Has Environment Minister Carwyn Jones got a photographic memory?

He has just recited his route to a quarry in Wrexham in astonishing detail to prove to Plaid AM Janet Ryder that he had been there, eliciting a round of applause from the Labour benches.

Perhaps it was one of those "you had to be there moments", but it was quite the most bizarre episode I have seen in the Assembly.

Meanwhile the below mentioned row between Dafydd El and John Marek spilled over into the chamber in what was quite the most embarrassing episode I've seen in the Assembly.

But both episodes are outdone in both regards by what I'm told happened in the Commons today - Jack Straw mime-hugging a hoodie.

Did I dream it?

On Tuesday, Presiding Officer Lord Elis-Thomas used his casting vote, in accordance with standing orders, to sink the Government's business statement because a vote of AMs was tied 29 all.
But he did so “with a heavy heart”, he said. Or I, and others, thought he said it.
A quick glance at the Record of Proceedings, the political equivalent of the Beano, shows the comment to be omitted.
How strange?
Is this another example of him falling out with his party over its conduct on the Assembly budget. Or perhaps I dreamt the whole thing.

Update: Dr Marek is not happy.

Where W treads, Rhodri dreads to follow

Not blogged for a while - been on half-term holiday, which I spent observing the run up to America's Congressional elections while visiting a friend in New York.
The bile which American candidates hurl at each other is astonishing. The defamation laws of this country would not allow it.
However, I was interested to note the average American is frankly fed up with the attack advertising. Many of them say they can't be bothered to engage with politics, or bothered to vote, because for them, politics merely amounts to a stream of very expensive television adverts in which politicians do their best to out-dis each other.
That sort of conduct doesn't prosper over here. Michael Howard's denunciation of Tony Blair as a liar flopped at the last general election. This despite the fact that many, if not most people, feel the Government was economical with the actuality when it presented its prospectus for war. We prefer – or at least say we prefer - our politicians to abide by the political equivalent of the Queensbury rules, not Fight Club.
And American politics has opened up a new dirty battle front – Wikiactivity. Candidates' staff log on to open-access encyclopaedia Wikipedia and doctor their opponents' entries. The New Yorker calls it 'astroturfing' – a phony grass-roots campaign.
Democrats are racing to victory because voters are using the election as a mid-term rebuke of George W Bush and his increasingly unpopular war.
Will Welsh voters do the same when they go to the polls in May? Rhodri Morgan must fear that they will. He said Labour failed to regain Blaenau Gwent earlier this year because voters "were angry about everything from pot holes to Iraq".

Offer them out

Why are commentators describing the Tory tax commission proposals as an inconvenience for David Cameron and George Osbourne?
The New Conservatives learnt more from New Labour than the route to the electorally fertile centre ground.
They learnt that the best, indeed the only way to shake up your party is through picking a fight with the traditionalists and winning.
I would say Mr Osbourne is relishing the prospect of another bloody good punch-up. The more opportunity he has to repeat his 'no tax cuts, your public services are safe with us' mantra the better for him.

Anyone trying to phone Tory AM Glyn Davies will encounter some difficulty today. I'm informed that he has "lawnmowered his mobile".

"The worst website of its type anywhere in the world"

The Assembly's website is undergoing a long-overdue revamp and I was among some scribblers shown dummy versions of the spruced-up site.
They all look very nice, but frankly a child with a box of crayons could concoct something more aesthetically pleasing than the present offering. Scott had less trouble finding his way around Antarctica than I have finding my way around this most unnavigable of on-line labyrinths. "The worst website of its type anywhere in the world," is how one hack described it.
For what it's worth, I would go so far as saying the website actually inhibits the development of devolution, and the sooner the techies do to it what video did to the radio star the better.
It must be more interactive and have as its guiding philosophy the potential to embarrass politicians as much as possible. With some moderation, I don't see why people should not be able to publicise forthcoming protests on the steps of the Senedd or give feedback on legisation. Constituents should be able to find out who their AM is, what she or he is doing and how much she or he earns at the click of a mouse.
On the latter, we're told that while being consulted, some members objected to the idea of their incomes being so advertised. How appalling. For good measure, I think website users should be able to scrutinise AMs' monthly expenses claims.

