Friday, October 13, 2006

Labour's upgraded rebuttal unit

Looks like Labour are getting there rebuttal unit into gear. We'll all have to be a bit more wary. I was caught out a touch by some slick Labour footwork today. Must be the Jo Kiernan influence. We clearly have an Alice Campbell up on the 5th floor of Crickhowell House. After years of making a complete horlicks of every little molehill, they look a bit quicker on their feet all of a sudden.
What happened. This morning Sue Essex, who dominates Rhodri Morgan more than Brown dominates Blair, put out a press release telling us that the new Assembly Building in Aberystwyth is going to be 7600 sqr mtrs. I phoned a friend who builds these sort of things and he said 'no change' out of £100 per sqr foot and then double it for the IT, security and fitting out. Well this comes to about £17 million. The first estimate for the new Assembly Building in Cardiff was a lot less that that- so I thought I would 'notify' the people of this major impact on next year's budget by press release. I thought I was quite pleased with myself. In no time at all I was being 'condemned' by Labour for opposing shifting 500 jobs to Aberystwyth. I do oppose jobs being shifted from Machynlleth to Aber but I am pleased that jobs are moving from Cardiff. That was one up to Alice Campbell.
Nothing to be done but keep my head down - and watch out for Alice in the future. Let that be a lesson that I learn.

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