Read what Gareth made of his second day at Wesminster where he's shadowing the Plaid Cymru MP for Ceredigion Simon Thomas - or find out what happend on Day 1, Day 3 or Day 4.

Day 2 - Tuesday 2 December

"There was a lot of waste today. Simon holds the environment portfolio for Plaid Cymru and he is a member of the Select Committee for Environmental Audit.

Today's meeting took evidence from the DEFRA minister Margaret Beckett about her response to the Committee's recent report entitled 'Waste: an Audit'.

The power of Select Committees stems not only from the fact that they can summon ministers but also because the Government must respond to their reports within two months.

Select Committee meetings meet in private for 20-30 minutes before witnesses are called. At Simon's request, I was allowed to listen in to this part, where the MPs decided their strategy for the inquisition, such as who would ask which questions.

The issue of waste appears to be a political and environmental time-bomb, with increasingly strict legislation (much of it agreed at EU level) to reduce the amount of landfilled waste. Responsibility for this issue rests with several Government Departments and several MPs commented on the lack of joined-up government.

The most imminent of the deadlines that the UK is likely to fail in July 2003 to meet relates to the disposal of hazardous wastes. There are no licensed sites in Wales so our hazardous waste will have to travel hundreds of miles at great cost.

It appears that the NIMBY-ism associated with waste plants (no community would volunteer for one) is no longer sustainable since these plants (for hazardous and other types of waste) are needed soon and needed locally.

The next meeting I attended was of the House of Lord Science and Technology Sub-Committee Science and Technology sub-Committee. This is similar in its remit to that of the House of Commons committee, which I attended yesterday.

The subject of this meeting was Science and International Agreements, in particular as they related to the Antarctic where the UK has significant interest (not just scientifically but also fisheries and possibly other natural resources). The witnesses were from the Foreign Office and the British Antarctic Survey.

I did try to put my stereotyped impressions of members of the House of Lords aside but I did find it difficult to keep my interest in the proceedings of this meeting. The questioning was much more vague and there were many digressions from the main points. However, it is true that more scientific knowledge resides among the members of the House of Lords (e.g. eminent scientist who have been ennobled).

The last meeting of the day was for the Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Waste Group. This was much more informal that the Select Committee and there were many more members of the public (from local councils, waste companies etc.). There were presentations from several civil servants and MPs but the key message was that the Government needs to address the issue of waste more seriously.

Mention of the F-word here caused the audience to descend into laughter, a cryptic reference to the Fridge mountain. Apparently the next mountain to appear will be made of car tyres.

After this my fellow scientists and I made a brief tour of the Westminster Bars (apparently 17 in total) and were dined in the grandiose Churchill restaurant. Tomorrow {Wednesday 3 December}, there is PM Questions and more opportunity to see an average working day for Simon."

Written by Dr Gareth Wyn Griffith from the University of Wales Aberystwyth.