Lobbying the lobbyist
A hairy moment at Welsh Lib Dem Conference
SOMETIMES unexpected issues can overtake party conferences, can’t they? Well, that’s how it felt to me at Welsh Liberal Democrat Conference this weekend in Swansea.
I have grown beards a few times before and did so again over recess. But, on a whim, last Monday I removed the bottom portion. The moustache that remained was one of the big unexpected talking points of Conference. Or at least that’s how it felt to me. Everyone had to have an opinion. Some couched it in compliment. One person just laughed in my face. Luckily he was a friend, so I won’t name him here. But pretty much everyone felt licence to express their views.
And it wasn’t just confined to those actually present at conference. Yesterday morning I did some political commentary on S4/C and as soon as I was finished I was inundated with texts, emails and Twitter DMs expressing views that on my appearance. One of my jocular colleagues in the studio suggested that the volume of responses received was a helpful scientific tool in determining audience size for a political programme on a Saturday morning. A particularly harsh critic suggested that I looked like a young Elfyn Llwyd. Another directed me to a song they had performed on about moustaches and mistakes. The consensus was that the fur had to go.
But oh no, the fun did not end there. Later that afternoon I took part in BBC coverage of the Conference and the moustache came up as an issue on air. Just when I thought my heart could sink no lower, I came off the sofa to find three of the Beeb’s finest donning fake appendages above their lips. The photographic proof appears above.
Being a good sport, I joined the photo. It is an important visual record of a moustache that has now gone.
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Ah, so the power of the people still has some sway in Welsh political life then..
To Joe,
“power of the people” will be a key theme running through the manifesto in the forthcoming general election.
Go Compare…..
The Song is called ‘Mistec yw Mwstash’ by the great former Welsh band Gilespi. You can buy the record from Dockrad music label…….! The best line is ‘I’d rather have cats hairs in my bath than a man with a moustache’, but I won’t give you all the lyrics now as it will spoil the song (it’s in Welsh by the by) when you hear it.
Excellent. Assembly Members are now not just lobbying me, they are using my interests as a bridge to promote their own financial interests.
You have an interest in moustaches?
Go make up you own mind, readers…
BTW, you look like a past-his-prime South American dictator.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=863740120#!/photo.php?pid=7319369&id=863740120
Of course he is not the only WH contributor partial to a moustache
I did look like a past-his-prime South American dictator. I now look like a man unable to sport any significant hair on any part of his head.
Holywood Moustache Appreciation Society 2010
From Right: Wilford Brimley (Cocoon), John Astin (The Addams Family), Derek Smalls (Spinal Tap) and Daniel Day Lewis (Gangs of New York).