Dafydd El being helpful again

The Welsh Assembly’s presiding officer, Lord Elis-Thomas, who has done such sterling work in the cause of  furthering  good relations between Westminster and Cardiff, is apparently to make a speech at the national Eisteddfod in Bala today in which he will suggest that, after the general election, “a Tory-dominated Welsh Affairs Committee could attempt to thwart new powers coming to the Assembly”.

The Welsh select committee currently has three Conservative members. It also has one member from Plaid Cymru.   Every report of the committee on legislative competence proposals has been delivered unanimously; not once has a Conservative demurred from the contents of a report or sought to deliver a minority opinion.  Nor, for that matter, has the Plaid Cymru member.  There is consequently no obvious basis whatever for Lord Elis-Thomas’s typically inflammatory assertion.

Lord Elis-Thomas’s overtly and provocatively political stance sits oddly with what ought to be his neutral role as presiding officer. 

I wonder how he would react if Speaker Bercow were to start criticising or second-guessing the workings of an Assembly committee. 

No doubt, in his usual moderate and measured manner.