Barack Obama seemed happy with the pint of Guinness he received when he visited an ancestral Irish hometown this week.
Days earlier, the Queen had enjoyed watching the pouring of a Guinness during her truly historic visit to Ireland. In Germany she might have observed the wheels being put on a shiny new Volkswagen, but an international statesperson cannot tour the Republic without paying homage to the pint-sized wonder.
There is a body of thought that this quintessentially Irish brew is in truth a Welsh invention. The story goes that Arthur Price, who left Cardiganshire in the 18th century for Ireland and became Archbishop of Cashel, served up the black stuff at his palace.
His steward, Richard Guinness, was well-known for brewing a “very palatable” drink and he enjoyed such a fine relationship with his employer that he named his son Arthur in his honour.
The Archbishop became Arthur Guinness’s godfather and left the young man £100 which he used to open his first brewery in 1756.
While it may be stretching this tale too far to say that the tipple of monarchs and presidents is actually the ancient Welsh “porter”, as a tale of hospitality and friendship it is as warming as a pub fire.
David Cameron is a regular Guinness drinker and he may have discussed the art of pulling a perfect pint with the visiting president. He has certainly worked hard at pulling Mr Obama close.
They now say they have an “essential relationship” founded on a “natural partnership.”
This fermenting of their friendship accelerated last year when the two men swapped beers. Mr Obama gave the PM a bottle of Goose Island 312 – an icon of his home city of Chicago. The president received a bottle of Hobgoblin, brewed in Mr Cameron’s Oxfordshire constituency.
Tony Blair brought George Bush back to a favourite Sedgefield pub and Boris Yeltsin was enthralled by the one he visited with John Major.
Mortals may wonder how real camaraderie can survive such flashbulb-filled encounters but investing intergovernmental time in having a good time is rarely wasteful. Just as manuals urge harassed parents of young children to ensure they have a “date night” weekly when they can enjoy each other’s company, so world leaders stand a better chance of devising solutions to climate change, global debt and nuclear proliferation in the airless confines of a summit if they can drawer on reserves of rapport and trust forged through evenings of yarn-spinning.
For the good of Europe and America, let’s hope the occupants of Downing St and the White House found time to unwind over an ale fit for an archbishop.
A Thursday column
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
The Road Not Taken
Former Plaid Cymru ministers now adapting to life in opposition must wonder how different their world might be if they had taken a different turning in the road four short years ago.
Together with the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, they thrashed out a programme for government and party leader Ieuan Wyn Jones seemed on the verge of not just taking Plaid into government for the first time but doing so as First Minister.
But when deep divisions in the Lib Dems were dramatically exposed – and Labour’s Rhodri Morgan was installed as the leader of a minority government – the allure of a “rainbow coalition” faded. Instead, the left-leaning nationalists negotiated the One Wales coalition pact with Labour and Plaid’s ministerial team embraced their new roles with energy and optimism.
Party conferences over the subsequent years were not characterised by soul-searching or public frustration with Labour. Instead, there was keen excitement at the prospect of a referendum on full law-making powers in devolved areas for the Assembly.
Plaid forged a government with Labour because the party led Mr Morgan promised stability and pledged to deliver this historic vote.
Labour was true to their word and the Assembly now has turbo-charged powers. But the irony is that Plaid is on the electoral sidelines and Labour ministers are the only AMs with access to these shiny new levers of power.
There is, of course, the possibility that Labour will seek a stability pact or even a full coalition at some point in the five-year term. But this is only the smallest crumb of comfort.
The contrast with Scotland is glaring. The SNP’s Alex Salmond led a minority Government and this month the electorate handed him a thumping majority; Plaid, meanwhile, have slipped behind the Tories in their share of seats.
It is true four years of Plaid-led government would have transformed Wales’ perception of the party but there is no guarantee it would have achieved its greater goal and won the march 3 referendum with a resounding 63.49% of the vote.
Even if the three-way coalition had held together, would popular support more powers have cemented? Opposition in Labour ranks to devolution would have intensified every time First Minister Jones appeared on television; the Welsh Labour leadership battle would have been about who could best thrash Plaid.
Labour is today adamant that the referendum would not have been won without its efforts; similarly, this month’s election proves that the party now led by Carwyn Jones has not suffered through its association with Plaid.
A rainbow coalition would have made history but One Wales quietly achieved wholescale climate change.
A Thursday column
Together with the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, they thrashed out a programme for government and party leader Ieuan Wyn Jones seemed on the verge of not just taking Plaid into government for the first time but doing so as First Minister.