What's Welsh for Brown?

Spoke to broadcaster Patrick Hannan yesterday about Wales's Gordon Brown. Who is going to lead Welsh Labour when Rhodri Morgan steps down in 2009, or sooner if Labour get a thrashing at the ballot box in May?
Environment Minister Carwyn Jones has long been considered the natural successor. That assumption has been hanging around for so long now it's hard to remember why it first arose. He earned a good name for himself during the foot-and-mouth crisis, but that is a fast-receding memory.
One observer summed it up as "Carwyn is losing the PR battle".
Mr Jones has most recently been in the news because he is embroiled in a row about the Llanelli Scarlets which, the club claims, could spell the end of Wales's most iconic rugby club. In today's Daily Post he is the object of scorn for homeowners in the Conwy Valley who are dismayed at delayed flood defences.
Meanwhile, potential rival Andrew Davies, the Enterprise Minister, was writing in the Western Mail this week that devolution had precipitated a "revolution" in the way Wales views itself. Positively First Ministerial stuff from the overseer of the hated WDA's dissolution.
But Mr Jones arguably remains the best Cabinet performer. Tory AM Glyn Davies think so.
The other runners and riders include Education Minister Jane Davidson and Social Justice Minister Edwina Hart. Ms Davidson is thought to have given a good account of herself as a minister. I hear she's briefing London hacks on the success of devolved education now. Ms Hart however does not seem to like being in the public eye. Or maybe she just doesn't like hacks.
Alliances will be key. If either of these do not go for the top job then they could help candidates get crucial union support.
Cabinet members are not the only Labour AMs considering their futures. I think it's a bit early to talk of backbench leadership bids.
But a complaint I've heard that potential leaders should heed is "things have become too Cardiff-centric under Rhodri".
A question that might occupy high-command minds is what do grass-roots members in the Valleys and north Wales want done with these longed-for law-making powers?

Everyone seems to have a cold. I'm doing my best to avoid catching one.

The Assembly's audit committee was this morning told that if a civil servant is ill and goes home after 11am, it's not registered as a sick day.

Going ... going ... still going

Deputy Presiding Officer John Marek is standing down as House Committee chairman in his row with Presiding Officer Lord Elis-Thomas.
They have barely said more than "Good morning" to each other in the past year. No-one can remember why.
So why doesn't Dr Marek just resign, instead of persisting with his habit of dropping hints about an impending resignation?
Such as this in the Assembly today: "I am chairman of the House Committee and I will be for a few more days."
Is that a resignation? When is a resignation a resignation?

Yule be sorry

Alun Pugh's Christmas cards are great fun for us hacks. Unfortunately it's the sort of story that turns people off politics.
Not that this questionable expenditure on the services of m'learned friends should go unexposed.
The idea was to promote Welsh-language Scrabble and by extension the Assembly Government's strategy of coaxing the private sector into using Welsh, instead of passing laws forcing businesses to “siarad Cymraeg”.
This has been extremely successful and the game has sold out, Business Minister Jane Hutt told us in the Cabinet's press briefing today.
Someone made the excellent point that if you can no longer buy the game, what's the point of promoting it on a Christmas card?
Anyone seeking advice on copyright law is welcome to come up to the fourth floor and borrow my copy of McNae's Essential Law for Journalists.

Push it to the limit

Labour AM John Griffiths's mobile rang during a speech by Rhodri Morgan to launch his plan for Africa today.
Funny choice of ringtone. I haven't had a chance to check with him, so correct me if I'm wrong, but from the first couple of bars I could have sworn it was eighties synth-rock classic “Push it to the limit” from the film Scarface.
I think it's the music that accompanies a montage of cocaine dealer Tony Montana depositing sack-loads of money at the bank.

UPDATE Labour AMs did support that Plaid motion on hospitals (see Bound(ary) to happen). Clearly they're all Tiger Tales readers.

