Shirley Tart: You can bet your bacon Stephen's on the way up

If he should win he'll be representing the safe Labour seat of Aberavon in south Wales . . . and living in Denmark.

If, that is, he intends to stay in the marital home. Certainly his wife will have to since she's the Danish prime minister.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt can't go nipping off to Aberavon to support her hubby at his weekend surgeries after all, can she?

Still if young Mr Kinnock does win a Commons seat, mum and dad (Glenys and Neil) will be nearby as both sit in the House of Lords.

Dad was Labour party leader, and mum is a former MEP. So no shortage of advice there then.

And when he does cross the North Sea to reunite with Helle, if he needs any further political advice, his charming Danish wife will doubtlessly oblige.

Stephen's selection as a candidate has opened the floodgates of opinion on the number of MP's children wanting to follow in family footsteps.

Jack Straw's lad has already been selected, while Euan Blair, David Prescott, Harriet Harman's son, a Rees-Mogg and a Hurd to name but a handful, are either in or thinking about standing for Parliament.

So you think I'm going to get on my high horse here?

Not at all.

We live in a democracy and if anyone feels they want to stand as an MP then so be it.

We've got – or had – husbands and wives, brothers, parents, sisters and all sort of other relationships in the House. If candidates are chosen for safe seats simply because of who they are related to, well, you can't legislate for selection committees, can you?

And I wouldn't want to. Set everyone free to make their own mistakes, I say. It might be an antidote as well for those who complain about family following on generation by generation in big business.

However, I'm still left wondering how you can be an MP in south Wales with a wife who's the premier of Denmark.