Sunday, February 24, 2008

Mike German

The only issue of interest at the Lib Dem Conference seems to have been "who follows Mike German". It looks like the ambitious Kirsty Williams to me. The 'anybody but Kirsty' candidate will probably be Jenny Randerson. Peter Black says he doesn't want to do it - and I believe him (Sorry Eleanor but I just can't see it). Mike looked very relaxed during the interviews. The ermine will not be long delayed. I suggest Baron Knowall, and I mean that in the nicest possible way because whenever I served on a committee with him, he actually did know it all. So much so that sometimes I used to depend on him. If I found myself in a committee meeting, not having had time to properly read all the papers, I always tried to make sure I didn't say anything until after Mike had spoken. He always enjoyed regaling us with his comprehensive grasp of every detail - and I trusted him to be right.

But he also had an amazing capacity to generate antipathy. I could never completely understand why. This came home to me when he served as 'countryside' Minister in the First Assembly's Lib-Lab Government. For some reason, even when delivering good news he just couldn't connect. But I always liked Mike German and he made me laugh, sometimes even when intending to!. This sounds like an obituary! I'm still a bit surprised that they managed to prise him out of the Leader's Office - and I'll only really believe it when I see them handing him his gold clock.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't write him off yet. "I will stand down as leader" doesn't preclude "I am standing down as leader to give members the choice...and given the enormous support I am receiving from across Wales..."

Glyn Davies said...

Please let it happen. There would be war.

Dr. Christopher Wood said...

I heard a tasteless joke the other day about a legless tortoise. To find the tortoise, the owner had to remember where he left it. For some unfathomable reason, when I think of that poor tortoise, I picture the Welsh Lib Dem Party under Mike German's 'leadership'.

But a heart warming dog story from Iraq - mum was watching American TV and heard about a singularly loyal animal in the form of a dog. This loyal creature that shows love and loyalty to all in sundry without preconditions - they really are man's best friend.

A soldier posted to Iraq befriended a homeless and obviously needy dog. The soldier took him in, fed him, and grew to love him. The dog would not leave the soldiers side. In the heat of battle, the unthinkable did not happen - instead, the soldier got posted to another base and was not allowed to take his dog with him. Before leaving his dog other soldiers told him that they would take care of his dog and not to worry. The soldier left to go to his new assignment.

A while later the dog turned up at his new base and found the soldier, the dog had crossed 70 miles of desert to find him.

Makes me nearly cry remembering what sometimes happens back home, I heard of neighbors who took in cats and dogs let out of cars (while still moving) by criminal owners. I can't think of anything so cruel - family pets are part of the family and the shock and utter despair they must feel being abandoned so. Just rips out one's heart.

If there is a moral to this story - perhaps Michael German should not travel in a car with his fellow Lib-Dems around large out of the way roundabouts. Culverhouse Cross roundabout comes to mind - about 20 minutes or less from the Welsh Assembly. No, I am not trying to plant any ideas in Welsh Lib-Dem heads that anyway lack the balls to do anything so horrible. For some unknown reason the image of Gordon Brown is mustered up.

Anonymous said...

What about Baron Visa of Mastercard

Glyn Davies said...

christopher - those pigeons that annoy you would find their way home from 500 miles away.

anon - Good suggestion. Credit where it's due. 'Lord Falkhall' has gone - informally bestowed upon a New Zealander who plays prop alongside Lord Dominic Addington in the front row of the House of Commons and Lords rugby team.

Frank Little said...

It will be a sad day for Wales when Mike has to leave the Senedd. He is still one of the most articulate AMs, and, as you say, most knowledgeable.

What few people outside the Liberal Democrat party will have had the benefit of are his punchy, informative, presentations, even surmounting the occasional glitch in the dreaded Powerpoint.

Anonymous said...

I heard that Russell Goodway has been promised a peerage. He could be "Baron Goodway of Elba!

Dr. Christopher Wood said...

Glyn, "[t]he eagle-pigeon has landed" on my balcony with a wee message in its sharp beak; reads: "Any one who thinks German is not wedded to his plush office, leadership style way of living and will go quietly into the night like a Kumbaya child of the '60s has, using President George Bush's terms, ‘miss-underestimated him’”, signed: “Anonymous Lib-Dem AM who has no desire to take over the leadership of the Welsh Lib-Dems”.

Thanks to the Washington Times and Gen. Merrill McPeak for providing the raw material.