Bound(ary) to happen

There's an interesting story knocking about on the wire today. Labour is likely to lose a seat thanks to boundary changes next year, research from Plymouth University suggests.

Conwy has become Aberconwy and has lost Labour votes.

Denise Idris Jones beat Plaid Cymru's Gareth Jones there by just 72 votes in 2003. Based on that year's vote Mr Jones will win the seat back in May. A tricky NHS reconfiguration (yes, another one of those) has done him a favour.

There's a Plaid-tabled vote on this in the Assembly tomorrow saying: “The National Assembly believes that no reconfiguration of hospital services should take place without adequately planned community provision.”

Surely nothing controversial for Labour AMs to oppose there then.

Anyway, the complex maths of the Assembly's top-up member system means victory for Mr Jones would be curtains for Janet Ryder and would create another regional Tory AM in the north. So one more Tory - 12 - and the same number of Plaid AMs - 12.

This is all based on the idea that everyone who voted three years ago votes the same way and no-one else votes, which obviously won't happen.

Nevertheless, it goes to show that without a stupendous surge in votes for Plaid, Dafydd Wigley's chances of getting elected as a regional member puts one in mind of a cat in hell.

Nightmare scenario for Plaid really - Labour do badly, but only the Tories capitalise.

Taxing question

Self-confessed Tory wimp Glyn Davies wants tax cuts from Cameron, despite sharing his tree-hugging, green tendency.
He makes a good point though. The only politicians to say anything about lightening the tax burden during conference season are Dafydd Wigley and Ming Campbell.

Death by a thousand cuts

The Lib Dems reckon they have evidence that Swansea's Singleton hospital is heading for big cutbacks.
It's a theme many constituencies identify with.
Next May Rhodri Morgan will have a good story about the health of the nation. On April 2 smoking will be banned in pubs, prescription charges will be scrapped and waiting lists will - he hopes - have met their latest target.
He needs a good story - Labour will have to go some to drown out the threat of hospital closures affecting key marginals like Preseli, Carmarthen West and Aberconwy.
Labour AMs have been caught out by NHS shake-ups in their own constituencies that they had little to do with. Health chiefs are responding to the Assembly Government's demand for a modern NHS. People have been bombarded with visions of an NHS that they don't like or understand, even if, in the long run, they don't know what's best for them.
In Pembrokeshire, for example, Tory and Plaid candidates have become the mouthpiece of opposition to threats to Withybush. Plaid has taken a lesson in grass-roots campaigning from the Lib Dems and its troops were being schooled in the art of local war at last week's conference.
Meanwhile Labour footsoldiers fear becoming the object of scorn for botched attempts at "consultation".

Do lame ducks swim in a one-legged circle, or something

When Tony Blair announced he will be gone within a year, Rhodri Morgan said "giving a date now would have eroded his [the PM's] ability to make decisions".
So does the same apply to the First Minister who has given the date of his departure - 2009?

Yeah but no

I can't help notice how Ieuan Wyn Jones and Nick Bourne increasingly dispense with the once-customary caveats of "yes, but we won't discuss that until after the election" that used to precede answers to questions about post-May coalitions.

Hartrending

Cabinet press briefing given by Social Justice Minister Edwina Hart today. Frist time in living memory.
Perhaps she's trying to do more turns in the public eye to boost her standing if she goes for Rhodri Morgan's job. She wasn't having any of that and gave us a decent line about loyalty, or lack of it, in the Labour Party.
She doesn't like speaking to the press. Can't imagine why on this performance. Even had a funny adieu: "You've had your rare treat. I will see you all in a couple of years' time."

Stand and deliver

GB got a 2.40 minute standing ovation at the Labour conference, according to Sky's Adam Boulton - five seconds less than Ieuan Wyn Jones got from Plaid Cymru's conference in Swansea last week.

Brown (almost) announces tax raid on aristocracy

Watching GB address the Labour conference. He just said: "There are still noble purses worth fighting for."
I thought this was a warning to the upper classes. Sadly he quickly corrected himself to noble purposes.

Lib/Lab cabinet a step closer?

