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It is his job of course but I've never heard the Presiding Officer sound quite ... well quite as much of a presider as he did this morning on Radio Wales.

Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas was out to ooze authority and use his three minutes to say "nah nah nah nah nah" to those in Westminster who've dared suggest that MPs are 'independent' agents. They are not, he said. They are public servants and therefore directly accountable - as are Assembly Members - to the public for everything that they claim.

That is why you can hover your mouse on and at a click, read AMs expenses for 2008-09. That is why, from this Autumn, you'll be able to click month by month if you're interested and find out what your Assembly Member has spent and claimed back from the public purse.

And let's give Lord Elis-Thomas his due (in lieu of expenses for coming in early to do the interview.) He has presided over an institution where those who work in it, for it, visit it can utter the word transparency without blushing. Along with the Assembly Commission he has decided that not all publicity is, after all, good publicity and that coming clean, going for the option of disclosure is better than being dragged kicking and screaming online and only then when the thick, black pen has done the rounds.

But hang on a minute. Just before we get too carried away with our virtue here in Wales - as though there's something in the water that makes Cardiff Bay more virtuous than Westminster - let's cast our mind back a few years.

Yes, there were the iPods, the sofas, the tvs and bathroom makeovers. But I'm thinking institution here, not individuals.

It was only a few years ago that Freedom of Information bids to the Assembly enquiring about AMs' expenses were turned down. Openness? What openness?

As late as April 2007 - in other words after the 2006 Government of Wales Act had created the situtation where there was an Assembly Commission in a position to respond - we sent an FoI bid to the staff of the Presiding Officer requesting access to expense claims and Additional Costs Allowances. The final paragraph went like this:

"I understand that the individual expenses claims of members has been publicly available in Scotland since 2005. I trust that as part of its ongoing commitment to transparency and openess the Assembly will wish to follow suit". As it so happens, back then, no it didn't.

Back came the response:

"The files referred to in your request contain information which is considered to be personal to the Assembly Member concerned, and where relevant, the staff who work for them and third parties. Therefore the release of this information would again not be consistent with Data Protection Principles and are, therefore, also exempt under section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Whilst it is possible that the files contain information that may not be personal information then the cost of reviewing each of the files and redacting any personal information would be disproportionate.

However if you are able to be more specific with your request we can give you a breakdown of Assembly Members expenses".

It didn't wish to emulate the Scottish transparency then ... but it does now. It took another bid before the door finally opened. The software used to put all claims online today is the same as that used by the Scottish Parliament. The principle is the same here too: your claims are generally based on receipts. If you're out of pocket, you get to claim it back.

And there are more reforms on the way, ones that will inevitably touch things like the second home allowance that has almost become a dirty word to uttered only very quietly and within the confines of the Fees Office.

. The man must feel ever so slightly like a striker facing an open goal. Who's going to argue with him when he has 2, 251, 968 Welsh voters on his side?

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