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Mario Cuomo and the Welsh general election

David Cornock | 11:20 UK time, Wednesday, 27 April 2011

It was the American politician Mario Cuomo who said: "You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose".

Mr Cuomo never had the pleasure of a Welsh assembly election campaign or he might have had to rethink his analysis.

It's hard to think of any poet whose vocabulary would include words such as "ring-fence", "capital" or "revenue", terms with which our politicians are all too familiar. And too few words rhyme with "doorstep", although I'm ruling nothing in and nothing out, as they say..

Campaigning in cliches might be a more appropriate phrase for political parties who declare in their manifestos they are "not afraid to roll up their sleeves" and "will never be afraid to rest on their laurels".

The absence of poetry may be one reason why this election campaign feels flat, an atmosphere not helped by the stop-start public holiday weeks.

Strategies are a bit last year in Welsh politics but one party is proposing them for shopkeepers, seaside towns and even religious heritage. It sounds like a strategy for strategies.

Two parties are promising a "happier" Wales. The others aren't promising to make us more miserable; it's just that the happiness agenda doesn't appear in their manifestos.

Some policies are more long-term than others. I suspect even I won't be around to report on whether bilingualism has been delivered by 2051.

I've avoided attributing any of the policies above as I'd hate to disappoint those of you who've yet to read every manifesto.

If that challenge proves resistable, you could always start with my colleague Daniel Davies's policy poker here.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    It least with Mr. Cuomo you get a sense of style. What do we get? Certainly not poetry, more like delusional platitudes, as for the 'prose' it will be in a fog of procrastination.

  • Comment number 2.

    I am sure that the poetry of tonight will, as it translates to prose during the next few years, will be lost in translation ........

  • Comment number 3.

    Yes, indeed, post 01 @ 09:42am on 02 May 2011 - 'RW49'. Can't disagree with your comment. Furthermore, as our politics are becoming more 'Americanised' it appears that fibs will be delivered by more expensive suits and more personal grooming at the expense of the tax-payer to keep their cushy places - Mr Hain comes to mind - but there are others too?

    Well, I don't want to complain, but are our MEPs doing enough to earn their fabulous salaries and expenses either? I don't know - but it's not good enough for politicians to talk when they mostly earn more in a month, plus expenses (just getting to and from work), than most working people earn in a year?

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