Minister hoping for year of two halves

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Lord Bourne, Stephen Crabb and Alun CairnsImage source, Wales Office
Image caption,

Wales Office Minister Lord Bourne with colleagues Stephen Crabb and Alun Cairns

A trivia question for my last post before Christmas. What's the most surprising story of 2015? David Cameron's majority? Possibly. Jeremy Corbyn's landslide? Probably.

How about Leicester City's rise from the bottom of the Barclays Premier League to the top? The Foxes' success is being keenly watched in the Wales Office, where Minister Nick Bourne can claim to be a long-term fan.

The former Welsh Conservative leader, appointed a minister after the general election, used to stand on the terraces in their former ground of Filbert Street and was at Wembley in 1969 to see the club lose the FA Cup final to Manchester City.

With Leicester two points clear of second-place Arsenal, he said: "It looks like they're going to avoid relegation which is the very good news because that wasn't obvious at the beginning of the year."

Asked whether he'd rather see the Tories win next year's Welsh general election or Leicester win the league, he joked: "A tough one. A double would be great - go for the double!"

You can hear Lord Bourne's thoughts about rather more serious matters - alongside those of Liberal Democrat Mark Williams, Labour's Nia Griffith and Liz Saville Roberts of Plaid Cymru - in my review of 2015 which is scheduled to be broadcast during the holiday period. Merry Christmas.