By David Williams BBC Wales Political Editor

The Labour group in the assembly want to stick together

After a week of muscle flexing and bellicose promises of "no retreat" in the battle for seats in the debating chamber, the Welsh Assembly Government finally decided that they didn't really have a leg to stand on!

A cheap shot? Perhaps, but after the strutting and posturing of the last week it is difficult to see what other conclusion to come to.

Surely this wasn't what devolution was supposed to be about - a debate to determine where assembly members sit in the home of new democracy in Wales?

Of coure devolution isn't about this, but it came perilously close to it.

It was only a last-minute outbreak of common sense and humility on the part of all concerned which prevented what would surely have been one of the most damaging episodes in the assembly's short and troubled history.

And the threat of having to vote on 801 amendments no doubt concentrated the mind of Business Minister Karen Sinclair as she sought a face-saving solution.

Mercifully, after days spent running around in ever decreasing circles, assembly members of all parties were persuaded to decide in private where members should sit.

Has the row affected the way people regard the assembly?

As it is the political parties and, by extension, the institution itself have been damaged.

The only consolation is that the damage would have been far greater all round had the debate gone ahead.

That's not to say that public perception of the assembly has been enhanced by any of this.

On the contrary, there is a real danger that people are now laughing at the institution and those it houses.

That is a difficult thing to reverse.

And damage has also been done to individuals as well, in particular the business minister at the heart of the row.

In a sense this whole sorry affair has been in large part about the minister and her alleged failure to effectively communicate and co-operate with her opposite numbers.

It has also been about the Labour Government's perceived arrogance in refusing opposition requests for more meetings of the assembly committees and its refusal to meet demands for a programme of government.

Will there be rows over seating when the AMs' new chamber is built?

First Minister Rhodri Morgan and his new team have dismissed these accusations, but the compromise over seating demonstrates just how tenuous Labour's slim majority is.

From now on, the Government will have to be more careful when it comes to pushing through the assembly matters of real concern.

And now, presumably, we can all concentrate on those things which really affect people's lives - things like health, education and the economy.

Of course we still don't know where assembly members will sit at the end of all this, but it is almost certain that Labour will get its way and be allowed to sit alongside one another.

Whatever the arrangement, it will be decided in private and out of the glare of the media spotlight.

Thank goodness for that, but the damage done in the last week may take a little longer to repair.