But when deep divisions in the Lib Dems were dramatically exposed – and Labour’s Rhodri Morgan was installed as the leader of a minority government – the allure of a “rainbow coalition” faded. Instead, the left-leaning nationalists negotiated the One Wales coalition pact with Labour and Plaid’s ministerial team embraced their new roles with energy and optimism.
Party conferences over the subsequent years were not characterised by soul-searching or public frustration with Labour. Instead, there was keen excitement at the prospect of a referendum on full law-making powers in devolved areas for the Assembly.
Plaid forged a government with Labour because the party led Mr Morgan promised stability and pledged to deliver this historic vote.
Labour was true to their word and the Assembly now has turbo-charged powers. But the irony is that Plaid is on the electoral sidelines and Labour ministers are the only AMs with access to these shiny new levers of power.
There is, of course, the possibility that Labour will seek a stability pact or even a full coalition at some point in the five-year term. But this is only the smallest crumb of comfort.
The contrast with Scotland is glaring. The SNP’s Alex Salmond led a minority Government and this month the electorate handed him a thumping majority; Plaid, meanwhile, have slipped behind the Tories in their share of seats.
It is true four years of Plaid-led government would have transformed Wales’ perception of the party but there is no guarantee it would have achieved its greater goal and won the march 3 referendum with a resounding 63.49% of the vote.
Even if the three-way coalition had held together, would popular support more powers have cemented? Opposition in Labour ranks to devolution would have intensified every time First Minister Jones appeared on television; the Welsh Labour leadership battle would have been about who could best thrash Plaid.
Labour is today adamant that the referendum would not have been won without its efforts; similarly, this month’s election proves that the party now led by Carwyn Jones has not suffered through its association with Plaid.
A rainbow coalition would have made history but One Wales quietly achieved wholescale climate change.
A Thursday column
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
A Party of Government or a Party of Change?
There is a grand irony that Westminster – that bastion of first past the post – this week marks the first anniversary of a coalition while one-party rule is under way in Wales and Scotland.
The electoral systems for the Assembly and the Scottish Parliament were expected to make these outcomes more unlikely but the SNP last week won a majority which justifies the use of the term “whopping”.
In Wales, Labour did well to win half of the seats in the Assembly but there are political reasons why the party decided to launch this experiment in solo-government.
Historians will scratch their heads when they look at Plaid’s strategy before, during and after the election. Successive polls showed the party ranking behind the Conservatives so the result cannot have come as a surprise.
Even though three of their top five winnable seats were held by Conservatives they chose to direct extraordinary firepower at Labour. This is despite having shared power with Mr Jones’ party since 2007 and together delivering a Yes vote in the March Assembly referendum that was (a) historic and (b) also verifiably whopping.
Plaid could have adopted a version of the 2001 UK Labour slogan, “The work goes on”, and used the election campaign to promote the idea of another coalition which would address endemic poverty and under-performance – but this time with a new toolkit of powers.
In the immediate aftermath of the election the party could have forcefully made the case that no group had won a majority, that 57.7% of constituency votes had been for parties other than Labour and that Wales needs a strong government when the nation is braced for the full force of the spending cuts.
Instead, Plaid seems poised for long nights of debate and soul-searching about its raison d’etre. The idea that renewal is found in opposition is dubious. Were the Conservative eras under William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard times of unbridled renaissance?
The appearance is of a party that has not only lost power but does not regard winning power as its over- riding purpose. Does Plaid exist to win office and make decisions about road expenditure, prescriptions policy and fisheries, or is its success to be judged by its wider impact?
Without hesitation, politicians from all parties now champion bilingualism, talk about the Welsh people as a nation and seek to tailor bespoke made-in-Wales solutions to policy problems. It is a sign of Plaid’s success at shaping the political landscape that other parties’ tanks are parked on their lawns. But the party is in no mood to celebrate and tough days are ahead.
A Thursday column
The electoral systems for the Assembly and the Scottish Parliament were expected to make these outcomes more unlikely but the SNP last week won a majority which justifies the use of the term “whopping”.
In Wales, Labour did well to win half of the seats in the Assembly but there are political reasons why the party decided to launch this experiment in solo-government.
Historians will scratch their heads when they look at Plaid’s strategy before, during and after the election. Successive polls showed the party ranking behind the Conservatives so the result cannot have come as a surprise.
Even though three of their top five winnable seats were held by Conservatives they chose to direct extraordinary firepower at Labour. This is despite having shared power with Mr Jones’ party since 2007 and together delivering a Yes vote in the March Assembly referendum that was (a) historic and (b) also verifiably whopping.
Plaid could have adopted a version of the 2001 UK Labour slogan, “The work goes on”, and used the election campaign to promote the idea of another coalition which would address endemic poverty and under-performance – but this time with a new toolkit of powers.
