The year that was...

And so, as 2008 draws to an end, it's time to look back at some of this year's memorable moments from Cardiff Bay.

It was a year of gaffes for our respected politicians. Rhodri Glyn Thomas came a cropper on two separate occasions with the first matching anything Ricky Gervais could have written at his cringing best. The second was a slight error of judgment: walking into a bar with a great big cigar in his hand isn't the wisest thing for an Assembly Minister to do and it cost him his job. Given this you might expect our friend, Mr Thomas to walk the 2008 "Clown Prince of Wales" contest.

But no. As I said, 2008 was a year of gaffes in the Bay. The aforementioned title quite bizarrely went to our First Minister, the Right Honourable Rhodri Morgan. Why? Well because apparently he has ridiculous hair and wears even more ridiculous clothes. Says who?

Step forward Nick Bourne, who couldn't really remember what he had and hadn't said. Had he called our First Minister a clown? He couldn't recall doing so. But then all that talk of mutiny and unrest somehow jogged his mind, and suddenly he could remember signing that most dodgy of dossiers all too clearly.

Incredible what murmurs of rebellion and in-fighting can do isn't it! And poor Nick had plenty to deal with as the festive season began and carols were uploaded onto iPods, including his own - bought of course at the tax-payer's expense to help the Leader of the Opposition learn Welsh. Let's just hope he was listening to I orwedd mewn preseb rather than Away in a Manger.

Meanwhile in the Lib Dems' Christmas Party, Kirsty Williams celebrated her rise to the top of the Lib Dem tree, becoming the first ever female leader of a Welsh political party. And over at Plaid Cymru's bash, Bethan Jenkins was still hoping Santa would give her a 'Yes campaign'.

Elsewhere during 2008, Eluned Morgan told us she will step down as MEP in June 2009, (to take over from Rhodri Morgan?), Mike German made way as leader of the Lib Dems in Wales (to become Presiding Officer?) and Alun Cairns insulted some Italians, then got the boot and then returned.

Also this year the great and the good of Welsh politics fell out over the LCO system, David Davies helped to launch True Wales and Sir Emyr Jones-Parry began taking his All Wales Convention caravan around the country. Peter Hain resigned to clear his name (and eventually succeeded), there was uproar when this portrait of the Iron Lady appeared in the Senedd and ITV Wales' coverage of Welsh politics took a hit [links to Vaughan Roderick's Welsh language blog] - leaving the BBC pretty much as our sole broadcasters in the Assembly.

Oh, and there was also quite a bit of talk of a recession.

Here's to more fun and games (and another Grand Slam) in 2009!

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

Dewi Dau

P.S. What have we left out? How would you sum up Welsh politics in 2008? Let us know.

The Pretenders

"It’s an enormous test for devolution [this economic malarkey], a much bigger test than foot and mouth was. People just don’t realise what was done to try to keep the normality of life going in foot and mouth. That was what we thought of as a real test – were we capable? Animal health wasn’t devolved to us, but we had to pretend it was, because that’s what the people of Wales expected.

"A little like that today, we’ve got to just get on with the job of helping Welsh society."

Interesting insight into our First Minister's mindset here. Do we really expect Mr Morgan and the Assembly's other elected officials to pretend to be solving the economic crisis? Or does Mr Morgan just think that the people of Wales are too ignorant and ill-informed to know what the Assembly can and cannot do. And so just as one might humour a senile grandmother on Christmas Day, so Mr Morgan is trying to put a smile on our faces on Boxing Day by pretending to be doing something about the economy.

I can understand that, as our leader, he should want to wear a brave face and appear to be in control of events, thus increasing public confidence and hopefully encouraging high-street spending. However, does not coming out and admitting as much in the "National Newspaper of Wales" undermine his tactics?

Incidentally, who knows how deeply-rooted the make-believe-syndrome is in our political institution? Maybe Nick Bourne thought he was only spending Monopoly money...

What do you think?

Dewi Dau

Cheryl's Christmas present!

