Stopped by police with a lorry full of sheep – and no trousers
From being caught driving in their pants to dog attacks, bouncy castles, and blue movies, politicians have revealed to Political Editor David Williamson the most cringeworthy experiences they’ve had...
MANY perils face the men and women across Wales who decide to stand for election.
They don’t just face the prospect of exhaustion after knocking on every door in the constituency – there is the likelihood of unforgettable moments of embarrassment.
Back in 2010 Jonathan Edwards had high hopes of winning Carmarthenshire East and Dinefwr for Plaid Cymru.
When in Pen-y-banc he chatted with the area’s former Labour MP Alan Williams and then tripped, fell flat on his face, and damaged the ligaments in his ankle.
He couldn’t move and had to be taken to hospital, where his leg was put in a plaster cast.
That was painful and embarrassing enough, but he was soon out on the campaign trail again in Pontargothi – and more mayhem awaited when he started a conversation with an elderly lady.
He said: “Standing by the old lady was a sheepdog, quiet as a mouse. And when I got up to leave the dog pounced on me and bit through my suit and punctured my leg just under the knee.
“There was quite a big gash in my leg and therefore I obviously had to go to hospital again. So I turned up in A&E and exactly the same doctor who saw me the first time saw me again...
“When people say that politics is bad for your health, I can say that with some justification.”
■ Former Mid and West Wales Conservative AM Glyn Davies now laughs about how he became an international media sensation in 1999 when he was stopped by police while driving a lorry-load of sheep without wearing any trousers – but it didn’t seem funny at the time.
The farmer-turned-politician had slipped in slurry, but he decided there wasn’t time to change.
“I had to be at the abattoir before it was dark,” he said. “I didn’t have time so I just took my trousers off and carried on.”
Police spotted a faulty tail light and stopped him. He clambered out wearing, as he put it at the time, “only my wellies, jumper and underpants”.
The story found its way into the press and he feared his political career was “done for”.
He said: “I was sitting in my office at six o’clock at night and I think the Daily Mail rang me first... Every other newspaper in the country was on the phone.
“Friends of mine rang from Australia because it was in [a Queensland paper]; somebody else saw it in America; it was all over the world.”
Then Tory leader William Hague laughed off the incident and Mr Davies went on to take the Westminster seat of Montgomeryshire from the Lib Dems’ Lembit Opik in 2010.
Looking back he said: “It became absolutely a monster story and at the end of the year I received the Assembly award for self-promotion.”
■ Then-Llanelli Plaid AM Helen Mary Jones was mortified in the summer of 1999 when she turned up at a village fete and found a line of angry children who had not been allowed on the bouncy castle and had been waiting for 45 minutes for her to arrive and declare the event open.
She said: “They’d asked me to open it and I said ‘I can’t promise to open it but I will come along and say hello to everybody’. So I turned up about three-quarters of an hour after proceedings were supposed to have started to find a whole crowd of people and nothing happening.
“There was a rope stopping the children getting on the bouncy castle; absolutely nothing was going on because they had thought that I was coming to open it and that I would be offended if they got on with things without me...
“The absolute worst bit was this sort of great queue of under-eightyear-old children really growling at me with their eyes because they were desperate to get on the bouncy castle... I was absolutely mortified.
“From that time on I went to being incredibly obsessive about my diary, literally dividing things into 15-minute slots so that I never again would have to face a group of really grumpy young children and toddlers who were waiting for me to cut the ribbon before they can get on their bouncy castle.”
■ Swansea East Labour MP Carolyn Harris still remembers a cringeinducing moment when she was out canvassing with now-Aberavon MP Stephen Kinnock.
She said: “We were walking past some houses and [there was] a very large picture window with no blinds and a chap was watching a blue film in the middle of the afternoon. And as we noticed this I saw Stephen Kinnock just knocking his front door and the guy opened it – and I tried to say to Stephen ‘Don’t knock!’ but it was too late.”
Ms Harris has also encountered moments of startling generosity when door-knocking.
She said: “I was out campaigning [and] was knocking doors in Penlan. There was a family sitting outside and the woman had a lovely black jacket on and I say: ‘Oh, I do like your jacket.’ She said: ‘I’ve got two of them,’ and she went inside and gave me her spare, which I wore on Sharp End that night.”
■ Caerphilly Labour MP Wayne David has been literally hounded during successive election campaigns.
“I’ve had over the years numerous dog bites,” he said. “The worst ones are terriers because they wait until you have delivered your leaflet and are walking down the garden path and they come up behind you and bite the back of your leg.
“My advice to canvassers is always look behind you when you’ve delivered your leaflet. You have to get a tetanus jab.
“In fact, I was bitten by an Alsatian on one occasion. I’ve still got the indentations in the side of my thigh.
“He came at me from behind and he wouldn’t let go... I’ve had more tetanus injections than I’ve had hot dinners, I can tell you.”