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Andrew RT Davies hits back at Tory ‘scum’ comments

03 Oct 2021 3 minute read
First Minister Mark Drakeford and Andrew RT Davies. Pictures by Senedd Cymru (CC BY 2.0).

The leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd Andrew RT Davies MS has condemned the Labour party for using unpleasant and dehumanising language.

Writing in The Sunday Times today he said: “Labour need to drop the nastiness, spend less time talking about the constitution, and work with others to deliver on the people’s priorities: jobs, NHS and education.”

Referring to comments made by Angela Rayner at the Labour party conference, he went on: “Over the past seven days we’ve seen a nasty side to Labour and one which isn’t fit for office let alone the challenge ahead. Rather than contributing to political debates in a sensible manner, they resort to vile insults.

“Calling people who vote for a party you disagree with ‘scum’ is not regional slang, as Angela Rayner, Labour’s Deputy Leader since tried to claim.

“People in politics must be able to see their opponents as human. If you dehumanise people, you justify all kinds of unpleasantness. You only need to scratch the surface of history to see how that can manifest itself.

“Just because you feel passionately about something does not make people you disagree with bad. If you see so many people in this country as ‘scum’ purely based on their political beliefs, you probably aren’t the right sort of person or party to be leading our country.”

Claiming that First Minister Mark Drakeford was calling for better intergovernmental relations on the one hand but being unwilling to play his part on the other, Mr Davies went on to say:

“He makes statements calling on the UK Government to cooperate and work with him on his priorities, yet at the same time labels the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as ‘awful’. It has echoes of Rayner’s grim sentiments, and the public deserves better.

Grievance agenda

“And let’s not forget that over half a million people in Wales voted for Boris Johnson at the last general election.

“In fact, more people voted for the Prime Minister in Wales in 2019 than voted for Mark Drakeford in this year’s Senedd election, so labelling Conservatives’ ‘scum’ risks alienating a lot of the people Labour in Wales supposedly represent.

“In politics, you don’t just represent the people who vote for you, you must represent everyone. The approach now characteristic of Labour, whereby you call your opponents ‘scum’, divides people when we need to be working together.

“Ministers in Cardiff Bay shouldn’t have time to fight a grievance agenda on political powers and the intricacies of devolution, they need to be fighting tooth and nail for our people’s priorities.

“Rebuilding Wales after the challenges of the past eighteen months is a monumental task and one which needs us all to roll up our sleeves and work together.”


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j humphrys
j humphrys
3 years ago

I thought it was vermin?

Gareth Wyn Jones
Gareth Wyn Jones
3 years ago
Reply to  j humphrys

“The tories are lower than vermin’” A Bevin

Mr Williams
Mr Williams
3 years ago

I don’t like that kind of mud slinging either, it’s unworthy of politicians in a modern democracy.

Will Andrew RT Davies also condemn those, including Michael Gove, who condescendingly referred to many of us as ‘remoaners’ while we were challenging his party about all their lies and broken promises after the Brexit referendum?

Mr Williams
Mr Williams
3 years ago
Reply to  Mr Williams

…. and also will he condemn those from the Vote Leave campaign who spread lies that Turkish people (our friends and allies in NATO, actually) were joining the EU and we’re posing a threat to us? Will he condemn that racism?

j humphrys
j humphrys
3 years ago
Reply to  Mr Williams

Very popular, too, as that got Brexit delivered, anti muslim feeling running high at the time, and you know very well why. Still is, only strict laws keep people quiet.
Also at time of my post three Labour MP’s are considering joining the Conservatives, so no chance of RT condemning anything as he feels fine.
Only thing to put the wind up his shirt tails is Independent Welsh Labour Party.

j humphrys
j humphrys
3 years ago
Reply to  j humphrys

Forgot to add, that “our friends and allies” have just negotiated a massive arms deal with Russia. Not that it’s any business of mine, but still……..

Mr Williams
Mr Williams
3 years ago
Reply to  Mr Williams

…. will he also condemn Boris Johnson’s description of gay men as ‘tank-topped b*mboys’ and Muslim ladies wearing a niqab as ‘letterboxes’?

