Monday, 23 January 2012

Wanted: better politicians

The man who savaged Paxman is clearly prepared to show similar assertiveness towards lacklustre Plaid politicians.

Plaid policy adviser Eurfyl ap Gwilym describes himself as “very critical” of some candidates, adding that some in the party had to "pull up their socks".

His review findings are that "too many party spokespersons appeared to lack both competence and confidence in presenting our policies".

He quite reasonably goes on to say how "it should be a precondition that they develop a sound understanding of their own brief but should also be briefed on the full range of party policies".

It is interesting to see that there has been no undue disagreement with this assessment from within Plaid. Similarly, the lack of adverse comment from other parties might suggest that they recognise some of the symptoms in themselves.

Nonetheless, it is refreshing to see a contemporary political organisation doing what it said it would do in conducting a warts-and-all review. All it needs now is a leader with the presentational qualities Dr ap Gwilym specifies to put things right.

1 Comments:

kp said...

Err, hasn't Dr ap Gwilym done a few of these reviews before. What makes you think anything much will change this time around? It hasn't before.

As for mauling Paxman, it certainly made for good TV. Just a shame his key economic policy had to be withdrawn in something of a hurry because none of the banks would support it.