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It is sometimes said that attack is the best form of defence, and this is a tactic observers of Carmarthenshire County Council's monthly meetings have seen deployed on several notable occasions. Sometimes this takes the form of a burst of synthetic outrage about accusations made by nobody, leaving observers and most councillors scratching their heads and wondering if they have missed something.

Back in June of this year the monitoring of Cllr Siân Caiach's e-mails by council officers was raised in the chamber. This was a serious matter for several reasons, not least because it should make members of the public think twice before sending an e-mail to their elected representative in the belief that what they are communicating is in confidence.

The main drift of the replies Cllr Caiach got was that the council was fully entitled to monitor councillors' e-mails, and the chief executive went on to launch an angry tirade. Accusations, made by nobody, that there was a department of officers sitting monitoring e-mails was "completely fallacious. There is no truth to that at all".

Employing a group of people just to monitor councillors' e-mails would indeed be preposterous, but there does appear to be an established monitoring operation on Jail Hill.

Earlier this week another blogger submitted a Freedom of Information request to the council. The details of the request will have to wait for another day, but the issue involved is one which extends way beyond the borders of Carmarthenshire.

Within hours of the request having been made, the blogger noticed that Carmarthenshire County Council was busy reading and searching her blog for information linked to her Freedom of Information request, because she uses a standard software package which can show which companies and public bodies are accessing the blog.

So it's a big hello to the boys and girls reading this in County Hall. Despite the unprecedented spending cuts coming down the line, you can probably relax in the knowledge that your jobs are not under threat.