Would Rhodri Morgan leap to the defence of his beleagured Prime Minister today when pilloried over Gordon Brown's abolition of the starting 10p tax rate? Would he use First Minister's Questions to back Mr Brown's defence that he was taking the "difficult long-term decisions"? Would he bat away Conservative leader Nick Bourne's questions on the subject by parroting the line that low-income earners would be "the biggest beneficiaries" of the abolition? Er...
"The loss of that starting tax band was an essential part of a good welfare to work scheme and that's the reason why I am not keen on it, while accepting obviously in the end it's the Treasury, it's the UK Government, that have got to make the figures add up rather than ourselves.
"Nevertheless I do think there's a differential impact in Wales because there probably are quite numbers, probably more than in England say, of people who will be adversely affected because of the number of people working close to the minimum wage."
Poor Mr Brown. He is very rapidly running out of friends.