In the immediate aftermath of the election the party could have forcefully made the case that no group had won a majority, that 57.7% of constituency votes had been for parties other than Labour and that Wales needs a strong government when the nation is braced for the full force of the spending cuts.
Instead, Plaid seems poised for long nights of debate and soul-searching about its raison d’etre. The idea that renewal is found in opposition is dubious. Were the Conservative eras under William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard times of unbridled renaissance?
The appearance is of a party that has not only lost power but does not regard winning power as its over- riding purpose. Does Plaid exist to win office and make decisions about road expenditure, prescriptions policy and fisheries, or is its success to be judged by its wider impact?
Without hesitation, politicians from all parties now champion bilingualism, talk about the Welsh people as a nation and seek to tailor bespoke made-in-Wales solutions to policy problems. It is a sign of Plaid’s success at shaping the political landscape that other parties’ tanks are parked on their lawns. But the party is in no mood to celebrate and tough days are ahead.
A Thursday column
Thursday, May 05, 2011
The Music of Democracy
Choosing the right music is one of the most important elements in staging a party. It will be the soundtrack of the night which will set the tempo for conversation and associated larks.
The music which has pumped through the Assembly since 1999 has been a bolero piece which reached a climax in March when the electorate voted by a thumping majority to invest the institution with bold new powers in devolved areas.
If Devolution: The Ballet is ever staged at the Wales Millennium Centre it will be the story of how a little-loved Assembly survived a shaky start, a spat of scandals, and yet was eventually grasped close by a nation which understood its potential to change life for the better.
But few things grab the attention of people at a party so much as the moment when the music suddenly stops.
The newly elected Assembly Members who arrive in Cardiff will have to decide on a new soundtrack.
What is the grand narrative of the next Assembly going to be? The idea of a referendum slowly won support in all parties over the last four years and members campaigned with remarkable discipline towards this goal.
But what – if anything – will be the ambition which can unite AMs of different stripes in the half-decade which lies ahead?
People of different parties support reform of the way the Assembly is funded and many will make a strong case for the creation of a separate Welsh legal jurisdiction. Important though these individual issues may be, they are unlikely to animate either the nation or its politicians with a new sense of purpose.
But AMs may be inspired to focus on one area where there is a real need for change and where success will deliver quantifiable results.
The sobering scale of the under-performance of Welsh children in reading, maths and science was demonstrated in December’s Pisa results. Not only did Wales rank behind the other UK nations, it was below international competitors such as China and South Korea.
The ambition for Wales to be a small but clever country is a great one but turning it into reality will require the bravest of leadership.
In identifying what holds back our children in school, it is likely we will also discover what holds them back in life, what dilutes their confidence, their ambition, their happiness.
This extra-long five-year Assembly term lessens the pressure to scramble for a quick-fix solution in time for the next election. This is an epic mission which deserves an Ennio Morricone soundtrack that, we hope, will culminate in the sounds of celebration.
A Thursday column
The music which has pumped through the Assembly since 1999 has been a bolero piece which reached a climax in March when the electorate voted by a thumping majority to invest the institution with bold new powers in devolved areas.
If Devolution: The Ballet is ever staged at the Wales Millennium Centre it will be the story of how a little-loved Assembly survived a shaky start, a spat of scandals, and yet was eventually grasped close by a nation which understood its potential to change life for the better.
But few things grab the attention of people at a party so much as the moment when the music suddenly stops.
The newly elected Assembly Members who arrive in Cardiff will have to decide on a new soundtrack.
What is the grand narrative of the next Assembly going to be? The idea of a referendum slowly won support in all parties over the last four years and members campaigned with remarkable discipline towards this goal.
But what – if anything – will be the ambition which can unite AMs of different stripes in the half-decade which lies ahead?
People of different parties support reform of the way the Assembly is funded and many will make a strong case for the creation of a separate Welsh legal jurisdiction. Important though these individual issues may be, they are unlikely to animate either the nation or its politicians with a new sense of purpose.
But AMs may be inspired to focus on one area where there is a real need for change and where success will deliver quantifiable results.
The sobering scale of the under-performance of Welsh children in reading, maths and science was demonstrated in December’s Pisa results. Not only did Wales rank behind the other UK nations, it was below international competitors such as China and South Korea.
The ambition for Wales to be a small but clever country is a great one but turning it into reality will require the bravest of leadership.
In identifying what holds back our children in school, it is likely we will also discover what holds them back in life, what dilutes their confidence, their ambition, their happiness.
This extra-long five-year Assembly term lessens the pressure to scramble for a quick-fix solution in time for the next election. This is an epic mission which deserves an Ennio Morricone soundtrack that, we hope, will culminate in the sounds of celebration.
A Thursday column
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