Just where will Mr Smith be on Saturday?
So there are just three days to go before we find out who the leader of the Labour party is going to be for the foreseeable future – well, the next few months anyway.
The result will be announced at 11.45 on Saturday 24th in Liverpool at the Labour party conference. Presumably Mr Smith will be absent from the proceedings, and in the unlikely event he wins will be seen accepting his reward and giving his first speech as leader via a satellite link from Pontypridd. Of course it will save him having to put on a brave front if he loses.
What leads us to that conclusion? Why Owen's own words of course, from the article in which he also announced he had "pulled" his wife despite substantial competition.
"On that first Saturday I'll be watching the Pontypridd home game," he laughs.
"I've already checked the match timetable! But even if I win I'll still be going to watch my eldest play rugby and do all the normal family stuff we do at weekends.
"Too many politicians are just politicians. I'm not someone who has spent the last six years wining and dining journalists. I've been returning to where I live and where Liz and the family are. I think voters want politicians who are a bit more rooted."
Laudable thoughts indeed and I am sure there are some who would welcome him to Sardis Road on Saturday for what is bound to be a big crowd as Ponty take on Merthyr. The game kicks off at 2.30, less than three hours after the leadership announcement – in Liverpool.
So you see his predicament – unless he has a helicopter standing by he is not going to be able to attend the announcement, stay for the speeches or whatever follow up there is, and get to Pontypridd by 2.30. Therefore, being a man who surely means what he says, one can only conclude that he will not be in Liverpool at midday on Saturday.
Now no doubt there are lots of people who may think we are just being 'picky' and looking for fault, but surely this sort of nonsense, these little statements to make him appear, in his words, "normal" says everything about the type of man he is. He says what he thinks people want to hear, what he believes will endear him to people. There is no honesty.
If you are at Sardis on Saturday keep a look out. Alternatively tune into the Labour party conference and see where the Ponty MP is.
