Friday, November 04, 2005
Where did that white rabbit go?
Wednesday's Plenary debate on Affordable Housing was an absorbing but patchy affair containing some notable contributions from members. Some of those contributions were more florid than enlightening whilst others genuinely advanced the debate.
By far the liveliest contribution came from Tory Social Justice Spokesperson, Mark Isherwood. His debate reached new levels of rhetoric even for him and at times appeared to have been penned by Lewis Carroll with just a touch of George Orwell thrown in for good measure:
In the topsy-turvy, smoke-and-mirrors world of this discredited Labour administration, less is described as more and more as less. To Labour, less is more when it has imposed massive cuts on affordable housing as homelessness, housing waiting lists and house prices have been increasing.
Mark kept us on tenterhooks throughout. Firstly, he told us that we lived in a topsy-turvy, smoke-and-mirrors world, which presumably we share with the white rabbit, then he was arguing that more was less and less was more in a classic example of Orwell's double-speak:
To Labour, of course, when less is not more, then more must be less. To Labour, more is less when housing waiting lists across Wales have risen 50 per cent over the last year alone and are projected to exceed a scandalous 100,000 in a total population of less than 3 million.
By the end my head was spinning with the sheer audacity of it all. Mark's colleague Glyn Davies however was having none of this high-flown rhetoric. Glyn tells it like it is. His trademark is his frankness, even if that reveals slightly more then he intends at times:
When I first contested a council election, a long time ago, my only campaign issue was the planning rules that prevented landowners from building on their own land. I did not believe in planning at all. [Laughter.] I refined my view after being elected, but my fellow councillors were so impressed with it that they elected me chair of the planning committee for the next six years.
They certainly do things differently in Powys.
By far the liveliest contribution came from Tory Social Justice Spokesperson, Mark Isherwood. His debate reached new levels of rhetoric even for him and at times appeared to have been penned by Lewis Carroll with just a touch of George Orwell thrown in for good measure:
In the topsy-turvy, smoke-and-mirrors world of this discredited Labour administration, less is described as more and more as less. To Labour, less is more when it has imposed massive cuts on affordable housing as homelessness, housing waiting lists and house prices have been increasing.
Mark kept us on tenterhooks throughout. Firstly, he told us that we lived in a topsy-turvy, smoke-and-mirrors world, which presumably we share with the white rabbit, then he was arguing that more was less and less was more in a classic example of Orwell's double-speak:
To Labour, of course, when less is not more, then more must be less. To Labour, more is less when housing waiting lists across Wales have risen 50 per cent over the last year alone and are projected to exceed a scandalous 100,000 in a total population of less than 3 million.
By the end my head was spinning with the sheer audacity of it all. Mark's colleague Glyn Davies however was having none of this high-flown rhetoric. Glyn tells it like it is. His trademark is his frankness, even if that reveals slightly more then he intends at times:
When I first contested a council election, a long time ago, my only campaign issue was the planning rules that prevented landowners from building on their own land. I did not believe in planning at all. [Laughter.] I refined my view after being elected, but my fellow councillors were so impressed with it that they elected me chair of the planning committee for the next six years.
They certainly do things differently in Powys.
