Bye for now

I have decided to spend more time with my family.

Forgive my use of this over-used cliche from the political world, but it is actually true. Today is my day at the office for a while.

Twenty years since I started work at Westminster, I will be disappearing for a few months to work on my childcare skills.

Reports that I am retiring on the proceeds of the takeover by a Dubai-based investment company of Charlton Athletic (I declare a small shareholding) are sadly wide of the mark.

The decision is prompted by the imminent arrival of our son. As an equal opportunities family, I will be taking the adoption leave while my wife goes out to work...

Admittedly, this is a risky, volatile, unpredictable time for a political correspondent to remove himself from the fray.

But the battle for the Welsh Liberal Democrat leadership will just have to cope without me.

I will miss the presidential election - but Lembit Opik's chances of taking this top job in the Lib Dems appear remote.

Listeners to Good Morning Wales will no longer be able to set their clocks by my appearance and can look forward to hearing a new voice at 6.30am.

By my return in March, the United States will have a new leader.

The Conservatives may have decided their policy on devolution.

Parliament's Welsh affairs committee may even have finished its two-year inquiry into globalisation.

It will certainly have started its inquiry into the National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Agriculture and Rural Development) Order 2008, dealing with the red meat industry.

Note to self: hurry back for that one.

People will wonder about the crying, the tantrums and the challenging behaviour. But the kids will just have to get used to their dad.

By next spring, my family will probably have decided it would like to spend less time with me.

I am back at my keyboard/microphone on March 23. Bye for now.