Last edited 3 years ago by Mr Williams
Vaughan
Vaughan
3 years ago
Reply to  Mr Williams

No of course he won’t!

Mr Williams
Mr Williams
3 years ago
Reply to  Vaughan

Yes, didn’t think so.

Mr Williams
Mr Williams
3 years ago
Reply to  Mr Williams

…. or Boris Johnson’s racist descriptions of African people as ‘piccaninnies’ with ‘watermelon smiles’
or all of Boris Johnson’s many sexist remarks towards and about women?

Last edited 3 years ago by Mr Williams
Argol Fawr
Argol Fawr
3 years ago

While I wouldn’t resort to using Rayner’s limited vocab to describe the tories, having just read the Guardian’s transcribed Q&A’s between Andrew Marr and Johnston, the Welsh First minister’s description of the prime minister is clearly too mild and understated.

arthur owen
3 years ago
Reply to  Argol Fawr

I don’t think Ms Rayner’s vocabulary is limited,rather it is forensically accurate.

Mark
Mark
3 years ago

But the tories have spent their entire existence dehumanising groups of people, it’s their MO. I think Davies should wind his neck in.

hdavies15
hdavies15
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark

He hasn’t got much of a neck, and not a lot in the top 2″ of his head either.

Mark Hoffer
Mark Hoffer
3 years ago

Half a million voted for the haystack ?
I didn’t realise he stood in a Welsh constituency.

GW Atkinson
GW Atkinson
3 years ago

Actions speak louder than words and the tory scums actions show me they are scum.

Gareth
Gareth
3 years ago

Will this signal the end of his name calling on his Twitter account?

Erisian
Erisian
3 years ago

Scum is an unpleasant term, but i think what’s realy bugging ARTD is that it is normaly reserved for those at the bottom of the economic / educational pile.
I see no reason it should not be applied to the outwardly successful, the selfsatisfied, the selfish and the heartless who represent a sort of humanitarian scum.

Barry Pandy
Barry Pandy
3 years ago
Reply to  Erisian

Don’t forget that scum float to the top.

Huw Davies
Huw Davies
3 years ago
Reply to  Barry Pandy

I was about to say that scum, like cream floats to the top. In theory Boris Johnson is the cream of society. However, his recent comments about cancer survival rates and life expectancy would suggest he isn’t the cream at all. So perhaps, in Boris’s case, Rayner has a point. I wouldn’t generalise her opinion to all Conservatives, mind. I do know some ‘tidy’ ones!

Last edited 3 years ago by Huw Davies
Barry Pandy
Barry Pandy
3 years ago
Reply to  Huw Davies

I think non-scum Tories are like the Thylacien, there might be one out there but no-one has been able to confirm it.

GW Atkinson
GW Atkinson
3 years ago

Maybe the reason Drakeford got less votes in the Senedd elections is because we have a better democracy and more than only 2 parties for us to vote for. Westminster elections are a joke, they have fptp, an unelected house of lords and an unelected head of state while the government of the day controls the bbc and is in bed with the far right press. Plus we get the government we vote for in the Senedd elections unlike in Westminster where its just Englands choice.

Ryan Hopkins
Ryan Hopkins
3 years ago

Big words coming from the party that wants to criminalise the RNLI saving people and trying to actively suppress voters…

Shan Morgain
3 years ago

FIRST when Tories are called ‘scum’ and ‘vermin’ (traditional language about them) it means those at the top like RT davies, Johnson & Co. It doesn’t mean ordinary Tory voters who can be decent folk. So RT Davies is trying to drum up indignation, falsely. /// ….. SECOND those who deliberately starve children, and leave people to die unnecessarily of cold, ginger, despair and disease – such people are scum. No they are not ‘dehumanised’ they’re simply called out for what they are./// …… THIRD Johnson is a lying, lazy, greedy fraud. There’s a(long list of evidence not hard to… Read more »

Shan Morgain
3 years ago
Reply to  Shan Morgain

cold, hunger, despair and disease EDIT

Claude Zulle
Claude Zulle
3 years ago
Reply to  Shan Morgain

“who deliberately starve children, and leave people to die unnecessarily of cold, ginger, despair and disease”

