91Èȱ¬

What do you give a 60 year old on their birthday?

A copy of the Times from 1948?

A free bus pass?

If you're the NHS, celebrating its 60th anniversary on Saturday, the Assembly Government has bigger plans. It's throwing a party for NHS pioneers later this week but has already come up with a list of "the latest statistics" which gives us a picture of the NHS in Wales today.

There's no mention of free prescriptions or free car parking in hospitals. We're talking plain old facts and figures here.

For instance the NHS in Wales employs around 90,000 people, 7% of the Welsh workforce.

There are 13,600 hospital beds in Wales and over 1,900 GPs who prescribe, on average, 162,000 items every day.

On that average day 3,000 people attend hospital casualty departments and 750 operations are performed.

These 'latest statistics' come, by the way, with a National Satistics logo or kitemark that looks a bit like that '5-a-day' logo on your bananas or 'red tractor' badge on your broccoli.

The big green and blue tick tells you and me that these statistics are cast iron.

Statistics like these: that the NHS in Wales has "reduced hospital waiting times so that by March 2008 no one was waiting longer than 22 weeks for an outpatient appointment and only 5 people were waiting over 22 weeks for admission to hospital".

Still way, way longer than patients in England are waiting but all the same, good news all round that the latest statistics are so healthy.

And they were, back in March when they were the 'latest statistics'. But hang on, how do they look three months later? At the end of April the number of people waiting longer than 22 weeks for an outpatient appointment had crept up from 0 to 13 and by the end of May to 47.

The number of people waiting over 22 weeks for admission to hospital had gone up from 5 to 42 and by the end of May, stood at 211.

I don't know how the waiting times look at the end of June but you may want to wish the NHS a happy birthday by pledging to keep an eye out for them.

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• - What's this?

Apologies in advance to those of you who have no idea what the answer is and who care even less but curiosity has won through:

What's the link between Conservative Assembly Member, David Melding, former Plaid Cymru MP now Special Adviser, Simon Thomas, Former ITV Wales Political Editor and Director of the sustainable transport charity Sustrans Cymru, Lee Waters and former Welsh Secretary and 'architect of devolution' Ron Davies?

What would they have found to talk about over dinner the other night?

And having failed to find a table in a busy restaurant, did they leave on two tandems?

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• - What's this?

Which story from Wales on the 91Èȱ¬ online site was the most read throughout the UK yesterday?

Over a million people clicked on the story of the man who squeezed 13 people into his Volvo and found himself with a conviction for dangerous driving.

It's unlikely that the equally rare sight these days of 10 men squeezed around the Joint Ministerial Committee table will galvanise quite so much clicking but you can't blame a girl for trying to sell a story.

The JMC - a body made up of representatives from the UK government and the devolved administrations of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland - last met 6 years ago. Despite Jane Davidson appearing to suggest yesterday that it hadn't met for so long because diaries are always difficult to co-ordinate, I think we can safely say it lay dormant while Labour Ministers used other more convenient channels of communication but it's now been given the kiss of life - or been kicked back into life - by the SNP's Alex Salmond and the Plaid/Sinn Fein deputies in Cardiff and Stormont.

Overseeing the passengers as they fight their way to the best seats in the JMC as I write is Welsh Secretary, Paul Murphy; in the chair - or should that be driving seat - that big fan of devolution, Justice Secretary Jack Straw.

The Scottish First Minister comes armed with a demand for more help for consumers and industry in Scotland to combat the effects of high fuel prices. He'd rather just keep Scottish oil revenue in Scotland of course and abolish the Scotland Office but give him time. This is meeting number one of the 'rejuvenated' JMC.

Rhodri Morgan wants to talk about renewable energy and coastline policy. Now 'energy' could always lead to questions about devolving the right to grant consent for power stations with a generating capacity of greater than 50 MW of course but will there be fireworks from Welsh Ministers? No.

Yet it's worth noting what a Labour and a Plaid backbencher had to say about the JMC over the past few days. I'd be surprised if either chose their words without ... some consideration of what the boss thinks.

Plaid's Alun Ffred Jones talked in terms of the JMC as a forum for Welsh Ministers 'to seek redress for injustices':

"There is huge scope in this sort of forum to grapple with some of the contentious issues of the day and work towards solutions which can be mutually beneficial ... What is needed however is a partnership of equals which would provide an even stronger basis on which we can work together for the good of our respective countries."

And from Labour's Lesley Griffiths: "The UK and devolution within the UK, is a moving 'feast' and I am anxious to see the rules and structures that define the current relationships, are kept right up to date and relevant for today. Also, for the JMC to be truly reinvigorated, I believe it is essential that the rules that govern the process, reflect what is presently happening in all the nations ... I fully agree and accept that the formal mechanism of the JMC should not used as a substitute for good working relations between the London and Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh. However, periodically disputes will undoubtedly arise that have to be addressed, so it is just 'good-housekeeping' to have contemporary arrangements and rules in place for when those moments occur".

'Considering disputes between the administrations' is already part of the JMC's remit.

And it looks as though the Scottish and Welsh contingent might just take that particular vehicle for a test-drive.

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• - What's this?

Funny things, coincidences. Especially if you're a government minister.

You're all set to make an announcement ... and lo and behold, an opposition debate pops up on it a week before. Hospital cleanliness, for example. That was last week, with a major Welsh Assembly Government report on it due this week.

Or funding for a vital, and long campaigned-for drug, to give another example. All the plans were in place - we're told - for an announcement by the Health Minister next week on the Lucentis drug for wet AMD sufferers to be available across Wales, when the Conservatives elect to hold a full scale debate in plenary on it THIS week.

What do you do?

Better to bring the announcement forward, it seems, than be seen to be reacting to opposition pressure. So we duly found a written statement on Lucentis dropping into our inboxes yesterday.

But the thing about coincidences is they make you wonder.

Here's the Health Minister, Edwina Hart, wondering aloud: "In many ways, when I saw the Conservative debate had been put down for this week I thought oh, who's told them - and I've got my last meeting last Friday to sort out the policy. There's a little element of suspicion with me, but I shouldn't be nasty because really people have been lobbying all politicians about this issue, and at the end of the day I feel its not about lobbying, it's about doing the right thing.

Would she care to wonder any further about this particular coincidence?

Sphinx-like, she says, "Well, it made me smile a little, but at the end of the day we've had quite a few debates from them (the Tories) recently that are right at the heart of government policy that I'm about to announce, but um, that's the way the cookie crumbles, isn't it?"

Isn't it? Or maybe it can just sometimes be tricky keeping the lid on the biscuit tin.

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• - What's this?

The Minister for the Environment, Sustainability and Housing, Jane Davidson, has coined a new phrase.

You thought her colleague, the Minister for Rural Affairs, was about to announce a ban on electric shock collars because she thinks they're cruel and unnecessary.

In fact, Elin Jones is about to make an announcement on "a Wales-leading-the-way-issue".

Trips off the tongue?

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• - What's this?

There was a time not that long ago when the most important qualification for becoming Plaid Cymru president was, to put it bluntly, 'not being Ieuan Wyn Jones'.

Now there are some in the Party of Wales who stand accused these days of at times.

Ieuan Wyn Jones was never guilty of that. In fact the man described by one of his own MPs as seemed pretty much to admit he wasn't really cut out for the job when he gave up the combined leadership and presidency after the 2003 Assembly Elections.

Llywydd Wyn Jones stood outside party HQ and stood down. He did not tick the charisma box and more crucially, not enough voters had ticked the Plaid box that May. The party took a hammering and the leader lost the confidence of too many of his colleagues.

But hang on.

The two roles were then split and back came Ieuan Wyn Jones as Assembly group and party leader. The job had been redefined and so, apparently, had the man. Before some in his own party had quite worked out how he'd managed it, the country solicitor had negotiated his way into his country's government.

How about the presidency? What did Plaid want from their president in 2003 when the voters had just given them a kicking?

Personality, colour, inspiration, an ability to communicate with the grass roots in a way Ieuan Wyn Jones had not and could not, a figure-head who could galvanise party members, workers, volunteers and voters alike.

They elected Dafydd Iwan, a man best known for having kept "good country solicitors" busy as a political activist and whose speeches and passion for independence packs them in at party conferences.

And now the party get to choose again as Elfyn Llwyd MP, formerly known as and still sometime "good country solicitor", pigeon-fancier and mate of Paul Murphy's has (openly) challenged for the presidency.

Two horses so far and that means Dafydd Iwan must persuade his party that he's still up for the job and that while he may be a defeated Gwynedd councillor and awkward reminder of Plaid's problems in that part of the heartlands, he should retain the presidency.

So what will the party decide they need this time, sitting pretty in government, making strides in the local elections in Labour territory but feeling the pain from a couple of hard knocks in their own, traditional heartlands?

Elfyn Llwyd has set the tone with his warning today that it's time for a change at the top, "for the party to go back to its roots and reconnect with local communities". (Sounds as though he's reworked an old Peter Hain speech to me).

Plaid, he says, needs to "move away from internal navel gazing". He wants to see "joined up thinking and action between various levels of the party" ... not that he's criticising his opponent, who must have presided over this period of internal navel gazing of course.

For his part that "there is an important role for the president to play in acting as a link between professional politicians and the grassroots."

In other words both men pledge to listen to those who may be glad that Plaid are in government, who supported the deal with Labour but whose concerns are mounting. Some of them may have voted for Llais Gwynedd on May 1st and need some persuasion to come back into the fold. Both men know about that danger. One's already been ousted by Llais Gwynedd; the other will have watched their votes piling up in Meirionydd on May 1st and calculated it's high time he upped his profile before the next General Election.

Both men know that the job is to keep the troops happy while the leader gets on with making the kind of difficult-to-justify decisions that lead to unhappiness in the ranks. Opposition is a luxury, government is difficult etc etc

Or put another way one of the key qualifications for the job seem to have changed - from 'not being Ieuan Wyn Jones' in 2003 to 'allowing Ieuan Wyn Jones to get on with it' in 2008.

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• - What's this?

Last week the 91Èȱ¬ was accused of finding devolution rather difficult to reflect.

Yesterday Labour MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, Derek Wyatt, proved he has no such difficulty. In fact he killed two birds with one stone: he had a good bash at and proved that it's always tempting to take a metaphor just that little bit too far.

"My constituents are living in a half-finished house that costs them money, and they are beginning to resent it. The half-finished house in our country--the United Kingdom--has, like so many historic houses, grown up over the centuries without a master plan and according to the needs or whims of successive owners. Nearly 90 years ago, after a long and bitter dispute, we gave the neighbouring property to its sitting tenants--although some preferred to go on living with us. We spent the next 70 years or so trying to improve our house to make it a better place in which to live and trying to protect it from outside attack. We made no changes to the structure of the house and all the rooms and facilities were shared among all the residents.

However, in the past 10 years, there has been some major remodelling of the property. We converted the upstairs into a separate flat for the Scots and created another flat with inferior facilities in the west wing for the Welsh. We then persuaded the Northern Irish to live in another flat in the orangery--although many of them wanted to live with their neighbours next door. All that remodelling failed to create any special space for the English. They went on living in the property, but the Scots, the Welsh and the Northern Irish were still free to walk in and help themselves to the fridge and the drinks cabinet. They could even make rules for the English that they themselves did not have to follow.

Meanwhile, the English went on paying most of the household bills."

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• - What's this?

I know a lot more about trees that I did 24 hours ago.

I know that mensuration is about measuring trees and that discounting isn't just something that happens in supermarkets [supermarkets? I meant superstores] towards the end of the season. How exactly it works in terms of forecasting and quantifying the economic performance of forestry systmes I just about grasped after a ten minute explainer over tea and welshcakes with former Cardiff Central MP and present-day Chair of Forestry Commission Wales' National Committee, Jon Owen Jones.

There was an awful lot I didn't follow during the Commission's conference on climate change and forests at the appropriately wood-laden Wales Millennium Centre but I learned one other thing which I'll share with you here 'without comment' as they say:

The Senedd building doesn't just use wood to great effect to wow visitors. It's also fuelled by wood - a biomass, wood-burning boiler down in the depths of the building.

And Dr Robin Cotton, a wood energy consultant, proudly told the conference that the Senedd's boiler was the kind that - once it got going - gave off no emissions at all. In fact it's seemingly inactive so that it's hard to tell whether it's working or not.

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• - What's this?

They say that if a diplomat says, "Yes," he means "Maybe".

If a diplomat says, "Maybe," he means "No."

So I wonder if I were to ask Sir Emyr Jones Parry whether he thinks steps to establish the All-Wales Convention are being taken quickly enough, he'd be tempted to crack that diplomatic smile and say, "maybe".

Nick Bourne tried to be diplomatic a few weeks ago but managed to let slip that Sir Emyr was chomping at the bit, wanting to get a move-on and wishing the wheels weren't grinding quite so slowly.

