There seems to me to be a basic misunderstanding of what 'unity' involves in politics. It does not involve blind loyalty to every policy espoused by the party leadership, or to sycophantic backscratching either. Mutual back-slapping love-ins never win anything. In my opinion, there is not enough serious, considered debate within parties. There is too little disagreement, not too much. Commitment to 'unity' involves not undermining behind the back while pretending to support to the face.
I notice it suggested on one or two blogs that I 'attacked' Nick Bourne in one of yesterday's posts. First thing to say is that, on this issue, my opinion is of little significance. Its just my opinion. I do admit to an element of disagreement over an issue, but its not right to call it 'an attack'. In fact, as far as Nick's leadership of the Assembly Group is concerned, I hope that this particular BBC story is without foundation. Personally, I hope that Nick Bourne is given full backing by the Conservative Group in the Assembly to carry on as leader - if there is any discussion of this issue over the weekend.
Let me , as no more that an occasional commentator on Assembly issues, post what I thought of the issue at the heart of this. Generally, I'm not keen on personal attacks against political opponents, partly because it usually benefits them. So it follows that I wasn't keen on the few words referring to Rhodri Morgan's dress sense, used in an otherwise excellent 39 page dossier of criticism of his record as First Minister. Unfortunately, these few words have totally diverted attention from the remainder of a very good piece of work. My attitude was "Damn it - some you win, some you lose". And because there was some public criticism, I would have felt obliged to give the document my full public support. I also thought that Nick should not have disowned the document on a Radio Wales programme, particularly since he had signed it off himself. But so what. Its no big deal. This is the sort of disagreement that crops up all the time in politics - and everywhere else for that matter. It certainly does not warrant speculation that Nick should be replaced. This is simply a daft reaction.
So there we have it. I've been moved to post under the heading of 'I'm Backing Bourne'.
10 comments:
My initial gut reaction when hearing the dossier news was here we go "the nasty party is at it again". However, the dossier does have more content onn the first minister s actions and some content on dress sense hair cut. What makes me angry is that the political commentarit also have jibbed at rhodri for gaffes and even cartoonists mock Rhodri. glad to see hypocrasy in action, notice how most party bloggs are quiet as they too have seen and mocked behind closed doors only the welsh tories have come out and said it.
Blimmy long time no post and a tory story gets me to post!
Off topic I thought Cameron gave an inspiring speech, statesman like.
And to be kicking a man already suffering from a black eye! How heartless is that!
You're backing Bourne and they say Lembit lacks judgement?
Well Glyn, you know how it goes. The other sides want to distract the public from their awful failures (e.g., underperforming Welsh economy) with distractions to capture the public’s attention but are not things of substance. Anything to distract the Welsh voting public from the disastrous performance of both Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru. These parties, Plaid in particular, are no longer agents of change in Wales. Plaid and Labour are now part of the problem.
A Welsh economy that is so underperforming a pair of donkey rear-ends could do better than Labour and Plaid. A comedy duet of disastrous errors of judgment culminating in an economy that is giving away its prize asset: WELSH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.
A small country like Wales could be a smart small country with a super high GVA rating instead of what we now see: a small underperforming country c/o of Labour-Plaid with a GVA rating at the bottom of the economic pile, an economy that produces jobs yes, but low paid jobs.
Labour-Plaid ‘combo’ can’t offer any real solutions to fix the Welsh economy.
“Can’t” because they don’t know how to fix the Welsh economy even though the solutions are staring them in the face.
Glyn,
Me too.
I have always found Nick to be a kind, caring, generous, and quite often funny man, who follows through on his actions which is more than can be said for some.
I think one of the best things about our group in PCC is the unity we have, which as you say is vital for any political group. I don’t think we will always all agree on everything but then by god wouldn’t we be a boring lot if we did. We have debates, we discuss things and we support each other.
To be honest if we are talking about personal attacks on other politicians which is what it appears people are accusing Nick of then I would point people to some of the comments people made about me being an unmarried single mother and what did I think I was doing trying to play with the big boys in Council, all of which is true I’m not married, I am a mother and I am enjoying playing and I think making a success of playing with the big boys (ha ha) but it was the tone it was said with rather than them saying anything which wasn’t true and at the end of it all it was water off a ducks back like I imagine it is for Nick.
I’d back Nick anytime.
I can understand that you cannot expect all the members of any one political party to agree on everything. That is fair enough and a good debate is well worth having.
Sadly I think Sarah has been misguided by Nick Bourne. His failure to submit a letter of objection to the last round of school closures (including that of Howey School) let his conservative colleagues down. It was only the Lib Dem AM, Kirsty Wiliams, MP Roger Williams and Labour AM Alun Davies that opposed that round of school closures.
But Sarah must continue to show her colleagues on Powys County Council that she can indeed do the job. Comments like she has apparnetly received are uncalled for in todays society.
I am not a Tory, quite the opposite may be, but I have found Nick Bourne to be a nice if naive guy,and may be this is whats happened here. What amazes me is the press again , whats is it 30 odd pages of evidence of Rhodri's dreadful record and they home in one or two paragraphs.
My advice to the press guys down there, is challenge them and challenge Labour for some answers, as a voter I would love to hear what they have to say in their defence. Nick for gods sake do not do a double u turn on this one.
glyn you say that he did sign it off. therefor he has lied to the public in order to stab his staff in the back for no doubt doing what they were told.
there is a serious issue here. If we vote conservative how do i know he will live up to his promises. how do i know he wont just dodge them and blame someone else.
doesn't paint a good picture of him!
vftg - Most of any negative has been in the press already. Not my style, but nothing to get so excited about. Agree about Cameron's speech. In my opinion, it was his best so far.
anon - I've suffered several 'black eyes' and always felt 'macho' and good with them. Usually, they are no mre than just a bit of bruising. Now a pulled hamstring is something different.
Anon 2 - Either stand by your leader, or change your leader. I hope they stand by him.
christopher - I would agree, except that we've contributed a bit to this sillyness ourselves.
Sarah - its always best to ignore the silly stuff. Usually harms the person making the comments rather than the person commented on.
anon 3 - I cannot comment on this because I have not discussed it with anyone - but I do know that Nick disputes your version of events here.
VM - I'm with you on this. Now that Nick has taken a position, I hope he sticks to it. Big fuss over little.
what did u think of bourne waffling on the politics show glyn
Post a Comment