A Rod for Bourne's back

Nick Bourne will have been dreading picking up this week's copy of the Wales on Sunday, and understandably so. Predictably the paper does not make nice reading for the underfire Tory leader. Even Rod Richards has been wheeled out to offer his two-pence worth. "Time for him to go" is pretty much the message from Rod, backed up by the paper's Matt Withers.

Richards ridicules Bourne's justification for buying the iPod:

"He says he was using the iPod for speeches and learning Welsh. I’m sorry but there’s no politician who likes to listen to other’s speeches." Slight generalisation here by Rod: who knows maybe he would have been (even?) more successful with a few wise words from Churchill, Mandela and Blair!

"As for the Welsh – what is the end product? He has been learning Welsh for ages and I’ve never heard him speak a word of it. I occasionally see David Davies being interviewed on S4C but never Nick."

As for the trouser press, well: "That’s the kind of thing you use in a hotel" observes Richards.

So it all looks pretty bleak for Bourne. Who will replace him? Rod thinks he knows:

“Jonathan [Morgan] is an experienced hand by now and I don’t think it will be long before he has his feet under the table.”

There we go then, all done and dusted. But while we're at it, what do you think Rod had to say about Alun Cairns? Afterall did he not also divulge in the purchase - at the taxpayer's expense - of an equally expensive and unnecessary luxury?

"Alun has done everything within the rules but where he has been superior and cleverer than Nick is that he didn’t dream up some spurious explanation for the iPod. Nick was in a hole and kept digging. Alun was in a hole and climbed out."

Now there's a valuable lesson for life from Mr Richards! And that'll teach you, Nick, for trying to make up for what you've done and for being gracious and responsible enough to offer a justification to the great Welsh public. Next time you should just play dumb!

Interestingly:

'Asked what the Welsh public would think of Mr Bourne’s reign as leader if he did leave his post, Mr Richards replied: "Nick who?"'

Now, Rod, I'm not sure that's completely true is it after 8 days of iPodgate, uncountable Bournewatches and lord knows how many Bourne Ultimatums over the past week!

Dewi Dau