One reason for the consensus in Cardiff Bay?

Still trying to get my head around the events in Norway and others have a better take on events and what it all means, but my heart goes out to them after such a brutal and senseless attack.

Instead I will stick to domestic politics and a BBC Wales interview with former Tory Assembly leader Nick Bourne over the weekend about his diaries from his time as an AM and to reflect on his defeat in May’s elections and his loss of the Tory Group leadership with Bethan Rhys Roberts.

It’s the sort of standard interview that makes politics go around and for the most part was pretty formulaic except for Nick’s throw away remark about missing most things from his time at the National Assembly except the plenary sessions.

Now for politicians and politics watchers alike Plenary is where the main action happens, it’s where the leaders, backbenchers and parties do battle over policy and the direction of the Country, so it’s rather surprising for Nick Bourne, who was after all Official Leader of the Opposition from 2007 to 2011 and had been an Opposition leader almost since the Assembly began, to admit he did not enjoy his time in the Chamber.

It’s quite a statement suggesting that Nick believed in the consensus that rules Cardiff Bay that he had difficulty carrying out his task of holding the Welsh Government to account, but his admission certainly goes a long way to explaining his lackluster and often forgettable performances at the weekly First Minister’s Questions against both Rhodri Morgan and Carwyn Jones and perhaps explains why he was often upstaged by Lib Dem Kirsty Williams seeming to lack the will and the killer instinct to oppose failing Welsh Government policies over a range of issues from Health, Education, Social Justice and the economy.

But Nick is no longer leader, Andrew RT Davies is and for all the genuine concerns in the Tory Group about his election, he will at least challenge Carwyn Jones and the Welsh Government more robustly week in week out which is more than can be said for his predecessor it seems.Any source