Mr Bumble the Beadle appears in the Assembly.

There have been call for Carwyn Jones to consider sacking Local Government Secretary Alun Davies after he compared councillors to Oliver Twist.

Mr Davies AM for Blaneau Gwent  told a BBC radio debate that councillors should stop "complaining", prompting an angry response from the Welsh Local Government Association.

His remarks follow calls for more council cash ahead of planned real-terms cuts to local authority budgets.

Plaid Cymru said Mr Davies' remarks were in "poor taste".

Mr Davies said: "I've had a lot of councillors coming to me like Oliver Twists over the past few weeks - 'Can we have some more?'".

I t comes as no suprise to se Mr Davies compared to Mr Bumble the fictional character in the novel Oliver Twist (1837–39) by Charles Dickens. Mr. Bumble is the cruel, pompous and ignorant beadle of the workhouse where the orphaned Oliver is raised an arrogant man, who often speaks highly about his position in lording over the "ungrateful" poor, Bumbledom, named after him, characterizes the meddlesome self-importance of the petty bureaucrat. He also is an unlikely source of comic relief, in his mangling of the English language, as well as in his incompetence, and in the cowardice he displays in the face of anyone who stands up to him, even Oliver.

You can almost see this appearing in the letters page of Private Eye.

BBC Wales reports that 

Speaking on BBC Radio Cymru's Hawl i Holi, the minister said councillors agreed in private that the current system of 22 local authorities was unsustainable but were "unwilling to say that publicly".

The local government secretary told the programme: "Wales doesn't need 22 local authorities".

 Mr Davies said.

"I want to see change and I want this change to come from councils," he said.
"I've spoken to them privately many times where they've agreed that the current system is unsustainable, yet they're unwilling to say that publicly,"
"I've had enough of that and it has to change, so what I want to hear from councillors is no complaining."

Labour's Rob Stewart, Swansea council leader and one of the Welsh Local Government Association's two deputy leaders, said the first minister should

 "distance himself from the comments of the cabinet secretary and consider whether or not it is appropriate for him to remain in the cabinet in his current position."
"The cabinet secretary's reference to Oliver Twist reflects a lack of understanding of both English literature and local government," d.

"Is he seriously characterising himself as the 'Mr Bumble' of Welsh Government - the cruel overseer of the poorhouse?
"We make no apologies for asking for more resources from Welsh Government to save those services provided by hardworking teachers, youth workers, librarians and care workers that protect the communities of Wales."

 Dai Lloyd, local government spokesman for Plaid Cymru, called for Mr Davies to apologise.

He said:

"Comparing councillors to Oliver Twist - the starving orphan boy begging for gruel, is in incredibly poor taste and ironically makes himself look like the villainous master in the story."

The Welsh Conservatives' Mark Isherwood also compared the local government secretary to "Mr Bumble".

"Yet again the cabinet secretary puts himself in direct conflict with councils, and all he can do is patronise them,".

Of course Mr Bumble ended up sacked and reduced an poverty  forced to enterg the very workhouse he had  lorded over .

Whilst Mr Davies is unlikely to end up in this state, he should be sacked not only by the First Ministers but also by his constituents at the next election.