Just returned from a few days in Berlin where, among other things, enjoyed coffee in the Bundestag (as appears the wont for Welsh journalists these days) with Mark Speich, the CDU's director of strategy policy planning and the man who was at the heart of drawing up the Grand Coalition of the CDU and SPD just about managing to stay together in the German government at the moment.
As someone with experience in putting an awkward coalition together, his thoughts may prove interesting to those in the Welsh Tory party interested in forming a rainbow coalition with Plaid and the Lib Dems next year. For, it seems, getting into bed with those to the left has proved a hard pill for the German conservatives' natural supporters to swallow.
Despite the coalition's achievements - unemployment dropping by nearly half a million in the last year, agreement finally being reached on welfare tax reform - the CDU is flatlining in the polls at 35% and is hemorrhaging members at a rate of knots. This, reckons Dr Speich, is down to Conservative voters not liking their politicians mixing with grubby lefties.
"We're losing members and voters in two ways," he says. "Business voters have certainly inclined to the FDP. And we're losing voters who are conservative in the classic sense.
"That's quite natural that we have problems to appeal to these two groups. We have to move away from them to get into coalition with the SDP. To abandon these groups is a natural progess in a grand coalition. The business wing is leaving us for the FDP. The conservative part is leaving us to become non-voters. That's a tremendous problem but rather a natural problem for a situation like a grand coalition."
Those chasing the rainbow coalition - you know who you are - take note!