Let's put it like this: the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show kicks off on July 21st. If Sir Emyr and the line-up of his Convention aren't sorted by then and if they're not seen and heard around that main show ring in their green wellies, then things won't have gone according to plan.

And I wonder too what Sir Emyr made of the Irish referendum result. It's not his job to sell us a referendum of course, let alone the need for a referendum in the first place. He's here to gauge our appetite for a vote and report back to the politicians. So there's no reason why he would have shuddered when he read that the massively outspent No campaign had swept to victory.

But I bet the consummate diplomat just wondered whether there could there be any "read across" - apologies for the management term - for a referendum on further powers for the Assembly here in Wales?

What might have struck him?

That the Yes campaign held overwhelming advantages. They had widespread political support, unanimity across political elites, blanket media backing whose main message seemed to be that a yes vote is a GOOD THING. End of story.

That the No campaign was a fairly ramshackle, down-home affair but with one or two significant financial backers.

And that the main message of If You Don't Know, Vote No, clearly seemed to resonate much more with the people than the Yes campaign's Trust Us We Know Best

He might then have made a cup of tea and thought through why people decided to vote No and he might have concluded it had very little to do with the detail of the Lisbon Treaty. It just seemed complicated, administrative and distant from people's lives. (The man who can probably recite Part 4 of the Government of Wales Act may have had some sympathy with them there).

And didn't the result perhaps show - despite what voters are told to keep in mind when they're putting a cross in the box - just how influenced referendums can be by external factors such as disarray within the Government of the day.

So is there a read across? Almost certainly I'd say.

For the Yes campaign in a Welsh referendum?

You need to make the case clearly, in a language people can understand. Just because you believe further powers are a good thing it doesn't mean "y werin bobol" as Sir Emyr is so fond of saying, will agree with you.

You also need to show you've got the ideas to make the new powers make a difference in the future. There's no point in a bigger vessel if you haven't got the means of filling it as someone said to me recently.

There's also a lesson from the opinion polls. The Yes campaign was well ahead in the weeks before the vote. But beware the don't knows. The No campaign picked up seventeen points in one week in the run up to polling day and if anyone in Wales needs reminding, momentum can take public opinion in directions completely unpredictable by those calling the vote.

And for the No campaign? Well that's rather simpler. What looks like overwhelming odds can be overcome if you keep your message simple, tap into existing feelings people might have about their rulers and capitalise on any splits in the Yes campaign.

But the All Wales Convention isn't there to sell us the idea of a Yes vote of course so maybe Sir Emyr sipped his tea and didn't give it a second thought.

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• - What's this?

I'd never suggest AMs from any party are devoid of the above but , read and wonder why not even the Lib Dems came up with any suggestions this time?

By the way the First Minister has just apologised for voting the wrong way last week on Peter Black's LCO which would have devolved powers to the Assembly over determining the electoral arrangements for local councils in Wales.

He voted yes but meant no.

It was a "computer malfunction".

Be grateful it wasn't a "wardrobe malfunction".

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• - What's this?

"It's like putting a teetotaller in charge of a brewery".

Was the disgruntled voter talking about appointing a Merseyside-born non-Welsh speaker to the cabinet to protect and develop the Welsh language some years ago?

No. He was complaining bitterly about appointing a vegetarian to the job of Agrictulture Minister. Remember Christine Gwyther? Farmers and opposition parties wondered how eloquently she would argue the case for eating good, red Welsh meat if she didn't let the stuff cross her lips herself.

She didn't last very long and had a tough time of it, though farmers and opposition parties will both argue that had less to do with the way she did her job than what she ate.

So does it matter one iota that Andrew R.T. Davies, who's been appointed Shadow Education Minister in the wake of Alun Cairns' resignation, chooses to educate his two eldest children privately?

Is it relevant that the man who will be responsible for "dialoguing" - his word, not mine - with teachers and headteachers, parents who support the principle of choice in educating their children but find it's Hobson's choice more often than not - sends two children to be educated privately?

Let's be clear: he's entirely happy to take on anyone who thinks it is.

But let's be equally clear that it's fair enough to ask the question: why does he send two children to private schools?

The answer is that one child was involved in a bullying incident and the other benefits from a special learning programme at an independent school. His youngest children go to the local state primary, where he's a governor.

