Owen Smith gets a Non-Job.

Owen Smith will have to expand his 

Horizons

To a Fanfare of indifference from the UK Media Pontypridd MP Own Smith ,has been appointed to the Shadow post of Secretary of State for Wales .


The Pontypridd MP says he has had no animosity from his Welsh colleagues in Westminster after replacing Peter Hain as Shadow Welsh secretary.

He said......

: “There are lots of Welsh Labour MPs who could have done the job but I want us to be a team.

“The Labour group is a very strong group and collectively I hope that I can bring us forward in Westminster.

I am afraid I strongly disagree with him. It.s clear of the lack of Welsh Labour MPs to reach either Cabinet or even Shadow positions (compared with their Scottish Colleagues )   showed that they have failed to impress leader Ed Miliband as those who have gone before him have also little regard for his MPs from Wales and its likely Own Smith will be the only Welsh MP around the Cabinet table should Labour regain power in the next election.


However to fair to Owen Smith he has looked better than recent intakes and above the usual Labour placeman/woman from Wales whose role is usually to be Lobby fodder for the party and loyal when told what to vote correctly. 

Smiths political careerer almost ended before it really started., Smith worked for five years in the Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals industry Which I believe developed Viagra.

In 2006 he was selected to stand in the Blaneau Gwent By-election after the death of Peter Law ,but in a surprise to most he was defeated by Independent Dai Davies.

Fortunately for him Pontypridd's MP Kim Howells announced his intention to retire at the forthcoming election and Smith was duly selected to stand for Labour.

However it was still not plain sailing as there was a swing of 13.3% to an aggressive LibDem opponent and it looked for a moment that the normally safe seat may be threatened . However the LibDem threat has probably gone and even boundary change will not affect Owen Smith winning easily at the next election.

He is of course the son of the Historian Dai Smith. Who always give me the impression that nothing important happened in Wales before the Industrial Revolution and Wales virtually stopped once you reached Merthyr. Dai often accuses Welsh Nationalists of being narrow minded and parochial  not seeing the irony of his own one eyed view of Welsh History.

His son has played Pontypriid well and as a genuine supporter of the towns (I saw him at matches well before he was a candidate) Rugby team he has heard the discontentment with the fact there's no regional Ruby club based there  and has called for a 5th region
to be created,

Though if we can't support 4 regions it will be difficult to add another and it should  certainly not  be done to further the status of the local MP.

The worry of course is that Owen shares his Fathers Valleys parochialism and not see the picture beyond his own area a accusation often laid at his predecessor Kim Howells.

A Labour MP Secretary of State who cannot relate to the whole of Wales is as bad as a Tory Secretary of state who represents and English Constituency. 

Mind  you I suspect that once the Scottish referendum is over the post will cease to exist and Owen Smith has only a few years to impress his boss in order to get a real job.


He may be needing the political equivalent of Viagra to achieve this.