In the news

The usual suspects are on hand to give the government a bit of a kicking over 'gimmicksville' ideas in Retirement age hike gets a cool reception, from the Western Mail. There's also an opinion piece about Plaid Cymru, Wales and Plaid Cymru face clear choices, which is very interesting. And a good piece about Soaring property crisis threat to key workers, looking at a major omission from Mrs Windsor's speech: the home owning 'crisis'. It has a particularly epic opening..

HE Queen's Speech is a legislative behemoth, a total of 50 pieces of legislation to drive through over the next 18 months.

There are Bills to make our hospitals cleaner, our pubs and clubs healthier, our communi-ties safer and our elections simpler.

The Government wants to bid for the Olympics, stage a referendum on Europe, reform our welfare state, overhaul public services, give us all identity cards and make us all respect each other a little bit more.

But the crisis now facing tens of thousands of ordinary families desperate to get on to the property ladder does not warrant a mention.

As an aside, if you're interested in a bit of controversy over the Olympics / London thing check out the London 2012 bid site and then the anti-bid website No London 2012.

Looking for the least painful option in higher education funding from the Western Mail, at the start of a busy week for HE funding in Wales.

Wales on Sunday's postbag was crammed full of political issues: Welsh heroes and Gwynfor Evans, mining, hospitals and MRSA, the police and cannabis, the Assembly and calls for a new working class political party. Whew.

A bit of web-related content: Tourism's views of Wales 'need a web kick', Western Mail. A paper has criticised internet facilities for attracting tourists and says that the content is 'stereotypical', with lots of ideas for improvements. The Wales. One Nation website referred to is not linked in the article, so check it out. A spokesperson for the Assembly says in the article that their site is being improved. Update: Peter Black has blogged such things also today.