Out of a sense of civic duty and in reflection of Politics Cymru's attempts at increasing public engagement in all forms of politics, I provide you with a link to this blog post.

How wonderful of Cheryl Gillan to offer us this once-in-a-lifetime chance to make a difference! Quite a Christmas present from our Shadow Secretary of State, I'm sure you'll agree!

(Some useful PR for herself thrown in as well of course as she manages to cleverly lighten her workload but we won't make a fuss about that!)

Use your opportunity wisely!

Oh, and remember to respect Cheryl's three rules:

1) Nothing to do with tax - private members can't do this.
2) Nothing to do with the Assembly: plenty of legislation on this already
3) Nothing to do with Europe.

And you thought this was going to be easy!

Ho!Ho!Ho!

Dewi Dau

Vaughan's Christmas spirit!

Translation of 'the politics bit' at the end of Vaughan Roderick's post: "Aros mae'r mynyddoedd bach"

We've been talking a lot recently about politicians' expenses and greed. If they misbehave they deserve everything they get. But here's another admission for you. On the whole I admire our Assembly Members, MPs and Councillors. The vast majority of them are honourable people who work tremendously hard for their constituents.

Merry Christmas to them all.

Translation by Dewi Dau

We'll keep a welcome...

Just been watching "Dom's on the case" where Dom Littlewood looked at the drugs lottery in Britain. An item on free prescriptions this side of the border saw one English village vote to apply to become part of Wales. Here's the story! The residents were dressed in traditional Welsh dress (or Dragon costumes), had replaced the Union flag throughout the village with the Draig Goch and had even renamed the local pub as Llanfairpwll......

But their application, sung to the tune of 'We'll keep a welcome', was dismissed by none other than the Assembly's youngest politician, Bethan Jenkins. Though proud of the way Audlem's residents had acknowledged how great Wales is, Bethan wasn't sure how feasible it was for Wales to suddenly start colonising middle-England!

It was quite worrying to see that the BBC's crew seemed to think the Millennium Centre is actually the Senedd: every reference to the Welsh Assembly was voiced over images of the WMC.

But at least the story shows things really aren't that bad here afterall!

Nadolig Llawen!

Dewi Dau

The name's Bourne - Professor Bourne!

This from Nick Bourne's personal blog:

"Imagine my surprise to receive a phone call from my former employer [Swansea Metropolitan University]. I worked there when they were Swansea Institute. I was employed first as head of Swansea Law School and professor of Law and then as Assistant Principal...Apparently a journalist had called them to ask if I was still entitled to call myself professor. I remember when I got the designation how proud my parents were that some of their considerable investment in money and especially time and energy had been rewarded. My friends found it a slight source of amusement and would call me prof. in a light-hearted way. I was never that fussed about the title and tended not to use it even when I worked there. Apparently as the journalist was roundly told I am entitled still to use the title – I don’t think I will be making too much use of it at work however.

And of course thanks to the journalist for there* interest!"

Is this the latest attempt by the Welsh media to find a way of ousting Professor Bourne from his post and if so surely this now amounts to a witch-hunt against the Tory leader?

Interestingly this is Nick's first post in a couple of weeks and no reference at all to iPodgate. Perhaps he's decided to follow Rod Richards' advice, and Alun Cairns' example, afterall!

*Equally enlightening is the fact that even professors can struggle with distinguishing between similarly sounding words! But their's no need to point it out to him: he has other things on his mind.

Dewi Dau

Hold your horses - says Dafydd Elis-Thomas

Anyone who bought today’s Western Mail will be in no doubt as to the stance held by Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas on the referendum. The headline reads “Don’t rush law making referendum and mess it all up now”. The Presiding Officer and former leader of Plaid Cymru has always stuck with his conscience and is renowned for not always towing the party line, and today’s outburst is surely just another example. It’s not long remember since his position as Presiding Officer was in doubt following his comments about a newly appointed Israeli ambassador.

