FMQ's: A weekly look at First Minister's Questions and beyond

In these straitened times, it is always good to have another string to your bow. And with all this talk of reshuffling in the air, our First Minister wasn't slow in leading the way to show that he has many other talents.

It's a little know fact that Mr Jones is also an inventor extraordinaire and has been demonstrating his latest gadget, a hole puncher, on one of the shopping channels to much publicity and gasps of amazement. Just as well when talk of a reshuffle cropped up at FMQs. It was the leader of the opposition, Andrew RT Davies, who continued the reshuffle rumours off the back of a heated exchange about a rewriiten report which he claimed undermined public confidence in changes planned for the NHS in North Wales. A shiver went through the ranks as he named names about who he thought would be getting the chop after the festive season.

Well, the two Ministers on either side of the FM were Edwina Hart and Jane Hutt. Could it be true? Surely not. And if so could either of them have a future on the shopping channel to look forward to? But the FM put their minds at rest and soon it was smiles all round. The FM told Assembly members that a reshuffle wasn't imminent. And blamed the Tories for starting the rumours in the first place. He then went on to defend his Health Minister on the earlier matter of the so called altered report

Muttering under his breath RT sat down and it was then Plaid Leader Leanne Wood's opportunity to put questions to the FM. She spoke about the North Wales Child abuse case and gave her views about the role the media had played in reporting recent events. She then added that while many institutions have become discredited, our own new Senedd has created the role of the Children's Commissioner and she wanted reassurances that it was a role that would be sufficiently resourced to carry out his investigations.

It was then the turn of the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams, who returned to the subject of the Welsh Government's reconfiguration of the NHS. In particular, like the Tories, KW wanted to discuss the report by the National Clinical Forum, which she claimed had appeared to be altered to give a more positive response to an LHB's reconfiguration plans. In particular she wanted to know if the Health Minister had been aware of what was going on ?

To which came the reply:

To be continued next week, I'm sure.