By David Williams BBC Wales' political editor

Seating in the assembly chamber came under discussion

Listeners to BBC Radio Cymru's Post Cyntaf programme woke one fine morning last summer to hear Welsh assembly presiding officer, Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas, in despair.

Now Lord Elis-Thomas, one of the more colourful and urbane figures in Welsh life, is not normally given to bouts of depression, certainly not in public and certainly not so early in the morning.

But there he was wondering aloud : "Why be bothered getting up in the morning and going to work in the assembly?"

So what was it that was driving him under the duvet?

It was, of course, that most embarrassing of moments - and there have been a few - in the assembly in the last year: The row over who should sit where.

It all started when the Labour group decided to flex its new-found muscle and rearrange things in the chamber so that all their members were seated together behind leader Rhodri Morgan.

It was the equivalent of getting their ducks in a row.

The problem was that all the opposition ducks began quacking protest at this seemingly sensible arrangement.

It was the way it was done you see!

The Labour group tried to foist it on the unsuspecting opposition without going through the normal channels.

It was all too much for the presiding officer who said that although he understood that devolution would be a painful process, he hadn't realised just how painful.

A saddened Lord Elis-Thomas told his audience that the matter had been a deep embarrassment to him and he called for a change in the whole culture of politics in Wales.

As far as the public is concerned, however, the assembly still has a long way to go. David Williams

Just to add insult to injury, Lord Elis-Thomas - a former leader of Plaid Cymru and a member of the party's assembly group - went on to suggest that the only party to have acted with some kind of dignity over the issue was the Tory party.

Shocked listeners abandoned their cereal and toast and retired to darkened rooms to contemplate the consequences of such remarks from one of Wales' leading devolutionists.

Media types, meanwhile, were busy translating the remarks for a wider audience and by lunchtime that day the rest of our little country knew of the deepening malaise in Cardiff Bay.

All this just a few weeks after the May election and the start of the second assembly term.

It wasn't the most auspicious of starts and, in the minds of many, it confirmed a perception that the assembly is little more than an inflated county council increasingly given to self indulgence.

Serious challenge

Perhaps that's why so few people bothered to turn out to vote in May.

Just 38% of the electorate is hardly a ringing endorsement.

There are complex reasons underlying the poor turnout in May, but there is little doubt in the mind of the Electoral Commission that it leaves all those concerned with elections and the electoral processes with a serious challenge.

Part of that challenge is for politicians to re-engage with the electorate.

It would be surprising if the Electoral Commission thought that a debate about who sits where in the assembly chamber was the way to do this.

Sitting in the midst of a row : Lord Elis-Thomas

In a perverse way, of course, it did engage the electorate, but for all the wrong reasons.

The trick now is to find the right reasons to change all that.

To be fair, the assembly has come a long way in four years. Its evolution does represent something of a constitutional earthquake.

The problem is that only the political wonks and anoraks seem to appreciate this.

Most people remain blissfully ignorant of any shift in the tectonic plates underlying the constitution.

They see and feel only the surface shakes - the rows over seating, problems which have beset Wales' biggest quango, Elwa, the assembly government's problems with hospital waiting lists and so on.

In fact, in these areas too there have been fundamental changes. The health service in Wales has been restructured with emphasis on primary care, but waiting lists in several areas remain stubbornly high.

Towards the end of the year Health Minister Jane Hutt announced something of a concession.

Next year patients waiting more than 15 months will be eligible for treatment elsewhere, including England.

All that clear red water seems to be getting a little murkier.

That border with England could also prove porous when it comes to education or, more precisely, when it comes to the question of top-up fees.

The Welsh Assembly Government has decided not to introduce them, at least in the current term.

All eyes are now on Westminster where the prime minister seems determined to do the very opposite despite growing opposition from his own backbenches. Top-up fees could well be one of the defining issues, for the Labour government and the prime minister, early in the New Year.

And there are those in Cardiff Bay who must be quietly praying that the whole thing goes away. It would make life a lot simpler.

Jane Hutt announced moves to cut hospital waiting lists

As far as the public is concerned, however, the assembly still has a long way to go. Are things likely to be any different in the New Year?

The answer is yes they could be and in ways that most people have yet to understand.

Why?

In the New Year the Richard Commission will give its verdict on a whole range of issues, but principally all eyes will be on the recommendations it makes on further assembly powers.

The political parties are already manoeuvring in anticipation. Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats want a parliament or senedd of the Scottish kind.

The Tories official position is to preserve the status quo, though some of their group in Cardiff Bay favour a referendum so that the people of Wales can decide whether or not they want to scrap the assembly altogether or allow it to acquire more powers.

Meanwhile Labour in Wales, which stands accused of ducking the issue, has got some of its retaliation in early, or is it late?

In a recent speech to party members, Rhodri Morgan signalled that there were alternatives to the Scottish model and seemed to suggest that some form of further legislative change could be brought in under the umbrella of the 1997 referendum.

Tax-varying powers, on the other hand, is not winning any converts. If the Richard Commission has the temerity to suggest such a thing demands for a referendum will inevitably grow.

Small numbers

So, it promises to be an interesting year, at least for the politicians in Cardiff Bay.

Plaid Cymru, following its losses in the May elections and the Ieuan Wyn Jones' is-he-or-isn't-he our leader fiasco, knows it has to raise its game if it's to become an effective opposition.

The Liberal Democrats who have somehow escaped any critical attention following their disappointing election result - there are still just six of them in the assembly - must be hoping that the numbers game in Cardiff Bay will once again provide them with a chance for power.

The Tories, meanwhile, are enjoying their new-found reputation as the most effective opposition in the assembly.

And who says so? Why it's that man again: Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas.

Fed up and disappointed with his own people in the Plaid group and in despair at the deficiencies in the political culture of Wales, you begin to understand why the presiding officer thinks twice about getting up and going to work in the morning.

And just to add to his woes this summer he witnessed the departure of some of the biggest hitters in the assembly. Some he'll miss more than others.

People like Ron Davies, the so-called architect of devolution, stepped down after further revelations about his private life.

The man who said devolution was a process rather than an event found, in the event, that he was no longer part of the process.

Plaid Cymru's Dafydd Wigley and Cynog Dafis also departed and Professor Phil Williams, rocket scientist and thinker, died suddenly in a Cardiff massage parlour.

Earlier in the year Rod Richards, the rottweiler of Welsh politics, also walked away from the assembly after admitting he had a drink problem.

All this in just one year.

But cheer up, Lord Elis-Thomas, no-one said devolution was going to be easy.

When you wake up and smell that coffee in the New Year you might change your mind about getting up in the mornings.

Well, you might.