Welsh Assembly pee and prattle
Thursday, October 19, 2006
I wandered over to the Welsh assembly yesterday.
The main chamber is situated beneath the public gallery, where the plebs can peer down through glass panels.
Some of the assembly members prattle on about budget deficits and fishing quotas. But the majority of them stare blankly into their computer screens.
Occasionally the debate will switch into Welsh, at which point those that can be bothered reach for their earpieces, which are wired into their desks.
They look like automatons docking for recharge.
There's constant movement down below. I'm not sure what's in the water, but one buxom Labour AM seems to be doing laps of the chamber. Many more go for loo breaks. Some don't come back.
First minister Rhodri Morgan turns up for the commemorative statement on the Aberfan disaster before he buggers off for the rest of the session. He's late for something else presumably.
Meanwhile, AMs patter on their keyboards. The technologically competent are happily touch-typing. But a surprising amount of them use the one finger approach. Every cautious stab and puzzled squint at the monitor is an indication of how out of touch these people seem to be.
But the Assembly isn't without its prolific bloggers. Indeed two of them are engaged in a blog war as the chamber sits.
On Tuesday, Peter Black and Leighton Andrews fought a semantic battle about the rights and wrongs of each other's blogging agenda.
They didn't grasp that the biggest wrong was that they were having this discussion on our time.
I'd like to think that we're paying politicians to do more than surf the web and escape to the toilet when they are supposed to be representing us.
At least the presiding officer stayed in his seat. But then, he was probably asleep.
Labels: bilingualism, blogs, Welsh Assembly
posted by Blamerbell @ 10:58 am,
