THE WHY? RATHER THAN THE WHAT?

Monmouth's Tory MP, aka the Poster Boy of the increasingly out of touch Tory rabid right in South East Wales has been in the news again - being attacked by he would call the usual suspects - over some allegedly chance remarks about rape sentencing and ethnic minorities. Rather than joining in the media frenzy, and putting the well deserved boot in for all it's worth, I think that a brief examination of the WHY rather than the WHAT? would prove more useful.

Poster Boy at one time had an exceptionally high media profile, when as an AM, as one out of sixty, he worked the local, regional and national news in Wales very, very hard, with outrageous, very carefully worded (and I will come back to that) but, allegedly misunderstood statements and points of view that were guaranteed to provoke a degree of anger from what might be called the usual suspects. This worked fine, from his point of view when in the National Assembly, whatever the levels of irritation it might have provoked within Tory circles in Wales, if that's not a contradiction in terms.

The transition to the Westminster arena has proved to be less than kind, when not serving faithfully and dutifully as a hard working special constable for the British Transport Police in London, Poster Boy could be found throwing in his opinion and thoughts on a variety of debates and specific committees within Westminster.

From being a strong local voice for Monmouth in a National Assembly based in Cardiff, Poster Boy is now one of many, with a resultant much lower media profile, within Wales and within his own constituency - which has been noted by many people. Now this may be a result of Conservative Central Offices standard operating procedure with fresh Tory lobby fodder i.e. sit down, shut up, don't rock the boat and vote how and when you are told or it may not.

Either way, where Poster Boy wants to be and where Poster Boy wants to go, especially with, if the Conservatives win power and redraw the constituency boundaries in Wales to reduce the number of Welsh MP's by 10, is open to question. Certainly he finds the higher status of the Home Affairs Select Committee far more appealing than the Welsh Affairs Select Committee, where his poor attendance has been noted, with a bare 5 out of 44 appearances - so much for that strong voice for Monmouth in Westminster.

In the longer term, perhaps a nice safe Tory seat over the border may prove more appealing and much safer electorally. Perhaps not, if he keeps opening his mouth and sounding off - even Conservative Central Office which is not necessarily renowned for having limitless patience, may lose its cool with Poster Boy's musings.

I for one, don't believe for one moment that Poster Boy's sounding are off the cuff, or ill-thought out musings. They are very well thought out, carefully crafted and designed to achieve one thing and one thing only - raising Poster Boy's media profile. Poster Boy is not dull, he may not be the shiniest spanner in the toolbox, and is certainly not very subtle, but he is very effective. It is the oxygen of publicity, to lift a phrase from Mrs Thatcher, that Poster Boy craves and desires, which the usual suspects usually give him on a plate.

It works this way, Poster Boy picks something up, sounds off after carefully crafting his prose, sometimes this is picked up straight away, and then all hell breaks lose amongst the usual suspects, and then this is turn is picked up by the media. Poster Boy, having enjoyed a splash of publicity, then rewords what was originally said to state that he had been misunderstood, misquoted, etc - this usually rekindles the frenzy amongst the usual suspects and Poster Boy gets a second bite of the cherry and even, more coverage in the media.

I am reminded by something a senior Conservative in the constituency, was overheard to say at the count in 2005, when said senior Tory muttered something about Poster Boy becoming a good solid Conservative MP, in about 20 years of so, when he matures. Somehow I don't think that Conservative Central Office will wait that long and suspect that Poster Boy's email bin probably contained some well worded, well crafted, well thought out emails from Conservative Central Office. I also suspect that much like Fu Man Chu in the old films, the world may yet hear again more of Poster Boy's well crafted, provocative and decidedly offensive musings in the future...