Whatever Happened To The Welsh?

It is one of the most striking questions about New Labour.

Old Labour was primarily English, and secondarily at least as Welsh as it was Scottish, indeed arguably rather more so. The first part of that seems to have come back; note that every candidate for Leader was English, and that all five sat for English seats. But there is no sign of the second; on the contrary, no Welsh MP managed to be elected to the Shadow Cabinet, although Peter Hain would have been without the quota for women.

Meanwhile, the only mainland region proudly without a single MP as a Minister now also has not a single MP in the Shadow Cabinet. But then, look who the candidates were. And don't give me any rubbish about the MP for South Shields. His patron was a North East MP, and what did he ever do for us?