Thursday, January 29, 2004
Those scary right-wing Tories
Wonderful speech yesterday from David Davies, the Conservative AM for Monmouth. David knows how to hit all the right buttons for the Conservative faithful, condemning the usual targets of "one-legged pregnant lesbians etc" so beloved of the right wing press in the eighties. David is particularly scornful of "political correctness", presumably unaware that the concept was invented by the left to parody their more earnest colleagues. Here is an example:
"In my experience, some projects involving young people offer tremendously good value for money. I was privileged a few weeks ago to meet young people in Abergavenny to discuss the political process, as part of an excellent project, which anyone would commend. However, there are also some bad projects out there, which are costly and provide a useful stipend for certain people, but do not deliver much in the way of value for money.
By way of example, I mention the Agora project, which I believe received over £100,000 for staging politically correct plays, which I doubt anyone would watch. One of those plays was about Non-a Welsh-speaking single parent who wanted to become a plumber, but could not find bilingual childcare facilities. That was just one example of the type of plays that they were staging. That sort of politically correct nonsense has to be stopped, particularly if it is paid for out of taxpayers' money. We will vote in favour of this motion, but we want the Minister to realise that we will ensure that there is value for money. If there is any suggestion that this money is being wasted on politically correct nonsense, then we will be the first people to stand up and call for the money to be properly spent."
The question that all this rhetoric poses is this: "Has David ever tried to get a plumber in an emergency?"
"In my experience, some projects involving young people offer tremendously good value for money. I was privileged a few weeks ago to meet young people in Abergavenny to discuss the political process, as part of an excellent project, which anyone would commend. However, there are also some bad projects out there, which are costly and provide a useful stipend for certain people, but do not deliver much in the way of value for money.
By way of example, I mention the Agora project, which I believe received over £100,000 for staging politically correct plays, which I doubt anyone would watch. One of those plays was about Non-a Welsh-speaking single parent who wanted to become a plumber, but could not find bilingual childcare facilities. That was just one example of the type of plays that they were staging. That sort of politically correct nonsense has to be stopped, particularly if it is paid for out of taxpayers' money. We will vote in favour of this motion, but we want the Minister to realise that we will ensure that there is value for money. If there is any suggestion that this money is being wasted on politically correct nonsense, then we will be the first people to stand up and call for the money to be properly spent."
The question that all this rhetoric poses is this: "Has David ever tried to get a plumber in an emergency?"