But the word that really got Andrew Davies going in the briefing with journalists was 'rich'. 'Rich?' he boomed. 'I see people every day who sweat and slave to pay school fees. They're not rich!'. So does he feel equally able to represent those people who sweat and slave all day but have no chance of scraping together enough to pay school fees? A ready and passionate answer: yes, by fighting for opportunities for everyone, by opening not closing doors, by supporting best practice as he does in every field.

And to anyone who might be tempted to question his faith in the state sector?

"Rubbish!"

A timely reminder from the new Education spokesman that he's a farmer whose hands prove he's picked up more spades in his lifetime to do a proper day's work than anyone else in the chamber.

Another reminder from his leader, Nick Bourne, that Labour might care to run through the list that starts Tony Blair, Ruth Kelly ... before pointing any fingers. Or will they simply decide that as far as the Tory toff line goes, it's once bitten, twice shy?

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• - What's this?

It seems the former Welsh Office Minister, Rod Richards, may have taken the title of my last entry rather literally.

His suggestion is that his former colleague Alun Cairns takes a trip up to Newbridge and gets a photographer to snap away while Joe Calzaghe jabs him playfully on the chin.

Two things: how sure would you need to be that the world champion boxer was in playful mood before you climbed into the ring with him and secondly, who but Rod Richards would come up with the suggestion of a punch-up as a solution?

But better news for Alun Cairns from the red corner. Former Labour leader of Cardiff Council and former chief executive of the capital's chamber of commerce Russell Goodway says the Tories have over-reacted and that Wales needs what he describes as politicians of Alun Cairns' calibre.

So are those senior Labour figures who've called on him to go wrong then? Ah no - that's understandable. They're simply taking the opportunity handed to them on a plate by the Tories.

'Former' maybe but he's still a politician through and through.

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• - What's this?

I go away for a couple of days and return to find that international relations have got no better and the .

The heat is off the Presiding Officer, who copied everyone in on his dismissal of the Israeli Ambassador's visit and has now locked on to Alun Cairns, the Conservative AM and -suspended - parliamentary candidate for the Vale of Glamorgan.

On Friday on Radio Cymru's discussion programme, Dau o'r Bae, you will now know that Alun Cairns tried to be witty but instead, was offensive. Using the words "greasy wops" to describe Italians was, he admits, unacceptable. It was also uncharacteristically stupid and inept.

There have been rumours for weeks that Labour and Plaid have been keen to oust him from the Chair of the Finance Committee. Now he's gone and done it for them, standing down from the chairmanship and as Shadow Education Minister. If he hoped that would protect his candidacy in the Vale of Glamorgan, it was a vain hope. He's been suspended pending an inquiry by party chair Caroline Spelman, who is herself facing an inquiry into payments to her nanny out of her MP's staffing allowance. Now isn't that the kind of sentence Central Office just didn't want to read.

Yesterday's Telegraph saw this as "effectively ending his political career". Perhaps they don't regard life in the Assembly as a career at all, or perhaps the paper at least believe his days as an AM are numbered too. I've heard nothing to suggest it is but Alun Cairns himself would be the first to tell you quite openly that his ambitions lay elsewhere.

Just a few weeks ago he was at David Cameron's side when the Tory leader came to Barry to celebrate a win in the local elections.

When David Cameron comes back - and he'll want to come back to one of the party's number one target seats - he will not want to be asked about the candidate's judgement. He'll want to crack jokes about 'what's occurrin', not defend his party against accusations from Labour that the man fighting the seat has opened a window on a party that is still just a little bit nasty.

Alun Cairns will know too that the leader won't want to be seen to be dithering. That's that other party leader's trademark according to David Cameron. His strategy is to be decisive.

What Caroline Spelman must decide is where the line is drawn between being decisive and over-reacting.

The local party say this morning that they hope Alun Cairns is allowed to fight the seat. He made a mistake but doesn't deserve to go. We've asked them for an interview and got a straight 'no'. The response from the Welsh Conservatives is the same.

Alun Cairns' career has taken a deserved knock. I'm told there is no timescale on the inquiry that'll decide whether it's a knock-out blow: "it'll take as long as it takes".

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• - What's this?

Aliens are threatening to take over the world and Britain is facing an intergalactic invasion.

Who can save us from impending doom?

The answer, in the world of Marvel's latest Captain Britain cartoon strip, is Super Gordon Brown.

But wait a minute, when three cabinet ministers are aliens in disguise, when you're truly staring disaster in the face, what do you do if you're Super Gordon Brown's special adviser?