Labour and the Lib Dems have been busy denying stories that they have secretly sown up a post-election power-sharing deal.
In truth, Rhodri Morgan will probably need the Lib Dems' help to stay in office if Labour does badly, as many expect, next May. It's hard to see him doing a deal with Plaid if he takes a drubbing.
A possible sticking point would be PR in local elections - the Lib Dems will insist on something here before agreeing to a coalition. It might be difficult for Rhodri to sell this to his troops because PR could wipe out legions of Labour councillors.
But could Mr Morgan be getting orders from on high if the Chancellor takes over soon as he hopes? The Mirror reports that "Gordon Brown plans to scrap first-past-the-post voting if he takes over as Premier".

Crikey!

The not-so-old man and the sea

Journalists recently got a flotilla of pictures emailed to them of Environment Minister Carwyn Jones fishing for sharks (I think for scientific purposes) on board a boat off the Welsh coast.
How very Hemingway. But Carwyn's macho image was shattered by an offical today.
Earlier this week he scaled Snowdon to land the first blow on the summit-top cafe as it is demolished to make way for a new visitor centre.
Sledge-hammer wielding Carwyn had some difficulty though. His efforts "hardly scratched it", we were told.

Taking the peace

A press release from the NASUWT advises us that schools will observe Peave Day next Thursday. An event in Cardiff to mark the occassion will be attended by "Christian Malcolm (Welsh 200m runner), Rhodri Morgan (Education Minister), John Mayes (NASUWT senior vice president)".
Education Minister Jane Davidson is said to have a good relationship with the teaching unions. But it seems this one does not even know who she is.
Either that or Rhodders has had a sudden demotion.

September 18

I feel I should point out that the below-mentioned meeting of Welsh Labour MPs has been called off, so my colleagues at the TUC in Brighton are told.

Shalalala putsch putsch

The pesky Welsh Labour Party has been at the forefront of the attempted Blair putsch.
Formerly uber-loyal Chris Bryant organised the letter telling the PM to go.
Government aides Wayne David, Ian Lucas and Mark Tami – all Welsh MPs - heaped pressure on Mr Blair with their resignations.
On September 18 Welsh Labour MPs will meet in Wales. Although convened initially to talk foreign affairs, the leadership is bound to come up.
In fact the two issues are the same for some. In August Merthyr MP Dai Havard called Tony Blair "deluded" if he thought he had any influence over George Bush. He wrote to the Prime Minister about Lebanon and accused him of a "misdirected obsession" with being a mouthpiece for Washington. Mr David said the Prime Minister showed himself to be "detached" from the Party over the summer in his dealings with Lebanon.
Labour AMs also meet the week after next, the first week of the Assembly term, at a pre-arranged away-day.
More and more in Labour think – as First Minister Rhodri Morgan suggested earlier this year – that the party will do better at next year's Assembly elections if Gordon Brown leads them into the May 3 poll.
Newport West MP Paul Flynn told me: "It goes right across the Labour MPs in Wales, this unhappiness.
"A group of Welsh MPs saw Tony Blair in June and he said to us, 'what
seems to be the trouble guys', and the first three of us who spoke said,
'You are the trouble'."
The received wisdom is that Mr Brown is more in tune with the agenda pursued by Rhodri and co.
They won a slim governing majority in 2003 under Mr Morgan's “clear red water” banner. As Tomos Livingstone says in today's Western Mail, that essentially meant: “Look, we're not Tony Blair”.
With Brown at the helm, Welsh Labour probably see electoral profit in ploughing a similar furrow next year.
I'm not sure this will keep the Tories at bay in the vulnerable Labour seats of Cardiff North, Preseli Pembrokeshire, Clwyd West and Aberconwy. But the imperative now is to end the squabbling as soon as possible - no more "noises off" Rhodri Morgan says. Keeping these seats, and allowing Mr Morgan to stay in office until 2009 as planned, will be difficult enough without an ongoing leadership crisis of his parliamentary colleagues' making.

ALSO Is the Christmas card story below something to do with Dr Who?