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It isn't always easy to tell what it is you're hearing in the rush of noise that is a party conference.

You can always make out the sound and fury of course, the soundbites and the drums being beaten over issues that suddenly gain in importance with months to go to a General Election. But making out what I'd describe as a drip ... drip in the background is harder work.

Plaid held a Q+A session with Ministers in Llandudno, where Ieuan Wyn Jones was asked about 'the referendum' or for those of you who drop in only now and then, the referendum to boost the Assembly's law-making powers ... the one Labour and Plaid made central to their power-sharing deal ... the one they've pledged to hold on or before the 2011 Assembly election as long as it's felt the public want one.

That's where come into things (or Emyr and the Persuaders as True Wales see it).

Ieuan Wyn Jones was entirely clear in his answers to the questions put to him. There was no need to strain to make out his message.

"It's very important" he said, "that everybody out there knows what the
constitutional goal of this party is. I think it's very important that we don't hide that and the public knows it. What we have to be is be open - say to people where we stand on the
constitution.''

In other words the long-term goal of Plaid Cymru remains an independent Wales.

The quiet stirring of shifting sands came care of Plaid's deputy housing minister Jocelyn Davies. She raised the possibility, as did the Presiding Officer some months back, of holding a referendum on the same day as the 2011 election.

"I think we should consider it, put a good case to the Electoral Commission
and perhaps they could clarify whether they would be opposed to it or not,'' she said.

Many of those there listening thought they'd heard the Electoral Commission saying back in May that it was a very bad idea. With the best interests of the voter being their main concern, they'd said "that referendums on fundamental issues of national importance should be held separately from other polls".

They'd honed in on the danger of multiple choice-type manifestoes depending on whether the referendum is won or not, the danger of confusing the voter, the danger that it would all "impact negatively upon voter engagement, turnout or outcomes in both polls".

It sounded and felt like a no-no.

But they hadn't stopped there. They'd added, back in May, that in the case of combining a referendum on the Assembly's law-making powers with an Assembly election, as in all cases "the Commission would consider any proposal in the circumstances at the time".

So would they be opposed to it, or not? Was it over-egging things to read their response as a no-no?

It sounds to me as though it was. There is, as one softly-spoken but crystal clear voice at the Commission put it to me, never a perfect scenario as far as timing goes. In the real world a referendum cannot always be separate. So? The Commission would certainly reiterate that having separate polls is better for the voter but they'd look at the case on its merits, should a case ever be put.

If you'd thought, then, that the Electoral Commission had frozen out the possiblity of a combined election and referendum day, it sounds clear to me that they haven't.

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