WHAT A tumultuous week it has been since Badger put paw to keyboard for his last article. That nice Mr Bryn Parry Jones has been packed off to his Llangwarren stronghold, there to lend his garden and plot hideous revenge. I am sure that you will be shocked to learn, readers, that there is little doubt that Beloved Chief Bryn’s period of absence was not the result of any sudden moral impulse on the part of the Council’s IPPG leader Jamie Adams. No, leaders: Jamie is not a man given to sudden sentiment or hi-falutin’ principle when it comes to matters political and administrative. Jamie will have made his judgement on political grounds. And that, readers, as far as Badger is concerned, is nothing for which Jamie needs to be ashamed. Badger has written before about politics being the art of the possible. And it is the persistent and disturbing series of public revelations about the CEO’s conduct that has made his “period of absence” not only possible but — to Jamie — positively desirable. “Politics” has become a dirty word. It has fallen almost as low in people’s estimation as politicians themselves. How often do you hear David Cameron or Ed Milliband deride each other for “playing politics” about one or another big issue of the day? It is as though even the leaders of political parties want to deny their own political natures and the manoeuvring and complex interrelationships that brought them to positions of power. Politics, readers, is not a game. Still less does it deserve to have any pejorative unpleasantness attached to it. Politics is, at heart, the way of behaving as a member of a group or a member of society. It is related to concepts such as politeness and the way in which we all interact with each other, whether in groups or as individuals. That

readers, is all “politics” of one sort or another. When Badger sees people complaining about there being “too much politics” or sees buffoons like Nigel Farage bounce up and decry politics as being inherently and fundamentally at odds with the interests of the people (whoever he thinks they are!), Badger cringes. The problem is not that there is too much politics but that there is not enough, readers. So when Badger sees Jamie Adams being criticised for making a political decision, it rather strikes Badger that the IPPG leader is being criticised for being a fish and swimming in the sea. That is not to say Badger in any way endorses the [PPG leader, still less the !PPG members. However, within the constraints of the County Council’s political and administrative system, it was necessary for Jamie to reach a decision that would accrue political advantage to him and to his group and he did. And advantage has flowed. Those members of the MPG prone to bitching and grumbling have been shown to be paper tigers. “Prepared to wound but not to strike”, as the saying goes. Over the last week there have been rumours of wars and unrest within the IPPO. People were said to be ringing round, expressing misgivings at the group’s closeness to Bryn and the choppiness of the waters in which they were sailing. All sorts of names were swirling around as being “concerned”. Having gazed into the future the MPG membership has, however, blinked. Recent events have concentrated their minds on the end of their journey on the gravy train. Let’s say you were an IPPO member, readers. Don’t worry, it’s only pretend. Let’s say you were getting not only your allowance but also remuneration for a committee post and a nice cosy appointment to an outside body that provided prestige, payment or both.

You have it pretty cosy where you are. Not exactly money for nothing, but an income that is not dependent on skills, training or even intelligence. Imagine being an MPG Councillor like Daphne Bush, for example. Now, imagine throwing all of that to the winds on a gamble. You do not need a penetrating intellect of the type Daphne possesses to think that you are better staying inside where it is warm and cosy, instead of venturing forth into uncertainty. And that, readers, is also a political decision. Not a very laudable one, certainly; but understandable and human. Because if the ranks of the opposition had been able to present a united and credible front and some sort of hope to potential IPPG defectors that they would not be cast out into the outer darkness or mocked for being Johnny-come-latelys to the cause of virtue, then the political decision to be made by IPPG members would have been and would continue to be that much harder. Badger has quite a lot of time for Councillor Bob Kilmister, leader of the Pembrokeshire Alliance. He at least has some vision for the future. But Bob’s difficulty is that since its launch the Alliance has not attracted a single new member on the Council. Even Stephen Joseph did not join them. The sentiment is good, the message sound, the ability to deliver remains in doubt. Labour leader Paul Miller is a polarising figure, even within his own party. He shows little sign or ability of being able to form the type of coalition necessary to oust the !PPG. Distracted, perhaps, by the prospect of fighting for Parliament within the next few months, he is possibly too tightly focused on the Paul Miller Project than leading an effective opposition. The Conservatives are a negligible force, demonstrably too close to the IPPG — which is, in reality, carrying out an agenda of semi-privatisation of services

and cost cutting which would be heartily endorsed by their own national party. The fact that the group managed to vote three separate ways on one vital issue is evidence that they are less of a party than a loose gathering. There are notable individual voices on the Council, who cling to the principle that it is the duty of an opposition to hold the executive to effective account. It is tragic for Pembrokeshire that the most able of those voices are unable to cohere around a uniting set of principles and offer a real alternative for Pembrokeshire’s electors. To some of those, but by no means all, Badger suggests that high personal principle is all very well, but some low political calculation would serve Pembrokeshire better. It is into the gap the opposition have left to him that Jamie Adams and the WPC have stepped. Jamie Adams, the man whose party ostensibly was formed as a reaction to party politics, has shown that in the jungle at PCC, and in the present circumstances, he is the most political animal of all.