A moveable feast

It is nice to see that Matt Withers still has his finger on the pulse down in Cardiff Bay. His lead story in this morning's Wales on Sunday column tells us that the Tories have decided that, as Her Majesty’s official opposition, they want all their offices to be grouped together. The easiest way to do this at the Assembly is for them to take over the Welsh Liberal Democrats’ rooms and, according to Matt, what the official opposition want, they get.

So yes we will be packing up to move next week and so will the Tories, all except Alun Cairns, who bagged Denise Idris Jones' office almost before the ink was dry on the final result in the Conwy constituency, and who was moving into it before his own result had even been declared.

The truth is of course that this move has been on the cards for four years. It has always been considered desirable that group members should, if possible, have offices next to each other. Thus after the 2003 result, a deal was brokered whereby the Welsh Liberal Democrats would move down to take over the Tory offices at the end of the corridor. Alas this did not happen because one Tory AM refused to shift. As a result poor Laura Anne Jones and Lisa Francis spent their sole four-year term stuck on the second floor, sandwiched between Labour and Plaid Cymru members, whilst their colleagues remained on the floor above.

Following this year's election we had another go at sorting it out and this time we reached agreement amongst all members. Things were put on hold a bit so that we could get coalition talks out of the way and then reactivated so that the move could take place during recess so as not to be too disruptive.

I will be packing up next week and will use the opportunity for a major clear out. Who would have thought that so much paper could accumulate in a supposedly paperless office?