CAMBRIA POLITICO

Bourne gets peace until 2011 – but will it then be RIP ?

May 122009

Forget thoughts of depriving Nick Bourne of his leadership of the Tories, at least this side of the Assembly election in 2011.

The AM for Mid and West is on a roll – all thanks to London Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the series of gaffes and problems that have been visited upon him.

Peace has descended on the Tory ranks in the Assembly, despite ambitions bubbling away slowly in the background – particularly from Jonathan Morgan (South Central) and Darran Millar (Clwyd West).

But, when the party’s going upwards rapidly, there is little point in wrecking the brew by stirring too vigorously.

Speaking to the press, Mr Bourne was blunt that expectations in the next Commons election – surely in 2010 – are no longer limited to Vale of Glamorgan (which will remove Alun Cairns from Cardiff Bay) and Cardiff North (which will remove Jonathan Evans from Brussels).

Mr Bourne said he was thinking in “double digit” terms, to embrace seats never before thought of as Tory, as well as those not held by the party for many years.

The importance of 2011 to a leadership election is that a poll at that time will bring a number of new faces into the Assembly. The change-over in faces is larger than experienced in the Commons where their first-past-the-post election system results generally in an as-you-were result.

If Mr Bourne fails to become First Minister (he is definitely in the running), all bets are off.

But if he manages to take over the big office on the fifth floor of the building currently occupied by Rhodri Morgan – where I am now working, any change in the Tory group leadership would, of course, be totally unthinkable.

Terrier Cairns has served his sentence

Welsh Conservatives 2 Responses »

Oct 142008

The rehabilitation of Alun Cairns is overdue.

Ever since being caught out making a silly comment on a BBC programme almost designed to produce such comments, the question has been for how much longer must he suffer.

The key to his return to making a full contribution to political life lies with Tory leader David Cameron.

It was Mr Cameron who suspended the South West AM from his post as prospective candidate for Vale of Glamorgan. Mr Cairns’s comments about Italians being “greasy wops” were not really offensive, merely not the sort of thing which an aspiring politician should say. The Tories’ reaction can be counted as political correctness going too far.

One of Mr Cairns’s non-Tory enemies in the Assembly guesses that Mr Cairns will stay suspended until just before the election, at which point Mr Cameron would parachute in a woman. Not that such a person would have any idea of what’s going to happen.

Mr Cairns can be seen to be still very worried about the situation. His comment was obviously so out of character; I’d blame it entirely on the radio programme. It ill befits some BBC journalists to be holier than everyone else on an issue such as this.

Mr Cairns can see every reason why he should be reinstated (he would, wouldn’t he !). Vale of Glam is a marginal seat although often previously held by his party. A united party with a strong campaign is necessary to win it; Mr Cairns himself retains the constituency’s support; I myself would add that parachuting anyone else in, particular from over the border, would be solidly supported by MP John Smith (! as it would save him the seat), but by hardly anyone else in Wales.

Mr Cairns readily admits Mr Cameron has other things on his mind at the moment.

Probably the best clue to how Mr C will move comes from two journalists who have interviewed him recently.

Dave Cornock reports Mr Cameron’s words on the subject in his blog : “He works extremely hard. He cares passionately about the Vale of Glamorgan. He said something he shouldn’t have. He made a mistake, he is very apologetic about that. I hope we can settle this soon.”

Much the same was said to Nick Speed, of HTV.

So it seems that the Tories’ errant terrier will be back on board soon. Then it’ll be up to Assembly leader Nick Bourne as to whether he gets back his spokesman’s job on education (unfortunately, Andrew Davies is doing a truly excellent job there, indicating the strength in depth that the Tory group possesses); and his chairmanship of the finance committee (newcomer Angela Burns, Carmarthen West, is currently in place).

One wonders whether Mr Cairns might have reached Westminster before he gets the chance again to second-guess Jane Hutt.

Political correctness going mad

Blood Boilers, Welsh Politics 4 Responses »

Jun 172008

So massive is the hypocrisy and political correctness being displayed over the Alun Cairns light-hearted faux pas over “greasy Italians” that only one question remains to be asked.

And that is, when will the South West AM get his jobs back as Tory education spokesman and as chairman of the Assembly finance committee.

Well, perhaps there is a second question. How quickly before the governmentally-incompetent Italians agree to go back on their independence and invite Austria to return to run not just the north but the entire country.

Mr Cairns made his comment on a BBC radio programme, and it was truly sad to hear members of that organisation, having obtained on the show the sort of lively comment on which the entertainment industry is based, then doing their best to emphasise the seriousness of the happening.

During the week’s regular Tory briefing, they piled in with questions seemed designed to ensure the production of material to fill an extra 10 minutes or so of air time – at the expense, of course, of the person who had been good enough to fill a gap left in their original radio line-up.

At one point, party leader Nick Bourne was asked about whether Mr Cairns could be rehabilitated. Well, it’s done for serious criminals, Mr Bourne replied.

In that one short comment, the ridiculousness of the entire issue was laid bare. This was no street-corner knifing; it was a comment to the entertainment industry. And don’t tell me that the BBC isn’t on occasion involved in dumbing-down their news values.

This journalist at one point got so fed up at the over-zealous political correctness being displayed that Mr Bourne was asked when the clearly non-racist Mr Cairns would get his job back. “How long is a piece of string,” was the reply. Quite short, one felt the leader felt.

Particularly as he later felt that the BBC were trying to keep the story going for their own purposes.

Mind you, there’s another reason why Mr Cairns’s period in the doldrums is unlikely to be long. In a sign that the Beeb can also be fine journalists – I’m being nice to them, now – they took up the entire first part of the briefing by dissecting the Tory’s new education spokesman.

