Mayor says stop bleating over Royal sheep cut-outs (From South Wales Guardian)

Mayor says stop bleating over Royal sheep cut-outs

10:00am Saturday 6th October 2012 in News

LLANDOVERY mayor Jill Blud has rallied to the defence of shopkeepers who displayed cut-outs depicting the Royal Family as a flock of sheep in the run-up to last weekend’s Llandovery Sheep Festival.

Irate pensioner Terry Leyman had previously sparked a storm by claiming that the cut-outs, with faces of the Royals attached, were “disrespectful”.

But Cllr Blud told the Guardian she was “quite relaxed” about the cut-outs – and argued traders deserved “a pat on the back” for supporting the festival.

“I think these caricatures are wonderful,” she said.

“They’re no different to cartoons as far as I’mconcerned.

“These cut-outs are on people’s private property so there’s not a lot we could do about it even if we wanted to.

Maybe some people are getting a little over-sensitive because it’s the Diamond Jubilee year?

“We had someone complaining that we didn’t put up enough Welsh flags to mark the Jubilee. To me, these sheep cut-outs are less of an issue than that was.”

But Mr Leyman remained unrepentant and maintained his comments had received considerable support.

“I’m obviously not speaking for the entire town, but a fair number of people have found this disrespectful,” he said.

The former Llandovery town clerk, who reported the matter to police, was particularly incensed by a cut-out depicting the Queen displayed at Davies Newsagents in Stone Street.

“I wouldn’t say I’m an ardent Royalist, but I just found that so degrading,” he said. “It’s just not the image Llandovery should be putting out to tourists.”

Newsagent Martin Davies laughed off his comments, saying his customers had found the cut-outs amusing.