READING the Argus on February 26, I must comment on The Welsh Assembly’s Labour leader’s highly publicised trip to Canada and USA. 

It makes me laugh how suddenly the money for this is available when at the same time they criticise the Tory Government for austerity! Something not right here surely? 

I know the other Assembly minister, Kirsty Williams, planned a trip to Vietnam for education purposes and it seems that our leader has chosen to jump aboard the bandwagon. How many other AMs will have a ‘research trip’ this term I wonder.

At the same time the Assembly, can’t get the M4 bypass right, or the Newport/ Valleys train line and they still want 30 more members to deal with their work. The mind boggles. 

Isn’t it about time the Welsh public were informed about all the planned trips and the costs? Turning back to the leader’s jaunt, does anyone honestly believe Wales will be gushing with Canadian orders worth millions? We never seem to learn about what monetary gain there is.

I wonder how many his accompanying ‘team’ are going on walkabout in Montreal and the cost. Sorry Mr Leader, your voters will need a lot of convincing that this trip of yours is worth the cash. What happened to the Assembly’s outpost office we paid for in the USA?

Is that still going and what are the results? It is no wonder many Welsh people see the Assembly as nothing more than a well-paid for talking shop.

Jim Dyer 
Stockton Road 
Newport