Labour eyes
Labour eyes aren't smiling these days. Then again the pairs of Labour eyes I've stared into recently aren't half as downcast as they were some months ago.
Back then I spoke to one key party man who seemed to have recognised an inevitable truth. It really was time for Welsh Labour to cut their losses, stop wasting their energies and sparse resources on trying to hold on to seats that were patently goners. Give up on Cardiff North. Give up on the Vale of Glamorgan. Start digging your heels in and digging trenches in seats where sitting Labour MPs haven't had a fight on their hands ever before.
Be realistic. Minimise losses. That was the mood, the message, the gameplan that was forming.
Then a few days ago the same pair of eyes told a different story. Change of plan, they said. It's game on. Have you seen the way the polls are heading? Have you heard the new found confidence in the voices of some Welsh MPs who last year had given up the ghost? We're not giving up on a single Welsh seat.
There is a logic here, of course.
Even if you think they truly are goners and the bookies have long since given them to the Tories why give up on seats where there'll be another fight in the Assembly election this time next year? Doesn't it make sense to ensure the damage is contained, so that the next candidate into the fray has less lost territory to claw back?
So how do you do it? How does Welsh Labour tackle this election?
Come on, you know the answer to that. At least if you've been listening to the boy at the front of the class, Peter Hain, you should know. The Welsh Secretary's been laying it on the line for a while now.
You turn this into a straight fight between you and the Tories.
Lib Dems? Irrelevant, barely worthy of a mention.
Plaid? A wasted vote, a back-door pass into Number Ten for David Cameron, a vote Labour could to with picking up.
There'll be constituencies where that argument doesn't work, of course. There it's up to the local campaign to pick their own fights - a message Llanelli MP Nia Griffith, despite sitting on a 7,000+ majority seems to have heard loud and clear.
But look at the big picture. Labour's best chance is to make this an us and them election and trust that 'they' have still failed to seal the bargain with 'us' the voters. A vain hope, you might argue but are you sure? Labour are sensing, hoping that you're not as sure as you were.
Watch tonight's Party Political Broadcast with interest.
I haven't, of course, seen it but I've heard a bit about what it might look like. On the eve of Welsh Labour's pre-election conference in Swansea the picture I have in my mind's eye (the eyes have it in this blog entry) is this: that nice, cuddly, Welsh speaking Labour leader and First Minister Carwyn Jones staring at Plaid and Lib Dem voters, warning them that a vote for anyone other than Labour at this election will lead to a Conservative future. Come on guys, you don't want to be responsible for letting that happen, do you?
We don't expect you to betray your principles, of course not. But look at it this way, our principle of fairness for all is yours too, isn't it? And you agree with us that if those Tories get in, they'll slash and cut and ... like us, you don't want that to happen, do you? So you see a vote for Labour makes sense. Just this once.
Then it'll be the Welsh Secretary's opportunity to turn the screw. This is between us and them. You're either with us or you're against us and you can't afford to be against us this time. A combination, then, of dishing out what Labour would regard as some ugly truths alongside the love-bombing of non-Tory voters.
It seems rather appropriate, doesn't it ... that Labour are heading off to Swansea, the "ugly, lovely town."
I'm Betsan Powys, BBC Wales' political editor. I'll be blogging the inside track on 
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~04~RS~)
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Betsan;
that nice, cuddly, Welsh speaking Labour leader and First Minister Carwyn Jones
Now - surely not sarcasm, or would you!!! - ?
This is Labour style electioneering, a bloody (not necessarily truthful) business.
Carwyn loves it, we've all heard his inaccurate seriously biased political knockabout rhetoric in the Sennedd.
Nice, Cuddly - not the descriptions I'd choose.
But Labour got 42% of the vote in 2005 -
Given the election hasn't yet been called, and Cameron is surely playing the polls to encourage Brown to go for it.
The clever money is still on a solid Tory UK majority.
The question here is "What will the Welsh voter say",
For Carwyn and Hain - Tears or Triumph!!
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Betsan, just seen your interview with Peter Hain, that may as well have been a party political broadcast. A lot of use you were not one difficult question, how about something like, Oh you (Labour) will not cut any spending then? I bet. Or is it more of borrow spend, borrow spend, borrow spend etc etc.
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Nowt like getting closer to the event to concentrate minds. Are the vast majority of the people of Wales genetically imprinted with left of centre politics, really going to let a bunch of millionaire old Etonians get their hands on the levers of power? I suspect not. Come the crunch when the pencil hovers, they will do the only thing they can to stop that happening - vote Labour. And Welsh Labour being headed by a Welsh speaking comprehensive school boy, who really is 'one of us', will make the travel of that pencil to the Labour box on the ballot paper all the easier.............
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#3 Whilst a vote for Wayne David in the Caerphilly constituency, to help keep out the Nationalists, is good tactical voting, elsewhere voting for the Conservative party is a vote for the change most rational people seek ...
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3 HerbertDavies
The questionable majority of the people in Wales have always voted for a Labour Socialist Government in Westminster. Where has it got them, I won't bore you with the details again, but think about it.
New Labour ( capitalistic right wing ) Conservative ( capitalistic right wing ). Old Labour, yes, well, they certainly made a difference to our lives.
In the reverse of what Shirley Bassey once said 'What has Wales ever done for me'. What have these people ever done for Wales, even those who profess to be in your words 'one of us'. What a great joke that is I am on the floor laughing. One of us?
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From BBC
Mr Hain said: "If we get a Tory government, everything we have become accustomed to will be thrown into turmoil: free prescriptions, free bus travel for older people, free breakfasts in primary schools, tax-free winter fuel payments to pensioners.
"We enter this general election campaign as the underdogs, standing up to save Wales from the disaster of a Tory government again.
As Welsh Secretary he should know most of these are provided by the Welsh Assembly Government not Central Labour Government, being a bit economical there I think and trying to frighten people, Why can't Labour tackle Tories on the policies that are on their website, not ones that are not, they might get some where.
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Welsh Minister Hain? Spends more on personal grooming than most worker's do on Council Tax?
Obviously, that's my opinion. However, all Welsh people should look at TheyWorkForyou.com to discover what ALL politicians and Ministers are earning and claiming for from your taxes?
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More power to the Welsh assembly? Now the biggest QUANGO gravy train in the world. Perhaps this gang of ex social workers, teachers, career politicos would firstly like to explain to to our unemployed youth why they are still spending £1.5 billion every year on The WELSH LANGUAGE quango?
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