Well you do the most natural thing in the world apparently - you notify the Scottish First Minister.

No mention of Rhodri Morgan, granted but if proof were needed that devolution has started to reach the parts other political processes hasn't reached, here it is.

But it hasn't yet, , reached all of its parts. A report written for the 91Èȱ¬ Trust finds a lot of good things to say, particularly about the impartiality of the corporation's reporting. But it finds a lot to criticise too about the way in which news and current affairs programmes broadcast on the network have so far told the story of devolution, of living in a changing UK.

It's thoughtful and detailed. A 136 stories on health and education analysed during a four week period - every single one dealt with England alone. 208 Westminster MPs interviewed in stories relating to devolved issues, 27 Scottish MSPs, one AM.

The report lets some of the more stark statistics do the talking.

Now feel free to do yours.

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• - What's this?

It's unlikely all that many AMs will have sat down yesterday with a copy of the Telegraph and read the Israeli ambassador's comments on how the UK - once admired for its liberal fairness and decency - has seen extremists "hijack" its debate over Israel.

Ron Prosor, who took over as Israeli ambassador to the UK last year, told the paper that his country has been turned into a "pantomime villain" by Britons who deny it has any right to exist and is, we're told, "particularly scornful of the academics who want to boycott Israeli universities over the country's treatment of Palestinians."

"Fairness is all too frequently absent in a debate that has been hijacked by extremists" says Mr Prosor.

But today, they might well want to take stock of Mr Prosor's views as they decide whether to turn up to meet him in a conference room in Ty Hywel on June 24th - or not.

The Assembly's only Muslim AM, Mohammad Asghar, thinks they should. He's invited them all to a reception - one he rather optimistically asked them to keep under their hats, only to find that Emails copied in to half the Assembly never, ever remain under anyone's hats for long.

The Llywydd - or Presiding Officer - made no such request when he fired off his reply. He pressed the "reply to all" button and let rip.

"I am unwilling to accept the invitation to meet the Ambassador, because of my objection to the failure of the State of Israel to meet its international obligations to the Palestinian People of the Holy Lands. I would invite other Colleagues to the same".

So far, so row brewing between a backbench AM and the Llywydd.

This morning Mohammed Asghar told Radio Wales why he thought Lord Elis-Thomas is wrong:

"I don't want to put my head in the sand, and I appreciate everybody's feelings, and being Muslim, probably everyone knows my feelings, but I am a human being, and a peaceful human being.

"I like Lord Elis Thomas, he's a great friend of mine, and I respect his views, but I'm sure in due course he might change his mind, and one day he will sit on the table to talk on the initiative if we get one.

"If AMs have concerns, as I do myself, about polices followed by the Israeli Government then surely it's better to use this event to talk about those concerns rather than to put up barriers which can only promote further misunderstanding".

Enter the leader of Cardiff Council, Rodney Berman:

"I believe that given his position as Presiding Officer, Lord Elis-Thomas needs to understand the impact of his comments on people across Wales - including members of its Jewish community. Many members of that community will be quite shocked by the strident tone he has adopted and his complete unwillingness to even attend this meeting to express his legitimate point of view.

Then this morning comes the suggestion from the Government that the Israeli Ambassador may be meeting Counsel General Carwyn Jones during his visit - a visit that's starting to sound rather more official by the minute.

"A senior moment" says one AM, describing the PO's response. But he's unrepentant.

He will not be accepting his colleague's invitation to change his mind.

He won't even be talking in diplomatic niceties about 'being unavailable' to meet the Ambassador.

He's said no and he's sticking to it.

UPDATE: What was that about the visit starting to sound more and more official?

By this lunchtime the Welsh Assembly Government had taken a good look at the diary and found it's not a case of 'may be meeting Carwyn Jones' at all. In fact the new Ambassador will definitely be meeting the First Minister on his very first visit to Wales "to familiarise himself with our country and what Wales has to offer the world."

And if Dafydd Elis-Thomas chose to speak bluntly, the same goes for one or two others.
Brace yourselves.

The Llywydd's intervention, says an Israeli embassy spokesman is "another worrying example of unacceptable boycotting of Israel and Israelis and it's unfortunately part of a campaign run by some sectors here to demonise and vilify Israel at any price in any circumstances."

But another Email, copied to all AMs, is even blunter.