It turns out that the two elder children of Andrew Davies, the South Central AM, attend private school, although the others are at the local primary. Were state schools not good enough; had he no confidence in them; did he agree in giving parents vouchers for educating their children (a method of favouring the private sector); would he favour expanding the private sector ?

His replies were extremely competent. Clearly a man of ministerial calibre (very unlike two of the fading Labour characters in the present cabinet). It was a pity Mr Bourne was not there to hear this part of the briefing. But the message was plain. Mr Davies is a political liability in this particular post.

The answer to the problem is simple. Bring back Cairns quickly. And ease up on this horrendous political correctness which seems so ridiculous to everyone – except to those in the Cardiff Bay hamlet.

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Going overboard for political correctness

Welsh Politics No Responses »

Jun 162008

Only limited sympathy today in the Assembly – which often loves to go overboard in political correctness – over the massive bullock that Alun Cairns dropped on the radio last week.

In a light-hearted item on which soccer team he supported in the current European championship, Mr Cairns attached the description “greasy wops” to the Italian team.

But Welsh-Italians didn’t seem overly concerned when questioned afterwards, while former AM Ron Davies, now director of the Valleys Race Equality Council, commented that Mr Cairns didn’t have a racist bone in his body.

Really, this is just an example of Mr Cairns letting his mouth run away with himself. A lighthearted comment, just the sort of line which a radio programme loves – but not these particular words …

Mind you, Mr Cairns seems to have a record for going over the top on the radio. Recently, the Shadow Education Minister was asked to comment as chairman of the finance committee, on a sensitive point of funding for the foundation phase for our youngest school pupils.

In front of a member of the press, Alun Ffred Jones, a Plaid member of the committee, advised Mr Cairns to give no interview for fear he would go “over the top”. As far as I know, no interview was given.

Under the old committee system, when ministers were quizzed in great detail on government policy – a fortnightly event now sadly abandoned – Mr Cairns became known as the “terrier” who was more effective than all of his 59 colleagues in bringing ministers to heel.

Perhaps he sometimes went too far – in terms of unremitting questioning.

But in terms of ability, Mr Cairns is one of the best; he would make a superb government minister. He has lost his post in the Welsh Tory leadership; let’s hope it is only until the furore dies down.

Is Cairns a language and religious thief ?

Welsh Politics No Responses »

Jun 102008

Plaid are hopping mad that Tory Alun Cairns is grabbing credit for giving free transport to pupils attending Welsh-medium and church schools.

A Measure setting out new Welsh laws on school transport has begun its passage through the Assembly, and Mr Cairns is furious because it is not strong enough.

A Measure is a law within an area where the Assembly already possesses legal powers. In years BA (Before the Assembly), they were within the remit of the Secretary of State, and then, after 1999, within that of the Assembly itself.

Mr Cairns is furious that the Measure contains no statutory right at all to free transport (beyond the existing three miles for secondary and two for primary schools) to church schools, and that the right for Welsh-medium schools is so general “that it would be very difficult to enforce through the courts”.

At present, most local authorities voluntarily pay the charges, but Mr Cairns – who has a personal interest in that his Welsh-speaking child is at primary school – is scared that councils may axe the concession as their budgets increasingly get squeezed.

But Ieuan Wyn Jones doesn’t quite see it that way. His office pointed that it was Mr Jones, when leader of the opposition, who spotted the gap in government thinking when the issue was considered by the Assembly before the election – at that time, nothing at all was said by the previous Labour administration on the issue.

Only after he had made a fuss was the point accepted – leading to the paragraphs written into the present Measure.

IWJ’s office get really furious when they point out that at that time, when Mr Cairns was a member of the relevant committee, not a peep issued from him.

So, if Mr Cairns guilty of a smash-and-grab raid on a Plaid-obtained policy ? Or does he want to the policy to be even stronger than that which Plaid obtained from a negligent Labour government ?

Tories end up on the Left

Voting methods 1 Response »

Apr 242008

Nick Bourne is haring off leftwards so fast that it won’t be long before the Welsh Tory party stands to the left of Labour.

He kicked off his weekly briefing by advocating a £100 discount on their council tax bills for all pensioners. What about the millionaires ? For everyone, he replied; the matter’s too urgent.

Mr Bourne then slated the government’s removal of the 10p tax band: “Those at the bottom of the pile should be given help rather than those at the top,” he said.

Those two points followed his suggestion for what seemed suspiciously like a raising of the age for driving: insisting that youngsters below the age of 20 would not be allowed to carry passengers (as being considered in Belfast) is only one step away from making that the age for holding a licence.

Currently, power over driving licenses is held by London, so that would mean a transfer of functions Order.

And then there’s the issue of proportional representation using the preferred single transferable vote system, another issue being raised in the Assembly this week. Mr Bourne made plain his support at the local government level “from self-interest” and because, in a five-party world (with Independents), it is the only way of halting Labour domination.

Jonathan Morgan (Cardiff North) was sitting quietly in the back listening – one can hardly imagine him objecting to that sort of political agenda.

So which Tory AMs are possible objectors ? The Welsh party is changing so rapidly that I can imagine only three of the 12, and then we have to go back of political attitudes that they may have forgotten by now – Alun Cairns (South Central), William Graham (South East), and Darren Millar (Clwyd West).

Bourne gets peace until 2011 – but will it then be RIP ?

Terrier Cairns has served his sentence

Political correctness going mad

Going overboard for political correctness

Is Cairns a language and religious thief ?

Tories end up on the Left

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