Lively Tory guest crosses a line

By Adrian Browne Political reporter

Alun Cairns has faced huge criticism for the comments

With just minutes to go on a live discussion programme, Tory AM Alun Cairns uttered two words he'll regret for a very long time.

Sharp, enthusiastic, funny, good company - Mr Cairns is a politician producers like to put on the air.

Relaxed in the studio, he enjoys himself, speaks like a human being and is always worth a listen, something you can't say for every politician.

Discussing who to support in Euro 2008 on the Welsh language radio programme, Dau o'r Bae on BBC Radio Cymru, a panellist said she'd written "nice food" next to Italy.

Alun Cairns interjected saying he'd written "greasy wops". Awkward laughter followed before presenter Vaughan Roderick asked him if he'd like to apologise, which he did.

It quickly dawned on Mr Cairns that he'd crossed a line, and the story was splashed in the Western Mail on Saturday by the paper's political editor Tomos Livingstone, who just happened to be on the same programme.

By now the Conservative Party was in damage limitation mode, as Labour MPs demanded Mr Cairns' scalp.

Former Europe minister Denis MacShane MP said: "xenophobic language against Italians is the same as other racism."

There was moral support from Labour MP Paul Flynn.

"The witch-hunt against Alun Cairns has deteriorated into a salivating lynch-mob" he wrote on his blog.

Mr Flynn described the comments as "stupid" but not a "hanging offence".

Elsewhere in the blog, the Newport West MP recounts how he himself "appears on the show regularly" and feels "entirely uninhibited" about what he says.

Tory HQ would have liked Mr Cairns to have been a good deal more inhibited on last Friday's programme.

A news release announced Mr Cairns had resigned as the party's education spokesman and chair of the Welsh assembly's finance committee.

He was later suspended as Tory general election candidate for the Vale of Glamorgan whilst an investigation is held by party chairman Caroline Spelman.

In an effort to avoid giving the story further publicity, the party was putting no-one up for interview on Monday, simply issuing a written statement later on who would take over Mr Cairns' jobs in Cardiff Bay.

It will leave Alun Cairns with some extra time to reflect.

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the comments nearly everyone seems to accept they were unwise.

Producers of, and no doubt many listeners to, political programmes in Wales will be hoping the incident does not result in a renewed bout of "media training" by political parties.

With so many voters switching off from mainstream politics, further efforts to make our elected representatives stay "on message" at all times risk smothering what remains of spontaneity in our public life.

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