Deputy Minister Leighton Andrews informs Mohammad Asghar he won't be at the meeting. That's because he'll be elsewhere, not because he wants any "part of the juvenile gesture politics provoked by the Presiding Officer. I think his response to the invitation to the Israeli Ambasasdor is discourtous to you, insulting to the people of Israel, and demeaning to the National Assembly".

He's in favour of "dialogue, not pointless gestures".

Relations between a growing group of AMs and the Llywydd have been strained for a while (remember the blog censoring row?)

It just got a whole lot worse.

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• - What's this?

Sparks?

No.

In fact, once or twice, I looked out of the glass wall of the Atrium's 4th floor at the hotel towering opposite and wondered at the irony of its name spelled out in giant letters ... 'the big sleep'.

Ok, so it wasn't that uneventful and some telling points were made but I think it's fair to say the boss got less than a rough ride. Perhaps the members were saving up their best lines of attack for the Director General, Mark Thompson, when he appears before them next week.

They may just get one or two more when Professor Tony King's review of network news is published on Wednesday. But forget the trails: what did the committee want to know?

Let's kick off with how many of the 91Èȱ¬'s programmes on the network are made in Wales?

Ah well, it depends what you mean by "Made in Wales". Until now a drama series like Life on Mars could be filmed and produced without an actor ever having to set foot this side of Offa's Dyke but because the executive's office was in Wales, it counted as made in Wales.

Not anymore, said Menna Richards, 91Èȱ¬ Wales Controller. New yardstick, new rules. From now on if it's stamped made in Wales, it will be.

But figures and targets? By 2016, 50% of network productions made outside London; 17% in the nations; 5% in Wales. Given the new rules it's probably daft to try and compare like with like but it sounded like an increase from somewhere around 2.6% to 5%.

Good, said the committee but not good enough.

Forget Life on Mars, what about life in Wales? Where was Wales' answer to Ballykissangel? Where was the Monarch of the Valleys asked committee chair Alun Davies:

"You occasionally glimpse St Mary Street or the Bay there on Torchwood but what you don't have is a portrayal of life in Wales and in that sense, you know, Wales really is a forgotten nation when it comes to the 91Èȱ¬. You don't see the portrayal of ordinary, every day life in this country".

I spotted one cameramen, there to record proceedings and probably wishing he was in the tardis instead, nodding ever so slightly.

Menna Richards thought "the whole of the 91Èȱ¬ would certainly agree that there is a long way to go on the whole notion of portrayal".

Peter Black had another go. He would 91Èȱ¬ Wales avoid becoming overly reliant on Dr Who and Torchwood? After all you're down to just four specials already, he said - putting it, said Menna Richards, "in a more negative way than I might have done".

"That's my job" came the retort.

The answer was good planning, not resting on laurels and developing good people and good ideas. The member for South Wales West didn't seem entirely convinced.

Final Score?

Dr Who 14
Torchwood 17

Committee: 1
91Èȱ¬: 1

Final quote?

"Portrayal" said the 91Èȱ¬'s Director of Nations and Regions "Is a live issue".

Quite.

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Off to the Broadcasting Committee which is proving it isn't wedded to Cardiff Bay by going out on the road to take evidence.

It's striking out in the great unknown and will hold this session in the University of Glamorgan's new School of Creative and Cultural Industries ... barely a mile down the road.

The boss - 91Èȱ¬ Wales Controller Menna Richards - is giving evidence. Two pledges: I'll keep a count of Dr Who/Torchwood mentions and if sparks fly, I'll let you know.

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• - What's this?

A few weeks ago a man who knows a thing or two about campaigning and politics was at home, putting his feet up when he looked out of the window and noticed a bus pulling up. Out poured what he took to be the local Darby and Joan Club coming home from an outing. "Then I looked again" he said, "and recognised my local Labour party group".

I've never been to a Darby and Joan club and have no idea whether they still exist in Wales but I got his drift: the youngest member was in his 60s.

And if they had been on a local-election-campaigning kind of outing then the results in that neck of the woods suggests they'd had as much luck as I did in the office Euro 2008 sweepstakes. (Go Sweden).

"Why is it" he said "that Labour these days just seem to be sitting back, as if they're waiting to hand the First Minister's job to Ieuan Wyn Jones?"

