The Bourne Ultimatum
I disappear for a few days to the world of Mastermind Cymru and its black chair and re-emerge yesterday to find Nick Bourne in the chair of the Politics Show squirming more than any of the weekend's contestants .
He might not have had an autocue but it's pretty clear he had a script and that in the circumstances, had no choice but to stick to it. Either that or he would have been sporting a plaster above the other eye by the end of the day.
It was a case of no passes as far as opportunities to say sorry went: sorry, my fault, my mess, sorry again.
Has he done enough? Enough for what?
Enough to appease his staff? It's a start but putting right the damage done there, from what Mr Bourne himself suggested yesterday, will take another dose or two of humble pie and proof he's realised just how far he went wrong.
Enough to retain William Graham as chair of the group? I'm not so sure. In a Conservative group of twelve I can think of five who would be either happy or prepared to see Paul Davies, Preseli Pembrokeshire's quietly spoken but well briefed and well organised AM take over. Kung Fu Panda - and Mr Bourne himself was the first to crack that joke by the way - might even regard that one as a blow he's prepared to take to prove his contrition.
Enough to limit the damage? Limit it, yes. Repair it, no. There was absolutely no need to get himself into such trouble but the bottom line is that Mr Bourne's judgement has now been put in question - the kind of question you can't simply answer by sitting in a chair and saying sorry.
I'm Betsan Powys, BBC Wales' political editor. I'll be blogging the inside track on 
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~56~RS~)
CommentsSign in
You need to sign in to contribute to this page. If you're new to BBC Blogs, creating your membership is quick and easy.
he was sorry coz he wanted to keep he's job....he should have admited it from the start and said sorry for what he said..
there was no need for that comment during he's confrence
this just simply shows the tories as a dis-honest political party
blaming it on each other,
Complain about this comment
We keep being told that the Tory Party has changed. It hasn't. Same old nasty party as before.
Complain about this comment
I quite like Nick, for a Tory, he's not too bad!
I don't know how many pages the dossier consisted of, that they had on Labour, but it must have been pretty boring reading for Nick. There's nothing exciting about Rhodri, or Labour in the Assembly. If he wants to dress up in a red jumper to open Swansea's not so exciting Maritime Museum (which cost millions) when all the other dignitaries are in suits, so what? He's only Wales' First Minister, leader of the Welsh Assembly Government. The government which has to go to Westminster with a begging bowl for its funds, and the little LCOs it wants. He's a nobody really.
If that's the case, what does that make Nick?
Now, if Rhodri were the Prime Minister of a sovereign Parliament, leading a resurgent Welsh Government able to take decisions which would stimulate a strong Welsh economy, analagous to that across the Irish Sea, and which had a seat on all the EU counsels, and at the United Nations, then what he wore and what he said might matter.
But Rhodri doesn't aspire to such high status. He's content to take his orders from the likes of Blair and Brown, until he shortly draws his pension. How more uninspiring can you get?
If that's the best that the Politics Show in Wales can come up with, its pathetic.. to wring an apology from poor old plastered Nick (he was, or his eyebrow was) for failing to spot that Rhodri often has the charisma, eccentricity and image, that Rowan Williams might well aspire to.
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS