully, the site also includes a ‘Rogues Gallery’ of those shady concerns behind the conspiracy, including such fly-by-night operations as Natwest, Barclays, Halifax, HSBC and Abbey National.
Just the man to clean up the Assembly, we feel.

• MEANWHILE, fresh from saving the Burberry workers, Rhondda MP Chris Bryant has been getting his claws out on daytime TV.
Appearing on Five’s The Wright Stuff last week, he was asked about the love life of Welsh Lib Dem leader and advocate of bum-touching Lembit Öpik. “How could Lembit choose a Cheeky Girl over the lovely Siân Lloyd?”.
Bryant retorted: “Have you met Siân?”. Miaow!

• FINALLY, farewell to Thomas Goodhead, the Conservative candidate for Blaenau Gwent unveiled amid much hoo-hah by the party last year given he’s the great-great-nephew of Labour legend Aneurin Bevan.
Unfortunately, Mr Goodhead will no longer be standing for the Tories, nor indeed anyone else, after forgetting to send his nomination papers in on time. Oops.