Sharp End

It’s Thursday so it must be Sharp End.  A lot of tonight’s programme will be dedicated – just as a lot of the last political week has been – to education.  Three sets of statistics in a row have put what’s happening in our schools firmly in the spotlight in terms of individual performance, international [...]

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UK Polling report on the ITV Wales poll

Here’s UK Polling Report’s take on today’s poll. The comments are interesting.

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January’s ITV Wales/YouGov poll

Just a note for those of you who follow this blog rather than Twitter or the ITV Wales main blog site, our Number-Cruncher-in-Chief, Nick Powell, has full details of this month’s poll here. All you need to know about Referendum and Assembly election voting intentions along with weighted and unweighted figures. Do enjoy.

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Cameron’s Welsh Questions

Remember back last May when, during the General Election campaign, David Cameron promised to make himself available at least once a year to be questioned by Assembly members? After he became Prime Minister, he said the plan was part of a ‘respect agenda‘ that he wanted to develop between London and Cardiff Bay. He also [...]

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‘Two-blogs’ Masters

You may or may not know that, far from being satisfied with this politics blog, I have another here which is where I ramble on about other things that interest me although naturally there’s an overlap. I’ve just written about the novelist Chinua Achebe and the power of contradiction. Have a look if you have [...]

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Polls, politicians and iPads.

Thanks to Plaid Cymru for reminding us that there’s just one hundred days until the Assembly Election. The party marked this milestone with two unveilings, both  aimed at positioning Plaid as a modern, technology-savvy party. The first was a shiny new website, the second a pledge that a future government involving Plaid would make Information [...]

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New Aberystwyth Vice-Chancellor

The next Vice-Chancellor of Aberystwyth University has been appointed. She is Professor April McMahon who’s currently a Vice Principal at Edinburgh University. Prof McMahon will take up her role in August. At a bilingual university, the language spoken by the people at the top always becomes an issue and a few months ago, language campaigners [...]

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Day of the Lords

There was a strong Welsh presence in the House of Lords today (Monday) as former Plaid Cymru leader Dafydd Wigley took his seat in the upper chamber. From my vantage point in the press gallery I counted at least eleven Welsh peers if you include the new Baron Wigley and his sponsor Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas. [...]

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Sharp End and politics round-up

It’s a Sharp End day today so a lot of my time and attention is being taken up with that, but there are a couple of strands to pick up on briefly. Electrification of the London to Swansea rail line. * The Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones has been at Swansea railway station today [...]

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Unhappy reading for Liberal Democrats

This weekend has seen yet another series of pronouncements from journalists and politicians on the future of the Liberal Democrats as an independent party. Here’s a round-up: Labour leader Ed Miliband is appealing to disaffected Lib Dem supporters, an appeal that follows one earlier this week by the First Minister Carwyn Jones , urging Lib Dems to [...]

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