Meeting the new Counsel General, Theodore Huckle

Meet the new Counsel General, Theodore Huckle QC, the man who will in future give the Assembly Government advice on legislative matters.

Why him?

Because of the breadth and depth of his experience according to the First Minister and because Mr Jones - a barrister himself - learned the hard way that Mr Huckle is pretty good at his job.

Had they ever worked together, asked my colleague Carl Roberts?

Barristers don't work together, said Mr Jones. They appear against each other.

So have you ever appeared against each other?

Yes.

Did you win, First Minister?

No.

So is that why you got the job, Mr Huckle?

No comment - except a wry smile from both.

Mr Huckle describes himself as "politically interested". Does that mean he's a party member? Yes. A Labour party member? Yes. Of long-standing? Yes. You'll have gathered that Mr Huckle uses no more words than necessary to tell you what he means.

We wondered out loud whether the new Counsel General had spotted the suggestion from Plaid's Simon Thomas that his appointment had "the smell of old-boy Labour network about it?"

He had. You can hear for yourself what he made of it - how many words he used to dismiss it.

By the way Mr Huckle won't be called on to give advice on 'the Lib Dem Two'. Just as well, he thought, because it struck him as "a politically thorny issue". Quite.

For what it's worth, I've still spoken to few AMs who are minded to vote to overturn the disqualification of Aled Roberts and John Dixon. If they were never truly elected, goes the argument, how can we let them 'back in' even if we do rate them and feel rather sorry for them?

But one explanation given for the error that saw Mr Roberts disqualified - that the Welsh language version of the advice he found on the Assembly's own website was out of date and therefore wrong - is gaining some traction and changing some minds. It is perfectly credible, for many, that Mr Roberts clicked on the Welsh version and was misinformed.

It may also give him a pretty muscular legal leg to stand on should the vote go against him and should another eminent Welsh QC - Alex Carlile - be asked to advise the party on taking the fight to court.