REMEMBER the outrage we all felt at inept bank bosses awarding themselves fat bonuses for dumping us all in the red? Do you sense a similarity between that and the National Assembly’s desire to swell their ranks by an inconceivable 20per cent or even, wait for it, 40 per cent?

Considering the AMs presently work a three day week and, apparently, do not start until midday, there must be a more acceptable way of spending what might amount to a staggering £17,000 a year. Might I suggest that this expenditure would be better used to curb the enthusiasm of some local councils for culling or crippling libraries, museums, children’s and community centres, etc while the Assembly gives its tacit approval by behaving like the three wise monkeys? If this is wisdom, Jim, it’s not as we know it.

There again, how about Assembly Members pulling their collective fingers out and trying to work half as hard as the rest of us? We elected them to their positions. They are not there by divine right and it is not divine right that will knock them off the perilous perches, but the votes of a disgruntled Welsh public.

Julian R Powell, Larch Grove, Newport