How to upstage Rhodri in one easy movement

So this is a weird story. In the office someone said that a Plaid AM had defected to the Tories. I instantly remarked 'one of the rural ones yeah? They tend to be a bit right-wing'. No, turns out it's one from South Wales East, a bloke from that heartland of Tory politics, uh, Newport. And really, check out the reasons. Respect for the royal family? WTF??

Mr Asghar is the first AM to 'cross the floor' since the Assembly came into being. In terms of Westminster this has happened many times over the years. A little bit sensational, generates some headlines, but not of that much consequence unless majorities are especially slim.

But the difference here is that Asghar was elected as a regional AM from the additional list system. For those not too sure, Wales has a form of proportional represenation which includes traditonal first-past-the-post constituency members, and top-up list members to reflect proprtionality.

Because Mr Asghar is a regional list AM, he wasn't directly elected, he was selected as a representative of his party from a top up list of 4. So while you'd expect Plaid to jump and say 'resign!' as a standard response from a party that just lost one of its members to a rival group, in this case I think the call is justified. By crossing the floor Asghar just abdicated his democratic mandate.