Big focus on assembly from Osborne

The Chancellor has been in Cardiff to give a heavily trailed speech to business leaders about the risks to the British economy from a global downturn.

And there was plenty of doom-laden rhetoric about the threat from problems in China and the Middle East as expected.

He even touched on the delicate subject of interest rate rises saying that while the decision rests with the Bank of England, discussions were ongoing about Britain moving out of the world of ultra-low rates in the future.

But what took a number of people by surprise was the amount of time George Osborne devoted in the speech to some old-fashioned political attacks on the record of the Labour Welsh government.

On one level we shouldn't be surprised by this. This was, after all, a Tory chancellor, known for his political manoeuvring, being critical of Labour.

Wider outlook

But the extent to which he returned to the subject in a speech that had generated huge attention because of the wider economic outlook, was an indication of how close we are now getting to the assembly election.

I can't recall a time when a senior Tory cabinet member has come to Wales and in a speech directly portrayed the Welsh leader Andrew RT Davies as a potential first minister in the way that he did.

It's a sign of how many see this as the best chance ever in an assembly election for the Conservatives because of the relative weakness of Labour, with Jeremy Corbyn leading a UK party struggling with in-fighting.

And by doing that, the chancellor touched on what must be the crucial point for the Tories in this campaign, and the challenge that they need to overcome.

It's all very well being a party capable of knocking the government, but it's another thing to be seen as a government in waiting, and indeed for Andrew RT Davies, to be seen as a first minister in waiting.