With More 4 soon to broadcast “When Boris Met Dave” (subtitled “The Bullingdon Years” by the Guardian), shouldn’t they boys and girls at Dragon’s Eye, CF99 or Sharp End look at a Welsh revisioning and dig for the stories behind our cuddly Welsh Conservative cousins?
We could have “When Mr Bourne goes to Wash(ington)”, the story of one man’s shower in Croatia, “RTD2”, A Star Wars spin off based in a farm far, far away – near Cowbridge, or “Johnny English (well I’m proud to be Welsh now actually)” the story of one Kairdiff boy’s secret service mission to ban MP3 players on expenses, or should that be AM3 players?
Much of the fire directed at the Tories on a UK level puts the heat on the blues brothers’ background in exclusive fee-paying schools and exploits at Cambridge. How can life-experiences of privilege, private schooling and public affairs really allow Dave and the gang to relate to the mother who gets the 17 from Ely into Canton to work and do her shopping? It’s a fair question but the current UK Lib Dem high-command and inner circle wouldn’t be immune from such an accusation either, or Labour leadership in the past. More recent Labour fightback tactics plays the celebrity card, “the media loves Cameron and is giving him his day in the sun”, trying to convince the voters not to be taken for granted. Must be based on that winning McCain playbook….
But let’s look closer to home – are the Welsh Tories getting too easy a ride? Beneath the displays of camaraderie and Cymraeg, does there still beat a right heart that pumps out those Thatcherite, unionist, and uncaring blood cells to the extremities?
If there is one Welsh equivalent of the media love-in with Cameron, it’s the deification of the ex-Mid and West Wales AM and three time losing candidate in Montgomeryshire, Glyn Davies, in the blogosphere and across some sections of the media. This onetime fierce opponent of devolution, of a proper parliamentary building for Wales, a quangocrat to his fingertips, is the “Welsh” conservative of choice amongst the ever sane and rational nationalist bloggers.
His nemesis Nick Bourne may have publicly recanted on some positions years down the track, but Glyn claims to have never really believed in some core Tory policies of a certain vintage. Take two examples: immediately on the night of the referendum, Glyn claims to have been Glyndwr reincarnated and to want a proper parliament despite leading the no campaign in Montgomeryshire and he’s against the minimum wage but if we kept the poorly paid at a low enough level it’d be ok with him. Obviously, when he decided to knuckle down and try and win his beloved Montgomeryshire in 2007 instead of carping and complaining about the changes to election rules, he took it to the man and stood up for his people. Oh, sorry must be some mistake. I hope all those toys on Welshpool high-street have been cleared up since being thrown out of the sky-blue pram in 2006.
There are many examples of Glyn’s resilience, his effectiveness as a communicator and ability to be Bourne-again on so many issues. But being loved by the blogs isn’t the same as winning Montgomeryshire for the Tories for only the second time in 130 years. What do the Tories, and Glyn, really stand for?
What about the minimum wage, breaking bread with fascists, homophobes and sexists in Europe, the underlying cultural war against the NHS, tax cuts for millionaires, no commitment on a referendum or proper powers for Wales, the erosion of civil liberties?
I wouldn’t be so sure that Montgomeryshire has fallen for Dave, George and Glyn’s charms and policies just yet.
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