Rhodri Morgan's conversion to the idea of the PR method of voting in council elections surfaces at an interesting time.
Just as Labour-Plaid relations appear, on the surface at least, to be deteriorating over the LCO log jam at Westminster, the Labour leader in Wales is warming to one of the Lib Dems' iconic policies.
Could this be the hint of a prospective future deal to Lib Dem leadership challengers Kirsty Williams and Jenny Randerson?
Coalition sceptic Lib Dem AM Peter Black is quick to remind us that when Rhodri had a chance to vote for PR in the Senedd - he did.
But it was all a big mistake.

This is dodgy ground. Especially for a journalist of a tabloid variety, apparently.
But those good people at the committee on standards in public life have been doing their homework on attitudes and trust felt towards our politicians.
Dear me, you are a cynical lot.
Unless your calling is a GP, head teacher, judge, or police officer, you had better look away now.

Wales should have its own Order of Chivalry as part of the honours system.
That is the view of Conservative AM David Melding who is calling for a reform of the outdated Royal honours system for the new devolved age.
He wants the Order of the British Empire (motto 'For God and Empire') replaced with something akin to an Order of St David.
"I don't think it would be lost on anyone in this chamber that we no longer have an empire," he told the Senedd.

Change is afoot in the senior ranks of the civil service in the Welsh Assembly Government.
New permanent secretary Dame Gillian Morgan (no relation) is seeking to drive a new delivery culture in the public services.

THE scene is the hypothetical Westminster office of the Secretary of State for the Constitution and Wales.
The minister, private and permanent secretaries are gathered when the telephone rings shrilly..
Private secretary (answering phone with look of concern, places hand over receiver) stage whispers: "It's Lord Daffyd Ellis, he's on about the Assembly's powers again. You haven't replied to his letter."

Technorati Profile

When politicians declare they want to quit to 'spend more time with their family', it is sometimes a euphemism for a more intriguing scenario.
So when one such surprise decision comes along, that could be judged as interesting.
But two? That has to be a conspiracy, hasn't it?
Perhaps not.

UPDATE:Nick Bourne has apologised over the dodgy dossier affair to:
his press officers;
to Assembly Members;
to party members;
and to the people of Wales.
"I took my eye off the ball.
"I hadn't read it beginning to end. A little bit of it I would have altered - only a little bit of it."
So that'll be the end of that, then?
+ Not me Rhod: Tory Assembly leader Nick Bourne is disassociating himself from a Conservative 'dirty dossier' containing highly personal attacks on first minister Rhodri Morgan.
The question emerging is how much did he know about the 39-page document, published at the Conservative conference in Birmingham, alongside a press release quoting him directly?
The critical review of Mr Morgan's time in power, included a slating of his dress sense and hairstyle, was released on Mr Morgan's 69th birthday.
But today on the BBC Radio Wales phone-in programme, Mr Bourne backtracked.
He had sought out Mr Morgan in the Senedd on Tuesday to 'make his peace', he said.
"It was a dossier that was issued by my party and it wasn't, certainly, issued by me personally," Mr Bourne said although party surces suggest he had 'signed it off'
Mr Bourne said today: "I spoke to Rhodri as soon as I got back on Tuesday. I sought him out and we had a very good conversation because I did think in certain respects it had gone too far. I told him that.
"I said apart from a certain amount of knock about which you might get in a conference speech for example, I said I have given a very clear instruction to my Assembly Members and my staff that is what we do.
"On a personal level we have always got on well and I hope always will."
Plaid Cymru deputy Assembly leader Helen Mary Jones wants more answers:
"The Tories in the Assembly are clearly in disarray over this. It has been reported that in fact Bourne signed it off himself, as leader of the Tory group.
"They have clearly realised that this kind of nasty politics is no way to win the support of the people of Wales and are all now desperate to disassociate themselves from it.
"This whole episode raises serious questions about Bourne's leadership and the future of the Tory group."

Health minister Edwina Hart was taking no prisoners during an appearance at the weekly media conference held by the Assembly Government in Cardiff Bay.
Her no-nonsense style in dealing with questions, be it from journalists or AMs, is well documented.
Mrs Hart could not resist a side swipe at Westminster health minister Ben Bradshaw, a critic of the Assembly Government's free prescriptions and hospital car parking policies. (What's 'free' about it? he asked.)
Earlier this year, Mr Bradshaw sparked a row between the Assembly and UK governments by saying the money spent on free parking would be better spent on improving patient care.
Mrs Hart was quick to pick up on the Northern Ireland Assembly's decision to make all prescriptions there free this week.
The move would leave NHS patients in England alone in paying the charges.
Mrs Hart curtly observed: "There was no waspish comment from some junior minister called Ben Bradshaw about that."
She also reminded journalists how she had negotiated extra opening hours and services in GPs' surgeries directly with the profession, avoiding the uproar on the same issue across the border.
And in case her own staff were feeling too comfortable, the minister swept into the briefing room early to remark, 'there are more government press officers than media in here'.
Surely, no surprise then, when a few hours later she announced details of a planned reorganisation of the NHS in Wales and made herself the chair of a new national advisory board for the service.

Rhodri Morgan and deputy Ieuan Wyn Jones are back at the Assembly after a promotional tour to the Ryder Cup in Kentucky.
The first minister was upbeat about Team Wales performance in raising the Welsh profile in the US ahead of the next prestige golf tournament at the Celtic Manor course in Newport.
While the Americans took the trophy, they handed the responsibility for organising the 2010 shindig to Wales.
The display of Welsh memorabilia at the Valhalla course in Louisville stuck in Mr Morgan's mind, in particular the Dragon branded periscopes which allowed the more vertically challenged spectators to view the action over the heads of taller compatriots who were clearly in no mood to move out of their way in the gallery.
The two ministers, however, strived to avoid any 'Jim Callaghan moment' (Crisis? What crisis?") after arriving in the teeth of a growing economic maelstrom.

Could it really be so bad for Gordon Brown and Labour?
This poll from the Observer/Politicshome.com predicts a swathe of blue appearing across the map of Wales if a general election were imminent.
Such a change from when Labour Welsh Secretary Ron Davies greeted a 'Tory free zone' in Wales in the 1990s.
Clwyd West Conservative MP David Jones is leading the cautious optimism in his party where, in truth, some must be salivating at the thought of such a landslide.
Not so much a white-wash, more of a blue rinse.
But Vale of Clwyd, Clwyd South, Delyn, Aberconwy all to fall to the Tories, and Ynys Mon to Plaid Cymru...
It's just one poll. No-one has called a general election yet.