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A few weeks ago a man who knows a thing or two about campaigning and politics was at home, putting his feet up when he looked out of the window and noticed a bus pulling up. Out poured what he took to be the local Darby and Joan Club coming home from an outing. "Then I looked again" he said, "and recognised my local Labour party group".

I've never been to a Darby and Joan club and have no idea whether they still exist in Wales but I got his drift: the youngest member was in his 60s.

And if they had been on a local-election-campaigning kind of outing then the results in that neck of the woods suggests they'd had as much luck as I did in the office Euro 2008 sweepstakes. (Go Sweden).

"Why is it" he said "that Labour these days just seem to be sitting back, as if they're waiting to hand the First Minister's job to Ieuan Wyn Jones?"

And there it was again - mentionitis. I've lost count of the number of Labour supporters and Labour AMs over the past few weeks whose conversation turns first to Plaid. In the canteen, in the pub it doesn't take long before they're talking about their coalition partners - Plaid, bl**dy Plaid, the nationalists, take your pick.

First off it's how Plaid did in the local elections. Then how come their Ministers seem to have such high profiles, how they seem pretty cohesive as a group (even if back-benchers still haven't worked out what it means to be a backbencher), how Helen Mary doesn't seem to be rocking the boat much any more, how Ieuan Wyn just, well, gets nothing wrong.

I carry on sipping my coffee/pint and mull over one obvious question: if the Tories pose the biggest threat to Labour in Wales come the General Election - and in most constituencies they plainly do - why the apparent obsession with Plaid?

I don't know if you ever listened to Radio 4's In the Psychiatist's Chair but it was one of my favourite programmes. So in its honour let me just suggest a few theories:

Labour AMs reckon they're being taken for a ride by Plaid and can't get over it for long enough to take on the party that most of them should, right now, be really worried about.

Maybe it's simply that the Tories will pose the greatest threat in a General Election, sure but here in the Assembly, despite having a decent, thoughtful crop of AMs they rarely manage to land punches on the government. So Labour AMs, when in Cardiff Bay anyway, concentrate on their coalition rivals - sorry partners, Plaid.

Then again maybe Labour AMs, deep down (very deep in some cases) have started to realise they agree with Plaid on rather a lot of issues - a whole raft of domestic policies, Iraq, Trident but given it's never really been the done thing to say so out loud, they now turn their ire on Plaid in an attempt to cover up an inner confusion.

Any theories?

And by the way yes, it is Huw Lewis who's been learning Welsh in Nant Gwrtheyrn. Just hope the Merthyr man hasn't picked up the local accent ...

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