Nick Bourne AM

Had it been known how valuable the Magna Carta was to become surely more copies would have been made. King John could have gone on tour signing them and swelling the royal coffers. There could even have been a sequel, Parva Carta. 

As it is the last copy in private hands parted company from its owner, Ross Perot but was purchased by another freedom loving American, who wants to ensure continued access by the public. You cannot put a price on freedom said David Rubenstein perhaps unaware that he and Sotheby’s of New York just had - US$21.3 million in fact. 

Mention of Magna Carta always reminds me of perhaps the finest and clearest speech I have ever heard. It was delivered at Kings College Cambridge at a student Law Society dinner. 

It was delivered by Lord Denning MR and he spoke of the need to protect our rights, freedoms and privileges from assault each time they were under threat there would be a rustle through the reeds at Runnymede he asserted. 

The quality of Lord Denning’s prose was outstanding as any lawyer or law student will testify. The clarity of expression means that Lord Denning’s judgments unlike those of virtually any other judge could be appreciated and be readily understood by non lawyers too. 

Rather atypically for this Minister, Edwina Hart has chosen the recess to announce the mergers of the hospital trusts in Carmarthenshire. Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire. I deplore this practice of making important announcements outside of the Assembly timetable away from scrutiny and away from questions. 

I oppose this merger-the so called Dyfed option and that soubriquet Dyfed really sums up the anti. The area comprising the old Dyfed is vast and people of the area are rightly proud of their local. Hospital The great fear of this merger is that will lead to new centralisation and the withdrawal of services. That is my over-riding concern and that of many others too. 

It will be interesting too to see the stance of Elin Jones to this government announcement. She was once against this merger I wonder if she still is and if so will she be resigning from the government? 

I wanted to send a holiday greetings, but it is so difficult in today’s world to know exactly what to say without potentially causing offence. So I met with my solicitor this morning and on his advice I wish to say the

 It has certainly been a long time coming but it looks as if at long last justice has been done. In no small measure this has succeeded because the ASW pensioners have been determined and impressively persistent. When others may have been tempted to give in John Benson and others have demonstrated in their quietly dogged way that there would be neither compromise nor climb-down.

Even a few weeks ago this settlement looked unlikely. ASW workers lobbied Westminster and Cardiff Bay. I spoke to the protestors as did others from my group. Not a single Labour AM appeared to speak to the ASW lobby — nobody from Plaid Cymru either.

Then in the debate on the Queen’s Speech in the National Assembly I raised the matter with Peter Hain and he did seem sympathetic which surprised me slightly.

And so here we are. It has taken five years. There has been a considerable amount of hardship and too much delay and we must make sure the money gets out quickly but that said — this is good news at last.

Prompted to return to the ITV year book award ceremony because of all the controversy surrounding our Secretary of State’s speech.

 
Sitting there as I was with Elis and Judith Owen, Carwyn Jones and Wyn and Emid Roberts, exchanging embarrassed glances with other guests I was put in mind of that occasion in one of the Jeeves and Wooster novels were Bertie Wooster having had too many sherbets makes  a hash of his speech at a school speech day while presenting prizes. Peter had clearly had not had too much to drink, he was sitting on the next table and barely touched a drop. He did spend a lot of time reading his speech and in light of what happened this is extraordinary. You would have thought that he would have realised if it had been written by someone else that is was entirely inappropriate for the occasion.

 
All the prize winners in making short speeches had spoken with grace and been witty and pleasant. I thought John Smith in particular in receiving his award for campaigning for St Athan was typically gracious and fair saying that it was an all party campaign in winning the bid. Not according to the Secretary of State, it was Labour at Westminster and Labour in Cardiff. Such a claim is not only inaccurate but incredibly ungracious on such an occasion. However this lack of manners paled into insignificance beside the ill judged comment about Helen Mary’s tandoori tendencies and Ieuans trip to India to get curry recipes for her.

 
Even this in my mind was overshadowed by the sexist jibe in relation to Angela’s award and Laura Anne Jones, I think at the very least Peter Hain should make a public apology and a personal apology to those concerned.

 
Despite my political differences with Peter Hain I never thought him capable of delivering such a speech. I think in fairness politicians of all parties there as well as other guests were scandalised. In all fairness to  Bertie Wooster he would not have been capable of delivering such an address it was much more Lord Spode.

I have believed from a fairly early stage that Barack Obama’s message of hope was an appealing one that would resonate with the American voters. The latest evidence of the polls is that he has drawn level or overtaken Hillary Clinton in both Iowa and New Hampshire. While Clinton remains ahead nationwide an early reverse in the first primary and first caucus could well be fatal — ask Howard Dean!  I hope that Barack Obama wins. I think it will send out a very powerful message about the USA.  There is no automatic read across from British politics to the US– see Bush and Blair for example. Plenty of Conservatives seem to be supporting Obama and on the Republic side it seems to me that only Giuliani would be in with a prayer of addressing the issues that face the USA and the world.