And there it was again - mentionitis. I've lost count of the number of Labour supporters and Labour AMs over the past few weeks whose conversation turns first to Plaid. In the canteen, in the pub it doesn't take long before they're talking about their coalition partners - Plaid, bl**dy Plaid, the nationalists, take your pick.

First off it's how Plaid did in the local elections. Then how come their Ministers seem to have such high profiles, how they seem pretty cohesive as a group (even if back-benchers still haven't worked out what it means to be a backbencher), how Helen Mary doesn't seem to be rocking the boat much any more, how Ieuan Wyn just, well, gets nothing wrong.

I carry on sipping my coffee/pint and mull over one obvious question: if the Tories pose the biggest threat to Labour in Wales come the General Election - and in most constituencies they plainly do - why the apparent obsession with Plaid?

I don't know if you ever listened to Radio 4's In the Psychiatist's Chair but it was one of my favourite programmes. So in its honour let me just suggest a few theories:

Labour AMs reckon they're being taken for a ride by Plaid and can't get over it for long enough to take on the party that most of them should, right now, be really worried about.

Maybe it's simply that the Tories will pose the greatest threat in a General Election, sure but here in the Assembly, despite having a decent, thoughtful crop of AMs they rarely manage to land punches on the government. So Labour AMs, when in Cardiff Bay anyway, concentrate on their coalition rivals - sorry partners, Plaid.

Then again maybe Labour AMs, deep down (very deep in some cases) have started to realise they agree with Plaid on rather a lot of issues - a whole raft of domestic policies, Iraq, Trident but given it's never really been the done thing to say so out loud, they now turn their ire on Plaid in an attempt to cover up an inner confusion.

Any theories?

And by the way yes, it is Huw Lewis who's been learning Welsh in Nant Gwrtheyrn. Just hope the Merthyr man hasn't picked up the local accent ...

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A quiz question for you:

Which Labour Assembly Member has chosen to spend some of the half-term break learning Welsh at the teaching centre in Nant Gwrtheyrn?

One point for the right name; another for some reflections on why now?

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"The English Question, that slumbering giant in British politics, is beginning to stir."

That question, being raised now by the former Labour minister Frank Field, is all about the effects of what some see as the lopsided nature of devolution in Britain. Lots of it in the Celtic fringe, none at all for middle England. So what's his warning? In a nutshell, that a devolution settlement which many English voters believe treats them less fairly than their counterparts in Scotland and Wales had become "one of the festering sores in English politics".

Giants, sores, add to that "fiscal discriminations"and you've got a fairly lurid warning.

According to Mr Field, English voters are becoming increasingly resentful of a system which allows a range of those "fiscal discriminations" including:

Free residential care for the elderly in Scotland;
NHS provision of drugs in Scotland - such as Lucentis to treat sight loss - which are not available in England;
Freedom from university top-up fees in Scotland;
No prescription charges in Wales.

(If only for the sake of Ben Bradshaw, the Health Minister, who appears before the Welsh Select Committee today, he might have added Mr Bradshaw's favourite policy: free car parking in Welsh hospitals.)

But hang on. In order to be devolved - surely you have to be devolved FROM something! If all four administrations pursued identical policies, then isn't that an awful lot of superfluous politicians, buildings and paperwork? On the other hand, the idea that the citizens of England get a better deal in some regards from being different from the other three administrations simply doesn't wash, according to Frank, who sees a much deeper resentment brewing.

"My constituents do not believe it is fair that they should face a constitutional discrimination as well as meeting additional costs which identical people in Scotland, and to a lesser extent in Wales, do not face. This, in a sentence, is the English Question."

It's the same question that caused a parish council in England to start an online poll asking residents in the village of Audlem, nine miles from the border, whether they wanted to become part of Wales with its free this and that. They got a slot on Have I got News for You, five minutes of fame and a straightforward answer: no ta, not if it means pledging our allegiance to the land of far longer waiting lists.

So, this being politics, is it about money, or about power? A bit of both perhaps.

And the "inevitable" result of growing anger over the devolution settlement will be an English Parliament to match the devolved assemblies in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, with a UK Parliament dealing only with matters which have not been delegated to the four nations of the United Kingdom.

But his main warning isn't about the break up of the United Kingdom, real or imagined. It's a darker message. He says many traditional Labour voters have already switched to the BNP because they believe the Government has let them down on the issue of "uncontrolled immigration". And more could do so if the far-right party is allowed to take control of the debate on the English Question.

Now that is a lurid warning.

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