Thursday, November 30, 2006

Lord Roberts of Conwy - Greatest living Welshman

Just catching up with last night's awards at the ITV 'Oscars' ceremoney in Cardiff. Congrats to my colleague, Jonathon Morgan on his AM of the Year oscar and I cannot really argue with the others - except that I would have liked to have seen Lord Roberts of Conwy winning the Lifetime Acheivement Award. I fully accept that Neil Kinnock has risen to high office but I'm not so sure about actual 'acheivement'. After all he was the Labour leader who so spectacularly snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory in 1992 with an ill-judged pre-victory parade at Sheffield. And he was the EU Commissioner charged with cleaning up EU Commission politics only to have the Commission accounts qualified every year he was there. But I suppose he is a terrific entertainer and he made the Labour Party electable. I have always had a tad of sympathy for the unkindly named 'Welsh Windbag' because, in some ways his effort deserved victory in the 1992 Election. And, with hindsight, I think the Conservatives might have been better off if we had lost that one.

Lord Roberts of Conwy did not win the high office that many of us thought he deserved - but he did acheive, big-time. Wyn did more to turn around the decline in the Welsh Language than any other person alive today. Now that's acheivement. But we do live in an age when the ability to generate publicity is more highly regarded than actual delivery. Anyway I don't want to be too churlish. It is probably my political prejudice that is influencing my opinion.

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