Absolutely astounding that Gordon Brown thinks that he can somehow pretend that the reason he is not in Lisbon to sign the European Union Reform Treaty is because of an important parliamentary engagement. Not only would this normally not worry him but also of course the MPs concerned offered to rearrange the hearing he was attending. The real reason Gordon Brown was not in Lisbon to sign the Treaty is he does not want the press back home and the public to make a great issue of him signing the European Constitution. I suppose a possible alternative would have been to have him superimposed James Purnell style, on the group photo but that doesn’t seem to have occurred to anybody.  

 
Now it’s perfectly possible to make out a strong case for saying this is a significant moment, indeed it’s a significant moment in European terms and if he believes signing the treaty is the right thing to do he should have been there with the other leaders. He has left it to poor Mr. Milliband to shake hands with an usher. She seemed presentable and it may be that the Labour Party wishes it could present her at the next election as P.M. rather than Mr Brown.

 
Whatever yesterday constituted it certainly wasn’t a sign of strong leadership on behalf of our Prime Minister and once again it just looked like the Prime Minister being a political manipulator rather than a national statesman. It is just how all those Blairites said it would be.  

As soon as I arrived at City Hall and cannoned into Wyn and Enid I guessed that Wyn Roberts had deservedly won the ‘Lifetime Achievement’ political award for the ITV/Wales Yearbook Awards for 2007.

 
When I said congratulations to Wyn it elicited the response; “You will have to wait and see”, but I could tell from the glint in his eye that he had indeed won it.

 
The evening was a thoroughly enjoyable one, and many thanks to ITV and the Wales Yearbook for putting on this splendid occasion.  It has grown (just as the Yearbook does) from its start two years ago in the Coal Exchange.

 
The culmination of the evening was Wyn’s award and the citation was read by Gareth Hughes who did an extremely job in reviewing Wyn’s very long and colourful career, and then there was an extremely gracious and entertaining speech from Wyn. 

 
I have to say that this contrasted sharply with a contribution from another senior politician that evening which certainly astounded me, and I believe many others there.  It did not capture the mood of the evening and much of it was in poor taste. 

 
I was delighted too that Angela won the award for the ‘Best Newcomer’.  She has certainly made a mark within the Group and outside as the member for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, and is handling the Finance brief extremely well.

 
On our table the conversation flowed.  I exchanged reminiscences about Aberystwyth with Carwyn, which tends to be the order of the day whenever we are put on a table together at one of these functions, but it was certainly congenial company on our table with Wyn and Enid, Elis and Judith Owen, and Rhodri Williams.

More than any other individual Iain Dale has put political bloging on the map. It is his fault that hundreds and thousands of politicians and others scour through the numerous political blogs that exist and try in their own small way to contribute to the political process.

 
I don’t know how Iain does it. I have visions of him sitting in some breezy garret formulating blogs for an appreciative audience toiling upwards through the night like some latter day Rumplestiltskin. The truth is clearly otherwise, he very obviously does many other things — travelling and following sport for starters. He must be fiendishly well organised.

 
I went for dinner recently with some former work colleagues. We meet up twice yearly and the conversation is wide ranging although politics sometimes barely surfaces as I am the only one there with an all consuming political involvement (well almost all consuming!) Suddenly one former colleague started to laud and praise this character called Iain Dale. He had just purchased a dictionary of quotations by him. I responded by giving a thumb nail sketch of my knowledge of Iain and added I had just purchased a book on bloging by the great one! Other colleagues joined in — they too had heard of him.

 
More strength to your bloging elbow Iain –I hope you are going to come to Wales as a guest at a fund raiser– how can you refuse after this write up? Actually there is no ulterior motive. You have made a massive contribution to political debate.

This Thursday and Friday David Cameron made his seventh visit to Wales within a year. I don’t believe Gordon Brown has been here since he became Prime Minister. 

The visit was, in my view, an immense success. It started off with a reception in the Mansion House in Cardiff followed by an address to the Cardiff Business Club. This event was certainly oversubscribed and Dave’s speech featured on the overregulated nature of business and the need to simplify and rationalise the tax structure and also touched on the importance of the Skills Agenda and on the vital nature of the ease of communication for business. 

The question and answer session that followed was, by common agreement, an extremely effective exercise in dealing with a vast range of issues in a very humorous and sensible way. 

On the Friday, in addition to media demands and a visit to Newport Docks and a meeting with two Councillors defecting to us in Newport, there was a large Party function at Salt in the Bay attended by over 300 people. What was particularly pleasing was the number of young people at this event. I don’t think I have been to such a well attended event in Wales and well attended by young people for probably 15 years. It really was a stunning success. 

The visit also afforded me an opportunity to discuss political issues with David at first hand which is always useful rather than by phone or other communication. 

I spoke to my brother after the event and he told me “I understand you are meeting up with Glyn for lunch”. I said, “How on earth do you know that”, and he said it is on Glyn’s blog. Such is the power of the blog. My brother knew as much about what I am doing as I do. 

The constitutional debate goes on. I believe that the case needs to be made for legislative powers and made powerfully but that shouldn’t detract from the fact that there is a whole political agenda which is of much more immediate importance to the people of Wales, delivery of an effective health service, delivery of good education, protecting our farmers, providing new business opportunities, ensuring access to housing for people. These are the issues which people talk about on the doorstep and which are truly important, but clearly we need the proper powers in order to be able to deliver what people want, and that is why the constitutional agenda is so important too.