I take it you didn’t see the Senedd voting records of those members who voted against extending free school meals and their political persuasion?

j humphrys
j humphrys
3 years ago
Reply to  Claude Zulle

This “free school meals” – business is a pain my bum. Every child in school should get a decent lunch, free! Toddlers in pre school should also have breakfast, say porridge or choc pudding, as their Mom’s have to work.
Aids the learning process. This is the way in Sweden, Finland and others.

j humphrys
j humphrys
3 years ago
Reply to  j humphrys

I am not a Lefty btw. I want us to be a nation of entrepreneurs, and that begins age five!

Steve Duggan
Steve Duggan
3 years ago

Well Davies, your party does not do itself any favours does it. If you want people to stop constantly deriding your party get it to finally start looking after the poorest in our society instead of the richest.

Cai Wogan Jones
Cai Wogan Jones
3 years ago

I am disgusted by many of the policies of the current Westminster government. However, Angela Rayner’s comments were idiotic and totally counter-productive. Let’s win the arguments from the moral high ground based on reason and care for our communities. Not trading insults.

Grayham Jones
3 years ago

We in wales have got to stop being little Englanders and be proud to be welsh kick all English party’s out of wales that’s the Tories Labour and all Brexit party’s it’s time for a new wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 start fighting for your children and grandchildren future in wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

George
George
3 years ago

I agree with RT Davies that one should avoid dehumanising those they disagree with, and therefore should be careful about the language they use, but on multiple occasions the Tory government has previously dehumanised people with their actions and therefore their behaviour is scum-like.

Labour need to be smarter in how they attract voters especially as many doubt whether they can run a serious government.

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
3 years ago

The Tories are quite delicate blooms these days. I suggest Andrew RT Davies toughen up a bit or he’ll wilt like the weed he is. I can remember the days when the Tories used to refer to the unemployed in the very coal communities they put on the scrap heap in the 80s, as workshy shirkers who should work for their benefits by pulling up weeds on verges. You’d swear they were criminals rather than unemployed, although saying that, to be poor is a crime to most crooked second home flipping expenses fiddling naturally corrupt Conservative politicians #YesCymru 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿;#Ymlaen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿… Read more »

Last edited 3 years ago by Y Cymro
Erisian
Erisian
3 years ago

Apparently we are not permitted to comment about
https://nation.cymru/news/company-which-employs-alun-cairns-handed-two-uk-gov-nhs-contracts-without-competition/
Presumably for fear of what we might say about apparent corruption and croneyism

Wrexhamian
Wrexhamian
3 years ago
Reply to  Erisian

Nation.Cymru quite rightly don’t want to find themselves on the business end of a lawsuit from Big Alun or his company. Hence their insistence that “There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by the MP or the company.” Well, no evidence of it,anyway…

Gareth Wyn Jones
Gareth Wyn Jones
3 years ago
Reply to  Wrexhamian

Does he appear in the Panama papers? Only a matter of time

Gareth Wyn Jones
Gareth Wyn Jones
3 years ago
Reply to  Erisian

Comment was open when the article was published I commented and tweeted with my own title ‘Conservative crony corruption in open sight’

Him
Him
3 years ago

When I worked in a kitchen and boiled bones, it was obvious that scum floated to the top.

Politics is similar.

Quornby
Quornby
3 years ago

Tory voters are not scum.. they are victims like the rest of us. Tory politicians however really are scum.

Sion Cwilt
Sion Cwilt
3 years ago
Reply to  Quornby

Really? It’s Tory voters who enable Tory governments, and as they’re all adults over the age of 18 one presumes they know what they’re doing, and understand that they’re voting for the truly vile.

There is such a thing as taking responsibility.

Wrexhamian
Wrexhamian
3 years ago
Reply to  Quornby

Their voters are neither scum nor victims, surely?.

Gareth Wyn Jones
Gareth Wyn Jones
3 years ago

Is starving a kid to save a quid a scummy thing to do?

Quornby
Quornby
2 years ago

Don’t call us nasty names says Tory scum.

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