Last Friday I was invited to appear on the Radio 4 programme, Any Questions?, presented by Jonathan Dimbleby. I have done it a few times before, and it has the entirely justified reputation of being pretty terrifying. It goes out live on air, and you don’t get to see the questions in advance.
But I never miss an opportunity to get Herefordshire in the news, and the other guests included Carwyn Jones, the leader of the Welsh Assembly. As it happens I have a series of bones to pick with Mr Jones (if you’ll excuse the rhyme), ranging from the bad effects of his Buying Welsh policy, which cuts out Herefordshire businesses, to his total lack of leadership in helping 3,500 of my constituents who live in England but are being forced to use the Welsh NHS against their will, and further costing Hereford Hospital to boot.
So I said Yes to the BBC. But as I drove down on Friday evening to the venue in Chepstow, I was seriously doubting the wisdom of this decision.
Instead we got Peter Hain, plus Kirsty Williams and Neil Hamilton. Not the same thing at all. But I made my point even so: the Welsh are getting a bad deal in healthcare, and it’s an absolute scandal that their leaders are forcing my constituents, and our Hospital, to help pay for it.