Honest John: Bates passes clear yellow water
Wednesday, April 18, 2007

The second politician to rise to Blamerbell's Honest John challenge is the Lib Dems' Mick Bates. The bar has been set relatively high after the performance of the Conservatives' Jonathan Morgan.

'Chwarae teg (Fair play) to JM for a pretty clear set of answers' said Aran, while Plaid-supporting Sanddef said he'd even consider voting for him under the right conditions. Valleys Mam was less impressed, arguing that people would always remember the way the Tories treated the miners.

Today's victim politician has been assembly member for Montgomeryshire since 1999, but in the 2003 election his majority was halved by the outspoken Conservative contender Glyn Davies. Funnily enough, if the swings of four years ago were to be repeated on May 3rd Mick would lose his seat and so, in all probability, would the man who narrowed the gap last time around, confined as he is to the vagaries of the regional list.

But Mick is evidently campaigning hard to hang on. That's the only explanation I can come up with for the monosyllabic replies he has given to your questions. So rather than present this one in a Q+A style I'll just tell you what he thinks as concisely as possible...

Mick believes 31 seats would be a success for the Lib Dems in this election. He thinks alcoholism and drug dependency are illnesses to be cured and not offences. He works very closely with the Lib Dems at Westminster, but he won't tell us if there's any clear yellow water between them. Some people drink their own clear yellow water, apparently it's good for your health.

Also good for your health is laughter. So it's just as well Mick thinks his old rival Glyn Davies' attempt to smear his name is 'funny'. (I told you the answers were monosyllabic).

Mick talks to young people 'all the time'. This is to get them more interested in politics. He doesn't tell us if it's working or not but I met a young Lib Dem activist in the street the other day and there was real fatigue in his eyes. I think he'd been got at.

When Mick isn't talking to young people (which of course is never) he's listening to his favourite album, Dark Side of the Moon, or plotting a revolution of the Welsh political media. He will achieve this by 'sending out more Focuses'. Because the world needs more Focuses.

Mick's political hero is Lloyd George. Mick subtitles this answer 'Visionary for Wales', which sounds like a second-draft of the Lib Dem manifesto. In which you will read, incidentally, that Lib Dems think that the Welsh language should have official status. Mick agrees and also believes that people should have the right to services in and the right to work through the Welsh language.

Finally, Mick would like to see the assembly develop in future by having 'less strategies and more action'. The word 'strategy' appears 36 times in the Liberal Democrat manifesto.

So, there we are. Are you satisfied or have you lost control of your saliva glands with rage? Tomorrow: Labour's Huw Lewis.

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posted by Blamerbell @ 3:08 pm,

10 Comments:

At 5:20 pm, Blogger Marcusian said...

Fair play Dark side of the moon is a classic...

None of them have really answered my question on young people really...

It riles me that the lib dems can just sit back and wait for the coalition deals to come forward.

 
At 5:20 pm, Blogger Marcusian said...

Fair play Dark side of the moon is a classic...

None of them have really answered my question on young people really...

It riles me that the lib dems can just sit back and wait for the coalition deals to come forward.

 
At 5:36 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

An interesting read. Thought you were a bit unkind in your description of Mick as "has been assembly member for Montgomeryshire" though ;)

 
At 5:53 pm, Blogger Blamerbell said...

Ah, I guess it's never a good idea to link the words "has" and "been" in this context!

 
At 6:16 pm, Blogger Unknown said...

Hold on; 'funny' isn't monosyllabic...

 
At 6:26 pm, Blogger Blamerbell said...

"Hold on; 'funny' isn't monosyllabic..."

I guess it depends how you say it!

So people would say 'poor' is monosyllabic. But not in South Wales.

 
At 6:29 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM_P8sUySCc

 
At 7:53 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mick Bates nice guy English but with good Welsh tendencies believes in community
Being at the Assembly hasn’t changed him -one of the few.
Used to be a youth worker didn’t he.
Sort of semi farmer
Why is he a Lib Dem?
"I don’t want to set the world on fire I just want to light a flame in Mike Germans aspirational heart.”

 
At 9:56 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It riles me that the lib dems can just sit back and wait for the coalition deals to come forward.


That depends on how badly Labour does.

 
At 3:42 pm, Blogger Independence4Celts said...

Check this out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ASj84C9yX4

 

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