The Guardian finally realises Wales exists and...
Thursday, April 12, 2007
... in the very same utterance 'forgets' about us again.
"the Welsh election campaign has been almost completely ignored in England and has proved to be of limited interest even to voters allowed to take part in it."
Ignored, yes. By the Guardian and others, despite being the subject of today's leader.
"Talk of a Tory comeback suits Labour, which is encouraging it, fuelled by a recent poll putting the party in second place. Plaid, now in third, say that there is no chance of a deal."
No they don't.
"Wales has not found a united political identity."
They may be right there. But I guess we're working on it.
Labels: Guardian, leader, Welsh Assembly Election 2007
posted by Blamerbell @ 9:00 am,
10 Comments:
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At 10:12 am,
said...
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The Guardian is right to state that the election is of limited interest to most Welsh voters. 3 weeks and 2 weekends to go and not a poster or politician in sight in most parts of Wales. You can tell by the media coverage in Wales that most of the journalists are already bored. In most countries in Europe both regional TV and radio would run a regional election as the first item on the news in the run up to polling day. The coverage of Blair's visit with the crazy scene of Tamsin and Rhodri looking for voters in Milford Sound probably summed it all up.
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At 10:24 am,
Der said...
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Yes it's pretty sad really. Especially when compared to what is happening in Scotland. The assembly elections of the future will probably become of more interest to the Welsh electorate and further afield once the institution gains more powers and has more relevance to people's day to day live.
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At 12:06 pm,
Dr. Mark L. Woods said...
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What election?
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At 2:03 pm,
said...
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der said - "The assembly elections of the future will probably become of more interest to the Welsh electorate and further afield once the institution gains more powers and has more relevance to people's day to day live."
I can't agree with you on this. The Assembly already has so much influence on the lives of people living in Wales. Things that we rely on, such as the Health Service and Education, are now controlled from Cardiff Bay. However, I'm not sure how well communicated this is.
Unfortunately, many people just aren't interested in politics and most have no idea of the relevance of the Assembly to their daily lives. This was brought home to me during a discussion at my Local a couple of weeks ago. Of the 6 of us around a table, only myself and my Other Half planned to vote. We all have kids. We all use the health services (either personally or with a member of the family). We rely on Welsh jobs to pay the mortgage! All these things are impacted by the Assembly. Regardless, it was blank expressions around the table.
Until the Assembly manages to communicate it's role more effectively, people just aren't going to bother. The average person on the street doesn't buy the Western Mail or read political blogs, we're the odd ones in that regard! The Guardian's writers know that the real story of these elections is Scotland - and how quickly post-polls the current Prime Minister will fall on his sword. Why worry about place names you can neither spell nor pronounce when the real stories will be in Edinburgh and London! -
At 4:05 pm,
Che Grav-ara said...
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The coverage this election is getting is shocking. to be fair some local papers have taken it to quiz their constituency candidates and the Western mail is giving a fair bit of coverage but no more than it would to any other political day. As for the BBC you would never know theres and election on. I have some time for ITV because they are hosting a series of election debates with Wales Decides but then throwing Mai davies in with a screaming crowed for an hour close to midnight on thursday is still a far cry from serious election coverage. With flagship political shows like Question time and dragons eye set up you'd think that Wales would get some attention from the Beeb. Whats the point of a political unit if they are off limit during the election!
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At 4:34 pm,
david h jones said...
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The election and Wales will get no or minimal coverage until Plaid Cymru win seats.
If Plaid win seats things will be interesting because by winning seats Plaid shows there's a different political debate here.
Whilst Wales votes Labour Wales will be ignored. It's a case 'for Wales see England'. -
At 7:57 pm,
Blamerbell said...
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"The Guardian is right to state that the election is of limited interest to most Welsh voters."
I think it's incumbent upon us all to make sure that the Guardian is writing something very different in 2011.
And Che. I think you're being a little harsh. There are only so many stage-managed media stunts you can chuck into a news bulletin. -
At 11:12 pm,
said...
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The Guardian is talking out of its complacent metropolitan arse.
It's a fact that Wales doesn't have a single political identity but does England? Northern Labour, southern Tory, West Country liberal, inner cities ex-Labour now Lib Dem, BNP hovering in some of these areas. Doesn't sound like a single political identity. You could make the same points about Scotland or any other country.
It really bugs me that an entire country can be dismissed by these M25 fuckwits on the basis that we don't really know what's going on. Why not send a fecking reporter here - even for a day?
Given that 87% of Welsh people get their info from English based papers, the ignorance of the voter is no surprise - it just reflects the ignorance of the newspapers.
The TV and radio are another matter - the BBC has been criminally negligent in this election. -
At 10:27 am,
said...
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I think it's incumbent upon us all to make sure that the Guardian is writing something very different in 2011.
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At 10:30 am,
said...
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Sorry blamerbell....my posting above. I wanted to add....How do you think we should do this?
