Too much on yesterday to blog, so catching up this morning, before heading down to a Parkinson's Disease Coffee Morning in Welshpool - and then on to a public exhibition by SP Power at Kerry of their amended proposals to construct a 20 mile long 132kv transmission line through beautiful Montgomeryshire to carry power from the Llandinam wind farm to the Grid. Spent the morning with the Ladies Committee of the Conservative Party in Wales, the afternoon at a meeting of the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust, and the evening at a meeting in the Black Boy, called by the 5 Councillors who represent Newtown on Powys County Council to discuss the future of the town. I like Newtown, despite my orientation being more Welshpool. Mrs D, who is a Welshpool girl reckons its only a politician who can claim to like both towns. There's the local rivalry you always find between neighbouring towns and villages. Its friendly, but real.
But to get to the point of this post. In attendance last night were Montgomeryshire's Assembly Member, Mick Bates and our MP. When the latter was speaking, I thought to myself "How does he get away with it?" I'll explain. During the day I had read this blog post written by the BBC's Vaughan Roderick. Its written in Welsh, but the bits that count are in English. Its the latest offering from the political columnist of that soft porn newspaper, the Daily Sport.
Now if I shut my eyes and contemplate, I can just about imagine the reaction from the media if I wrote an article for a national newspaper which referred to the French as 'frogs'. The telephones of the offices of David Cameron and Cheryl Gillan would have been buzzing as the media were asking for comments on this 'unacceptable slur' by a Parliamentary candidate upon the French nation. Believe me, its happened. But if you are a Lib Dem MP, it seems you can get away with it. But everything he said at last night's meeting was sensible, with no references to national stereotyping.
3 comments:
It seems Lembit's brain is so wired/subtle that he easily adapts to different social environments - 'he can play different roles' because love him or hate him he is a very talented guy, just that over time others have grown to dislike, for example, the way he dips into Parliamentary debates and thinks somehow he can get away with it.
But there is a great politician that is lurking inside him. He just needs to zone in and find him. Meanwhile Lembit's antics have so destroyed his credibility that even his own party can not afford to have him in a leadership role.
Right now, Lembit is not the politician that Montgomeryshire and Wales needs in the next Parliament.
Montgomeryshire sorely needs an experienced politician to take over and represent them (and Wales) in the next Parliament.
He may have sounded sensible in the Newtown meeting Glyn, but I'm afraid actions speak louder than words, and Lembit Opik has excelled himself over the last couple of years with the most cringe making behaviour - and continues to do so.
As far as his weekly column in the repulsive Daily Sport is concerned, the type of politically incorrect language he uses is just what the readership expects and knows, and he is pandering to the chavs. But he shouldn't be allowed to get away with it, it is offensive language wherever it is written.
I've had to reject several comments on this post. Sorry about that, but I don't want this blog to become a forum for rubbishing my opponent - unless its about his Daily Sport job, which is an utter disgrace for an MP to write.
Post a Comment