Don't know, don't care
Saturday, April 28, 2007

Perhaps it's just because Cardiff City lost at home again. Or perhaps it's because I haven't been invited to any post-election parties yet... But I'm coming clean: this election is exciting nobody except those politicians and journos whose lives depend on it. There are others who are getting into the spirit, but their interest is the political equivalent of hanging around guiltily to watch a neighbour's house burn down.

Fair play to the Western Mail, they've given this election a right old bash. But their front page today - 'Election 2007: What you say'- should really have been followed by the line, 'Couldn't give a shit'.

The paper dedicated its first five pages to election coverage, headlining their exclusive poll. But time after time, the most voluminous answer came under 'Don't know/Don't care'.

And if we are really, truly and honestly talking about the 'reaction on the doorsteps', it is the same. I've had the privilege of going out with a few canvassers and watching/producing an awful lot of vox pops and debate programmes. The overwhelming reaction is that assembly members are simply not worth their £50,000 a year.

With just a few days left until the polls, I doubt very much that the mood will change. The manifestos and policy pledges are all in place. But they simply aren't exciting enough. Who knows (or cares) who their local AM is anyway? So, if turnout is up at this election (which I expect), politicians should not interpret this as a vote of confidence in the political system. A significant proportion of those who will vote will do so grudgingly.

There has been much talk recently about Martin Shipton's low ranking of female Labour AMs, with some suggesting women don't get a fair deal in the 'Western Male'. Perhaps that's an easy way of avoiding the reality that some of our politicians simply aren't engaging with the electorate in the way Wales deserves.

So it was refreshing, this afternoon, to see Plaid Cymru's Cardiff West and Cardiff South candidates leafleting outside Ninian Park. Never mind if it was a tad opportunistic (they were having a dig at Sports Minister Alun Pugh for snubbing a recent UEFA event in Cardiff). Statistically, there can't be many votes in a football crowd, but you've got to get at people however you can in these crucial closing stages. Believe it or not, this is the first time I've seen candidates campaigning in a non-media staged event.

I'm sure all you politicians will rush to contradict me - 'we've been here and there and even all the way up the hill to Pen-y-celwydd and the doorsteps have been saying the most wonderful things'. But ordinary people know that's simply not true. And depending on the result of the election, things could get even worse. When the assembly reconvenes sometime before May 11th, it may be without some of its best performers; people like Glyn Davies, Jonathan Morgan and Helen Mary Jones. And the new blood may not include those heavyweight figures - Dafydd Wigley and Ron Davies - who could give the place the boost it so desperately needs.

Whatever happens, there will be a new intake and the assembly will have new powers (if Peter Hain permits). Hopefully, there can be a renewal both in terms of political personnel and their relationship, through the media, with the public. Because if 'Don't know/Don't care' is the prevailing attitude of 2011, the third assembly term will be as much of a failure as the previous two.

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posted by Blamerbell @ 8:15 pm, ,


Latest poll shows Plaid surge as Tories falter #2
Friday, April 27, 2007

The Western Mail has now published its poll. And to the delight of Plaid and the dismay of almost everyone else, the results reinforce yesterday's ITV poll. Can we now call this a trend? Even if - given our idiosyncratic electoral system - the science is a bit dodgy, is there not a pattern emerging?

UPDATE: William Hill puts the Tories much closer to Plaid than the great Welsh public (or at least a contentiosuly drawn sample of them). Worth a bet?

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posted by Blamerbell @ 9:54 am, ,


Quality journalism from the Western Mail
Monday, January 08, 2007

Spot the article in today's paper written by the work experience boy:

Three elected representatives from Wales are to take part in a demonstration today at the gates of a nuclear weapons base in Scotland.

The Welsh elected representatives expected to attend are Hywel Williams MP, Leanne Wood AM and Janet Davies MEP, who is also chair of CND Cymru.

Janet Davies is an AM. Jill Evans is an MEP and chair of CND Cymru.

While we're on the subject, will none of the 'anti-trident' Liberals be joining them?

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posted by Blamerbell @ 11:38 am, ,


Lib Dems in shock election revelation
Friday, December 29, 2006

This from the Western Mail's ever-astute Martin Shipton today:

Liberal Democrat sources said Mr German still believed that everything was to play for, and that the composition of the post-May Assembly Government would be determined by the mathematics of the results.

It really is some bombshell. Just to break it down even more, what he's saying is that the number of votes cast will affect who has what seats. Surely a breakthrough in policital analysis.

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posted by Blamerbell @ 3:33 pm, ,


Where the hell is Cardiff?
Saturday, December 09, 2006

This from today's Western Mail:

Bogus officials steal city's manhole covers

Thieves believed to be posing as council workers have stolen more than 100 metal manhole covers from a city’s quietest streets, it emerged today.

County council bosses in Cardiff, south Wales, are appealing to the public to be on the look out for bogus officials dressed as workmen.

"a city's quietest streets"? "Cardiff, south Wales"? Surely, anyone reading the Western Mail knows where Cardiff is, and also knows that in Wales it isn't merely a city among others, but pretty much the only city of any real size and scope.

I wouldn't even wait until tomorrow to wrap my fish and chips in that twaddle.

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posted by Blamerbell @ 11:10 am, ,