Saturday, July 28, 2007
Eccentricities
Paul Flynn MP draws a delightful pen picture of some of the distinguishing features of two recent Secretaries of State for Wales:
'The eternal bachelor Paul Murphy led an elevated existence, slightly remote from the Hurley Burley of parliamentary drudgery. His desk shone unsullied with papers. His mornings were passed in his dressing gown listening to Beethoven in his elegant Chiswick flat. He impatiently awaited the call to ministerial office.
Alun Michael was driven by a work obsession. Hugely productive, his day began at dawn with a marathon run and continued with ferocious industry until the early hours of the morning. In our first parliament, we were frequently condemned to linger in our office throughout the night for late votes. MPs will not tolerate this now. While the rest of us were half sleeping longing for the deliverance of a division bell, Alun would be cheerfully working. He had a group of friends who had also adopted a nocturnal life style. To our astonishment, he would ring them in the early hours. One was the late John Reynolds Leader of the Cardiff City Council.
Yesterday, I had an angry carefully written nine paragraph, 500 word e-mail from Alun on higher education.
It was e-mailed at 3.16 a.m.'
I don't think that they will thank him for this insight.
'The eternal bachelor Paul Murphy led an elevated existence, slightly remote from the Hurley Burley of parliamentary drudgery. His desk shone unsullied with papers. His mornings were passed in his dressing gown listening to Beethoven in his elegant Chiswick flat. He impatiently awaited the call to ministerial office.
Alun Michael was driven by a work obsession. Hugely productive, his day began at dawn with a marathon run and continued with ferocious industry until the early hours of the morning. In our first parliament, we were frequently condemned to linger in our office throughout the night for late votes. MPs will not tolerate this now. While the rest of us were half sleeping longing for the deliverance of a division bell, Alun would be cheerfully working. He had a group of friends who had also adopted a nocturnal life style. To our astonishment, he would ring them in the early hours. One was the late John Reynolds Leader of the Cardiff City Council.
Yesterday, I had an angry carefully written nine paragraph, 500 word e-mail from Alun on higher education.
It was e-mailed at 3.16 a.m.'
I don't think that they will thank him for this insight.
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There is complimentary photo of a much younger Paul Flynn in the year 1981 marching through the streets of Port Talbot in the book "Police Conspiracy?" on page 31 by John Osmond published by LOLFA in 1984. Paul is under the word "END" on a protest banner. Who is the geezer to the right of the photo holding up a Republican Prisoners banner under the word "Port" (Talbot)?
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