Lord Elis-Thomas says in the article that he feels 2011 is too soon to hold the referendum and believes that a vote on the future of law making powers in the Assembly should only be held when there is a clear 20% lead in the polls for the “Yes” campaign.

I wonder how his opinion sits with the rest of his party who have committed to a referendum at the start of or even before the 2011 term. I also wonder how his opinions will have been taken by Bethan Jenkins who (as is well documented by our blog) is desperately trying to get people thinking about a “Yes” campaign.

His timing seems a bit random to me. At this time of year no one is really concentrating on political news, what with shopping, wrapping and taking Woolworth sales to the cleaners to be done. Surely this is the worst time to make such a statement, if you want to make an impact? And with so long to go before the All Wales Convention reports back and no focus groups being held until January will people remember this article? I can’t see the Western Mail running the same headline again in five months' time. I’m not sure therefore that Lord Elis-Thomas is really achieving anything by doing this now.

He also takes the opportunity to have a swipe at Nick Bourne and his iPod by saying that it’s “reprehensible” that individuals receive allowances from Parliamentary bodies (although he accepts that he has benefited from this system) and is calling for a reform.

I suppose that the article will at least raise public awareness of the referendum debate, as it gets a good chunk of the Western Mail's front page. Whether people remember what he says however is another matter.

Dewi Un

Interesting point you make about the Convention there, Dewi Un.

And I feel that Lord Elis-Thomas has neglected this issue a little. Surely the whole point of the AWC is to provide the opportunity for active campaigning from both sides before a referendum is held towards the end of the current Assembly term. Failure to do so would undermine the Convention's role and would take us into a new Assembly term under a new Government with a new agenda (in London as well as in the Bay).

Where the devolution debate then goes from there will be anybody's guess.

Dewi Dau

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

Welsh Political Awards Ceremony

Whilst channel surfing last night (there is rarely anything good on a Thursday) I stumbled across ITV’s coverage of the “Wales Yearbook 08 - Welsh Political Awards” ceremony. I felt duty bound to watch and was intrigued at the outcome in some of the categories. Here is a summary of the results:

AM to Watch: Andrew RT Davies

MP To Watch: Jenny Willott

Campaigner of the Year: Nerys Evans

Local Politician: John Davies (Independent Councillor)

AM of the Year: Edwina Hart

MP of the Year: Paul Murphy

Politician of the Year: Lord Ellis Thomas

Lifetime Achievement Award: Dafydd Wigley

I was especially interested in three of the categories.

AM of the year Edwina Hart has had a controversial year, what with her plans to place herself and future Ministers for Health slap bang in the middle of the NHS in Wales. This move has caused opposition AMs to openly accuse her of over politicising the body and of expanding the realm of government too far.

But I can totally understand why she won this award. She is a ferocious politician and no matter what the opposition parties threw at her in the chamber she swatted them aside with a glare and some socialist rhetoric. I for one would not like to mess with Edwina Hart when she was angry!

What interested me about this selection was that I wondered why no one is talking up Edwina Hart as a possible successor to Rhodri Morgan? There is a lot of talk about Carwyn Jones and Huw Lewis both of whom don’t appear to carry the profile of Edwina Hart and don’t (as far as I can gather) command the respect that she does amongst fellow politicians. I’m certain that she would be the last pick of a centrist Labour Government in Westminster who would want to avoid having such an out and out lefty in charge of Wales, but I still dont understand why she wouldn’t at least campaign for the leadership? Only time will tell.

MP of the Year went to Paul Murphy which interested me because since he became Secretary of State for Wales, there seems to have been nothing but squabbling going on between the Bay and Westminster. The other MPs cant have done much this year if Mr Murphy took home the title.

Dafydd Wigley was presented with the lifetime achievement award, I wonder if this will help him in his push to become Lord Wigley?

Well those were my main pick ups from the evening, let me know if you agree with the results!

Hwyl am y tro

Dewi Un

P.S Next year I hope we will have an invite