Sunday, April 08, 2007
Catch a fire
Easter Sunday, and I am taking a rare day off campaigning to catch up with family commitments and to rest my weary legs. The mid-campaign break actually started last night with Dr. Who followed by a trip to the cinema to see the excellent 'Catch a Fire' starring Tim Robbins and Derek Luke.
The film takes the Apartheid struggle in South Africa during the 1980s and looks at its impact on two families: one headed by a non-political family man who is wrongly accused of a crime by the security forces and leaves to join the ANC so as to put right the injustice that he, his wife and children have suffered; the other headed by a Security Service Colonel who is working to preserve his way of life, no matter what the cost.
In many ways it was a very idealised picture of the main protagonist and of the struggle he was part of and, I thought, a bit lame at the end, but it benefited from some excellent acting, a strong storyline and the fact that it is based on a real life person and the incidents that shaped his life.
All of this is my way of saying that I am not making any comment this morning on the Wales on Sunday piece on Lembit Őpik, except to say that I do not believe all this hype about his personal life impacting on his level of support in Montgomeryshire, no matter where or who it comes from.
Lembit is an asset to any party, he is personable, an excellent communicator and a serious politician who genuinely cares about people and about changing things for the better. Those who are seeking to do him down have their own agenda. I do not want any part of it.
The film takes the Apartheid struggle in South Africa during the 1980s and looks at its impact on two families: one headed by a non-political family man who is wrongly accused of a crime by the security forces and leaves to join the ANC so as to put right the injustice that he, his wife and children have suffered; the other headed by a Security Service Colonel who is working to preserve his way of life, no matter what the cost.
In many ways it was a very idealised picture of the main protagonist and of the struggle he was part of and, I thought, a bit lame at the end, but it benefited from some excellent acting, a strong storyline and the fact that it is based on a real life person and the incidents that shaped his life.
All of this is my way of saying that I am not making any comment this morning on the Wales on Sunday piece on Lembit Őpik, except to say that I do not believe all this hype about his personal life impacting on his level of support in Montgomeryshire, no matter where or who it comes from.
Lembit is an asset to any party, he is personable, an excellent communicator and a serious politician who genuinely cares about people and about changing things for the better. Those who are seeking to do him down have their own agenda. I do not want any part of it.
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All of this is my way of saying that I am not making any comment this morning on the Wales on Sunday piece on Lembit Őpik
Thanks for letting me know. Something to blog about after Maniffesto
Thanks for letting me know. Something to blog about after Maniffesto
# posted by 
: 11:09 AM
: 11:09 AM
While I can understand your not wishing to comment on the article per se or on Lembit Opik, you are named in the article. "Two AMs, Peter Black and Eleanor Burnham, began collecting signatures for a leadership challenge at last year's party conference before being warned off. Mr Black later claimed he had just been "winding Lembit up" while Ms Burnham said she was trying to increase her profile." Is that hype? A lie?
# posted by : 11:51 AM
: 11:51 AM
It is old news Dave. It was a wind up that got out of hand on a quiet Sunday at our Autumn Conference. It certainly does not belong in this sort of story.
Thanks Peter, and well handled.
Slightly off-topic, I do think politicians with blogs (including you), should use them to correct misrepresentation by the press. So I think that if the Western Mail got you wrong, you should have confronted them. But that is just my opinion.
Slightly off-topic, I do think politicians with blogs (including you), should use them to correct misrepresentation by the press. So I think that if the Western Mail got you wrong, you should have confronted them. But that is just my opinion.
# posted by : 7:15 PM
: 7:15 PM
It was confronted at the time but journalists believe what they want to believe. I also blogged on it at the time.
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