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St David's Day may still be a month away but MPs are getting agitated that MPs may not get the chance to stage their annual debate on Welsh affairs, possibly for the first time since the tradition began in 1944*.

The Welsh day debate, usually held on or around St David's Day (March1), could be a casualty of reforms that allow backbench MPs, not the government, to dictate the parliamentary agenda.

Unlike previous years, there is no Welsh debate scheduled in government time, so it will be left to the unusual alliance of former Welsh secretary Paul Murphy, and Plaid Cymru parliamentary leader Elfyn Llwyd to plead the case for a debate before the backbench business committee, which now decides such things.

Current Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan has lent her support for a general debate, but the business committee apparently requires something rather more specific as a topic for debate.

So Messrs Llwyd and Murphy have come up with: "This House recognises the disproportionate impact on Welsh representation of the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill and acknowledges the particular importance of history, geography and community ties in the traditional formation of Welsh parliamentary constituencies."

The said Bill is likely to cut the number of MPs from Wales by a quarter. Wales will be disproportionately hit because we currently have fewer voters per constituency on average than in the rest of Britain.

The annual debate has been criticised in the past as tokenistic and redundant when the Welsh assembly debates Welsh affairs every week, but MPs would certainly mourn its passing.

A decision on whether the tradition survives into 2011 should emerge around lunchtime.

*I'm told that a debate has been held each year since 1944 but have been unable to verify that independently. Does anyone out there have a longer memory?

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