"Fucking Welsh!" Tony Blair is alleged to have shouted after hearing about Labour's losses in the 1999 assembly elections. (If that sounds a bit strong, the edited version of Lance Price's book says the PM was "effing and blinding". "Blinding Welsh!", however, only crops up once on Google.)
Mr Blair's frustration was understandable. He'd done what Neil Kinnock couldn't, and devolved a modicum of power to Wales. And how did the Welsh thank him? By voting in large numbers for Plaid Cymru and depriving Labour of a majority in the new assembly. But nothing infuriates Plaid more than the notion that it should be grateful to the PM for establishing the assembly in the first place.
"The prime minister deserves to be admonished for this kind of behaviour," said Leanne Wood, Plaid's shadow social justice minister and AM for South Wales Central. "Recently, a Labour councillor was fined for calling a Welsh constituent 'boyo' - I think that Blair's comment is even more offensive. Blair has been caught red-handed. It confirms our fears that he is anti-Welsh and anti-democratic."
Ms Wood has duly written to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Sir Philip Mawer, to ask for an investigation. "The commissioner can only investigate complaints that the member has broken the code of conduct and there is evidence to prove that," his spokeswoman said. Put another way, dragons might fly over Cardiff before the PM is investigated.
As it happens, Ms Wood, who was ordered out of the assembly chamber last year after she referred to the Queen as "Mrs Windsor", has almost been the subject of an inquiry herself. She was the author of a leaked Plaid memo which advised AMs not to waste money on casework for constituents who were unlikely to vote for Plaid, but to spend it on promoting Welsh nationalism. Plaid says the memo was a "discussion paper" and not official policy, but Peter Hain told the Commons in July that Ms Wood had been "caught red-handed abusing the system" and said he wanted the presiding officer to investigate.
She may not be able to turn the tables, but Ms Wood is unbowed. Last month she attacked Neil Kinnock as an "unreconstructed anti-devolutionist", and anyone who doubts the scope of her ambitions should visit her website, modestly titled
