Welsh Conservative leadership contest gets underway.

There seem to have been a lot of false starts in Welsh politics recently, amongst them the contest to replace Nick Bourne as leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Assembly. After an initial flurry when the party’s Assembly Members negotiated agreements and disagreements to come up with a final two, today looks more like [...]

Read Full Post »

It takes two – Welsh Conservative leadership latest

‘No deals,’ Andrew RT Davies insisted when I asked him. ‘I don’t believe in deals.’ And when I put the same question to Darren Millar he used almost identical language, saying ‘There have been no deals with Andrew RT Davies about jobs or anything like that in the future.’ The deal or no deal question [...]

Read Full Post »

Election XIII – the Funding Gap

As political interventions go, this is one of the most intellectual: one of the UK’s leading scientists, backed by 60 other senior academics criticising all four political parties. What worries  Sir John Cadogan is that he says none of the parties in this election campaign is addressing concerns about the funding gap between our universities [...]

Read Full Post »

Election XI – Welsh Conservative manifesto launch

The Welsh Conservatives have launched their manifesto today, meaning that all four of the main parties in this election have now laid out their promises for us. You can read the manifesto in full here. It’s the smallest of all four manifestos, coming in at just 32 pages but as small books go it has [...]

Read Full Post »

Sharp End 17/03/11

For tonight’s Sharp End, I’ve interviewed the Shadow Welsh Secretary Peter Hain about Labour’s Assembly election hopes. First though I wanted to know about his relationship with the First Minister, Carwyn Jones. You may remember from last week the behind-the-scenes row over Mr Hain’s criticism of the Deputy First Minister, Plaid Cymru’s Ieuan Wyn Jones. [...]

Read Full Post »

For some, no still means no.

The Yes campaigners in the Assembly powers referendum are unveiling what they hope will be their most compelling line-up of supporters today: people who voted  or campaigned for a No vote in the last Welsh referendum back in 1997. Chief amongst them is the leader of the Conservatives in the Assembly, Nick Bourne. One of [...]

Read Full Post »

Bourne’s Big Society

David Cameron effectively relaunched his Big Society idea yesterday (Monday) amid claims that it’s too vague and little more than a cover for spending cuts. But Welsh Conservatives are convinced it’s a good idea. When I asked their leader in the Assembly, Nick Bourne, what his views were he said, I agree with the thrust [...]

Read Full Post »

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 [...]

Read Full Post »

Coalition conference clash

Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers may be working together well enough in government at Westminster, but it seems that partnership doesn’t stretch to Welsh conference arrangements. Welsh Conservatives recently announced, with some pride, that the UK party is to hold its Spring Forum in Cardiff at the same time as the Welsh party’s annual conference. [...]

Read Full Post »

Welsh Conservatives set out shadow budget

It’s pretty much the last day of term at the Assembly which some have suggested is the reason why the Welsh Conservatives issued their shadow budget with relatively little fanfare today. They say they’re not hiding though and certainly the party’s Director of Policy, David Melding, was making himself available to journalists like me who [...]

Read Full Post »