How much?
On what will Roger Jones and his panel, who've looking carefullly at what AMs can claim in expenses and allowances, have honed in I wonder? Will he have got up this morning and smiled quietly having read our story which reveals the very common practice of AMs and MPs renting offices from their own parties. Fine if done properly you might say. Why shouldn't political parties who have well-known offices in town centres house the office of the local AM? Not so fine when it looks as though the parties have done very well from the arrangements.
Will he have read the Western Mail, who've shone a light on individual AMs who claim more than others for food and whispered to himself, not for long? Mind you he might have noticed that most claim nothing or next to nothing.
On Monday we find out what they think AMs should reasonably be allowed to claim for and what, in future, they should not.
Let's take a punt - not an informed one, I stress but it's not hard to work out which allowances might have caught Sir Roger's beady eye.
I'm prepared to bet my own mortgage that the rules surrounding the second home allowance will be tightened until some AMs' eyes water. Fewer who live within commutable distance of Cardiff Bay will be allowed to claim (following in the example of those - like WAG Ministers Andrew Davies AM and Edwina Hart AM - who could claim but don't).
Will they be allowed to buy at all? Or will they have to spend their allowance on renting properties? No more buying flats whose value can shoot up. No need to tell that to those who bought after the 2007 election, who'll have seen the value of their flats plummet. Can't you just see some transitional arrangements coming into place, allowing those who've already bought to keep their properties but preventing those who move to the bright lights of Cardiff Bay after future elections from following in their footsteps?
What about salaries - should they be linked to MPs' salaries and then there's pensions? Payments to those who lose their seats or who choose to stand down. Researching today's story alongside my eagle-eyed colleagues, I certainly spotted examples of AMs who'd stood down voluntarily - in other words they knew exactly when they'd be going - but who'd continued to claim top whack in office rent for three months after their departure - as per the current rules.
Will Sir Roger mind that some AMs claim next to nothing for offices and others seem to pay an arm and a leg? Will he say he doesn't mind if the political party happens also to be the landlord but insist that rules around fair rent, proper agreements are tightened? What about regional members? Should they share offices? We know he's been considering whether their role, their job is different to that of constituency AMs. How might that effect the way they can claim their allowances in future?
Toll on Monday. (That should have read Roll obviously ... though come to think of it - tariffs/bells tolling .. quite an apt typo!) In the meantime I'm off to meet an estate agent who might persuade me to start renting a rather nice, empty and large office on a High Street ... somewhere.
I'm Betsan Powys, BBC Wales' political editor. I'll be blogging the inside track on 
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There is no doubt that compling with the rules is not good enough if the rules are at fault in that they are designed for some other purpose specifically as a means of topping up AM salaries.
So pay them a decent wage and tighten up on the alowances. But we should also have a public record of number of times they ignore a request for help from a constituent. This can be done through a charity such as http://www.writetothem.com
We should then apply this to other areas of public service and in that respect the BBC has set an example; others should be made to follow.
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I think I'm right in saying that in most, if not all, of the cases where the landlord is a political party, it is in fact the constituency party, not the national party who are involved. The idea that fat cat politicians are raking the cash into their central funds is clearly not applicable. Constituency parties tend to be pretty independently minded people.
I find it abhorrent that an impression is being given in the media that this has all been hidden from the public. It simply hasn't. Just because the media haven't previously chosen to analyse and explain the workings of the average AMs office to the electorate doesn't mean that the AMs or their parties are suddenly corrupt. I get the impression that some sectors of the Welsh media now want their own mini-scandal to be able to compete with the Westminster journos.
Hopefully fair and transparent working practices will soon be set in stone and then we can move on. And no, I'm not an AM, nor am I related to one, nor do I work for one.
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plaidman - your screen name makes me instantly sceptical of all you might utter - but you have hit this particular squarely on the head.
Little else to add - save for the fact the bbc are doing nothing, absolutely nothing to show the public the 'other' side of politics. Do a day in the life show, do a documentary looking at what AMs/MPs actually do, how much money they really 'make' and how much they spend and devote to their jobs.Most MPs live their job, as near to 24/7 as possible.
Most constituency offices are run by lowly or unpaid 'normal people'. I wonder how many of them felt today? In many cases the alledged corruption you describe is born of naievty, disorganisation and transience.
Arguably, political parties need a level playing field but shedloads more resource - how can they raise voter turnout from 30/40% if reforms are not matched by large scale activism - costly and inevitably ad-hoc.
I wonder what's next - Councillors spending on coffee for meetings? And more Mock Shock Horror.
Financial crisis, social decay, inequality, climate......news
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The only issue that appeared slightly 'iffy' here was the Lib Dem funding in Mid Wales. They were charging way over the odds and their defence of using the cash to improve the building makes things worse and not better.
Parties charging fair rents set independently has been done for many years and at the end of the day, parties have to fund themselves and offer professional faces to the media and public.
Please let's have an acceptance that not all politicians are crooks.
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It all does smack of desperation from the media, what have people done wrong? A non story. As noseriouslike has said, what next the cost of coffee at meetings? The democratic process costs money, we need political parties to make it work, there are some costs involved, which on the scale of things is peanuts.
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5.
All the government meetings open to the public I have been to do offer coffee and biscuits but the internal meetings have been prawns vol au vonts,quail eggs, chicken drum sticks and cucumber and salmon sarnies
and a free bar to boot.Peanuts to you Lyn but not to someone on £60 a week.
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It makes little sense that an elected member (Assembly or Parliament) should be using a local party office in his elected capacity.
The local party office is there for local PARTY matters, not for constituency matters.
If we expect Members (AM or MP) to hold surgeries then why do we not expect that to be on neutral territory?
Why must one cross the road to an opposition enclave to meet somebody who has been elected to represent us all?
I for one would like to see elected Member facilities available in public buildings, at public expense and equipped to appropriate standards.
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I have been to various meetings and the most I have had is a cheese sandwich. Having said that the People in Communities Board that I was on finished off its term of office with a reception for the public where all the projects we funded were invited to showcase what they had done with the money, either by giving a talk or through display boards showing photos etc... we laid on a buffet for all the public that attended - and very nice it was too - quite imaginative, not quail eggs (fiddly to peel) but certainly salmon and samosas, Carva and orange juice. Somewhat the reverse of what you suggest. And a good example of transparency from a quango which spent all but 20K on grant aiding the community, whose board were made up of unpaid community representatives and whose single employeed was key to making the process accessible to the public.
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8.
Just goes to show how different departments have different slights on
hospitality.I think the caaaaayters were from Caaaaaardiff so they had already shelled the eggs.The four star hotel booked for the overnight
stay was close to the Celtic Manor and was far to elaborate for a poor country lad from west wales and I couldn't help thinking that they were trying to influence my opinion. They did. I resigned.
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