RHODRI MISSES THE BEAT AGAIN!

Sunday, March 26 2006
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THIS column has long been proud to officially hold the title Last With All The News That Matters. And this week it surpasses itself yet again with a piece of news exactly - drum roll please - two weeks old!
But - as it’s about First Minister Rhodri Morgan making a public buffoon of himself, and really we don’t get anywhere near enough of those - it was worth putting in anyway.
The cultured among you may be aware that, earlier this month, celebrated conductor Karl Jenkins led the Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of The Armed Man - which is, apparently, his “deeply moving choral masterpiece” - at the Wales Millennium Centre.
The whole point of the highbrow affair was to raise money for the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, hence the presence of Rhodri and the Assembly’s Presiding Officer, President Lord King Dafydd Elis-Thomas.
Except, during the first half, conducted by Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra’s Michael Bell, it became quickly obvious that Rhodri wasn’t there. They sought him here. They sought him there. But the elusive First Minister was nowhere to be seen.
The first half finished, and the band were gearing up for the second half when who should be literally running into the WMC, puffing and panting and clad in his shabby red jacket, was Rhodri. His excuse:
“I went to the St David’s Hall”.
Happily, he made it inside to see Roger Lewis, managing director of ITV Wales and formerly MD of Classic FM, give a moving introduction to the piece and publicly thank Rhodri and Emperor Elis-Thomas for turning up.
Still, it’s not like this kind of thing often happens to Rhodri.
It’s not like at the last Welsh Musician of the Year concert - also boasting the talents of the Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra - when he turned up late and was made to wait outside the concert hall until the first half had ended as it would have disturbed the musicians to let him in midway through.
And it’s completely unlike July 2004, when he turned up late to meet the Queen at the Royal Welsh Show because he was stuck in traffic.
It also bears no resemblance to the previous month, when he didn’t even turn up to D-Day commemorations in Normandy because he was discussing the 2010 Ryder Cup at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport...
Everybody knows the Assembly budget is tight, but it’s probably about time it stretched to a filofax for a First Minister who, lest we forget, is rapidly approaching 70...



SPECULATION last week that, in the event of Labour failing to win a majority in next year’s Assembly election, Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas, a Plaid member, could become First Minister in an opposition-led coalition.
It is suggested, although Tories would refuse to serve under Plaid leader Ieuan Wyn Jones, they might under President Lord King Elis Thomas - the First Minister being democratically elected by all AMs.
President Elis Thomas is, of course, a firm believer in democracy.
After suffering the ignominy earlier this year of having to actually face an opponent for his seat, Gwynedd councillor Liz Saville Roberts, a haughty Elis Thomas told the Caernarfon and Denbigh Herald: “I think that it was a waste of time and resources for Plaid Cymru to have held the hustings.”
The very thought that a Lord of the Realm might have to face a vote...



STRANGELY, despite it being the sole topic of conversation in saloon bars the length and breadth of the country, no High Street bookmaker appears to be taking bets on who the new chairman of the Arts Council of Wales is.
As such, and as the man who so accurately predicted Liam Fox to win last year’s Tory leadership race, I’m happy to give a few unofficial odds on the man or woman set to succeed Geraint Talfan Davies, who Alun Pugh has already appointed and is refusing to name.
Favourite at 2-1 on is former Plaid leader Dafydd Wigley, who, as you will know from recent press reports is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING and his slightest involvement in anything is guaranteed to make it a COMPLETE UNBRIDLED SUCCESS.
After that, at evens, is Culture Minister Alun Pugh himself taking the reins, while I’m offering 5-1 on Charlotte Church, 20-1 on Errol from Roland Rat, and Sir Clive Woodward at 80-1. It’s 100-1 bar those.



ON a completely unrelated note: while the rest of the Welsh Labour Party Conference in Swansea were gripped on Friday by the stream of meaningless verbs and nouns Peter Hain seemed to think constituted a speech, not everybody was so enraptured.
One Assembly cabinet minister spent the speech in the bar, seemingly having great fun and not even watching it on the TV.
I’d tell you who it was but, well, he doesn’t believe in naming names, so I’m not either.